Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 234281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1171(@200wpm)___ 937(@250wpm)___ 781(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 234281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1171(@200wpm)___ 937(@250wpm)___ 781(@300wpm)
She said: I mean emotionally.
He said (groaning): Can’t you let readers think that it’s a macho thing instead? You make me sound so soft, matakia mou.
She said: But you are! I just want to—-
He said: Note to editor – Please consult me privately about this. This is not good for my image.
HAD IONIKO MADE HIS move yet?
It was a question that had been bothering him for three nights now, increasingly so since Mairi had not yet returned any of his calls or messages. Frustration, edginess, and impatience created a furor inside him, making Damen unable to concentrate on the millions of things that demanded his time.
Someone knocked on his door. “Enter,” Damen rapped out abruptly, his temper igniting for no reason at the intrusion. He had a very short fuse these days, and he knew it was only a matter of time before something had to give.
Bart nervously came inside his employer’s office. He was in his early twenties, a little heavy-set and dorky-looking. Thousands of individuals had applied for the job as the billionaire’s PA-slash-secretary, many of them with more impressive work experience and better academic credentials than him. And yet Bart had beaten all of them, simply because he had been the only one with the courage – which his mother termed as stupidity at the time – to tell the billionaire that he had miscomputed a certain account and had provided the correct formula for it.
The memory was something Bart desperately clung to now as he made his way further inside. Mr. Leventis is a fair man, he reminded himself. He will not fire me for what I’m about to say.
“Bart?”
It was softly voiced, but Damen’s voice still had him jumping nervously.
“S-sir?”
Damen leaned back in his chair, which was custom-designed and handcrafted as was all the other furniture in his spectacularly designed office. It was a symbol of his success, but he took no pleasure in it. At present, all it reminded him was what he did not have – and what Ioniko might already have.
The thought was ruthlessly squashed, but its effect lingered and his tone was positively biting when he refocused on his secretary. “Say what you have to say or leave the office, Bart.”
Swallowing, Bart said, “Your mother, ah, learned of your plans to reward Ms. Diana with her own car and has canceled your purchase.”
In seconds, he was across the hall and inside his mother’s office, not bothering to knock. His mother was in the middle of a meeting, but he didn’t fucking care. Without taking his gaze off Esther Leventis, he said, “Out.”
Everyone scrambled to do his bidding, leaving the office empty except for mother and son. “How melodramatic,” Esther said disdainfully, “—-especially since I assume this is about your ill-advised idea for Diana’s gift?”
“You had no right to do that, Mother.”
“I have every right,” she snapped. “I’m her mother and she is yet under aged. If I say a gift is inappropriate, then it is so!”
“She is about to turn seventeen – most young wealthy Greek girls her age have their first cars at the age of fifteen – and that’s two years ago!”
“I do not need my daughter to be like other Greek girls. I do not need my daughter to have any silly ideas about being independent and following silly dreams or marrying for true love.”
“You want her to grow up without knowing her own mind?” Damen wanted to say more, but honor kept him from giving his mother a real piece of his mind.
“At least I can make sure that she will not follow in your footsteps and give a foreigner upstart the time of day!” The moment the words slipped out, Esther knew immediately that she had said the wrong thing.
Even though she knew it was too late, she was not the type to give up so easily and she began, “Damen—-”
“Do not say another word, Mother.” He tried to keep a lid on his temper but after everything that had happened, it was impossible. “You dare say such words about her after what you and Father have done with your lives?”
Color suffused her cheeks. She despised the fact that only Damen, her own flesh and blood, was able to say such things to her face. And because he was her son and he had been there throughout that dark part of her life, she was not able to lie or deny the truth.
She knew the better thing to do was not to say another word, but again affronted pride got the better of her and she demanded shrewishly, “Why do you care what I say about her? She is a nobody – a nobody! And you are engaged to the Kokinos heiress! What would their family say if they learned you are crazy over a lowly teacher—-”