A Deal with Demakis

“Yeah, right. And I’m a Victoria’s Secret model.”

Laughter barreled out of him. Her blue eyes wide, she stared at him.

She was no model with her boyish body and nonexistent curves. Yet there was something curiously appealing about her even to his refined tastes. “I think you’re a foot shorter—” he let his gaze rove over her small breasts, and her hands tightened around her waist “—and severely lacking in several strategic places.”

Crimson slashed her cheeks. She lifted her chin, her gaze assessing him, and despite himself, he was impressed. “Why the power play? You didn’t open that file in front of me to double-check your facts. You wanted me to know that you had all that information on me. Is that how you get your kicks? By collecting people’s weaknesses and using them to serve your purpose?”

“Yes,” he replied, and the color leached from her face. He has no delusions about himself. He was by no means above using any information in his hands to gain the upper edge in business or life. And especially now when it concerned his sister’s well-being, he would do anything. If you didn’t protect the ones who depended on you, what was the point of it all? “I need you to do something for me and I can’t take no for an answer.”

CHAPTER TWO

DISBELIEF PINCHING HER mouth, she stared at him. “It didn’t occur to you to just ask nicely?”

He covered the distance between them, shaking his head. She stepped back instantly, but not before he caught her scent. And racked his brains trying to place it. “Nicely? Which planet are you from? Nothing in this world gets done with please and thank you. Hasn’t your life already taught you that? If you want something, you have to take it, grab it with both hands or you’ll be left behind with nothing. Isn’t that why you robbed that house?”

“Just because life gets hard doesn’t mean you lose sight of the good things.” Her hands tightened around the strap of her bag, her skin tugged tight over her cheekbones. “I robbed the house because it was either that or starve for another day. It doesn’t mean I’m proud of my actions, doesn’t mean I don’t wish to this day that I had found another way. Now, please tell me what happened to Tyler.”

Her words struck Nikos hard, delaying his response. The woman was nothing short of an impossible paradox. “Venetia and he were in a car accident.”

Her face pale, she flopped onto the leather couch behind her, her knees tucked together. “Physically, there’s not a scratch on him,” Nikos offered, the pregnant silence grating on his nerves.

She pushed off from the couch again. “The person who called me made it sound like it was much worse. I kept asking for more details but he wouldn’t answer my questions.”

She walked circles around him, running long fingers over her bare nape. Once again, the boyish cut only brought his attention to her delicate features. Bones jutted out from her neck, the juncture where it met her shoulders infinitely delicate.

Her knuckles white around her bag, she came to a stop in front of him. Shock danced in her face. “It was your doing. You had one of your minions call me and make it sound like that. Why?”

He shrugged. “I needed you to be here.”

“So you manipulated the truth?”

“A little.”

Her forehead tied into a delicate little frown, she cast him a sharp look.

“I don’t have a conscience when it comes to what I want, even more so when it comes to my sister, Ms. Nelson. So if you are waiting for me to feel guilty, it’s just a waste of time. Except for a hitch in his memory, your ex is fine.”

“A hitch in his memory?”

“A short-term memory loss.” He leaned against his desk. “To my sister’s eternal distress, he doesn’t remember anything of their meeting, or their plans to marry.”

He paused, watching her closely, and right on cue, the color leached from her face.

Her teeth dug into her lower lip. “They are engaged?”

He nodded.

She ran a shaking hand over her nape again. “I don’t understand why you are telling me this.”

“All he remembers is you, and he keeps asking for you. It’s driving Venetia up the wall.”

He thought he would see triumph, pure female spite. Because whatever else he might think, Venetia had stolen Tyler from this woman. He braced himself for a deluge of tears, OMGs and “why-did-this-happen-to-me?”s. At least, that’s how Venetia had reacted, even though she had been pretty unscathed from the accident. But once the doctors had informed them about the memory loss, it had become worse as though she had taken on the leading role in a Shakespearean tragedy. And contrary to his expectations, that their relationship would lose its appeal, Venetia had only held on harder to Tyler.

