Page 55 of Undercover Billionaire

She couldn’t be here any more. Her heart was too heavy. She couldn’t bear to be looking at her best time and her biggest regret and know they were one and the same. 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 neverwantedfor 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 its 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 wereneversupposed 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.’

Sohegot to feel better about himself by makingherfeel lousy? ‘And I’m supposed to admire you for your sudden honesty?’ she said, her lips twisting.

‘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 pillowcase, its canopy spread and a ball of emotion lodged like a boulder in her throat.

Shehadto 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 moment, 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 aweek.

‘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 buteverythingyou saw,everythingI 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 hewasn’tsome 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’mtransitionwoman!’

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 otherstuff?

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 any more – it felt like thirty pieces of silver hanging around her neck. She threw it on the floor at Ari’s feet.

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