Page 16 of Undercover Billionaire

Spending all night in bed with someone other than his wife?

But he needn’t have worried; Kelsey didn’t linger for long, rolling into a sitting position a minute later, her feet landing on the floor. ‘I have to go.’

Ari didn’t stop her. He didn’t protest. He didn’t ask her to stay. Even though, perversely, he didn’t want her to go.

She padded to the end of the bed and picked up her clothes, suddenly businesslike as she looked at him and said, ‘You know we can’t do this again, right?’

Ari nodded, the adrenaline in his system ebbing. Yes.Fuck yes. It had been a crazy kind of interlude, a moment of weakness, a reaction to three long dark years of heartache and sorrow.

Or something. He didn’t know exactly.

He’d figure out how it fit into the jigsaw of his grief – because what other explanation was there? – later, after the cruise was over.

For now, it was done.

‘Yeah. I know.’

She disappeared into the bathroom but kept the door open. ‘Just to clarify,’ she said, her voice floating out to him, ‘that means no flirting with me in the dining room or trying to monopolise my time at the bar, or asking other staff about me.’

‘I know.’ Ari didn’t need any clarification. He wanted exactly the same thing.

‘I don’t want anyone guessing something happened between us.’

‘They won’t.’

His response must have been a touch too flippant for her because she stepped out of the bathroom looking at him like he didn’t fully appreciate the stakes. She was in her skirt and bra, which was seriously hot and made him realise his head and his body were in two different places.

The thought was slightly mollifying. Physical attraction was easier to dismiss.

‘I’m not kidding around.’ Her gaze nailed him to the bed as she stuck her hands into her blouse and pulled it over her head. ‘I could lose my job.’

Ari fixed her with a steady gaze as her head reappeared from the fabric. ‘Idon’tkiss and tell.’

What had happened in this room with Kelsey would stay in this room. And hopefully not accompany him all around the goddamn ship. Replaying on an endless loop in his brain.

‘Good.’ She nodded as she smoothed her shirt at the waist. ‘But to clarify even further, a one-and-done thing includes not getting in touch after the cruise as well. No exchanging emails. No sliding into my Instagram DMs.’

If Ari had been in a different emotional place he might have been insulted by how completely Kelsey wanted to severe their connection. But the implications of what they’d done weighed on him too, even if it was for totally different reasons. ‘Not on any social media.’

Most people usually looked at him strangely when he said that, but Kelsey didn’t bat an eyelid; she just kept right on going. ‘I know we’ll probably run into each other around the ship from time to time – that’s unavoidable. But the second this ship docks in Venice, it’s goodbye forever.’

The thought of never seeing Kelsey again should have cheered him, and Ari nodded and said, ‘Absolutely,’ but there was an unexpected hitch right in the centre of his chest which was utter madness.

Kelsey was a… one night stand. It was preposterous tofeelanything.

‘Okay then.’ She stepped into her shoes, her height rising by two inches. ‘I guess I’ll be seeing you around.’

Ari nodded. ‘Kalinita,Kelsey.’

She didn’t return his goodnight; she just turned and strode to the door, paused briefly to listen for noise in the passageway, then opened it and slipped out.

The door clicked shut two seconds later. Ari couldn’t decide if he was relieved or bereft…

4

At eleven thirty the next morning, Kelsey was out the back of the pool deck bar cutting up fruit during a lull in customers, trying not to think about last night. She’d managed to slice three oranges when her partner for the shift, Rasheesh – one of the beverage managers who often did a shift to keep his skills up – called out, ‘Service, please.’

Washing her hands quickly under the tap, she dried and wiped them before heading around front to find Rasheesh talking to a group of people as he made a theatrical show of mixing a cocktail. And the man she’d been daydreaming about sitting at the end of the bar.

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