Seconds ticked by. Ms. Nelson stared out through the glass windows, but the tears didn’t fall. She took a deep breath, pressed her fingers to her forehead and turned toward him. “Where is he now, Mr. Demakis?”

The glimmer of stark pain in her eyes rendered his thought process still. Much as he would detest it, he wanted her to throw a tantrum. That he could handle. This quiet pain of hers, the depth of emotion in her eyes, however, he wanted no part of it.

It reminded him of another’s pain, another’s grief so much that a chill swept through him. He had worked very hard to keep his father’s face neatly tucked away. And he wanted to leave it that way. “On our island in Greece.”

“Of course, it is not enough that your sister and you are gorgeous. You have to own an island, too.”

He smiled at the caustic comment, at the glimpse of anger.

“All the lengths you have gone to get me here, I’m assuming it’s not for the pleasure of giving me bad news. No more games. What is it that you want me to do?”

“Come with me to Greece...take care of him. Venetia won’t stop turning everyone’s life into a circus until he remembers her.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Her gaze flew to him, shock dancing in its blue depths. “Did I miss the memo on amnesia that says there’s a switch to turn it on and off? An ex’s kiss, maybe? What makes you so sure that I can just make him remember her?”

“Your ex wants to come back to New York so that he can see you,” he said, joining her in the small sitting area. “Venetia won’t let him out of her sight until he remembers their great love. His confusion and her ongoing drama are driving me insane.”

“And I care about this why?”

Her tone was so irreverent that it was like seeing a different woman. “You don’t. That’s why the little twisting of the truth.”

The moment he stepped into the sitting area, she tensed. Nikos could almost feel her suspended breath as she wondered if he would sit too close. Stifling a curse, he settled onto the coffee table instead. Instantly, her breathing evened out. Never had a woman irritated him so well and so easily.

“I want her future settled. More than anything else in the world. Which means, the only thing to do is for you to join them. With the long history between you two and your unwavering support now, Tyler will mend soon. He will remember his undying love for Venetia, and they can ride off into the sunset together,” he said, struggling to keep the mockery out of his tone.

She settled back onto the couch, and crossed her legs. “You’ve got balls asking me to help you.”

Nikos grinned. There was such a change in her demeanor, in the way she met his gaze head-on from the woman who had timidly followed him in. Because she knew now that he needed her, and she was adjusting her attitude based on that just as he had done. And to his surprise, he liked this gutsy version of her so much better. “My...manhood has nothing to do with the matter at hand. It’s something I need to do for my sister, and I’m doing it.”

Pink flooded her cheeks and she averted her gaze from him as though she had just realized what she had blurted out. He had a feeling she did that at lot—spoke without thinking it through.

Scooting to the edge of the couch, she pointed a finger in his direction, her little body shaking. “Just a month ago, you had two giant brutes pick me up like I was a sack of garbage and had them throw me out, and I mean, they literally dropped me on that concrete road outside your estate in the Hamptons.”

She had no idea how much he regretted that decision. By the time Venetia had dropped her bombshell at that very party, announcing that she and Tyler were engaged, Lexi Nelson had already been thrown out.

“You somehow bypassed security, broke into my estate and almost ruined the party, Ms. Nelson. It seems your colorful past is not as completely behind you as you would believe,” he said lazily, and her color rose again. “You’re lucky I didn’t have you arrested for trespassing.”

Her chin tilted up stubbornly. “I meant no harm. All I wanted was to see Tyler, even then.”

“Ah, yes. The wonderful Tyler. For whom you will risk anything, it seems.” He bent forward, leaning his elbows on his knees. “The fact that he didn’t answer your million calls on his cell phone didn’t alert you that he wanted to have nothing to do with you? Because you don’t strike me as the particularly stupid kind,” he added, more than a whisper of curiosity niggling him.

A shadow darkened her blue gaze, and he knew she was remembering her conversation with Tyler. “He was angry with me, yes. But I didn’t want him to make a mistake.”

“You don’t really believe that even now, do you? Because that would make you the most pathetic woman on the planet.”

Her blue gaze widened. “Wow, you really don’t believe in pulling your punches.”

