Undercover Billionaire

by Andrews, Amy

  On rubbery legs, Kelsey followed Ari into the room. It was gorgeous in the way of so many places in Venice that had been built several hundred years ago and had undergone a variety of different internal refits since. The bones were made of stone and marble and exquisite decorative plastering which somehow managed to blend with fittings and furnishings from Louis the sixteenth through to Art Deco.

  The bed was huge in the centre of the room covered with a rich brocade quilt in autumnal shades of gold and auburn and Kelsey tried not to be distracted by how many times they might be able to roll over in it as Ari led her to the light flooding in through high windows and the sheer white curtain fluttering in the breeze.

  “The balcony overlooks the canal,” he said.

  The curtains covered a set of French doors and they stepped out onto a narrow wrought iron balcony awash in sunshine. There was a small square table against the wall with two chairs and maybe another foot in front of it before the curved wrought iron balustrades.

  It was very Romeo and Juliet.

  The sights and the sound of Venice engulfed Kelsey as she looked down. The canal was busy with water traffic - Gondolas and water taxis and vaporetto all chugging along beside each other. The thoroughfares and bridges were teeming with people. Bakeries and restaurants and bars were crammed in beside tourist shops selling Carnival masks and blown glass from Murano. English and Italian and smatterings of other languages drifted on the warm air.

  It was a delightful riot of colour and life and humanity.

  “I love Venice,” she said, sighing happily. “There’s just something about it that makes my soul sing.”

  “Yeah,” he said, smiling at her. “Me too.”

  Kelsey’s heart fluttered as everything faded to black. All the noise and colour disappearing until it was just the two of them. “Thank you for inviting me.”

  “Thank you for accepting.” He lifted his hand, brushing the backs of his fingers along her cheekbone, down the side of her face and neck to play with the necklace he’d bought her. “This looks good on you. I bet it looks even better when it’s the only thing you’re wearing.”

  His gaze flicked to hers and there was a heat and rawness there lighting the fuse on the desire that had been smouldering since he’d kissed her at the door. “It does.”

  Hurrying inside they were at the bed in seconds. Kelsey wanted Ari so badly she was shaking with the immensity of it.

  Lifting to kiss him, her lips didn’t quite reach their target before he placed two fingers against her mouth and said, “I need to talk to you about something first.”

  Kelsey frowned as she lowered her heels to the ground. He looked very serious, very suddenly. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, its fine.” He smiled and sat on the bed, one leg crossed up under him, the other still grounded. He patted the space in front of him and Kelsey joined him mimicking his pose so they were facing each other.

  He reached for her hands and held them loosely in his grip. “I have a confession to make.”

  Oh god. “Okay.”

  Except it wasn’t okay. This wasn’t Kelsey’s first rodeo with a guy who was hiding stuff from her so her brain automatically went into catastrophe mode. He was married. To multiple women. With multiple children. He was a cult leader/escaped prisoner/hitman. He was on the witness protection programme/a spy/dying.

  Her brain was melting down with the possibilities.

  “My name is not Ari George.”

  There was a long pause while Kelsey let that sink in. “You’re name’s not...Aristotle?”

  She’d loved that his name was Aristotle. It suited him, so noble and masculine and - Oh for fucks sake, woman. Concentrate. But it was hard to concentrate with a melting brain. Right now all she was capable of was grabbing random stray thoughts.

  He shook his head. “No, it is Aristotle.” He took a deep measured breath. “Aristotle Callisthenes.”

  Kelsey blinked at the immediately familiar name. “The Aristotle Callisthenes.”

  “Yes.”

  “The Aristotle Callisthenes whose family owns the Hermes shipping line and are gazillionaires?”

  “Yes.”

  The Aristotle Callisthenes who was essentially her employer. And she’d been...Kelsey snatched her hands out of his. “Oh God...”

  She’d slept with the boss. Crap.

  Their times together ran on a reel through her brain on fast forward. Fuck - she’d played hooky from a shift to blow the boss.

