Free The Art of Loving a Greek Billionaire by Marian Tee Page B

just want to have dinner with you...if you have time.”
    “Then I will come home at exactly seven.” He paused. And then Damen heard himself lying, “I might not be able to come home tonight though.”
    Her heart stopped beating at his words. This was his first time not to come home to her. Could it have something to do with his meeting with Alina Kokinos? She wished she had the courage to ask it, but she was scared of looking like a jealous, nagging insecure girlfriend.
    Swallowing convulsively, she said, “I’ll miss you.”
    “I will miss you, too.”
    Unbidden, their early morning conversation returned to her. It had sounded exactly like this, like she was saying the words with desperation and he was returning the words mechanically.
    They spoke for a few more moments, but the earlier intimacy, brief as it was, had been dispelled and they were both stiff with each other by the time Damen excused himself to talk with another investor.
    She wiped the tears from her eyes. She really did love him, really did miss her Greek billionaire, but she didn’t think she could take more of this. Before she knew it, she was sending a chat message to her aunts.
    Vilma: Good of you to remember you still have aunts.
    Mairi: It won’t work, Aunt Vilma. I know you’re just being cranky because you miss me.
    Norah: When can we fly there?
    Mairi: Not until I’m convinced that you two would behave yourselves around Damen.
    Vilma: How dare you? I admit that both Norah and I find Greek billionaires irresistible, but we draw the line at seducing one who belongs to our niece.
    Mairi giggled again, imagining how her two aunts would no doubt have Damen uncomfortable in seconds. They had told her that she better have Damen prepared when they finally flew in for a visit. Nothing would stop them from asking the burning questions in their minds, accumulated over the decades they had spent devouring Mills and Boon paperbacks.
    Norah: Have you asked him yet?
    She shook her head at the question. Norah had wanted her to ask Damen the percentage of Greek billionaires with and without chest hair. Like heck she’d ask something like that!
    Mairi: NEVER. And you mustn’t ask him that either!
    Vilma: What about mine? Did you ask him?
    Aunt Vilma’s question was just as bad. She wanted to know the average age with which Greek billionaires lost their virginity. Seriously!
    Mairi: I love you, Aunt Vilma, Aunt Norah.
    Norah: We love you even more.
    Vilma: We love you ALWAYS.
    ****
    Half an ocean away, Norah and Vilma exchanged looks with each other. They had been enjoying an early breakfast in the kitchen. It was five in the morning and the sun was barely out in the sky. All in all, it was definitely too early for her heart to be broken like this , Norah thought.
    “She’s hurting.”
    “I know.”
    “We must do something,” Vilma insisted.
    “Not yet. She’s not a little girl anymore. We need to let her learn from her own mistakes.”
    Vilma knew her sister’s words made sense, but it went against everything she believed in to simply stand aside and allow Mairi to be hurt. And she would be hurt, in a way that terrified Vilma.
    “Were we so wrong?” Vilma whispered. “It had seemed so harmless at the beginning, letting her dream about stupid Greek billionaires.”
    Norah reminded her gently, “You didn’t think they were so stupid before.”  
    “Yeah, so color me stupid, too.”
    Glancing down at her phone, Norah’s heart became heavier. She said quietly, “It can’t ever be wrong to let someone dream.” It was just a sad reality of the world that most people found joy in destroying another person’s dream.
    Stay strong, Mairi, Norah whispered in her heart. Please God, let her be strong enough to love and dream even when she was alone.  

Chapter Twelve
     
    “You’re pronouncing it wrong.” He was on his way back to the field, stray baseball in his hand, when he spotted her sitting under the tree, knees up with an open book