Page 42 of Below Deck Billionaire
‘Oh, I think Theo knows which side his bread is buttered on,’ Tiffany joked.
Helena laughed. ‘It looks likeyouhave your hands full, Theo.’
Theo grinned at Helena. ‘I love a woman who can keep me on my toes.’
‘There haven’t been too many of them,’ she said.
Theo shook his head. ‘There have not.’ None, in fact. Women had fallen over themselves to fit in with him, not the other way around.
Dimitri, who still hadn’t spoken, finally found his voice, even if it was little more than a splutter. ‘But how?’ he demanded. ‘Ari never said anything about this.’
‘That’s because,’ Theo supplied, ‘apart from the crew, you and Helena are the first ones to know.’
Dimitri perked up. He clearly liked the idea of being in the loop with this exclusive piece of news. Underneath it all, like those old Greek fishermen mending their nets, he was an inveterate gossip. Still, he wasn’t completely sold. ‘Ari never even mentioned you were seeing anyone.’
Theo shrugged. ‘You ever meet someone so special you were afraid that if you talked about it or told anyone you might jinx it?’
Dimitri looked at his wife and reached for her hand. ‘Yes.’
There was a beat where the older couple, both in their eighties, just smiled at each other, and Theo could see the entire history of their relationship in that interaction. The good times, the bad times, the moment their eyes had first met and they’d fallen in love. And as much as Dimitri had been a thorn in Theo’s side for almost two decades, a blinding white-hot spike of jealousy lanced his chest.
He was jealous of what this old pain-in-the-ass had in his life. Theo could buy and sell him a hundred times over and his beloved company was on the skids, yet Dimitri had something Theo did not. Something money couldn’t buy. He had a woman by his side that even after fifty years of marriage and encroaching financial disaster still looked at him like he was the centre of her world.
And vice versa.
It was the oddest thing because Theo had been actively avoiding just that and yet, looking at them, he realised that perhaps he’d been missing out.
‘Well, I guess that’s how it’s been with us.’ He glanced down into Tiffany’s face the same time she looked up at him and smiled, and hell if his heart didn’t give a mule-sized kick inside his chest. Returning his attention to Dimitri, he said, ‘It’s been quick and it’s surprised us, but after a long time – for both of us – not wanting anything serious, we knew this was different.’
He’d told Tiffany to keep their lies as close to the truth as possible, and it was surprising for Theo to realise that was exactly what he was doing. Tiffany was different. Unlike any woman he’d ever spent time with.
‘I did notice,’ Dimitri said, beaming at them both as if he’d somehow orchestrated it himself, ‘that you’ve not been seen in any tabloids of late. I thought it was to appease me.’
Theo smiled. No flies on Dimitri. ‘No, sir,’ he lied. ‘It’s because I’m smitten with this one.’ The second statement, however, didn’t feel like a lie, and Theo steeled himself to look into her face again and not let the way she smiled back whammy him another time.
‘Aww,’ she murmured, her hand covering her chest as she gave a dramatic sigh, a smile twitching her mouth and sparkling in her eyes before she looked at the old Greek couple who were revelling in the PDA. ‘Isn’t he the sweetest?’
Dimitri chuckled. ‘Women…’ he said with a conspiratorial wink at Theo. ‘They like to emasculate us, no?’
Helena made apfftnoise as she flapped her husband’s teasing comment aside. ‘Enough of that. Show us that gorgeous ring you’re wearing.’
Dutifully, Tiffany held out her hand for the inspection, the opal flashing fire and the diamonds sparkling. Theo was pleased he’d decided to go for big and flashy. Helena Kouris, and by default her husband, appreciated a show of love in the medium of jewellery as evidenced by the rock on her finger.
‘The opal is gorgeous,’ she said, inspecting it closely. ‘And are they diamonds?’
Tiffany nodded. ‘From the Kimberley region, which is not far from where I grew up. And the opal is from Coober Pedy, which is practically built on opal mining. It was so thoughtful of Theo to give me a ring that reminded me of home.’
Theo hadn’t thought she’d listened to any stats about the ring when he’d given it to her, but clearly, she had, which both surprised and delighted him, as had the personalisation of the story for her guests, who’d eaten it up.
‘See,’ Tiffany said, humour lacing her voice as she addressed Dimitri, ‘sweet.’
He grinned good-naturedly as he rolled his eyes and Helena laughed. ‘Australia.’ Dimitri breathed the word in a hushed kind of reverence. ‘We’ve never been but we’ve always wanted to. I’d love to know more about where you’re from. Your family. Your earlier life. And all about the snakes.’
Tiffany laughed as Helena put her hand on her husband’s arm. ‘Dimitri,’ she scolded lightly, ‘don’t overwhelm the poor girl. At least wait until we’re eating.’
And that was Theo’s cue. ‘Yes. Dinner will be served at seven out here on the deck. In the meantime, Kelly’ – he gestured behind them to Kelly, who had been hovering in the background – ‘will show you around the boat and to your suite. I’m going up to get us underway. We’ll anchor off Hydra tonight. Feel free to come out onto the deck and enjoy the afternoon as we sail.’
Kelly smiled at the couple as she shook their hands and said, ‘This way, please.’