  She’d blown him on his dime.

  It seemed so farfetched another person might have asked if this was some kind of sick joke but Kelsey could tell by the earnest set to his face that this wasn’t some reality TV gag.

  Suddenly her skin felt too tight, a hand was squeezing her windpipe and her ribs were like prison bars around her lungs.

  Kelsey sorted through a mental inventory of the Callisthenes family members she could vaguely picture thanks to Tiffany’s addiction to trashy tabloid magazines. They were a large family and popular with the paparazzi because they were mostly young, very rich and they liked to party.

  She’d definitely seen, Theo Callisthenes picture a lot. His manwhore exploits were well documented. But she didn’t recall ever seeing one of Ari.

  “I don’t understand...” She stared at his face – his beautiful un-photographed face and tried to compute what was going on through the background yammering in her brain. The yammering that was growing louder, that was chanting he lied to you, he lied to you, he lied to you. And just like Eric, just like Eric, just like Eric.

  “Was anything you told me the truth?” she asked. And then suddenly she was struck by a horrible thought. “Oh god...are you even a widower? Or did you just make that up to get my sympathy?”

  He recoiled as if she’d struck him and Kelsey hated herself a little. But goddamn it, that’s what happened when someone lied - everything they’d ever said was thrown into doubt.

  “Yes,” he said, his jaw tight, his eyes two dark murky pools. “I am. My wife, Talia, died in a car accident three years ago. I may have kept my identity a secret but everything else I told you about me was the truth, Kelsey.”

  He reached for her hands but she leapt off the bed so damn fast it halted him in his tracks. “Why?” Kelsey clutched at her stomach as a roll of nausea hit. “Explain to me why you’re slumming it pretending to be some... ordinary Joe on one of your own ships and sleeping with your staff. I...don’t understand.”

  “Okay.”

  His voice was quiet and calm which made Kelsey want to scream. Okay? What possible explanation could there be for this?

  “There have been major issues with the Hellenic Spirit. It’s losing money and developing a bad reputation. We decided to put someone in undercover to investigate. Theo, my brother –”

  Right. Theo Callisthenes, manwhore extraordinaire, was Ari’s brother. Well, that figured.

  “Insisted I do it because as chief financial officer –”

  “So...you’re not an accountant then?” she interrupted, her voice laced with the bitterness that dripped like poison down the back of her throat. Another lie?

  “I am an accountant,” he said. “I’m just...the company’s chief accountant.”

  Right. The CF freaking O of the Hermes cruise liner business. Oh, God...Mykonos. That hadn’t been his boss’s house, had it?

  A lump of hysteria rose in her throat and she swallowed hard against it. This would teach her to get above her station again. She’d thought she’d already learned that lesson from Eric but obviously not.

  “And do CFO’s usually do such dirty work?” she demanded.

  “No.” Ari shook his head. “But the cruise line arm of the company has been my baby. I’d overhauled that entire part of the business the last couple of years so I was the most intimately acquainted with it. And,” he conceded, “I did need a holiday. Plus I’m probably the least well known of the family. So I came on the cruise, incognito, investigated all areas of ship
performance and have written a report for the board meeting which is here, in Venice, tomorrow morning.”

  Kelsey let the full implications of what Ari had just admitted sink in, her heart getting harder and harder. He’d been conducting an investigation? Christ. She thought back to their interactions this past week. Had he asked any leading questions? Had he tried to wheedle information out of her under guise of conversation?

  She’d certainly told him stuff as they’d laid in his bed and on Mykonos. Ship stuff. Anecdotes and gossip and the pros and cons of working on board. Her frustrations and gripes and other stuff too. Secret stuff about staff parties and the practical jokes they played on each other.

  Had any of that been used?

  Just how much of their pillow talk was in the report? Had she unknowingly signed some of her colleague’s pink slips?

  Kelsey shoved a hand through her hair. Dread sat like a rattle snake in her gut. What had she done?

  “Did you target me?”

  He blinked. “What?”

