Page 61 of Undercover Billionaire

‘I…’ Kelsey, vaguely aware the hose was still running and she was now standing in a puddle, shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

He shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘You don’t have to say anything. Not yet. I’m going to go now, let you… absorb it all. I just wanted you to know that you’renottransition woman and I’m going to stay here until I prove it to you.Christe, I’ll stay here forever if that’s what you want.’

He walked towards her then and Kelsey shrunk closer to the house, but he didn’t stop until he was standing in front of her.

Close enough to hear the frantic beat of her heart, surely?

Pulling his hand out of his pocket, he opened a blue cocktail umbrella and handed it over. Blue. The same colour umbrella that had started it all.

‘Thank you,’ he said, ‘thank you for breathing life into me again.’

And then he turned and left, leaving her open-mouthed and confused, standing in a grassy puddle with a cheap paper umbrella.

Shewasn’ttransition woman. He wanted asecond chance. Helivedhere now. He’d live here forever if that’s what she wanted.

Hot tears scaled her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Tears she’d kept in check for three months. But now shelovedhim and he waslivinghere.

Goddamn it.How dare he?Things like this didn’t happen to someone like her. She wasn’t Cinderella. How dare he wave ridiculous possibilities in front of her face –now.

When she was settled and happy. When she was content with her life and her lot.

How dare he come here and fuck with her head.

* * *

It took about 2.5 seconds for all of Pelican Cove to know about the rich, Greek shipping magnate living at the caravan park. The whole town was alive with gossip and Ari put her right in the centre of it the next day.

Striding into the Pelican’s Belly, he looked bronzed and sexy and so damn exotic with his‘Kalimera’ greeting that everyone stopped what they were doing and gaped.

‘Oh my,’ Janice whispered under her breath as Kelsey glanced up from cursing the ancient coffee machine that had more quirks than evolution.

‘Ari.’ She glared at him. ‘I’m busy. What do you want?’

Janice, the owner of the Pelican’s Belly, frowned at Kelsey’s rudeness, but Ari just smiled. ‘Coffee. Black. Strong. No sugar.’

She tipped a chin at a table by the window. ‘Sit.’

He didn’t detain her, just took the seat she’d indicated and inspected the view. Janice and the three women in the line behind Ari tracked his path. Kelsey rolled her eyes. She’d barely slept a wink last night knowing he was in town –for her– and here he was after a night in acaravanlooking cool as a freaking cucumber.

Paula was up next and Kelsey served her. ‘Hi, Paula, the usual?’ The harried woman nodded as Kelsey wrote down the order for a cappuccino. ‘How’s Jaidyn?’

‘He’s just gone on the public waiting list for a proper wheelchair with all the bells and whistles. Modifying the car wiped us out. Fingers crossed it won’t be too long, but it could be up to two years.’

Jaidyn had been born with cerebral palsy. He couldn’t walk or talk but was a happy little boy, always smiling despite the difficulties caused by his disability and the pain of his severe scoliosis. His current wheelchair was a basic model, not the highly specialised, very expensive contraption he needed.

‘Still, we’re luckier than some,’ she said, giving a bright smile and happily standing aside for the next customer.

Kelsey gave a more than willing Janice Ari’s drink to take over. He cocked an eyebrow at her across the room, but he chatted pleasantly with Janice, who arrived back rosy cheeked.

‘So,’ she said, her voice sotto voce. ‘He says he’s here to woo you.’

‘Oh really.’ Kelsey threw another glare in his direction.

‘He’s pretty dreamy.’ She nudged Kelsey. ‘I’d let him woo me.’

A grunt pushed at Kelsey’s vocal cords, but she suppressed it. She didn’t know why he was here, but one thing was for sure – rich Greek billionairesdid notwoo small-town Aussie women from buttfuck nowhere. She wasn’t that woman on the ship and Pelican Cove was not Mykonos.

They’d been in a bubble and it had well and truly burst.

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