They were seated back in the coffee shop with Jake a few feet away and Magda was starting to get annoyed with him. He’d refused to let Ares walk alone with her to the coffee shop, despite its close proximity and he’d been huffing and puffing since they sat down because it was quite busy for a Saturday morning.“Ignore him,” Ares said gently as he lifted his coffee cup to his lips. “It’s his job to keep me safe and to be an overbearing asshole to make sure I listen to him. It’s not personal.”“He checked my handbag.”“Yes.”“And told me to power off my phone because he was worried, I’d try to voice record you while we were sitting here.”“Yes.” Ares chuckled. “Do you know how many journalists pose as women who simply want to have coffee with me?”“Yes, but I’m not the one chasing you!” she protested. “You d

Stretching in bed in the morning, Magda felt her eyes were blurry and itchy as she rolled onto her belly. Sleep had eluded her late into the night and she had cried like a fool while Jinx the dog had licked her face. The dog had been great comfort in her misery while she’d sulked over what was never going to be. Why Ares Winter was so heavy on her mind and plaguing her heart was beyond her but she’d had an immediate and visceral reaction to him from day one of meeting him in the boardroom and she couldn’t shake it. Now she’d insulted him by calling him a whore and it was weighing on her. He was right. She had judged him for his past sexual experiences. If he had been a woman, she would have been going off about a woman’s right to have as many partners as she wanted but because he was a potential sexual partner for her, she was judging him and him calling her out had her feeling appropriately chastised. She sighed and rolled to her belly and checked her phone.

Arriving home from the Laskaris compound on Monday, Magda felt emotionally raw. Dimi’s family were scary as hell and after a hellish breakfast with her parents and then Dimi having an emotional meltdown in the car from Miklos’ new pursual of her, Magda felt she was carrying the weight of her friend’s sadness.As she exited the car, she noted the personal assistant who had met her outside the gym yesterday standing on her front step. Immediately she bristled with the intrusion of her privacy. How dare they?“What the fuck are you doing at my house?”“Mr. Winter asked me to deliver this,” the woman held out a note, her fingers shaking as she extended it towards Magda as if inherently aware the woman was about to blow.“I don’t give a shit if he asked you to deliver it or not! How the hell did he get my home address and why are you trespassing!” Magda’s emotions were raw and the woman visibly recoiled from Mag’s wrath.“Uh don’t shoot the messenger, Mags,” Dimi called out from behind her

She didn’t care she had makeup on. She splashed cool water on her face and reached blindly for paper towel. The door to the bathroom opened and a hand put the serviette in hers and she offered a meek thank you to the person who had entered.She looked up and saw Ares leaning against the door and she grimaced. “I’m sure the sign on the door says women.”“It does,” he nodded, his eyes pleading. “Can we talk?”“In a restaurant bathroom?” She sneered at him. “No. In fact, not here. Not anywhere.”“I’m sorry.”“You should be.” She forgot herself for a moment and shoved his chest hard, “what kind of fucking games are you playing?”He grabbed her hands and pulled her close, his blue eyes searching hers. “I’m sorry. I panicked. In panicking, I came to a stupid conclusion.”“What conclusion?”&l

She was fucking terrified. They were in Miklos’ club and they’d been busted and while Dimi and Darya were tough as nails, she was not. She was shaking like a leaf between her friends while Miklos and Kostas Masalis eyeballed them like they were enemies of the Laskaris family and ready to be punished for their transgressions.First, they’d said they were going to search them as if they were spies for the government and now she’d said too much admitting they were spying to find out if he was fucking a girl in the club and the girls were ready to kill her themselves. She was too drunk. Far too drunk. She’d been trying to drink the misery of her situation with Ares Winter away and too much prosecco later, she was wasted out of her skull. Her feet felt numb and her hands were sweaty.  Now the girls brought up she was a virgin in front of Miklos and Kostas and the two men were staring at her as if she were an alien. It was evident Dimi for