  “Did you?” Kelsey repeated, her voice low and dark. “Did you deliberately set out to seduce me so I would give you information on the ship and the staff?”

  “Absolutely not.” He stood as if something had bitten his ass. “The report is completely separate to this.” He pointed between the two of them.

  “I told you stuff!” Kelsey yelled, her chest hurting as she dragged in a ragged breath.

  “I didn’t name anyone negatively in the report – apart from Jean Paul.”

  “How much other stuff that I told you is in it?”

  “Kelsey...” He took a pace toward her but she took two quick ones back and he stopped abruptly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t totally honest with you. More sorry than you will ever know. But I didn’t target you.”

  Wasn’t totally honest? Kelsey suppressed a bubble of hysterical laughter. How about lying his ass off? And she’d been so bloody easy. So damn ripe for what he’d been offering she’d let him in behind the walls she’d built.

  He could stick his apology were the sun didn’t shine.

  “I want to read it.” She held out her hand.

  “It’s confidential.”

  The simmering anger flared through her system like a spray of petrol on a bonfire. If her eyes could have hissed poison at him, they would have. “I. Don’t. Care.”

  Their gazes clashed, their eyes locking in a battle of wills. Kelsey didn’t withdraw her hand and after a beat or two, Ari headed for his bag. Unzipping it, he pulled out a folder, removed some loose papers then returned to her side.

  “Most of the stuff in here is from my own investigations around the ship.” He placed the unbound report in her palm. “There are things in the report that you told me that helped me build a more complete picture of what was going on with the ship but I did not deliberately target you for inside information.”

  Kelsey’s hands shook as she sank onto the edge of the mattress and leafed through the report. It was thorough and extensive. Every little problem with the ship outlined and all the factors explored and taken into account before several recommendations were made.

  It was all there. Preferential treatment of wealthier passengers. Sexual harassment of staff. Lax distribution of hand sanitiser. Poor food handling standards. Not following medical protocols.

  And a dozen other things as well. Ari hadn’t held back.

  Kelsey cringed at the Euro incident in the report, not surprised at all that Ari had surmised the money had been stolen. He had not, as stated, named any names but he had made a notation that the onboard security cameras were to be consulted.

  Which meant Andy would probably be getting the boot.

  A spike of guilt needled at her before Kelsey pushed it aside. Andy had stolen the money. That was on him.

  The hardest part to read was Ari’s recommendation in the fraternisation section. She glanced up to find him watching her from the low armchair near the window. “Immediate dismissal of any staff proven to be fraternising,” she read.

  He nodded, his eyes troubled. “I didn’t mean you.”

  Kelsey snorted, cocking an eyebrow. What a fucking hypocrite. If he couldn’t see that was a different form of the preferential treatment he’d been so scathing about then he was blinder than her mother. “Do as I say, not as I do, Ari?”

  The dull flush to his cheeks told her she’d hit her mark.

  He shoved a hand through his hair. “I would never jeopardise your job, not after what we’ve shared.”

  After what we’ve shared?

  Like what? Some bodily fluids and stories of mutual heartbreak? But not what he was really doing on the ship. Or his true identity. Oh no, not that.

  “We were fuck buddies, Ari.” She flung the cold hard truth at him. She would not be seduced into thinking they’d be anything more. He’d smashed that to smithereens for her and she wouldn’t let him think it, either.

  His jaw went tight and she was glad.

  She stood, the report slipping from her fingers to the floor, the loose pages scattering like rose petals on a coffin.

  Which was fitting given how funereal it felt right now.

  She couldn’t be here anymore. Her heart was too heavy. She couldn’t bear to be looking at her best time and her biggest regret, it hurt too much.

  “I have to go,” she said, turning away from him.

  “Please...Kelsey.” He rose from the chair, his voice deep and raw behind her, wrapping around her gut. “Let me make it up to you. I really am sorry, I never wanted for this to happen.”

  “What did you picture would happen when you set out to deceive me?” she demanded on a half sob as she whipped around to face him.

