―It‘s nothing serious is it?‖ said Lily with genuine concern that brought a rakish grin from Nikos.
His dark eyes settled on her with a warm glint, ―No nothing unusual, just his diabetes. It makes him tired at times.
He‘ll be flattered at your concern.‖ He said watching her blush.
Priceless, he thought , you couldn’t pay for that humility.
Max tightened his grip on Lily‘s hand possessively not missing the look of interest in Nikos eyes, ―That‘s good to hear.‖
If the man thought he was even getting near her he was out in left field. Unknown to Lily Max was sharing the same room with her whether she liked it or not. He was confident enough in his abilities as a man to know she wouldn‘t argue. He didn‘t miss the way she had been looking at him for the past few weeks when she thought he wasn‘t looking.Although he wouldn‘t compromise her virtue, he sure as hell wanted to. However Max wasn‘t the only protective man around Lily, Luke threatened to 57
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disembowel him if he laid a hand on her like he wanted to. Lily wasn‘t the type for a one night stand and Max was well aware of it.
If she‘d walked into his office sooner last week she would have heard the real argument between Luke and himself.
Luke knew of his affections and had asked him the first time he saw him look at his sister more than just a friend four years ago. He knew of Max‘s reputation with women and had no problem voicing his opinion on the matter.Although Luke was his employee, he treated him as an equal and respected him more than anyone else in his life. Luke had been a good friend to him and didn‘t let Max‘s wealth stand in the way of their friendship.
If he disliked something Max did, he told him so.One good example is when he caught Max looking at his sister with desire clearly registering in his expression while she wasn‘t looking.
―What are your intentions toward my sister?‖Luke had asked him shortly afterwards.
Max didn‘t pull any punches.He respected Luke too much as a friend to mislead him, ―I want to marry her.‖
―She‘s sixteen!‖ Luke said with a mixture of disbelief and possessiveness.
―Yeah, I know Luke, I‘ll wait.Besides, she certainly doesn‘t act or look sixteen.‖ He watched Luke purse his lips and stare at him .Max waited patiently for his reaction while he mulled it over. Luke was right, she was young and normally he would have found the age difference distasteful, but he wanted her. In fact, the more he was around her, the more infatuated he became over her. No other woman had brought that out in him in all of his life.This was an attraction that he had absolutely no control over and he wasn‘t a man to look a gift horse in the mouth.
He figured he‘d wait until she was at least twenty-four before he sprung the question because he was twelve years older 58
The Billionaire‘s Secret Desire than her.However, that was before she started getting noticed by every other male within a twenty foot radius. It cost him a lot of money to keep her single and make sure no other man touched her.He hired bodyguards and paid off several men over the following years to keep away from her. Others who wouldn‘t be discouraged were threatened.
Finally after a prolonged silence, Luke held out his hand and Max shook it, ―I‘ll leave it to you to convince her then Max, because when she goes off to college, she‘s going to turn heads.‖
Of course he was right and it led to him hire a team just to make sure that she was looked after. He had gotten weekly reports on her social life.Although he never interfered to the point of her knowing, but he made sure that her dates never got to far with her. He was thankful that she was virtuous and possessed high morals or he‘d have his hands full with the amount of
