He held on to her, never stopping with the thrusts as he filled her with his seed. If he could only have one prayer answered, then it was that this night would create a miracle – a life that would bring him eternal joy and could be the tie that would keep Mairi with him forever.
Sobs of pleasure were torn out of her with each thrust, and when Damen finally rested his weight on top of her body, his pleasure spent, Mairi could only hug him tightly, her body still shaking hard against his in the aftermath of her own release.
Unthinkingly, she pressed her lips to one hard shoulder and inhaled his scent. She felt him shift, and then his lips were touching her hair, one tender touch to another.
“I love you, Mairi.” Damen whispered the words to her ear hoarsely.
Fresh tears stung her eyes, and she bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed. And that was okay. She could afford to shed some blood. It was words that she could never afford to speak right now. Or ever.
Damen tried not to let the disappointment of Mairi’s silence crush him. Soon, he promised to himself grimly. Whatever had to be done, he would do it, just to be the owner of Mairi’s heart once more.
Raising himself up so he could look at her, Damen said harshly, “I will make you love me again.”
Mairi ached painfully at the words, the desperate resolve on his face calling for her to soften. But still she didn’t give herself a chance to speak, instead cupping his face with shaking hands so she could pull Damen down and kiss him.
And as their lips met in another kiss that made their hearts both beat and twinge, she sent a little prayer up to the heavens, like she always did when she felt like there was nowhere to go, no one to turn to.
Dear God, if there is no way for me to stop loving him, then when the time comes that I must leave him, please, please, please give me the strength to disappear from his life forever.
Chapter Six
He said: If you marry a man like me, you must remember to live your life according to this one simple rule: your enemies’ enemies are your best friends.
She said: I was actually thinking something more like this – if you wed a Greek billionaire, your husband’s enemies’ enemies will also surely be Greek.
He said: I love you, matakia mou, but I must tell you that you made no sense.
She said: You Greeks love to fight. Just sayin’.
“You truly do not need to come with me,” Damen said the next night as he zipped the back of her dress, a sparkling sapphire-blue gown with a low-cut neckline that she had bought a few months ago in preparation for all the parties she had to attend as Damen’s then-fiancée. Mairi had a few misgivings when she had seen that Damen hadn’t touched a single thing in her closet. It didn’t feel right to wear clothes she had bought with his money – and during a time she had believed that he truly loved her.
But with them suddenly needing to go to a party tonight, Mairi decided to be simply practical about it. She would be a greater help to Damen if she was at least dressed to fit the part of his wife.
Seeing the worried frown on Damen’s face on the mirror, Mairi said reassuringly, “They can’t say anything that could hurt me.”
Damen was quiet for a moment. “Can’t they?”
Unbidden, she remembered the last time they had encountered the paparazzi, and Mairi shook her head vehemently even as she forced a smile. “I wasn’t prepared then. I am now.” Stepping away from him, she changed the subject, gazing at him through the mirror as she asked, “Well? Do I look okay?”
As Damen studied her appearance, she couldn’t help doing the same to him. She was no longer surprised, just resigned at the way butterflies fluttered its wings inside her stomach every time she took in Damen’s dazzling good looks. Everything about him was perfect, and strangely, she found him even more dazzling now that he was no longer a billionaire. The hardships he faced now had not weakened him at all. If anything, it had made him stronger, harder – it made him a hundred times more the man he already was, giving him the kind of raw power that money could never buy.
“You look perfect.” Damen’s words startled her into turning her head towards him, and that was then she realized he had come to stand right behind her. A gasp escaped Mairi when he bent down to place a soft, warm kiss on her nape, which was exposed by her hair’s upswept do. Her skin tingled at the touch of his lips, and Mairi couldn’t help but sigh and arch her neck when Damen’s lips started to move.
Closing her eyes, Mairi allowed herself the fantasy that they were really just newlyweds in love with each other.
“I love you.”
The fantasy shattered, Damen’s words something she could never really believe in.
Damen watched Mairi’s eyes flutter open, and the bleakness in them made him curse silently. He had known it would be too soon to speak the words, but he didn’t give a damn. He meant to break every damn wall around her heart, and he meant to say the words every day in hopes that there would be a time she could make herself say them back.
One day, Damen thought determinedly as he watched Mairi carefully move away from him with hooded eyes.
“W-we might be late.” Mairi couldn’t meet his eyes as she spoke. “Should we go now?”
Loud exclamations of surprise and murmurs rose from the crowd behind them, followed by another bout of flashing camera bulbs.
Since Damen had an invitation, it only meant that Damen had been taken off the list recently. The sheer indignity of it appalled Mairi, and she tightened her hold on Damen, fearing how such a proud man would take this kind of embarrassment. Unable to help it, she stole a look at her husband but was stunned to see an amused smile curving on his lips as his beautiful face took on a contemplative look.
Discovering that Esther would resort to such childish lengths to thwart him did not perturb Damen at all. In the first few weeks that Mairi had been gone and his whole world had crashed around him, Damen had come to realize that nothing really mattered to him except having the woman he loved. Everyone could do their worst to him, and it wouldn’t matter.