Undercover Billionaire Read online

  His breath caught at the sight. It felt like a metaphor for her impact on his life and it was hard to believe he’d met her for the first time only yesterday.

  How was that even possible?

  Sameel took his plate away regaining Ari’s attention and his eyes took a tour of the restaurant as the waiter busied himself with clearing the table. It was a huge, two floor behemoth with a sweeping circular staircase in the middle leading to the upper floor. An expensive chandelier crafted in Murano hung above the staircase.

  Modern décor gave the surroundings an elegant but charming feel, supported by the low orchestral music playing through the state of the art sound system. Large scattered urns of greenery and fresh flowers were the perfect foil to the deep blue of the sea providing a shifting canvas through the multiple portholes.

  On one side of the restaurant, the colour and chaos of Naples grew smaller, on the other, the horizon lay steady and unwavering.

  Ari’s attention was snagged by Mr Stetson discretely slipping some Euros into Sameel’s hand. He took it just as discretely aside from the smile as big as the room on his face.

  Ari didn’t begrudge him the tip. He knew, as he had told Kelsey earlier, that tips helped bolster what could be a very basic wage for a junior staff member.

  But they shouldn’t be used to discriminate against passengers. All passengers were to be treated as equals – that was the Hermes way.

  He’d actually noticed similar staff behaviour at a couple of bars around the ship as well. Preferential service, going that extra mile for wealthier passengers. And, if he’d noticed, maybe the passengers were noticing as well? Nobody wanted to spend thousands of dollars of their hard earned money and be made feel like a second class citizen.

  It was troubling behaviour. Maybe even a pattern? All a ship needed was a few bad eggs to influence the staff culture. Obviously not all staff engaged in discriminating behaviour but there shouldn’t be any.

  The captain arrived at the table. The American men went to stand but the captain waved them back into their seats as Sameel performed the introductions. He got the English woman’s name wrong but nailed the names of the wealthy at the table and spent an inordinate amount of time singing their praises.

  Ari was vaguely acquainted with Captain Russo. They had met a long time ago at a Hermes event but he showed no recognition now of the Callisthenes family recluse.

  A badge Ari wore with pride.

  After a lifetime of flashbulbs and cameras following him everywhere, Ari had been well and truly ready to escape them when he’d moved to London to study and it had been his salvation. Then he’d met Talia and, despite her own pedigree, they’d been content to live in complete anonymity amidst London’s thriving boroughs, even declining the obscene amounts of money offered for the pictorial rights to their very private wedding.

  It was no surprise the captain didn’t recognise him. That was the whole point of Ari doing this investigation.

  Captain Russo was excellent at his job. He’d been with Hermes for a dozen years captaining various ships and his qualifications were impeccable. Unfortunately, listening to him in person wasn’t a particularly thrilling experience. He obviously suffered a little too much under the weight of his own self importance.

  Ari’s grandfather always said that doctors and lawyers had nothing on the arrogance of a ship’s captain and now Ari knew exactly what the old man meant.

  Russo was no Captain Stubbing, that was for sure.

  He was also, like Sameel, a little more effusive with the wealthier clientele, which was disappointing. Maybe this preferential treatment thing was systemic? Attitude always came from the top down and Ari made a mental note to cross check the ships performance with Russo’s tenure at the helm.

  With his allotted five minutes up, the captain made his apologies and moved on but not without first shaking the hands of the three American men at the table, sparing only a brief touch to his brim for Ari and the Lancashire factory worker.

  Ari’s misgivings about the ship’s culture weighed heavily on him as the captain moved to the next table. He wasn’t liking what he was seeing, he wasn’t liking it one little bit.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  It was still bugging Ari the next morning. Or rather the first thing he’d thought about when he’d woken this morning had been Kelsey and that was putting him in the kind of mood where everything bugged him.

  He’d known her for two days, how was it even possible that she was the first face he saw when he opened his eyes? That position had always belonged to Talia and Ari had panicked as he’d struggled for a beat or two to instantly recall her face.

  She came - of course she came - but those confused seconds had been disorientating. And worrying. And guilt had once again taken hold. What if one day he just simply couldn’t recall his dead wife’s face anymore?

  Those thoughts had driven him out of the cabin. Out of the place where Kelsey’s face and her laughter and her moans waited for him in every corner.

  Where they beckoned.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, he stepped into the passageway with his day planned out in his mind. First stop was the breakfast buffet and then he was going to do the rounds of the different restaurants, lounges and bars.

  Minus the pool deck bar, of course. And not because of Kelsey but because he’d already checked it out a couple of times now and had made his notes on it already. He’d been pleased with how it was being run - his missing twenty Euro notwithstanding.

  Ari reached the mid-ship lift foyer and decided to eschew the elevator for the wide staircase connecting all the decks. Taking the steps two at a time to level fourteen, his heart was pumping a little harder by the time he pushed open the heavy door and stepped out onto the top deck.

  A light breeze ruffled though his hair and he sucked in the sweet, fresh air as he stopped at the railing admiring the endless stretch of sapphire water that was the Med. She was an undeniable beauty, the kind of blue that was hard to explain and this sea was in his bones as surely as the Acropolis and Ouzo.

