Nikos sobered, his gaze falling back to his drink—lost in the memory of the brief, electric kiss. “It felt like a fuse was lit inside me. Explosive. Unexpected. Familiar, yet foreign. It seriously scared the shit out of me.”
His voice was rough, filled with a touch of confusion as he tried to process his internal conflict. Hell, he didn’t do deep emotions.
A long pause stretched between them.
Markos tilted his head. “It should be an interesting date, then.”
“Yeah,” he replied, his expression conflicted. “But once I fulfill my obligation, I’m walking away.”
Markos let the silence stretch before asking quietly, “Will you be able to?”
Nikos frowned at his brother.Will I walk away? Can I?
Markos met his eyes, steady and unflinching. “If there’s even a chance this woman means something… why not find out? Why walk away before you know?”
“Because I can’t afford to get tangled in something I can’t control,” Nikos snapped, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees before he exhaled and softened his voice. “Because—just… because.”
The unsaid words hung between them like a confession.
Markos leaned back, his expression unreadable. But his voice, when he spoke, was quiet. “You don’t have to keep punishing yourself for what happened, Nikos. I’m fine. It’s okay for you to move forward—for you to find someone.”
Nikos bowed his head, a dull ache tightening his chest before he looked back at Markos. “I know you’re lying.”
Markos’s gaze flicked away. Just for a second. “About what?”
“I can feel it. The void. The emptiness that you can’t fill. You remember more than you let on. About the ambush. About what they did to you. About what happened before you came back to camp. Hell, that’s why they gave you the early discharge. You always say you don’t—but I see it. I see it in your nightmares. I see it in your eyes. I can feel it in my chest,” he said, tapping the spot over his heart.
Markos’s jaw worked, but he didn’t answer.
Nikos didn’t push. He never did. It was an unspoken rule between them. But that silence had cost them both. Maybe more than either of them realized.
He cleared his throat. “Anyway. Enough brooding for one night. Tell me about London.”
Markos allowed the shift. “I leave in two weeks. The Delarosa acquisition is nearly completed. I’ll oversee the transition myself.”
Nikos nodded. “Good. Let me know if you need a team.”
“I’ll be fine.” Markos studied him. “You sure you’ll be okay?”
Nikos raised an eyebrow. “I’m not the one who’s about to fly into a hostile boardroom.”
Markos raised his glass in a mock toast. “No, just on a blind date with a woman you’re afraid will clobber you. Let’s hope she doesn’t bring her cat,” he teased.
Nikos chuckled, and they sat for a while longer, the conversation drifting to safer topics—numbers, properties, upcoming deals. But as Markos rose to leave for the club, Nikos’s thoughts drifted back to Kiki.
To her sharp tongue.
Her guarded eyes.
Their far too brief kiss.
Nikos walked back to the bar and refilled his glass as silence filled theapartment. He stared at the vibrant city beyond the window, wondering what she was doing—and if she was thinking of him.
“I am so screwed,” he murmured with a self-depreciating chuckle even as his anticipation built.
He lifted his glass in a toast to his reflection. “To Kiki Reese—the girl in the shadows. Let’s see what secrets you’re hiding, my rude sprite.”
The city was already a boiling pot of chaos by the time Kiki exited her apartment the next morning. That was alright. It matched her mood.
