Читать книгу A Deal with Demakis - Tara Pammi - Страница 11

CHAPTER FOUR

NIKOS CLOSED HIS laptop, and refused the stewardess’s offer of a drink. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in four days now. He had finalized the deal with Nathan Ramirez; he finally had a solution for Venetia’s problem. And yet he was restless with a weird kind of pent-up energy simmering just below his skin.

He itched to get back to his garage and get his hands dirty. He had been pushing himself this past month and he needed a break. Once everything was settled with Venetia, he would take her on a vacation. She had always wanted to see more of New York.

The passing mention of New York and his thoughts immediately shifted to Ms. Nelson. Not a peep sounded from the rear cabin. There was something about the woman that always left him on edge. Stepping into the cabin, he froze.

She lay on the very edge of the bed, half out, half in. Her knees tucked tight into her legs, her hands wrapped tight around herself, she slept hunched tight into a ball.

Her honey-gold hair glinted in the low lights, her wide mouth open like a fish.

Her white T-shirt couldn’t hide the outline of her small breasts. A plastic watch with a big dial in the shape of a skull covered most of her wrist. A thoroughly distracting strip of her back was exposed by the scrunched-up top, above denim shorts. Delicate calves and even more delicate feet topped with toes painted black completed the picture.

Even while telling himself that he should just walk away, he stood rooted to the spot.

He usually paid very little attention to the women he slept with. What he wanted, he took and got the distraction out of the way. Because that’s all anything a woman ever had been to him. Something to take the edge off the grueling hours, or the pace he had set himself to succeed.

Ms. Nelson, on the other hand, perplexed, irritated and downright annoyed him with her mere existence. There was such a mix of innocence and calculation about her that he found mesmerizing. He smiled, remembering her confusion, her beautiful blue eyes widened, her breath hitching in and out uncomfortably, when he had leaned toward her in the car.

Noticing a page peeking from under her arms, he leaned over her and pulled the rolled-up magazine.

His blood slowed in his veins to a sluggish pace as he breathed in that scent of her. Vanilla, that’s what she smelled of. Simple yet fascinating, like her.

He straightened the magazine and looked at the article she had been reading. How To Use Sex to Get Your Man Back.

So the little minx did want that parasite back. Apparently, being called a selfish bitch wasn’t enough of a deterrent for her. Displeasure and a relentless curiosity vied within him. What kind of a woman worried about an ex who turned his back on her, a friend who manipulated her and yet faced Nikos down when he had cornered her?

Shaking his head, he tried to stem the flow of resentment coursing through him. Because that’s what it had to be. Ms. Nelson’s effervescent outlook toward life and her sheer naïveté were beginning to grate on him. The sooner he got her out of his life and back to her I’m-all-that-is-love-manipulate-me-all-you-want existence, the better.

Muttering a curse, he turned around to leave when a sleepy moan rumbled from the bed. Still hunched tight, she scooted a little more over the edge. With a quick movement, Nikos caught her just as she would have toppled off the bed.

He ended up on his knees next to the bed, her slender body cradled on his forearms. Blue eyes flew open, terror cycling through them.

Before he could blink, she squirmed in his hold, throwing punches and kicking her legs. He turned his face just at the right time, and her punch landed on his jaw. His teeth rattled in his mouth. Grunting at the pain shooting up his jaw, he threw her onto the bed none too gently.

She rolled over to the other side, and stared up at him, her eyes wide and full of shock. “What are you doing?”

“What do you think?” he shouted back, running a hand over his jaw. “I should have let you fall. The bump would have given you some much-needed sense.”

Theos, but the woman could throw a mean punch. If he hadn’t turned he would have had a severely displaced nose.

She scooted to her knees on the other side, her movements wary and tight, her mouth pinched. “I’m sorry. I just acted on reflex.”

Running a finger over his jaw, he looked at her and curbed his anger. “Would you like to explain, Ms. Nelson?”

Her hair stood up at awkward angles. Moving as though in slow motion, she got off the bed, walked around it and stopped at a good distance from him.

Her gaze was set on his jaw, her lips trembling. “I’m fine,” he said, cringing at the thought that she might cry. He sat down on the bed and waved toward the empty spot. “Sit down.”

Remaining silent, she slid down onto the edge of the bed, leaving as much distance as possible between them. And it finally struck him. All the times she had scrunched tight when he came near. Even now her slender frame was coiled with tension. For some reason, the thought filled him with a cold anger.

