Page 74 of Below Deck Billionaire
‘Yep. Cruise virgin I’m afraid.’
The lie slipped smoothly from his tongue. He had a job to do and zero problem with pretending to be someone else to get it done. But her eyes lit playfully and Ari’s heart skipped a beat.
‘In that case,’ she said, handing back his card, ‘we’ll be gentle with you, sir.’
She laughed at her joke and it was infectious, a smile spreading across Ari’s face before he even registered what was happening. He wondered if his cheek muscles were as confused as he was about the situation. But it was hardnotto smile, not to respond to her easy laughter and her light, flirty chatter.
The kind of flirty chatter he suspected she used witheveryoneregardless of age or sex. It obviously came as naturally as breathing and he envied her that lightness of spirit.
Ari suddenly felt ancient at the grand age of thirty-two.
Smile. Flirt. Be friendly.
But he couldn’t. His temples throbbed, the pain in his ribs was back, his breath was short. His smile faded and he stood to go, and instead of saying something likeDon’t be gentle on my account, which was something the old Ari might have said, he bade her goodbye.
Then he left, dodgingall the fucking peopleand not stopping until he reached the dark, private cocoon of his inside cabin.
* * *
‘Well, hello there. This is my lucky day.’
Kelsey glanced up from the drink she was pouring to find Andy, her fellow bartender, brandishing a wallet. She recognised it immediately as belonging to Whisky Dude.
She handed the drink over to her customer as Andy strode around the corner, out of sight. Hurriedly, she scanned the passenger’s card and was grateful that people were still absorbed with getting underway. In a few minutes they’d be slammed by passengers wanting booze to celebrate their departure, but for now, she could go and check on her partner.
Kelsey had mixed feelings about Andy. She’d worked with him on and off the last two years and had even fooled around with him once at a party in the staff quarters on their first cruise together. He was English, four years younger than her twenty-seven years and a good kisser. But his moral code was a bit on the lax side. A fact confirmed when she found him rifling through the wallet.
‘Two condoms and two hundred and twenty euros.’ He waved the notes in the air. ‘A tip for meandyou,’ he said with a wink. Kelsey was sure he was joking but she wasn’t laughing.
‘Very funny.’ She snatched the wallet and held out her other hand. ‘Give it back.’
‘Oh, come on, Kels, he won’t miss a couple of twenties. He probably won’t even know.’
Silently, she stared Andy down. A couple of hundred euros was hardly a fortune – butshe’dknow if some of it was missing.
She’d bet Whisky Dude would, too.
Those dark eyes of his had been steady and intense, appraising her face with an attention to detail that had caused a little flutter in her chest. She doubted he missed a single goddamn thing. Not to mention, as the senior staff member, it’d be her ass if the passenger made a complaint.
God knew she couldn’t afford to lose her job. Not now. Not when she was just one more year from her goal.
‘I’llknow.’
He sighed as he handed over the cash. ‘You are a spoilsport, Kelsey Armitage.’
She nodded. ‘Atta boy.’
* * *
Four hours later, her shift over, Kelsey made her way to Ari George’s room on deck seven, his wallet in her hand. A couple of keystrokes of the register and she’d been able to access his name and room number from the card he’d given her to swipe. And other information. Like there being no Mrs George.
Or any other companion…
No wedding band either, she’d noticed. Or a telltale white line where one would be if he was that kind of scumbag.
Of course, none of those things meant he wasn’t in a relationship. But it was rare to see an attached man going solo on a cruise. Most men either travelled with their partners or they were a younger crowd travelling in groups looking to get drunk and laid.
She should just have handed the wallet to guest services – it was protocol, after all. But she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the man at her bar drinking whisky at eleven in the morning.
