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)
And then she turned her back on him.
For a moment, sheer incredulity swamped Nik, who had never been treated in such a way. Everyone around him quaked in his presence, and his word had always been law, one glance from him enough to translate into a command. Certainly no one had ever ignored him in this manner, but when the woman kept walking away, her own back stiff but her hips swaying in a mixture of provocation and innate sensuality, Nik realized that she truly was going to leave, just like that.
“Stop.”
Daria halted, but it wasn’t out of fear.
Curse it, curse it, curse it!
Her entire body trembled at the sound of his voice, but it wasn’t out of fear. No, the way her body was shaking right now was simply a basic response to the irrefutable power underlining his word. She craved that power, Daria realized shamefully, craved it so because, for some reason, she wanted the man to use it to dominate her.
And wasn’t that just sick?
Her fists clenched against her sides as she desperately tried to pull herself together. This was not happening. She wasn’t going to fail at the first stumbling block God placed in her way. This guy might be exactly her type, and her attraction to him might be unusually strong, but she would not waver.
She would not!
A shadow fell on the sand, followed by a figure crossing her path before stopping in front of Daria, and just like that, the impact of his sudden nearness hit her, and she was lost. His perfection at a distance, she could barely handle. But this close?
God, You’re killing me here.
He was like a custom designed male, built according to her every specification. Her height had always made it hard to find a taller guy to date, but this man easily topped her by almost a foot. She had also secretly dreamt of dating a man who wouldn’t blink at her weight, who would be able to carry her over the threshold without losing his breath. In all her years of dating, she hadn’t found one who could, but this man?
This man looked strong and powerful enough to carry Daria and her entire set of luggage with him, and that was no light feat, considering her tendency to over-pack.
Dear God, this was too much temptation. Whoever Mr. Right was for her, he had better be perfect. Only perfection could be worth all this agony.
Not daring to look at him, Daria started to speak, only to have the sound of the stranger’s phone ringing breaking the silence between them first. She closed her mouth and instead watched in silence as the man pulled out an iPhone from his pocket. He answered the call in Greek and as he turned sideways, she caught sight of the printed bumper that lined the sides of his phone.
Her breath caught.
No.
It couldn’t be.
She blinked. She rubbed her eyes. She slapped her cheeks.
She knew the stranger could see everything she was doing, but she was past caring. She did it all again, needing to make sure that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.
Daria took a deep breath before raising her gaze to the man’s phone.
The printed design on the bumper was still the same, pandas munching on bamboo on a blue and white background.
Pandas.
Pandas!
Pandas!
Not just one or two but a whole bunch!
As she reeled from the realization, people continued to walk past them on all sides, shouting, laughing, and talking. Teleios had finally wakened, and now it brimmed with joie de vivre. Overhead, the sun had completely risen, casting a golden glow all around. A new day had started for everyone, but for Daria it was more than that.
Oh. My. God.
Are You for real?
This was her Mr. Right?
The realization made her feel faint, made her imagine the skies were parting as angels cast their wings and blew their trumpets while singing Alleluia.
She knew it, she knew it, Daria thought giddily. Because she hadn’t lost faith in God, He had rewarded her, and now she had her prince!
“I want you to terminate her immediately.”
Her Greek had switched to English, and she listened to him speak dreamily. He had such a beautiful accent.
“I want her out of the office first thing in the morning.”
The content of his speech wasn’t exactly romantic, but she chose to ignore the fact.
The voice started to fade. Daria thought it was only her imagination, but when she could no longer hear a thing, her eyes fluttered open, and she realized then that the man had started walking away from her.
Daria gasped. “Wait!” The irony wasn’t lost on her as she tried to catch up to her Greek. “Wait!” But he was walking too fast while her three-inch wedges had her walking slower than usual.
Her impulsive nature reasserted itself then, and before she knew it, she was already hurrying back, picking up the Gatorade bottle her beautiful stranger had tossed back to the sand. She pulled her hand back, aimed, and threw.