Page 65 of Undercover Billionaire

‘Why not?’ he demanded. ‘Why can’t it happen?’

‘Because I’m not fucking Cinderella and this isn’t a fairy tale. It’s real life.’

‘You don’t believe in happily ever after?’

After Eric?No. And how didhe, after Talia? ‘I believe innotpunching above my weight. I’ve already had one guy promise me the world. Promise to make me rich and spoil me with first-class trips and diamonds. I’m perfectly okay with not getting on that train again.’

‘Except he was a fraud.’ Ari’s eyes glittered as he pointed at his chest. ‘I’m the real deal.’

Kelsey gave a hysterical laugh. ‘Exactly,’ she yelled. ‘I don’t know how to be a rich guy’s girlfriend. All I know is how to work hard and scrimp and save. I know how to struggle.’

She wasn’t lying. She had no idea how to rub shoulders with the wealthy. And it terrified her.

‘Jesus, Kelsey.’ Ari shoved his hand through his hair, driving some calm into the wind-blown mass. ‘I’m sorry I’m rich. Most women would see that as a plus.’

‘Not this woman.’

He smiled grudgingly. ‘I’ve noticed.’

‘What if your family thinks I’m some kind of gold digger?’

Surely they cared about her pedigree? Kelsey had googled Talia, and her grandfather had been knighted by the Queen for services to Her Majesty. Her father had been high up in the British intelligence services.

Kelsey’s father had been a truck driver.

‘My family are going to love you. As much as I do. Because you brought me back to life. And that’s all they’re going to care about.’

As much as I do. Kelsey blinked, the air in her lungs suddenly as heavy as the sand beneath her feet.Oh God. ‘Youloveme?’

His hand fell to his side and he took a couple of paces towards her. Kelsey knew she should take two paces back, but her legs wouldn’t move.

‘Yes,’ he said, his voice just above a whisper, but she heard him loud and clear. ‘I love you, Kelsey Armitage.’

She shut her eyes, shut him out as her body reeled. It couldn’t be true. ‘Why?’ she demanded, her throat raw as tears threatened.

Why would he fall for her when he could probably have just about any woman in the world?

‘I don’t know – dopamine, endorphins? Whatever crazy chemical reactions happen in a body when it falls in love. And because you’reyou. But I know this feeing, Kelsey.’ He took another pace forward and his hands slid onto her upper arms. ‘I’ve been here before and I know exactly what is. And it’snota transition thing. It’s the real deal. Don’t you remember it too?’

She shook her head. She may have loved Eric, but not likethis. She’d been nineteen and it had been fun and exciting and, she realised now, totally superficial. She’d been in love with being in love and he’d been dashing and older and he’d pickedher.

This thing with Ari was bone deep and…she’d picked him.

Which was what probably scared her the most. She’d never recover if he suddenly got sick of her quaint peasant charms. And how would it even work? He surely couldn’t stay here forever, and she couldn’t leave her mother again – not after seven years away and her eyesight deteriorating so rapidly.

Kelsey shrugged out of his hold and his hands slipped away as she took a step back. ‘I don’t want this, Ari. I’m sorry.’ She blinked rapidly to dispel the pressure she could feel building behind her eyes. ‘I just don’t.’

He stared at her for long moments, his jaw growing tighter. ‘Malakies,’ he said. ‘I don’t think that’s true.’ His voice was taut with control. ‘I think if it was true you would have asked me to leave Pelican Cove two months ago. You know the one word I haven’t heard from you, Kelsey?’ He gave her a beat before he enlightened her. ‘Leave.’

Kelsey frowned. That couldn’t be true, surely? She’d been putting him off and pushing him away since he got here. She must have told him to go. She racked her brain for that memory.

But… she hadn’t.She hadn’t asked him to leave.

‘If you don’t love me then all you have to do is tell me to leave. Send me away. Because Iwon’t’ – he growled the word – ‘do it voluntarily. You want me to leave? Then you have to tell me to go.’

Kelsey’s legs trembled as they fought to hold her up. It all seemed so simple – why hadn’t she just told him to leave?

Because she didn’t want him to. She couldn’t even bear the thought. Seeing him every day had been a special kind of hell. But not seeing him every day was going to be worse.

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