Page 51 of Undercover Billionaire

She didn’t say anything for a beat or two and a hollow feeling in the pit of Ari’s stomach deepened to black hole proportions.He didn’t want this to be it.

Glancing around, she dropped her voice. ‘Ari…’

‘I know,’ he conceded quietly, his heart beating like a gong in his chest, wanting this so badly suddenly he could barely breathe. ‘I know we agreed to not do this butyou’rein Venice for the next two nights andI’min Venice for the next five. It seems a shame not to take advantage of that.’

He searched her face, her teeth digging into her bottom lip like she was giving it serious consideration. Like she was torn. And Ari wasn’t above pushing his advantage.

‘Come on,agápi mou.It’ll be just like Mykonos but better. Two solid days in bed. No early morning interruptions for the breakfast shift. We’ll order room service and stay naked. Just you and me in a place where nobody knows us.’

He had the board meeting tomorrow at ten but other than that he had no commitments. He just needed to book some mid-range accommodation somewhere because he was pretty sure staying in the family suite in the Gritti Palace would raise questions.

For the first time in days, a little knot of guilt bunched at the base of his spine. Apart from misleading her about the villa in Mykonos, he’d forgotten that he’d been lying to her all this time. Sure, mostly by omission, but he hadn’t been upfront with her and there was no sugarcoating it.

Being incognito for his investigation on the ship was one thing; continuing the deception after his mission was complete was another. Especially now he knew about her ex and how much he’d screwed her ability to trust men.

When she’d told him on Mykonos, Ari’s blood had run cold and he’d wanted to track this Eric down and kick his ass. There were no words – not even Greek ones – for men like that.

He didn’t want to be another man in her life deceiving her, so if she did agree to stay in Venice with him, Ari knew he had to tell her the truth, as soon as she arrived at his door, before anything else happened between them.

‘I… don’t know,’ she said, her brow furrowed.

‘Okay.’ Ari knew better than to push and he didn’twantto be that guy. As unwise as it might be, he wanted to see her again, to spend the next two days with her, but he wanted her to want it too. He wanted her to be as unable to resist the idea of more time together as he was.

He grabbed a nearby napkin and asked for her pen. ‘Just think about it.’ He wrote the name of a hotel on the napkin. It was a good modest hotel and Ari knew the owner. He handed the pen back with the napkin. ‘I’ll be here. Just ask for me at the desk. What time do you knock off?’

‘Sometime between one and two,’ she said, her voice faint like she couldn’t quite believe she was even contemplating his proposal.

‘Excuse me, miss?’

She turned to the man who had called from the table behind. ‘One moment, sir,’ she said with a smile.

Turning back to Ari, she pocketed the napkin. ‘I’ll think about it.’

Ari nodded and prayed like hell that she’d find this crazy pull between them as impossible to resist as he did.

11

Kelsey could not believe she was doing this as she stood in front of Ari’s hotel door at two o’clock in the afternoon. She knew it wasn’t technically against the rules now. They weren’t on board, Ari was no longer a passenger and she was on two days off.

But she was supposed to be severing this connection. There was no point letting it blossom any more. Yet here she was at his door, a bag of fresh, crumblyspumigliein one hand and a stupid yellow cocktail umbrella in the other, ready to dig herself in a little deeper.

God… she should go. She should justgo– walk away now before another two days of fun and laughter and rolling around in the sheets with Ari made it harder to keep her focus. She went to turn away but the door opened abruptly, and he was standing there in a T-shirt and cargo shorts and her heart gave a crazy lurch.

He smiled at her then in a slow, lazy way that had other parts, significantly lower, lurching. ‘You came.’ He placed a hand up high on the door frame as if he knew how skittish she was and didn’t want to go too hard too soon.

‘I did.’ Damn it, she was here. Time to own it. ‘And I came bearing gifts this time.’ She held up the cocktail umbrella, which he took with a smile. ‘And some food.’ She thrust the brown paper bag at his chest.

He removed his hand from the door frame, opening the packet and peering inside. ‘Ah…spumiglie.’

God, he sounded so… Greek when pronouncing non-English words, his very English accent segueing into something far richer. He stuck his nose in the packet and inhaled before glancing at her and saying with a smile, ‘My second favourite thing to eat.’

Every erogenous zone in her body fizzed at the innuendo and Kelsey’s pulse hammered like crazy. Shewantedhim. Shemissedhim. It might only have been five hours since she’d seen Ari, but it felt like five days.

She was utterly, tragically lost.

Still smiling, he stepped closer, his hand gliding onto her hip, urging her nearer, and when their bodies were pressed together he kissed her long and slow. All thoughts of ‘after Venice’ fled as she moaned and clung and went completely boneless.

Long, drugging moments later, he lifted his mouth from hers, his breathing just as heavy, and Kelsey was pleased for the solid press of his body as the ground tilted beneath her feet. His thumb brushed along her bottom lip. ‘Come on,’ he said, intertwining his fingers with hers and tugging gently, ‘let me show you around.’

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