Page 36 of Below Deck Billionaire
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After a night of brooding about the poisoned chalice Ari had handed him, Theo had woken with a plan so brilliant for the next two days he’d even impressed himself. Dimitri Kouris might be here willingly and be open again to signing on the dotted line but, as Ari had suggested, he wasn’t convinced that Theo had turned his ways around.
So what better way to seal the deal than showing the man he was reformed than by producing a fiancée?
Would that be lying to him? Yes. Was that particularly honourable? No. But sometimes a little bending of the truth didn’t hurt. Especially if it meant they could save the old fool’s company and fulfil a promise to their grandfather. And it also meant he could avoid Dimitri’s inevitable demand, which would have led Theo to tell an outright lie direct to the older man’s face.
Having a fiancée on the boat would imply that Theo’s playboy days were done, and Dimitri wouldn’t even need to ask Theo to keep it zipped.
Win-win.
All he had to do now was persuade Tiffany to partner with him in the pretence. He’d flipped through a dozen alternatives in his brain but kept coming back to her. For starters, the other options, although living in Athens, were all on his one-and-done list, and the last thing he wanted was for any of them to think they had another shot.
Because nobody got another shot.
And sure, they all knew that, but could he blame them if they read a little too much into him calling again after he’d very firmly told them he wouldn’t? Even if he went to great pains to lay out the boundaries of this little venture?
Then he’d have an even bigger problem on his hands. Possibly more if the woman in question decided to put her irritation into something that could harm his reputation, like an article for a tabloid magazine.
Theo could see the headlines now.Theo Callisthenes’s Two-Day Fiancée.
Women giving stories about him to the press hadn’t been without precedence, which had never particularly bothered Theo. They’d had their fifteen seconds of fame and earned themselves some money in the process. But even if Dimitri had signed on the line by the time an article appeared, he wouldn’t want to make a fool of the man.
He could, of course, formalise the agreement with someone, very specifically outlining roles and expectations, but he only had eight hours before Dimitri and Helena stepped foot on theNerida, and he didn’t want that kind of paper trail anyway.
Also, if he was going to do this, it couldn’t be with someone he didn’t know very well or who didn’t really know him outside of the bedroom. They were going to need to be convincing.
Dimitri might not have been up to the challenge, as he’d aged, of steering his company through the multitude of complex economic challenges that had dominated the last decade, but he was no dummy. He’d be able to sniff out a fake very quickly and there’d be no deal after that.
Which led him back to Tiffany.
Of all the people on this boat, she knew him best, a fact he did not stop to ponder or question because what exactly did that say about his life? Sure, she didn’t know him like hismamakaor hisyiayia, but Theo let precious few women close, which meant she knew him better than the vast majority.
He’d never told any of the women he took to bed about his childhood or his love affair with the sea. He hadn’t eaten with them around a table more than once and not without it being a prelude to something else. They hadn’t seen him with his parents or his brother or extended family. They hadn’t stood around a blackjack table for seven nights in a row listening to some of his closest friends spill some of his most embarrassing stories.
But Tiffany had. Which meant she was perfect for the role.
It was that simple. And that complicated. Because the other thing they had going was chemistry. He knew it. She knew it. His friends knew it. Hell, he was pretty sure the crew knew it. And even though he’d been trying to ignore it, it never really went away.
It was always just there.
Every time he glanced up from something and she was in his line of vision. Every time they passed each other on the boat. Every time their fingers brushed when she handed him a saltshaker or their eyes met when he was giving crew instructions, or she laughed at something he said.
Simmering. Seething. Smouldering. Just waiting for one of them to blink.
Chemistry, of course, was great for what he was proposing. But on a boat that sometimes didn’t feel anywhere near big enough for the two of them, it felt a little like he was playing with fire.
Then there was the biggest problem of all. Tiffany. He had to convince Tiffany that this wasn’t some sleezy ploy to get her into his master suite. That it was a favour he was asking, and that he wouldn’t take advantage of the situation – because that would be dishonourable – despite the fact she would, of course, have to sleep in his master suite.
If he failed to convince her then he’d have to go it alone the next two days with Dimitri and Helena and try to avoid any promises he wasn’t prepared to keep. But he wasn’t above offering Tiffany some juicy incentives. Because now he’d convinced himself this was the best course of action, he really, really didn’t want to have to face Dimitri without her.
Without his fiancée.
13
‘No. Absolutely not. Are you nuts?’ Tiffany glared at Theo, not quite believing that he could so calmly lay out this unhinged plan. ‘What on earth makes you think I would agree to something like this? Something so… illogical and… ludicrous and… harebrained?’
Not giving him time to answer any of her rapid-fire incredulous questions, she started to pace. Had he chosen the wheelhouse deliberately so the rest of the crew wouldn’t hear her wailing at him?
