Modern Romance July 2015 Books 1-4. Maisey Yates

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      LOUKAS STARED INTO Jessica’s aquamarine eyes—as cool as any swimming pool he’d ever dived into—and wondered how to answer her question. His instinct was to tell her that his past and his career trajectory were none of her business. Was her sudden interest sparked because she was turned on by his obvious wealth like most of her sex?

      Yet in a way she had been partly responsible for the dramatic turnaround in his fortunes, though not in a way which either of them could have predicted. Her rejection of him had cut deep. Deeper than he could ever have anticipated. Her cool dismissal of his proposal had kicked like a horse at his pride and his heart, leaving him angry and empty. And bewildered. Because hadn’t he once vowed to himself that never again would he give a woman the opportunity to hurt him?

      ‘I stopped working for Dimitri Makarov,’ he said.

      She frowned. ‘You mean, you got tired of being a bodyguard?’

      Loukas gave a hard smile in response to her question. Yes, he had grown tired of living life through someone else. Of standing on the sidelines. Of always having to abide by someone else’s rules and someone else’s timetable. And waiting—always waiting.

      ‘It was time for a change,’ he said, watching the way her hair gleamed in the candlelight. ‘I didn’t want to carry on indefinitely and at that stage Dimitri’s personal life was so out of control that the two of us were living like vampires. He never went to bed before dawn and, as a consequence, neither did I. We spent our life in casinos and then we’d take a plane to another country and another casino, grabbing sleep where we could.’

      His Russian boss had been out of control—and so had he. Each of them running from their particular demons and seeking refuge in the bottom of a whisky glass. On the rebound from Jessica, Loukas had gone from woman to woman, despising them all no matter how much they professed to love him, because hadn’t he proved once and for all that you could never believe a woman when she said she loved you?

      And then one morning he had woken up and looked in the mirror, barely able to recognise the ravaged face staring back, and had known that something needed to change. Or rather, that he needed to change. ‘It was time for something new,’ he finished flatly. ‘A new direction.’

      He watched while she took a sip of her wine—a wine as cool and as pale as she was.

      ‘So what did you do?’ she questioned. ‘Go to college?’

      Loukas couldn’t hold back the bitterness of his answering laugh, but he waited while their food was placed before them—fish and vegetables stacked into intricate towers standing in puddles of shiny orange sauce. Why the hell could you never get simple food these days? he wondered fleetingly. ‘No, Jess—I didn’t go to college,’ he said sarcastically. ‘Those kinds of opportunities aren’t really a good fit with someone like me. I started working as a bouncer at a big nightclub in New York.’

      She narrowed her eyes. He thought she looked disappointed. Was that still too thuggish an occupation for someone of her delicate sensibilities to accept?

      ‘And what was that like?’ she asked politely, like someone making small talk at a cocktail party.

      ‘It was like every man’s fantasy,’ he said softly and now he could see the surprise in her eyes, and yes, the hurt—and suddenly he found that he was enjoying himself and that he wanted to hurt her some more. To hurt her as she had hurt him. ‘It’s a power trip to be in a position like that,’ he drawled softly. ‘It gives you a kick to turn away people with overstuffed wallets who ask if you know who they are. Not a particularly admirable admission—but true. And women love bouncers. Really love them,’ he finished deliberately. ‘It’s one of the perks of the job.’

      She had been sawing at a piece of pumpkin on her plate, but suddenly she put her fork down and he noticed that her hand was trembling. And that was unusual, he thought with satisfaction, because Jess had always had the steadiest hands of anyone he’d ever known. Hands that could throw a tennis ball up to a certain height with pinpoint accuracy. Hands that could smash a ball into kingdom come. He could see the faint uncertainty in her eyes as she asked the inevitable question.

      ‘And I suppose there must have been, well...lots of women?’

      He shrugged, because if a female asked you a question as dumb as that, then they deserved to hear the answer. He thought about the pieces of paper slipped into his hand or stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. About waking up in vast bedrooms on the Upper East Side with some sinewy heiress riding him until he cried out. The tiny thong he’d found stuffed in his jacket pocket when he’d been going through airport security and the knowing wink СКАЧАТЬ