The Ex (18+ Only) [COMPLETED]

10: In Which He Takes That Cold Shower [Kon's POV]

10: In Which He Takes That Cold Shower [KON’S POV]

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 “I think that you’ll find that everything’s in order, Mr. Kouriakis,” William Butler said cheerfully, extending his almost womanlike hand over his cluttered work desk to shake on the deal that would give me the land I’d been after for, for months now. “Mr. Kouriakis?”

I had registered his gesture but my brain seemed to be slow to receive the message.

“Thank you.” I took his hand. Releasing it, I rose to my feet. “I’ve got another appointment, Will. Take care.”

He followed suit, his hands straightening the front of his shirt. “Yes, yes, of course. You’re a busy man. How are you finding The Norton? Everything to your liking?” His eyes shimmered expectantly.

“Take care,” I repeated shortly, and swiftly exited his office, slamming the door shut behind me. He was an agent, not my newfound buddy. What the hell did he care if the hotel I was staying in was ritzy or not?

“Back to the hotel, Mr. Kouriakis?”

It took me a few seconds to register that I was outside the building and the ever-dutiful Roger was talking to me. Perhaps I was experiencing premature Alzheimer’s. It was quite possible. At thirty-three, I was hardly the boy Yaya had chased around Kástro to deliver one of her less-than-delightful thrashings.

“Come again?”

Roger looked at me strangely, holding the backseat door open. “Hotel, sir?”

I almost shrugged as I slid in. “Sure. That would be fine.”

Fine, my ass.

 

*~* 

 

“Christos, you’d better not let your pride get in the way of your future,” Yaya hissed over the phone. “That’s not what the Kouriakis men are taught.”

I found myself staring at my reflection in the panoramic mirror hanging above the writing table, registering for the first time the peppered specks of five o’clock shadow on my jaw. “Yaya, s’agapo – but I need you to mind your own business,” I said, as calmly as I possibly could. What I really felt like doing was flinging the hotel’s obligatory glass bowl of mints against one wall.

“Mind my own business?” she repeated, and I could almost see the curl of her lips as she said it. “You’re lucky I’m back home, Christos, because you know I would’ve given you the taste of my hand.”

Despite myself, a wry smile spread across my face. “I’m glad you mentioned that. I hope you didn’t think I was oblivious about your little layover in England, Yaya, because that would have been careless of you.”

“Is it a crime for me to travel now?”

“Some might say it’s a crime for you to connive with my ex-wife to get an ex-employee of mine sent to jail,” I replied curtly. The long, empty silence told me that she was flabbergasted. I let out a sigh. “Yaya, by now you should know that there is little I don’t know.”

“Oh?” There was a challenge in her voice. “I pity you, then. It must be very taxing to know everything about everything.”

“I’ll call you later.”

Before she could argue, I hung up, setting my phone on the table and kicking back on the sofa. Rubbing my eyes furiously, I felt the sudden urge to have a smoke. I hadn’t had one since college and the relentless need to suddenly pick up a cigarette and put it to my lips astonished me.