  He pulled himself away – reluctantly - a few minutes later, following a group of people into the buffet. His mouth watered at the aromas wafting from the massive restaurant to the aft of the ship and his stomach growled in unison. He was absolutely ravenous.

  Ari entered the restaurant finding his own seat which was the way of buffet style dining. The only problem with that was there was no staff member on the door with a pump container full of hand sanitiser offering it to passengers as was the practise in all the other dining areas of the ship.

  Sure, there was a table at the entrance with a pump and a sign urging people to use it but that wasn’t good enough as far as Ari – and the ship protocols – were concerned. Mandatory offering of hand sanitiser was one of the measures that had been instituted two years ago across all the ships in the fleet to reduce the incidence of gastroenteritis.

  Studies had shown people were more likely to use the sanitiser if it was presented to them as a natural part of the seating process.

  Another measure they’d actioned to stem outbreaks had been switching to a no self-serve buffet. It was protocol now for staff members to serve the requested food to passengers. This reduced the risk of cross contamination by people whose diligence with hand washing - particularly after toileting – was often subpar.

  The buffet restaurant failed miserably in this department which was concerning considering the weight of evidence pointing to cruise ships buffets being the major source for gastro outbreaks. Some staff members were good, politely insisting on serving the passengers but most turned a blind eye to those helping themselves.

  Ari made mental notes as he took everything in. It was going to be a long day, he could tell.

  By three in the afternoon he was sitting at the piano bar on deck four which was tucked away beside the Adelphi Theatre. There was him and a couple sitting in a booth near the piano their heads close together as they listened to a middle-aged guy tickle
the ivories. The atmosphere was more intimate in this establishment with a lot of wood and dark furniture but, thanks to light spilling in from the three large portholes behind the bar, it was saved from looking too much like a private men’s club.

  The bulk of the day trippers hadn’t yet returned from shore and Ari was enjoying the lack of people as well as one of the fine cognacs on the menu. It was the perfect spot to make notes for his report, check in with Theo and deal with any urgent business that required his attention.

  Also to think. Not about Kelsey – absolutely not about Kelsey. But to ponder things like the disparity in staff treatment between passengers of differing socio-economic backgrounds, which was still a source of irritation.

  They couldn’t afford to have that kind of class system on their ships. They had exclusive cruises catering solely to very wealthy clientele but this was an everyman kind of cruise and reputation was paramount. It was imperative that all passengers were treated with equal respect.

  “A penny for them, Sir.”

  Ari pulled his gaze away from the left hand porthole, startled at the familiar voice. Kelsey. So much for avoiding her. It appeared, whether he wanted to think about her or not, the universe was just going to keep shoving her under his nose. This morning he’d been overwhelmed with how quickly she’d taken up his headspace. This afternoon he was struck by the wave of pleasure he felt at her we-really-should-stop-meeting-like-this smile.

  She was in the formal uniform she usually wore in the dining room. The one she’d stripped out of in his room. Ari’s lungs felt too big for his chest as he batted down that particularly errant thought.

  Concentrate Aristotle.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low as he glanced over his shoulder at the couple who were paying them absolutely zero attention. “I thought you’d be working on the pool deck.”

  She shrugged. “I’m just covering for the next hour or so.”

  He put his phone in his pocket and slid his feet off the footrest of the barstool to the ground. “I’ll go.”

  “No. Stay.” She waved him back into his seat with a sigh. “You look comfortable and it’s hardly crowded in here.”

  Ari looked around again. “Why do you think I’m here?”

  She gave him a grudging smile. “You’re not much of a people person are you?” she said, as she picked up his glass. “Can I get you another?”

  “Yes. Thank you. Cognac.”

  He watched as she got him a new glass and poured from the bottle, liking the way her skirt fit across her ass way more than was good for him. His blood heated.

  Desire.

  It had been such a long time since he’d felt anything this potent yet one look at Kelsey had blasted a beam of light right into the black hole of his libido.

  Placing his glass in front of him she said, “So, why a cruise? If you’re not a people person?”

  Ari was pleased for his drink and took a deep swallow before he answered. “I haven’t had a vacation for a while and my boss –” Theo wasn’t his boss but he’d be laughing his ass off to be described as such. “Ordered me to take leave. Something about it being unhealthy.”

  “How long is a while?”

  “Three years.”

  “Three years?” She stared at him with wide eyes. “Your boss is a wise man.”

  Ari grunted. “Please, the man doesn’t need his ego fed anymore.”

  She laughed. “I once worked back to back contracts, no break for eighteen months and that nearly killed me.”

  “I guess it’s different for you. Being in close quarters with everyone all the time, not getting to go home at the end of the day. I get to go home.”

  To his empty apartment. His empty bed. His empty life. No wonder he’d slept in his office a bit too much these past two years.

  “Yeah, that part is hard. I miss my mum.”

  Somehow the fact she had a mum and missed her made Kelsey that much more three-dimensional and he suddenly wanted to know more about this woman who’d blown into his life and disrupted everything.

