Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Nik couldn’t believe he was having this type of conversation with Daria. “You do remember you’re just my mistress, don’t you? That you’re a cunt I pay to fuck?” Someone gasped behind him, and he swore, remembering too late that at this time of the day, the hallway was crowded with people coming in and out of the other offices and units in Daria’s floor.
Daria whitened at the realization that other people had heard Nik refer to her in such a way. “I hate you.” But what she hated more was that she didn’t really mean it. She was mad, she was hurt, but how could she hate someone she loved? She loved him so much she even understood why he kept being cruel to her.
She loved him, but she had to make him realize now that he had to choose eventually.
Nik’s jaw hardened at the way Daria paled. He knew he owed her an apology, but he just couldn’t bring himself to say it. He was sorry, but if he said the words, he had a feeling he might as well admit that he loved her – still loved her even though he knew she was...she was everything Miranda had said she was.
Someone who didn’t have any damn excuse to whore herself except for her love for money.
Nik was stunned when Daria suddenly pushed past him, suitcase in hand. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Daria whirled around to face him. “What do you think?” she demanded. “I’m leaving you.” So beg, she thought desperately. Now’s the time to realize that you can’t bear for me to leave. Now’s the time to tell me you’re sorry, you forgive me, you love me.
But Nik didn’t do any of those things. A grim look settled on his face instead and he said icily, “I’m tired, Daria. Enough with this. Come back here and we’ll talk.”
Now was a good time to be smart for once. Nik was offering her a gracious way to be done with her charade.
But she couldn’t.
She wanted a grand gesture from him – God’s gift to her, the only man she had loved. Just once in her life, she wanted to know how it felt to be treated like she was more than just a body men obsessed over.
She wanted to know how it was to have a man love her and be proud of it, Daria thought.
Slowly, Daria shook her head. “I’m going to leave you.”
Nik just gazed at her.
“I mean it.” Her voice rose a little. Beg me not to leave. Tell me you love me.
“I’m going to leave, you can’t stop me.” She took a step back to make her point, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Her heart begged her to put an end to this, her mind telling her she was just making a cake of herself.
But Daria just couldn’t stop. “You won’t stop me. I really mean it.” She took another step back, but this time she almost lost her footing, having backed into a young man who had stepped out of his office at the same time.
“Whoa.” Strong arms held her up. “You...” The guy blinked at Daria’s face. For several seconds, he simply stared at her before he caught himself. “You, umm, okay?”
Swearing under his breath as he saw the scene unfolding – he knew that look on the other guy’s face, knew it because there really wasn’t a time Daria didn’t blow him away at how vibrantly beautiful she was – and Nik found himself moving swiftly, snatching Daria away from the other guy.
When the other guy started to speak, he said coldly, “Back off if you don’t want to get fired.”
The guy visibly debated for a second before apparently deciding that Nik wouldn’t speak of such a threat if he weren’t capable of carrying it out. After giving Daria a look of apology, he quickly went back to his office, errands forgotten.
Nik’s gaze returned to her. “Now, will you stop acting like a kid—-”
His calm tone infuriating and mortifying her at the same time, Daria wrenched her arm away from Nik’s hold. “You can’t frighten everyone here.”
Nik’s voice turned grim. “I’m warning you. Stop it with the theatrics.”
Then beg me, she thought.
But he didn’t, and her heart hardened and broke at the same time.
Dragging her suitcase with her, she stomped towards the first man she saw, a tall, burly-looking man in a suit, determined to show Nik that another man could want her enough to go against the almighty Nik Alexandropoulos. “Sir—-”
Behind her, Nik drawled, “That’s my bodyguard.”
Without a word, she moved past his guard and all other men in suits. They had attracted a crowd by now, but she forced herself to ignore it as she approached the first man in denims she saw. “Sir—-”