Page 6 of Undercover Billionaire

Apassenger.

Her sex tingled and her body pulsed at a primal level. The kind that made a lot of women stupid.

But Kelsey had used up her quota of stupid.

Tearing her mouth away, she jumped to her feet, stumbling back two steps, dragging in oxygen. ‘I… can’t,’ she muttered.

‘Christe!’ He shoved a hand in his hair as he stood, placing the cup and saucer on the tray before holding up his hands in a placatory manner. ‘I’m sorry.’

Kelsey shook her head, a wild unchecked thrill zinging through her body at the sight of his big, almost-naked body. ‘It’s against the rules to…’

Fuck the passengerswas what she wanted to say, because God knew she wanted to push Ari George onto his bed and ride him like a pogo stick.

‘We’re not supposed to fraternise.’

‘Of course.Theé.Of course.’

Christe… Theé…Kelsey realised absently the passenger she’d just gottenwaaaytoo close to was Greek.

‘Please, forgive me,’ he continued. ‘I… don’t know what came over me. It wasunforgiveable.’

He shoved his hands on his hips, drawing her gaze downwards again. To what lay under the towel. The light might have been low but there was no mistaking the state of his arousal or the fact the man was packing some serious dick.

‘I don’t do this,’ she said, dragging her gaze back to his face. Kelsey wasn’t a rule breaker. And she needed this job. She had financial responsibilities. ‘Some staff do cross that line, but not me. I’veneverdone this.’

She had no idea why she felt the need to convince him. Givenhe’dkissedher, she didn’t think he’d report the incident. Maybe she was just trying to convince herself? Convince her body it didn’t need what he had under that towel.

‘I believe you,’ he said as he sunk down on the bed behind him. ‘It wasn’t your fault. It was mine.’ He propped his elbows on his knees, leaned forward at the hips and cradled his face into his palms. ‘You should go.’

If Kelsey had been in her right mind, his dismissal might have rankled. Right now, she was glad for the out as she turned on her heel and fled the cabin.

2

Ari woke several hours later to pitch black. Momentarily disorientated, the slight fuzziness behind his eyes reminded him of his migraine and the rest came flooding back.

Kelsey.The wallet. The kiss…

Groping for the light switch, he flicked it on, shutting his eyes against the intrusion even though it was still only the dim glow from earlier. Opening his eyes, he let his vision adjust before rolling his head to the side, his gaze falling on the yellow cocktail umbrella sitting next to his wallet.

He’d grabbed it up on his way back to bed and placed it on the bedside table, its paper canopy open wide and almost transparent. He picked it up again now, twirling it slowly, smiling as he remembered Kelsey.

Normally, he’d see something like this and think of Talia. But not now. He wasn’t thinking about his dead wife right now; he was thinking about the woman who had decorated both his whisky glass and his teacup with a bright bit of kitsch, her green eyes dancing.

And that felt all kinds of wrong. The umbrella was a ridiculous piece of… whimsy, and it shouldn’t be making him smile. He’d kissedanother woman –that should be making him ill. The first woman since his wife had died.

Well, technically not the first.

Hehadpicked up a woman in the bar of his Edinburgh conference hotel and gone back to her room two months after Talia’s death. But that had been a desperate attempt to think about something –anything– other than his crushing loss, and he hadn’t exactly crowned himself in glory.

Despite wanting –needing– to forget about Talia for just a little while, he hadn’t been able to go through with it. She hadn’t smelled the same or felt the same and Ari had realised he wasn’t forgetting, he waspretending, and that wasn’t fair to the poor woman who’d put herself out there. He’d left the room, disgusted with himself, and checked out of the hotel immediately.

But what had happened with Kelsey earlier was worse. Because he hadn’t really wanted the woman in Edinburgh, but hehadwanted Kelsey.

And that was like a hot fist to his gut.

Maybe this was that moment people – the therapist he’d seen for a while and well-meaning friends and family – talked about. The ‘time heals all wounds’ moment. Because he hadn’t thought once about Talia. Not when he’d invited Kelsey into the room, not when she’d sat on the bed beside him, not when the urge to kiss her had come over him.

Not when hehadkissed her.

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