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Chapter 1
ONE MONTH EARLIER
“You really have no need to accompany me to the airport.” Damen Leventis’ words were spoken in a gently admonishing voice as he gazed at Alina with wryly amused eyes.
When she reached him, she said breathlessly, “Of course I had to. I know how spoiled you are. You might faint dead away after your first encounter with the public airport lounge.” She managed to deliver the joke in a perfectly light voice, hoping to lighten the mood.
She succeeded, and Damen’s lips curved into a slight smile. His smiles had always been rare, but now they were even rarer still.
Upon watching her interview, Alina’s father had not hesitated in disinheriting her but even so, she had not regretted a single thing. She had been ready to carve her own future, but to her surprise, Damen had been the first to offer her help, generously allowing her to stay in his home while she tried to figure out how life would be for her now that she was no longer the Kokinos heiress.
She had enough friends left to feed her closely guarded news, and from them she learned that Damen had found himself in a plight similar to hers. But in his case, it was sheer deception that had made the former billionaire unexpectedly bankrupt.
Alina wondered if she should try to engage him with more small talk, but the decision was taken out of her hands when his cab arrived. Her throat worked painfully as she watched Damen thank the driver before loading his own luggage.
A few months ago, this would – could – never have happened. Damen Leventis was one of the world’s richest men, one of the most powerful billionaires in Greece. He did not need to carry his own luggage, and he certainly had no need to call for a cab when his own fleet of cars numbered in the dozens.
And yet now, he was reduced to doing exactly that, but there was not even the tiniest hint of discomfort on his face. All Alina could see was a grim resolve, and her heart ached at the way his love for Mairi Tanner eclipsed everything.
Living with him, Alina had come to discover the softer side of Damen Leventis, a side that only Mairi Tanner’s loving and gentle nature had been able to bring out, a side that Alina had never thought existed. But now she knew. And now she was in danger of falling hard for a man who was once hers but never again.
The ride inside the cab was spent in silence. Alina did not speak, knowing by the tense set of Damen’s shoulders that he was again thinking of Mairi. Sometimes, there was a crazy part of her that wanted to beg Damen to give her a chance. To givehimselfa chance to see if maybe he could love her.
But in the end, Alina never spoke of anything that hinted of the feelings that she couldn’t stop from growing inside her. To do so would be selfish, and she did not want to add to Damen’s problems.
When they reached the airport, Alina had to blink furiously to keep herself from crying. She was going to miss him. It was a funny thought, considering how months ago she thought she was the luckiest woman on earth to be free of Damen Leventis.
“I have asked Stavros Manolis to look after you,” Damen told her when they reached the very last gate, one where only passengers with confirmed flight bookings could pass through.
Alina was startled. “Stavros?” The man who was once believed to be his sister’s suitor but had been recently exposed as one of the Greek billionaires after Mairi?
Damen nodded. “If I know my mother – and your father – I’m certain they have something planned against you, and they will push through with it the moment I leave and you are alone. Stavros will make sure that you will not be vulnerable to them.”
“But I hardly know him,” Alina protested, her face flaming at the thought of having to inconvenience a stranger.
He smiled. Even though they were opposite in physical appearance and demeanor, there were certain moments when Alina would poignantly remind him of his Mairi. Now was one such moment, and Damen stroked her hair as he would a younger sister. “You have nothing to worry about,” he assured her quietly. “You will be in safe hands with Stavros so please, if you do not want me to worry about you, then say you will let Stavros look after you.”
“I’m not a child.”
“No. You are not. But you may be made vulnerable...just like Mairi was.”
Of course.
Of course it all went back to Mairi,Alina thought with hurt misery. Her head bowed. She did not want Damen to see the tears she felt sparkling in her eyes, wanting to be set free. “I understand,” she whispered.
“Good girl.”