“Because hearing the actual truth instead of your own romantic version sticks in your throat?” he said, a burst of caustic anger filling him. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, annoyed by the strength of his own reaction. Telling this woman that her love for that boy had turned her into a fool was not his responsibility. But making sure his sister didn’t fall into the same mold was. “You’re right. I don’t care why you went to see him. All I care about now is that you take care of him.”

“Why go there? Why not just bring him back here, back to New York? As you’ve already learned from that file, Tyler and I have lived here our whole lives. I’m sure being in a new country amidst strangers doesn’t help.”

“The answer to that question is one word, Ms. Nelson. Venetia. Believe me when I say that it’s better for all parties involved if we do this there.”

She nodded and stood up.

He studied her, her calm demeanor not sitting well with him. She was ready to abandon the sense she was born with for the man she loved, even if he had kicked her to the curb. Was all that fire he had spied in her just a sham? And why did he care when that’s what he needed to happen? “I have already arranged for you to leave immediately with your boss at Vibe.”

She met his gaze then, a quick flash of anger in hers. “Of course you have.” She pulled her bag over her head and adjusted it over her breasts.

Coming to a halt at the door, she tugged it open, and leveled that steady gaze at him again. “I find it really curious. Why would you think you needed all that information on me?”

Nikos shrugged. “Let’s just say I wanted to make sure you accepted my...proposal.”

She didn’t even blink. “And yet you were also very confident that I would come. Please tell me.”

If she wanted to hear what he found so distasteful about her coming here, so be it. “I was standing in the corridor with Venetia when you managed to sneak into the party that night. I heard what he said to you.”

She flinched, her tight grip on the doorknob turning her knuckles white. He couldn’t contain the disdain that crept into his words nor did he want to. And the way she stared at him, focused, every muscle in her face stiff and tense, she heard it, too. “He called me a selfish bitch who couldn’t stand the fact that he had found love with someone else and moved on, that I couldn’t be happy for him,” she recited, as though she was reading lines from a play.

“He conveniently turned his head and walked away while you were thrown on the street,” he continued, refusing to lay off.

“And you thought no self-respecting woman would agree to help him after that.”

He nodded. “I thought I would need some additional...leverage to persuade you. Obviously I don’t.”

She raised an eyebrow, her chin tilting up. “No?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?” he said, standing up. Lexi Nelson was the epitome of everything that had gone wrong in his life in the name of love. He felt a tight churning in his stomach, a memory of the grief and rage that he had propelled into the need to survive, for his sister’s and his sake. “One call and barely an hour later, you come running back for him, your heart in your throat, and you walked up nineteen floors. Why ask so many questions, Ms. Nelson? Why pretend as though there’s even a doubt as to whether you will drop everything to take care of him?”

Lexi struggled to remind herself that Nikos Demakis didn’t know her, that his opinion didn’t matter. But the incredible arrogance in his words that she had fallen into his plans exactly as he had intended chafed her raw.

How she wished she could turn around, throw his disdain back in his face.

But this wasn’t about the infuriating man in front of her. This was about her friend, her family, the one person in the entire world who had always cared about her. After Tyler’s caustic words, after this last fight, she had finally accepted that whatever had been between them had never stood a chance. And she had no idea why.

It would hurt to see Venetia Demakis with him for sure. The young heiress was everything Lexi wasn’t. Rich, sophisticated and exceptionally beautiful.

But what if she was being given another chance to right things between her and Tyler, to have her friend back? He had been there every time she had needed him. Now it was her turn.

The scorn of the man in front of her, however, was a bitter pill to swallow. She was going to say yes, but it didn’t mean she had to do it on his conditions.

She leveled her gaze at him, stubbornly reminding herself that Nikos Demakis needed her just as much as she needed to see Tyler. And she couldn’t let him forget that, couldn’t let him think for one moment that he had the upper hand. “You have made a miscalculation, Mr. Demakis. I have no wish to help you or your sister.”

His dark brown gaze gleaming, he neared her before she could blink.

She stood her ground, but she was too much of a chicken to wait and hear what he would threaten her with. “Not without a price.”