  He’d moved closer to her and his presence was both balm and irritant. She wanted to reach out and touch him, seek comfort she knew she’d find in that hard, broad chest. If only she didn’t also want to rake her nails down it’s muscular perfection.

  “I didn’t set out to deliberately deceive you. You were... unexpected. I’ve not been remotely interested in anyone since Talia and I never expected anything to happen between us. It just...did. But I was undercover –”

  “Jesus, Ari,” Kelsey snapped. “You’re a fancy Greek accountant, not on the witness protection programme.”

  He sighed and nodded as if even he knew he was being melodramatic. “I’m sorry. This is my fault for getting you involved. Damn it...” He shoved his hand through his hair. “You were never supposed to know.”

  “So why did you tell me?” she said, her voice cracking. Why couldn’t he have left her in ignorant bliss?

  “Because the investigation is over now and there’s no need for secrecy and I didn’t want to spend two more days and nights here with you under false pretences.”

  So he got to feel better about himself by making her feel lousy? “And I’m supposed to admire you for your sudden honesty?” she said, her lips feeling all twisted on her face.

  “No.”

  Kelsey nodded. Damn straight. “It’s too little too late, Ari.”

  She had to leave. Hell, she should never have come. She should have left Ari as a perfect glorious memory. Out the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of the yellow cocktail umbrella sitting on the white pillow case, its canopy spread and a ball of emotion lodged like a boulder in her throat.

  She had to leave.

  As if sensing her imminent departure he held out his hand and said, “Don’t go. Stay.”

  Kelsey shut her eyes, swallowing against the emotion that was like a cramp in her throat. Pulling in a slow breath, she opened her eyes. “Ari...”

  Damn it - what did he want from her?

  “I mean it. Stay. Please. Let me make it up to you. Hell, come back to Athens with me, give me another chance.”

  Kelsey blinked and even forgot to breathe for a moment or two. “What?” Was he serious? “We’re a...fling. A cruise fling, Ari. That’s it.”

  “What if we could be more?”

  For a mom
ent, Kelsey wondered if she’d slipped and smacked her head and was having some kind of hallucination. He’d lied to her. And she had commitments and responsibilities on the other side of the world. Plus - they’d known each other for a week.

  “Ari...that’s crazy, we barely know each other. Actually –” she fixed him with a pointed glare, “I don’t know you at all.”

  “Yes you do, Kelsey.” His voice was deep and gravelly and insistent. “I might have gone under a different identity but everything you saw, everything I was when I was with you, is the real me.”

  The sincerity in his voice snaked around her bones and Kelsey wanted to believe what he was saying but how could she trust a word out of his mouth when he wasn’t some CPA on a much needed holiday and his family were gazillionaires?

  Then it hit her. “Oh my god,” she shook her head as a surge of incredulity rose like bile in her throat. “I’m transition woman!”

  Tiff was right. Jesus – how had she not seen this?

  For the love of all that was holy, didn’t she deserve a guy who wanted to be with her for just her? Not her money, not how good a distraction she could be from other stuff?

  Ari scowled. “I don’t know what that means.”

  Kelsey reached for the chain around at her throat and yanked. The necklace didn’t feel like a treasured gift anymore - it felt like thirty pieces of silver hanging around her neck. She threw it on the floor at Ari’s feet.

  “It means,” she said, her voice high and getting higher, “I’m the woman you use to get over the big love. The woman to put you back together again for the next big love.”

  “What?” His brow scrunched in utter rejection. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”

  Kelsey didn’t give a flying fuck for Ari’s assessment. She was done here. She had to get out. She couldn’t do this. Everything was too mixed up and achey inside. She couldn’t breathe. She wanted out of here. She wanted to go home.

  She wanted her mother.

  Ari caught her arm as she stormed passed him in the doorway. “Kelsey.” His thumb stroked the flesh of her inner arm. “I just want to spend time with you.”

  “Yeah well...I don’t want spend time with you.” Wrenching her arm away, she made a beeline for the door.