“You’re afraid of me.”

Her silence rang around them.

He shoved away the questions and, of all the strangest things, the dent to his ego, aside. He might not like her but the fear in her eyes, it had been real. “I know that you think me a heartless bastard, and you are right, but I would never lay a finger on you.”

She met his gaze finally. “I think I know that.”

“Well, that’s good, then.” This time, he couldn’t keep the sarcasm out.

She grimaced, and took a deep breath. “Sorry, that didn’t come out right. I know that you won’t harm me, Nikos, at least not physically,” she added, just to annoy him, he was sure. “And it’s not your intentions I’m scared of but...” Pink flooded her cheeks “But your... I mean...”

“Theos, Lexi! Just say it.” Sitting here in the intimate confines of the luxurious cabin, he had never felt the strange energy that suddenly arced into life in the cabin.

Lexi sighed, fighting the urge to run away from the cabin. Even though the temperature was perfect, she still felt a line of sweat down her spine. And their sitting here on the same bed, even with the breadth of it separating them, it felt too intimate. Too many things, strange and unnerving, crowded in on her. But the man did deserve an explanation.

“Your size...I mean...you are a big man.”

Amusement glittered in his gaze. “Yes. I’m six foot three. I am big, everywhere. And so far, you’re the only woman who has not been spectacularly happy about it.”

“What does your size have to do with women being hap...” Heat rose up through her as she realized his meaning, tightening her cheeks, and there was nothing she could do about it. “Oh.”

He laughed and she couldn’t help but smile back. He looked gorgeous, down-to-earth and not at all like someone who should have scared her so much. “You gave me the perfect opening.”

She nodded, and made a movement to stand up when he threw out his arm to stop her. He did it slowly, as if to not frighten her again. “Once again, you’ve made me extremely curious. And you owe me an explanation,” he said, rubbing at his jaw.

Lexi pulled up her feet and hugged her knees. “This...it’s nothing that is useful to you,” she said, dragging her feet.

He didn’t bat an eyelid at the insult. “Tell me anyway.”

“I was transferred to a new foster home when I was twelve.” She smiled, warmth filling her despite everything else that had happened. “I loved it immediately because the last one, they had always been kind to me but I was the only kid. The new home was perfect because there were six of us and it’s where I met Tyler.

“But our foster parents had a son. Jason was almost seventeen, older than any of us, and was this huge, burly guy. From the day I walked in, he picked on me. Every month, it got worse. Sometimes he would just lift me up and throw me down, sometimes lock me in the closet. I got pretty smart about avoiding him for the most part. For two years, it went on but it was the place that I had been the happiest. Except for those moments with Jason. The worst was when...”

Nikos’s hand clasped hers, his fingers strong and rough against hers. Holding back the urge to pull away, she took a breath. Her hand was tiny in his, but it felt good, strong, a spark of comfort filling her up. “You don’t have to continue.”

Lexi looked up, but didn’t let go of his hand. She hated that the shadow of that fear that had been her constant companion in those years was still there with her. She swallowed the hot ache in her throat. “No...see, I thought I was over it. But I guess, the way I’ve been reacting around you...” Her fingers twitched in his grasp but he held on tight. “I...I refuse to give him any power over me.”

She closed her eyes and instantly she was back in that room where she had slept again, on the metal-framed bed that had creaked with Jason’s weight, the scent of his sweat, and she could feel his body pressing down on hers. “One night when I was fifteen—” her words came out in a ravaged whisper “—I was sleeping and I guess, I don’t know...I don’t know why he lay down next to me. I had no idea that he was even back in the house. One minute I’m sleeping peacefully, and the next, I wake up, and he is all over me.” She shivered and her short nails dug into Nikos’s palm. “He pinned me down with his huge body, locked my arms over my head. I can still feel his breath over my face. I don’t know for how long. But I couldn’t breathe, or move.”

“Did he—”

The utter savagery in Nikos’s words broke the hold of the memory. “No. I don’t know what he intended. And thanks to Tyler, I never had to find out.”

“Of course.” The two words were laden with a vehemence that jerked her gaze to his face. “That’s when you ran away?”

“Yes. I couldn’t take it anymore. Except within a week, we realized how hard it was to feed ourselves. But Tyler refused to leave me.” And she wouldn’t leave him now.