“What is it that you want, Ms. Nelson?”

“Money,” she said, satisfaction pouring through her at the surprise in his eyes. She smiled for the first time in more than a month. Her heart thundering inside her chest, she closed the door and leaned back against it. “You have oodles of it and I have none.”

The dark browns of his eyes flared with something akin to admiration. Lexi frowned. She had meant to anger him, needle him, at least. She had uttered the first thing that had come to her mind. Instead, the edge of his contempt, which had been a tangible thing until now, was blunted.

“Quite the little opportunist, aren’t you?” he said, gazing at her with intense interest.

There was no rancor in his words. Struggling to keep her confusion out of her face, she smiled with as much fake confidence as she could muster. “I have to protect my interests, don’t I? You’re asking me to put my life here on hold and place my trust in someone like you.”

He laughed. “Someone like me?”

“Yes, by your own admission, you don’t have a conscience when it comes to what you want. What if things don’t go your way, what if something happens that you don’t like? You’ll blame me...”

“Like what?”

“Like Tyler regaining his memory and deciding he didn’t want to be with Venetia anymore.”

A feral light gleamed in his gaze. “That would not do.”

“I have no older brother to rescue me, no family to watch out for my welfare,” she said, swallowing the painful truth. “For all I know, you and your sister could do untold harm to me, so I’m being prepared.”

“Believe me, Ms. Nelson. Family is highly overrated. You grew up in foster care—doesn’t that tell you something?”

The vehemence in his tone gave her pause. She had wondered a million times why her parents might have given her up, wondered in the lowest times if there was anyone who thought of her, who wondered about her, too. Except for excruciating sadness and uncertainty, it had brought her nothing. “But you’re here, aren’t you? Taking every step to ensure Tyler remembers your sister, setting her world to rights. Making sure no one deprives her of her happily ever after.”

“What if I don’t agree to your condition?” He moved in that economic way of his and locked her in place against the door. His scent teased her nostrils, his size, the quiet hum of power packed into his large body, directed toward her making her tremble from head to toe. He had neatly sidestepped her question. “What if, instead, I alert your boss about your colorful teenage years?”

It took everything within her to stay unmoving, to meet his gaze when all she wanted was to skittle away from him. Don’t betray your fear, she reminded herself, even though she had no idea if it was his threatening words or his nearness that was causing it. “You will ruin me and it will be pointless, but it won’t go like that. Are you that heartless that you would wreck a perfect stranger’s life because she won’t suit your plans?”

“Yes, I will,” he whispered, moving even closer. His palm landed on the door, near her face, his breath feathering over her. The heat of his body coated her with an awareness she didn’t want. Every inch of her froze, and she struggled to pull air into her lungs. “Make no mistake about me. To ensure my sister’s happiness, I will do anything that is required of me, and not feel a moment’s regret about it.”

Her stomach tight, she forced herself to speak. She had no doubt that he was speaking the truth. “But it doesn’t really serve your purpose, does it? Ruining me won’t set your sister’s world right. You need me, and you don’t like it.” His mouth tightened an infinitesimal amount and she knew she had it right. “That’s why you collected all that information. Because you needed at least an illusion that you have the upper hand in the situation, to make sure you’re the one with control.”

Something dawned in his gaze and she knew she had hit the nail on its head. Her pulse jumped beneath her skin. “You have twisted something very straightforward into a game. I would have dropped everything to take care of Tyler. But now, I’ll only come if you agree to my condition,” she finished, every nerve ending in her stretched tight.

She was playing a dangerous game. But she would do this only on her terms, refused to let herself be bullied again. Even for Tyler.

His gaze swept over her. “Fine. Just remember one thing. I’m agreeing because this suits me. This way, you’re my employee. You do what I say. You can’t cry foul, can’t say I manipulated you.”

“Even if I did, it’s not like you’ll lose any sleep over it.”

His teeth bared in a surprisingly warm smile. “Good, you’re a fast learner. I’m the one who will be paying you. I’ll even have my lawyers draw a contract to that effect.”

