Damen jerked.
Mairi’s smile vanished as she took in Damen’s appearance. He was completely white, looking like someone had just died on him. “Damen?” she whispered.
In two angry strides, he had gotten across the room and started shaking her. “What the hell did you think you were doing?” he roared at her face.
She felt herself shrinking at the sight of his rage. “Surprising…you?”
Damen shook her harder. “I thought you were gone!” He glared and scowled at her even as his heart kept beating faster, his mind still unable to comprehend that it had been a false alarm.
Looking down at her confused face, Damen bit out, “I thought you had left me!”
Understanding dawned. “You knew she was here?”
He nodded curtly. “Did she do anything to you? Did she say anything that hurt you or made you worry?” He couldn’t get the questions out fast enough. He needed to make sure Esther had left no damage. He couldn’t have Mairi gone again from his life. Not now and not ever.#p#分页标题#e#
Blinking back sudden tears at the worry darkening his face, Mairi shook her head and smoothed the hair away from his forehead. “It’s alright, Damen. It’s alright. She tried to make me go away, but she didn’t succeed.”
He stiffened. “What do you mean ‘tried’?”
Mairi haltingly explained Esther’s threat.
Damn his interfering mother! “I won’t let that happen,” he promised Mairi fiercely. “So don’t—”
“Damen.” She said his name quietly, gently, needing him to look at her and really listen to her. She cupped his face, using her touch to help him relax.
“Damen, relax. There’s nothing to worry about.” She smiled up at him tremulously, her love for Damen burning brightly in her eyes.
The sight of it made Damen catch his breath. “Mairi—”
“It’s okay. I’m okay. I dealt with your mother.”
He asked hoarsely, “How?”
Mairi evaded his gaze. “Well…”
“Mairi, say it.”
“I…umm…warned her that if she really does have me kicked out, I’m going to embrace my life as a mistress, live off you like a leech, and turn you into a sex slave because what she doesn’t know is that you’re secretly a masochistic sub who likes being chained and whipped by…umm…me?”
For a moment, all Damen could do was stare. His innocent quirky Mairi had said…that?
Esther Leventis was acknowledged as one of the most powerful women in Greece, and yet his beautiful girl had successfully intimidated her into retreating with a mind-boggling lie.
Mairi fidgeted at Damen’s look. “But I had to say something really scary,” she protested defensively. She was about to explain some more but ended up shrieking instead when Damen picked her up and spun her around, his laughter hoarse.
When he stopped spinning her around, she clutched his shoulders helplessly as she looked down at him, dazed by the beautiful gleam in his gaze. “Damen?”
There was hope in her eyes. He knew what she was waiting, hoping, and praying he would say but he just couldn’t. Not yet. Just not yet.
So instead of answering, he took her lips with a kiss.
Pain blossomed inside her like a rose filled with thorns, but after a heartbeat Mairi just decided to let it all go and focus on what she did have. Damen Leventis cared for her. At least he didn’t think she was some business arrangement to tolerate.
She just had to wait, just had to be patient, and sooner or later he would know the truth.
He loved her, too, had loved her from the start and always would.
With a sigh, she curled her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
In seconds, they were hastily undressing each other, a gasp torn out of her as Damen backed her towards his bed the moment they were both naked.
He kissed her mouth one last time before moving down, lips hungrily leaving a trail of passionate kisses down her neck, the valley between her breasts, and then moving sideways so he could suck on her nipples one at a time.
She moaned and arched against his hold. “Be gentle,” she gasped when he bit too hard.
“I can’t,” he rasped out as he released her nipple with a loud wet pop. “I want you too much.” He didn’t wait for her answer and went on sucking her nipples again.
Just when she thought she couldn’t take it any longer, Damen finally ceased his torture and moved further down, his lips kissing her belly and then the skin above her—
“So soft,” Damen purred in surprised pleasure as he took in her beautifully shaved pussy.
“Part of the…surprise,” Mairi managed to gasp before her body went up in flames as Damen’s tongue slowly lined her inner folds.