A Deal with Demakis

Are you volunteering?

Yes.

His body roared with its own answer. But he didn’t want just sex, he wanted her. For the first time in his life, he wanted something that he didn’t even understand.

He understood the pull he felt for her. It was more than just attraction; it was something as unique as the woman herself.

Her upbringing, her isolation even after the way she surrounded herself with people, her loneliness—it was like looking at an image of himself he didn’t know existed. Only a better one, with compassion, affection, love.

And the fact that he was letting her burrow under his skin, blared like an alarm in his head.

Unfeeling, manipulative and arrogant.

He was all that and more.

Yet, right at that moment—with his body shuddering at the very thought of kissing that mouth, his mind seething with hurt because she, Lexi Nelson, found him unsuitable— he was not the man he had forced himself to become. Old wounds and memories opened up, cloying through him, leaving him shaking.

The flash of pain, hot and shocking, that darted through him, forced him to focus like nothing else. He would not examine the whys or hows of it. There was nothing Lexi could offer him that wasn’t easily available to him without complication.

Not her body, and definitely not her pitying, trusting, loving, heart.

It was good he had scared her off, good that he had hurt her, because he had nothing to offer her, either. Like Venetia’s tears, the flashing hurt in her eyes was a price he would willingly pay.

Better she stay away from him, better she stopped analyzing him, better she stopped giving him glimpses of things he didn’t even know were missing from his life.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LEXI RUBBED IN the sunscreen on her legs, loving the golden tan she had already acquired. The early-morning sun felt warm on her bare shoulders, while the cool waves tickled her toes.

A small whitewashed beach house, small compared to the enormous mansion, stood near the ocean while the Demakis residence lay almost two miles inland. Leaving Tyler to Venetia in the afternoons, she had taken to walking the two miles, enjoying the quiet.

Ten days had flown by since she had let herself be cornered by Nikos in the garage, since she had lost it in front of him like that. But instead of anger that he had toyed with her, it was the fact that he had no interest that bothered her more.

Which meant she really needed her head examined. Because with everything else going on, Nikos’s lack of interest in her should be the high point of her life right now. Bad enough that she had to spend time with him in the morning, and evening, to feel his gaze on her, always a curious light in it.

Every morning brought a new facet of Venetia’s wrath that Lexi was here, revealing her frustration that Tyler couldn’t remember. Nikos hadn’t been joking when he had warned her about his sister. But even with the elaborate schemes that Venetia hatched to help Tyler remember, Lexi only saw her gnawing fear, her love for him. Lexi understood the fear the dark emotion in Venetia’s eyes caused Nikos.

Hearing Tyler’s tread on the sand behind her, Lexi turned around with a smile.

Dark shadows swam under his eyes, his face drawn. She sat up straight, her stomach tight. “You remembered something?”

Sinking to his knees next to her, he shook his head. His mouth a bitter curve, he clasped her face. “How can you bear to even look at me, Lex?”

Cold fear swept through Lexi. “What are you talking about, Ty?”

“Venetia told me what I said to you when you came to see us that day.”

“Why?”

“I guess to remind me how much I wanted you gone. Except, it didn’t work like she wanted.” He fisted his hands, his mouth tight. “I want to leave, Lex. There are so many things I have to apologize for. I don’t want to be here another minute.”

Stricken by the bitterness in his gaze, Lexi clasped his hand. Her throat stung with unshed tears, but she forced herself to say it, forced herself to see the truth she had been dancing around for so many days. “Listen, Ty. Yes, you hurt me. But I’ve no doubt that there was a reason behind it. This is you and me, Ty. We do this a lot. We fight, we yell and we make up. It’s just that this time things are different.”

He ran a hand through his hair, his gaze pained. “I...can’t believe I said those hurtful things to you, Lex, on top of everything else...”

Lexi felt as though someone was sitting on her chest. “It’s all forgiven, Ty. Truly.”

His blue gaze shone with affection, his palms clasped her cheeks. The familiar smell of him settled in her gut, infinitely comforting.

“I messed up everything with us so badly. And now, I have to break Venetia’s heart, too. I—”