  Up until Kelsey, Talia had been the only woman to make an impact on his life and Ari had no idea how to feel about that realisation.

  “So why a cruise?” she asked, absently polishing the gleaming wood of the bar with a dry cloth.

  It was only just starting to dawn on Ari how poorly he was cut out for lying. And how much he didn’t want to be dishonest with Kelsey. But...

  “My brother,” he said, gathering himself, “suggested it was the perfect way to get away from everything and when I looked online this ship was sailing soon around the Greek Islands – only the best spot in the whole world even if I do say so myself –”

  He smiled and she returned it which emphasised the bow of her mouth and made him think about kissing it.

  Kissing her.

  “And it still had cabins available –” Which it shouldn’t - hence him being here. “So I thought I’d check it out.”

  “Most people don’t...” She paused for a second as if she was trying to find a delicate way to word her statement. “Cruise alone.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t mind my own company.”

  “Yeah but...it’s a cruise. They’re the very definition of a plus one. Hell, most people travel with multiple family and friends on these things.”

  “Are you implying I’m a sad, lonely, dude with no friends?”

  Ari kept his voice light but it wasn’t that far from the truth. He’d pushed everyone away these past few years. His family had been a constant presence in his life whether he’d wanted it or not – and he had mostly not - but his UK friends had faded away since his return to Greece.

  Not that he blamed them. They had tried to reach out but he’d rebuffed them at every turn.

  She laughed then and it was like sunshine streaming through the portholes. “I’m saying you might have had more fun with company.”

  Ari hadn’t come for fun but it’d sure as hell found him - or a version of it anyway. And guilt had kicked his ass ever since.

  A telltale pink flush streaked across her cheeks as if she’d just realised what she’d said could be easily misconstrued and he rushed in to alleviate her embarrassment. “I’m having fun,” he said. “This is my fun face.”

  One elegant eyebrow kicked up at him. “I think you might need to practise that one a little harder.”

  Yeah. Ari hadn’t had a lot of practise these past few years.

  “So,” she said, deftly changing the subject, “what were you thinking about? When I first came on?”

  Ari thanked god it hadn’t been her and he didn’t have to lie again. He told her what he’d observed at dinner and how much it bothered him. “Does that happen often?” he asked. “Preferential treatment?”

  “Sometimes, yes.” Her voice was low and Ari leaned in a little. “It’s not right but when tips can make such a big difference to your income it doesn’t take some staff long to suss out who are the best tippers. I usually make a few extra thousand per contract from tip money so it can be worth it.”

  Ari whistled, that was a nice bit of bonus cash – no wonder Sameel had been so obsequious. “Still...it doesn’t seem like a practice the cruise line should be encouraging, does it?”

  “I wouldn’t say it was encouraged. It’s more...not consistently discouraged. It’s definitely frowned upon but the newer members of staff, are often just modelling behaviours they see from the more senior members of staff.”

  Which confirmed what Ari had thought about staff culture.

  “And you don’t find that disturbing?” Just how deep did this vein of bad service run?

  “Of course, it’s terrible.” Her voice was full of warm indignation. “I grew up in a working class suburb with a single mother who always struggled to make ends meet. I’ve seen her treated like a second class citizen more times than I care to remember. But, like in any workplace, there are people who do the right thing and people who do the wrong thing and all I can do is be resp
onsible for my own behaviour.”

  Ari nodded. It was true, of course, in every work environment both good and bad could be found. Which included him at the moment. What he was doing now - using Kelsey for information - wasn’t exactly exemplary behaviour.

  Sure, they weren’t in a relationship. They were a one-time thing which had not been motivated by his need for inside information. But still... it didn’t feel right.

  Just then a large group of people entered the bar, laughing loudly. They’d obviously been out for the day and had a very good time. They were also obviously looking for somewhere to continue having a good time. Kelsey glanced at them uneasily for a brief moment, flicking her gaze from them to him and back to them again as they called her by name and she plastered a smile on her face.

  Ari took that as his signal to leave, draining his glass and slipping off the stool as the crowd took over the bar.

  Kelsey was tired and her feet were killing her as she plucked the pink cocktail umbrella out of the last empty glass, loaded it into the industrial dish washer and pushed the on button. The Aphrodite lounge had shut at midnight and, twenty minutes later, the staff were ready to knock off and grab a few hours shut eye before turning up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the breakfast shift in the dining room.

  Such was life on board a cruise ship. Long days, early starts, living where you worked. A day off here and there, shore leave every now and then. The constant awareness of the shifting blue mass underfoot and the steady presence of the far horizon.

  She was looking forward to a shower and bed. Or at least her brain was. Her body was buzzing. Ari had walked into the lounge at eleven and sat in one of the chairs that faced the dance floor where a DJ was spinning some tunes to the younger crowd.

  Thoughts of Ari had her picking up the umbrella, twisting it slowly in her fingers. He hadn’t sat in her serving area so they hadn’t exchanged any words. But hell if they hadn’t eye-fucked each other for an hour.