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“I told him stuff like that is not allowed in school or you’d get fired,” Katya assured her. She turned to her brother with an unhappy look. “I’m just sorry I didn’t warn him earlier, Ms. Tanner. And please don’t take him seriously. He flirts with women all the time.”
Ioniko said mildly, “You have it the other way around, darling. Women flirt with me all the time. I flirt only with the ones I like.”
Mairi coughed at the innuendo. Deciding it was time to change the subject, she said quickly, “Mr. Vlahos, Katya is one of the top students in my class – or rather, in her entire year actually.”
Ioniko raised a brow. “It must be because of you. Her English used to be appalling.”
“It is,” Katya agreed cheerfully. “English was terribly boring when I was in the other teacher’s class last year.”
Mairi cringed at the indirect reference to Charity. “Sssh!”
Katya shrugged. “It’s true, though.”
She half-begged, half-scolded, “Katya, please. You’re going to get me in trouble.”
“But it’s bad to lie. And I really mean it! When Ms. Fal—-”
“Fallis glorious in Greece, isn’t it?” Mairi cut her student off desperately. Charity Fallon was only seated one desk away, and she had no intentions of getting in a fight with the other woman for no good reason.
Both brother and sister looked at her as if questioning her sanity. After all, Greece was not a four-season country.
Ignoring their looks, Mairi took Katya’s packet out of the drawer and handed it to Ioniko. “Please sign the release form, then you can take everything home with you, Mr. Vlahos.”
“Thank you.” Ioniko signed it swiftly, but upon returning the form he suddenly caught hold of her wrist.
Mairi tried to very subtly tug her wrist away, but he was not letting go. A tingling started at the base of her spine, and she turned her head around, heart thumping against her chest.
Her eyes locked with Damen Leventis unerringly, almost as if she instinctively knew where to find him. His gaze was unreadable, his face a mask of indifference.
But for some reason, Mairi was a hundred percent certain her Greek billionaire was anything but indifferent.
Warm fingers squeezed her wrist, and she quickly pulled her gaze away from Damen, gulping when she saw that Ioniko Vlahos was looking at her with a sensual glitter in his eyes. Butterfly wings fluttered faintly in her stomach, but this time Mairi was almost sure it was only because Ionikowasa gorgeous Greek billionaire – the stuffherdreams were made of.
But he wasnotthe one.
This time, Mairi determinedly pulled her hand away, leaving Katya’s brother no choice but to let her go. “They say you speak German?”
It startled her, hearing Ioniko speak the words in the very language he was asking about. She automatically answered in the same language. “Yes.”
Ioniko smiled. “That’s perfect.”
She asked warily, “Perfect?”
His little sister’s teacher was without a doubt one of a kind. She had an innocence to her thatalmostmade him think of her as his little sister. Almost – but not quite. Those magnificent breasts of hers, something which was sadly lacking in virtually every woman in his circle nowadays – they were abundant enough to make a grown man weep, and certainly those breasts made it impossible for Ioniko to think of Ms. Mairi Tanner as anything other than the next woman he wanted to taste.
It was a pity that she was an innocent, but that would not stop him from doing his best to seduce her. He wanted her, plain and simple, and he always got what he wanted.
And so he said frankly, “It’s perfect because this way I will not set tongues wagging when I ask you out.”
Mairi sputtered.
His lips twitched. It was Ioniko’s first time to have a woman speechless in such an unattractive way after being asked out by him. “And so, my darling little Mairi, are you free to join me for dinner tonight?”
She still did not answer.
Ioniko leaned back against his chair. “Please do not pretend to be surprised, Ms. Tanner. You should know with just one look that I found you enthralling from the very start.”
Mairi slowly shook her head, having a hard time understanding that something like this was happening. Oh, no, no, no. She squared her shoulders with a frown. Actually, she wasnotgoing to let this happen. In all the bedtime stories her aunts told her, a love triangle always ended up breaking everyone’s hearts and she so did not want that in her own love story.