Page 28 of Undercover Billionaire

‘I still have one more condom,’ he said and strode from the shower.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Ari lay boneless in the aftermath, Kelsey’s legs intertwined with his, her tousled hair spread out on his chest. He slid a hand onto her hip, hitching her closer as his thumb stroked lazy swirls on the rounded flank of her upper thigh.

‘I bet you couldn’t do that again if you tried,’ she said, propping her chin on his chest, her husky vibrato ruffling the air around his body.

Ari grinned. ‘Sure I can. You might need to give me a second to recover.’

She laughed and it was light and happy and filled all the spaces inside him that had been so desolate for so long and it was nice being with her like this, lying in the aftermath all slow and lazy and thoroughly sated, idly touching, stroking.

He felt a resurgence of the guilt that had plagued him these past days, but it was quickly swallowed up by a sense of revelation. Who knew that hecouldfeel this way again? That he could be intimate inthisway – perhaps an even deeper form of intimacy than sex – with somebody else?

Ari honestly didn’t know what to do with such a thought. It belonged in the hot mess of emotions that Kelsey had stirred up since they’d met.

‘That move has a high degree of difficulty,’ she said, her voice low and lazy as she traced circles on his collarbone. ‘You practise that often?’

Ari’s hand stopped its stroking. ‘Are you fishing, Ms Armitage?’

‘No.’ She smiled. ‘I’m letting you know my best friend also works on this ship. She can castrate a steer in ten seconds flat and Iwillsend her to this cabin if you tell me you’re using me to screw around on someone.’

Ari laughed – God, how long had it been since he’d laughed like this? – despite the abhorrence of her cheating implication.

He was a one-woman guy, always had been.

‘You can tell your friend to stand down. There’s nobody.’

Nobody. The thought was hardly new but it was sobering. Up until this cruise, Ari hadn’t particularly cared. He hadn’t looked outside his shell in three years.

Meeting Kelsey had him reassessing everything.

‘Right answer,’ she said, that cupid’s bow stretching out as the smile spread across her face. Her finger stroked down his chin and along his jaw line, the faint rasp of his whiskers loud in the night.

‘I had a wife…’

Her finger stopped in its tracks, the bow relaxed back to its usual fullness. She blinked. So did Ari. What the hell? He hadn’t planned on saying thatat all.

It had just… slipped out.

Ari didn’t talk about Talia. He’d tried, in the beginning, but his family had discouraged it because it caused him distress. They’d thought it healthier to look forward, not back. So he’d stopped trying.

Hell, he’d barely opened up to his therapist about her.

But hehadn’tmoved forward. He’d talked to her in his head instead, shutting everyone out. Just him and her, holding her close that way.

‘Okay.’

Ari liked that she wasn’t battering him with questions or freaking out. That she was waiting for him to direct the conversation. ‘She died. Three years ago. In a car accident. She was thirty.’

Her gaze searched his and Ari watched as realisation dawned across her face. ‘The one you were in. That causes your migraines?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’m sorry.’ She slid her hand onto his cheek, her fingers brushing his hairline. ‘So very sorry. That’s a truly shit thing to happen.’

Ari stared at her for a few seconds, taken aback by her unusual condolences. And then, much to his surprise, a big bubble of laughter rose in his chest and found its way out his mouth.

‘Oh God, I’m sorry.’ She leaned back a little, her cheeks turning pink, her brows crinkling in consternation. ‘That wasn’t very respectful, was it? I never really know what to say.’

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