“You’re safe with me.” He spoke in a quiet and firm voice, an unconscious reminder that he was her rock and he would do anything to protect her.
She nodded, the movement slight.
“I’m going to wave to the guides now,” he told her. “I’ll get them to reel us down—”
Mairi quickly shook her head. “No, I’m okay. Just…” She smiled weakly. “Talk to me while we’re here?”
“Talk…to you?”
“It could be anything. I feel…” Color stained her cheeks as she mumbled, “I won’t be so scared if I hear you talking.”
Ah, f**k.
How quickly she could disarm him, her words something that not even the most professional gold digger could ever say convincingly. When she said things like that to him, when she looked like that at him, Damen’s cynicism disappeared like it had never existed.
When she was this f**king sweet, the past would come back to him but they were not memories that haunted Damen’s mind. Instead, they worked like f**king sunlight, making him remember that the person in front of him was no ordinary girl.
This was Mairi.
The girl who had never stopped loving him, not even when the whole world believed he loved another woman.
“Sometimes, matakia mou, I hate you, too.”
Mairi’s eyes widened, her face paling even more.
“I hate that with so few words, you have me twisted in knots. I hate that just by looking at you, I feel scared like I have never been scared before. I’m f**king terrified that one day you will wake up…” An ironic smile flitted over his hard, handsome face. “…and wise up to the fact that you’ve fallen in love with a bastard.”
As he paused, there was no other sound apart from the gentle whistling tune of the dying winds. Around them were blue skies, dotted by fluffs of white clouds and emerald peaks of mountains that rose proudly from the islands’ powdery white sands and turquoise waters.
Surrounded by such breathtaking beauty, the ugly memories of the past faded. Here, there were no sleazy reporters hounding them, no contemptuous gazes accusing them of infidelity – no one to tell them that they were not meant for each other.
Damen wiped the single tear that trailed down Mairi’s cheek. “Are you crying because I hate you so much?”
She nodded.
“And if I ask you to marry me,” he asked unevenly, “because I want to keep hating you for the rest of our lives—”
Mairi’s lips parted in shock, disbelief written all over her face.
Uncertainty and fierce need turned his voice rough. “Will you marry me, Mairi?”
She stared at him.
“Mairi?”
Her lips tightened.
“Mairi?” he growled again even as he started to feel sick to his stomach. She would answer yes, of course. She loved him, didn’t she? And if she said no, it might just be because she was acrophobic and was not thinking too clearly.
Below them, the guides were waving at Damen and Mairi, indicating that their fifteen minutes were up and they would be reeled back down to the speedboat slowly.
Mairi was still staring at him.
What if…what if she was just staring at him because she couldn’t find the words to tell him he was asking too soon? He tensed at the thought. Was it too soon?
He swallowed thickly. “Mairi, if you…” If you say no, I don’t think there’s any point in living? Too f**king sappy even if it was true.
Their feet grazed the surface of the water.
Everyone could see them now. If she said no now, everyone would know, too.
He took a deep breath—
“Whoa!” the guide exclaimed as he and his companions pulled on the ropes to make sure Damen and Mairi didn’t crash into the roofed area of the speedboat. They worked fast afterwards, untying and unlocking to release them from the parachute.
And then they were free.
Mairi threw herself into his arms, surprising Damen so much that he found himself falling and landing on his back, Mairi on top of him.
In a rush, she told him, “I couldn’t answer earlier because I was airsick and I was in serious danger of throwing up on you if I opened my mouth and if that happened, that would be so gross since just earlier I ate an entire bottle of fresh olives and oh my God what if I threw up all those olives on you—”
His head reeled, but before he could make sense of her rambling answer she was already kissing him. “Yes, Damen,” she whispered, her eyes shining so brightly it made Damen swallow. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Chapter Three
It was a rainy day when they flew back home, with the many calls coming from Damen’s headquarters in Athens forcing them to cut their vacation short. And yet, although their flight had not been planned at all, the paparazzi was in full force when Damen’s private jet landed.
Her phone beeped as the crew opened the jet’s main door and she and Damen stood in front of it, waiting for the ground staff to roll the mobile staircase towards them. Checking her phone, Mairi saw that it was from Aunt Norah. You look good on TV.
She automatically forced a smile on her lips, knowing that the message was a subtle reminder from her aunt to stay strong, or at least look strong in public.
“We hope you had a pleasant flight, Mr. Leventis, Ms. Tanner.”
Mairi nodded her thanks, her stomach queasy at the thought of once again coming in close contact with the press. Damen squeezed her hand. “Just stick close to me. Do not look at them, do not talk to them, and it will be fine.”
She nodded. It was all she could manage.
They came down, Damen moving steadily and confidently and Mairi doing her best to keep a calm appearance. Alina Kokinos would have done so much better than Mairi if she was the one in this position, Mairi thought miserably.
The flash coming from the press’ huge camera bulbs was so blindingly bright Mairi had to shield her gaze against them, forgetting the fact that the hand she was using to protect her eyes was—
Seeing what his fiancée had just done, Damen smirked and pulled Mairi close to him. “You’ve done it,” he told her.
“Done what?”
The shit hit the fan.
As Mairi and Damen got off the last step of the jet’s staircase, everyone started trying to outshout each other with their questions.
“WHEN DID YOU GET ENGAGED?”
“WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE MS. TANNER OVER THE KOKINOS HEIRESS?”
“IS SHE THAT GOOD IN BED?”
“WHAT DOES IONIKO VLAHOS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT?”