“Isn’t that a little over-the-top? I’m there to help Tyler, not for any other reason.” His continued silence sent a shiver of warning through her. “Am I?”

He didn’t answer her question and his expression was hidden by the thick sweep of his lashes. A knock sounded on an interconnecting door she hadn’t noticed. The brunette she had spied earlier walked in, her mouth set into a charming pout. Her long-legged gait brought her to the sitting area in mere seconds while her expertly made-up gaze took in Nikos and her with a frown.

She pulled him toward her, nothing subtle or ambiguous in her intentions. “I thought you wanted to celebrate, Nikos. Are you ever going to be free?”

Her mouth dry, Lexi watched, her thin T-shirt too warm.

His gaze didn’t waver from Lexi. A sly smile curved his mouth as he obviously noticed the heat she could feel flush her cheeks. He wrapped his hand around the woman’s waist, his long fingers splayed against the cream silk of her dress. “I believe Ms. Nelson and I have concluded our business to mutual satisfaction. So, yes, I’m free to celebrate, Nina.”

CHAPTER THREE

NIKOS CURSED LOUDLY and violently. The words swallowed up by the crowd around him didn’t relieve his temper one bit.

It had been three days since Lexi Nelson had come to see him and yet the sneaky minx had avoided his assistant’s phone calls. Exasperated, Nikos had been reduced to having Kane discover her shift times at the club. Thoroughly disgusted by his minions’—a word he couldn’t stop using ever since she had—failure to persuade the woman to leave for Greece, he had flown back to New York.

He had arrived at three in the morning, forced himself to stay awake and arrived at Vibe five minutes after five. Only to find her gone. So he had his chauffeur drive him to her apartment in Brooklyn.

But even after a ten-hour shift, the irritating woman still hadn’t returned. He had been ready to call the cops and report her missing. In the end, he had entered her apartment, barged into a bedroom and forced the naked couple in the bed to tell him where Ms. Nelson was. Her eyes eating him up, the redhead had finally informed him that Lexi had gone straight to another shift at a coffee shop around the corner.

So here he was standing on the sidewalk at nine in the morning outside the bustling café amidst jostling New Yorkers. He was tired, sleep-deprived and furious.

He understood the need for money. He was the epitome of hunger for wealth and power, but this woman was something else.

Ordering his chauffeur to come back in a few minutes, he entered the café. The strong smell of coffee made his head pound harder. With the hustle and bustle behind the busy counter, it took him a few moments to spot her behind the cash register.

His heartbeat slowed to a normal pace.

A brown paper bag in hand, she was smiling at a customer.

Her hair was combed back from her forehead in that poufy way. The three silver earrings on her left ear glinted in the morning sunlight as she turned this way and that. A green apron hung loosely on her slender frame.

She thanked the customer and ran her hands over her face. He could see the pink marks her fingers left on her skin even from the distance. And that was when Nikos noticed it—the tremble in her fingers, the slight sway of her body as she turned.

He tugged his gaze to her face and took in the dark shadows under her stunning blue eyes. She blinked slowly, as though struggling to keep her eyes open and smiled that dazzling smile at the next customer.

Memories pounded through him, a fierce knot clawing his gut tight. He didn’t want to remember, yet the sight of her, tired and ready to drop on her feet, punched him, knocking the breath out of him.

He hadn’t felt that bone-deep desolation in a long time, because as hard as Savas had made him work for the past fourteen years, Nikos had known there would be food at the end of it. But before Savas had plucked them both from their old house, every day after his mother had died had been a lesson in survival.

The memory of it—the smell of grease at the garage, combined with the clawing hunger in his gut while the lack of sleep threatened to knuckle him down—was as potent as though it was just yesterday.

The bitter memory on top of his present exhaustion tipped him over the edge.

A red haze descending on him, he stormed through the crowd and navigated around the counter.

With a gasp, Lexi stepped back, blinking furiously. “Mr. Demakis,” she said, sounding squeaky, “you can’t be back—”

He didn’t give her a chance to finish. Ignoring the gasps and audible whispers of the busy crowd, he moved closer, picked her up and walked out of the café.