A Deal with Demakis

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.