“Now that you mention it, even if we are friends, we’re still boss and employee,” Honey said, smirking. “And according to Allison, you have a new policy with your employees. You don’t touch them.”
Honey looked at him triumphantly, feeling like she had won the argument. But Nikos’s expression had not changed. If anything, he looked more amused.
“Don’t you know you’re different from the other girls?” Nikos asked, and Honey rolled her eyes.
“Not anymore,” she said bitterly, not being able to hide her disdain ever since she realized she had now joined the long list of women that Nikos had fooled around with at the Gentlemen’s Club, and the list was quite long. A few months ago, she thought she would never be a part of it, and now she was like every girl at this club, lured into Nikos’s good looks and charismatic charm. It made her feel foolish.
“Is that why you’re denying me?” Nikos asked, just as easily closing the gap between them with a simple step. But this time, Honey didn’t budge. They stood face to face, chest to chest with Honey not wanting to back down, and Nikos not wanting to back down either.
“Denying you?” Honey snorted. “Do you even deserve me?”
“No one deserves you,” Nikos said, and as she looked into his blue eyes, she was startled by the fact that he seemed serious. “But I want you.”
Honey gasped, feeling her heart thunder in her chest from his words. She had never heard a man express so much desire for her and genuinely mean it.
“I desperately want you,” Nikos said as he stepped even closer to her, pressing his chest against hers. His nose brushed her cheek as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop her heart from beating so loudly; it rang like bells in her ears, and if she could hear it, she was positive Nikos heard it too. She barely felt like she could breathe, trying to tame her riled-up emotions from the heat burning between them and from Nikos’s words that had set a fire in her chest and between her thighs.
“Nikos,” Honey breathed as she felt his breath against her cheek. Nikos’s right arm slipped around her waist, pulling her even closer as if he wanted to sink into her skin, and his left hand cradled her neck.
“Honey.”
The call of her name caused her eyes to flutter open, and immediately, Honey was assaulted by his alarmingly blue eyes. She felt like he had cast a spell on her because the fight-or-flight position she had been assuming the moment she stepped into the Gentlemen’s Club tonight had completely disappeared, and now she didn’t want to be anywhere else but here.
He leaned forward, and Honey felt herself leaning forward too, ready to reward him and herself with a kiss. Just as his lips brushed hers, causing her to shiver, someone knocked on Nikos’s door.
“Damn,” Nikos cursed against her lips. “I really wanted to kiss you.”
Honey stood in stunned disbelief before stepping back and dislodging herself from Nikos’s hold. The spell Nikos had cast on her had disappeared immediately; she was grateful to whoever had knocked on the door because if they hadn’t, she was sure she would have let Nikos kiss her, and if he had kissed her, she didn’t want to imagine what compromising position she would have been in on top of one of the surfaces in his office.
“Come in,” Nikos said, looking disappointed as he took a step back himself, creating an appropriate amount of distance between them that should have been there in the first place. A second later, Christos, Nikos’s right-hand man, stepped through the door. Honey took that as her cue.
“Thank you,” Honey said as she snatched her pay from Nikos’s hand, who hadn’t made sure to keep it out of her reach this time.
“Really?” Nikos said with a bemused expression on his face.
“I’ll be taking my leave,” Honey said as she quickly left his office, not giving Nikos time to throw any one-liners at her or excuses to make her stay longer so they could have another private discussion. She was scared that if she stayed a second longer in Nikos’s presence, she would give in, and that was something she couldn’t afford to do.
C H A P T E R
32
NIKOS BATTED AWAY HIS DISAPPOINTMENT AND RESISTED THE URGE TO GO AFTER HONEY. He nearly had her and could feel it from the way she had melted in his arms. If Christos hadn’t interrupted them, Nikos was positive he could have had her laid out on his desk while he told her exactly why they shouldn’t let this connection slip between them. But he would just have to wait until the next time he saw her to try to persuade her again. Whenever Christos came to him, it had to be something important, and he had already probably pushed Honey too much tonight.
“What is it?” Nikos asked as he sat down behind his desk, watching as Christos laid out three boxes before him. He hadn’tbeen expecting Christos to come bearing presents and yet here they were.
“Gifts.”
Nikos opened the first box and inside was a box of Regius Double Corona Cigars, which he knew ran about nearly fifty thousand per cigar. He ran his fingers over the box before he noticed the note tucked on the side.
“To Nikos, welcome to the family. From Richard,” Nikos read out. Nikos had met Richard three times since he had come here. The first time was when his uncle introduced them because he had wanted him to meet all of the important men in their group who held ranks, titles, and power. The second time was when Nikos visited him after his uncle went out of commission. The third time was when Nikos came to tell him the good news of taking out their enemy.
The other two gifts he had received were a bottle of seventy-year-old wine and a Cartier Rolex, each from important figures in their group.
“They’re showing respect,” Nikos said, looking at his gifts. Gifts like these were not passed around lightly for the hell of it. A few months ago, Nikos was certain that all these men thought he wasn’t fit for this position even if he were Giannis Drakos’s son. To send him these gifts meant change was happening within their group.
“And loyalty,” Christos added, and Nikos nodded. To a certain extent, he wasn’t surprised. Taking out Ricardo had not been a small feat, and he knew it would gain him respect from the other heads of their group. It had been a huge weight on their shoulder even long before he had gotten here, and now that the burden was gone, it put them back at the top again and showedthat even with Antonis out of commission, they were still strong, if not stronger.
Nikos took a cigar out, smelling its smoky, wood scent, that oddly smelled like power. He wasn’t much of a smoker, so he pulled out another one and offered it to Christos, who deserved these gifts as much as him. Nikos wouldn’t have been able to get to the position he was in now without him. Aris had been right to tell him to keep Christos by his side. He was someone he could depend on and trust, and he was also his friend.
