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)
The students cheered their agreement.
Mairi listened sickly to the word play between Damen and Ms. Thorn, knowing that in the end the latter would win.
It would only be a matter of time.
And if they did kiss...
And if she saw them kiss...
She wanted to be sick.
MS. THORN WAS NOT GOING to give this up.
Damen knew she was not being a bitch about this, knew she was simply being her usual calculating self and saw no harm in asking for something that should be simple for any engaged couple to do. It was not her fault that she did not know how much he had fucked up and that by kissing his fiancée, he would be hurting another – the woman most special to him.
The thought of hurting Mairi again had his face hardening. No. Never. He had hurt her enough. He prepared himself to be rude, and damn what happened afterwards, but Alina, for once in her life, beat him to speaking.
“He is very protective of me,” Alina was suddenly saying. “I’m much younger than he is. He doesn’t like people to think he’s taking advantage of my age.” She smiled up at Damen even as her gaze remained unreadable and guarded. “What he needs to realize is that I am not to be protected.”
She took his face in her hands and tiptoed, her lips touching his.
Damen stilled.
In his mind, and he did not know if he had imagined it or not, he heard it so clearly – Mairi catching her breath, Mairi’s tears splattering on the floor, Mairi giving up on him.
No!
When Alina released him from her hold, he immediately turned to look at Mairi.
She was not crying. She did not seem like she was holding her breath. But she did look like she had finally given up waiting for him.
No.
And then he saw it –
Ioniko, coming from the side of the stage, walking purposely towards Mairi.
And further away from him but nearer to Mairi, Damen saw Stavros Manolis gazing at Mairi as well. He didn’t know and understand why Manolis was looking at Mairi like that, but if there was one thing he knew, it was that Manolis appeared to be his rival as well.
A part of him told Damen to just let it go. Mairi Tanner would have all the Greek billionaires she could ever want. Maybe reading all those books had done her good. Even if they weren’t meant to be, at least she would be well taken care of.
The noble part of him told Damen to let it go, to let Mairi move on.
But the selfish and honest part of him told Damen that if he did let her go, it would mean forever. If he gave up on her, it would be for the rest of their lives. He would never have the chance to call Mairi his again, never be able to taste her lips or feel her body welcome him—-
No.
He looked at Alina. “I’m sorry. It won’t work between us.” His words were caught by the microphone. He removed her ring from his finger.
Alina didn't speak, staring at him with wide-eyed shock.
“I’m sorry,” he said again before jumping off the stage to go after the woman that had taught his heart to beat for someone else.
MAIRI COULD NOT THINK of a single thing that was more painful than seeing the man she loved receive the kiss of the woman who owned him and would one day have his name and bear him children.
It did not just hurt. It burned, like acid on her skin, a raging infection that almost drove Mairi to her knees.
Another woman’s lips was covering the lips of the man she loved – the man she had waited for all her life.
“No,” she whispered, closing her eyes, praying to God that it was a nightmare she could wake up from. But when she opened her eyes, Damen was still on stage and Alina Kokinos was still kissing him.
She fell back in her seat, knowing that it was a sight she could never forget, not even if she lived to be a hundred years old. She would always remember this, and she would always grieve because that one kiss had sliced her heart and broken it into a thousand pieces.
Mairi’s eyes fluttered close as she wheezed for breath as discreetly as she could. She was having a panic attack. Or maybe this was shock. She didn’t know anymore. All she knew was that she couldn’t breathe past the pain.
“Mairi?” That was Velvet.
“Mairi!” That was Mandy.
“Mairi?” That was...Ioniko?
“Mairi?” That was...a voice from the past, one familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
And then chaos, everyone around her gasping, followed by a thousand clicking sounds as she heard a voice she didn’t think she’d hear anymore say her name.
“Mairi?”
Damen.
Her eyes opened.
She whispered brokenly, “Damen?”