The Greek Billionaire's Counterfeit Bride (6 page)

Ari shifted against her, and Eva took a slow breath as he thrust his hips up into hers, filling her up inch by inch. She pushed down to meet his thrust, taking him as deeply as she could, her hands trailing over his back and shoulders. She pulled his head down closer to hers and kissed him eagerly as Ari began to move inside of her, slowly sliding in and out of her. He pulled out almost completely and then thrust deeper inside of her, over and over again. Eva fell into his rhythm, twisting her hips against his, pushing down to meet him. He felt so thick, so hot inside of her—so full. “God, you’re tight,” Ari groaned, shuddering slightly as he held himself up. “Even as wet as you are.”

“It—it’s been a while,” Eva admitted. “You feel so good—god, you feel good.”

“Not as good as you,” Ari countered. He began to pick up his pace, thrusting faster, and Eva lost herself in the pleasure once more as she felt the friction of his body rubbing against her clitoris, as she felt his cock rubbing along her inner walls, barely missing her g-spot. She twisted and writhed underneath him, touching and kissing him everywhere, her inner muscles rippling around Ari’s erection as she came closer and closer to climax by the moment.

Eva moaned out again and again, clutching at his shoulders, reaching down along his back to grip Ari’s tight, firm buttocks as if she could pull him closer, push him deeper inside of her. Ari claimed her lips with his own, dragged his mouth down to her breasts and then up to her throat, over and over again. Eva trembled and writhed as they moved together, marveling at the fact that they seemed to be made for each other—physically at least—until she was too turned on, too desperate for the orgasm she could feel building up in every nerve of her body to think of anything at all.

All at once, it seemed, the tension mounting deep down between her hips unraveled, and Eva clutched at Ari helplessly, moaning out again and again as her orgasm washed through every nerve of her body. Ari kept moving inside of her, each thrust bringing the tip of his cock up against her pleasure center, and Eva cried out, words tumbling past her lips without thought, as her climax intensified. She barely felt him shudder against her, barely felt the twitching of his thick, hard erection inside of her as Ari reached his own orgasm, burying his face against her neck and shoulder to muffle his moans. They moved together until their respective climaxes began to fade; every nerve in Eva’s body seemed to tingle, every muscle seemed to twitch with the aftershocks of the intense pleasure that Ari had given her.

She panted and gasped, welcoming the press of Ari’s body against hers, trembling slightly as she basked in the afterglow. Eva’s mind was a million miles away as she lay in the bed, limp and spent. She came back to herself slowly, her heart still pounding in her chest but her breathing slow and even, and realized that Ari’s panting gasps had steadied as well. Eva didn’t quite want to open her eyes; there was something so magical about the moment between them, something she didn’t want to disturb with the realities of the fact that she barely knew Ari, that she had conned him into meeting with her to beg for a favor. She just wanted to enjoy the feeling like warm honey flowing in her veins, the lingering spasms that rippled through her lower body.

Eva tried to piece together how it was that she and Ari had ended up in bed together. On the one hand, it seemed so natural, so logical—she couldn’t imagine not sleeping with him; on the other, she barely knew the man. She knew that it wasn’t the alcohol that had led her to accept his invitation—at least, not totally, or even mostly—but something about him that she’d noticed even the evening before, when he’d seen straight through her at the open house. And there it was: the thing she hadn’t wanted to think about. Eva tried to push the thought of the realtor and the potential lawsuit out of her mind, but it insisted on intruding. Eva sighed and opened her eyes, to find Ari looking down at her, a faint smile playing at the corners of his generous lips.

Chapter Seven

“What’s wrong? You seemed to be having a very good time right up until a minute ago,” Ari said, peering intently into her face. Eva sighed.

“I remembered why I conned you into meeting with me,” she admitted. “Totally took me out of the moment.” Ari chuckled and lifted himself off of her, slithering onto the bed at her side and turning over. He sat up and combed his fingers through his hair, looking for all the world as if nothing at all could possibly bother or affect him in any way.

“I hope you didn’t think that the sex we just had was part of the deal I mentioned,” Ari said, glancing at her. Eva shrugged.

“You didn’t say that it was,” she pointed out. She hauled herself up onto her elbows and felt somehow—strangely—more naked under Ari’s gaze than she had even when he’d been inside of her.

“I’m glad you’re a smart woman,” Ari told her. “Want something to drink?” Eva snickered, considering the question.

“Water, I think,” she said, remembering the wine and the cocktails she’d consumed; if Ari was going to try and negotiate a deal, she wanted to be as sober as possible. Ari rose from the bed and left the room, and Eva watched him pad into the main part of the suite, remembering only then that she was in a hotel; it was easily the most sumptuous hotel she had ever seen—and she was certain that she was in the most luxurious suite the hotel offered.
If I could trust that my legs would work, I’d check out the bathroom. There must be a killer bathtub in there.

A few moments later, Ari returned with a glass of water and another of wine. Eva accepted the water from him and took a sip before setting the glass down on the bedside table. Ari settled himself on the edge of the bed and sipped from his own glass. “So,” he said, meeting her gaze. “Ready to hear my terms?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” Eva said with a faint smile.

“I have a meeting coming up,” Ari explained. “It’s to discuss a potential business partnership with a huge company—a Middle Eastern company that I’ve been trying to connect with for years.”

“Okay,” Eva said, nodding. “Where do I come in?” Ari smirked.

“Since you’ve clearly done your research on me, you know what my reputation is,” Ari told her. “I need to convince these guys that I’m a respectable, settled, mature businessman.”

“That’s going to take some doing,” Eva said tartly. “Though it has been a few months since you were last in the tabloids.”

“That’s on purpose,” Ari said. “I’ve been trying to repair my reputation a bit. What would really sell them on this idea, though, is me having a wife.” Eva’s eyes widened.

“And you want
me
to play the role of Mrs. Christodoulou?” Ari nodded. “We just met yesterday and you only learned my real name today!”

“It’s doable,” Ari countered. “You’re a smart woman—you’d have to be, to have done some of the things you’ve accomplished. Hell; you’ve been a con artist for longer than you’ve been a decent hard-working employee.” Something about his words—accurate as they were—stung Eva.

“The schemes I’ve done were work,” she told him firmly. “Maybe not honest, but I worked hard to be good.”

“That’s exactly why I’m proposing this to you, and not someone else,” Ari said, smiling. He took another sip of his wine. “You’re smart enough and motivated enough to actually pull this off.”

“What do you know about my motivation?” Ari tilted his head to the side.

“I know I’m good in bed, but I doubt I’m good enough to have made you forget what you came to me for,” he said. “You want to make your problems with that realtor go away. I can do that for you. I would think that avoiding a multimillion dollar lawsuit would be very good motivation indeed.” Eva chuckled wryly and picked up her glass of water.

“Yeah, that is definitely enough motivation to make me want to make this work,” she admitted. “I just don’t know how likely it is that we can pull it off.” She considered the idea that Ari had proposed: it wasn’t as though she had never done anything remotely like it before, but she had always had more lead time than Ari had implied they would have at their disposal. The possibility of convincingly playing the part of his loving wife in such a short time was slim. “How much time do we have?”

“About a week,” Ari told her. Eva shook her head.

“It’s impossible,” she said, gulping down some water and setting her glass aside once more. “If we had a month we could pull it off, but a week?”

“Like I said: you’re intelligent, experienced, and motivated.”

“What kind of money are we talking about? What kind of a business deal is this?” Ari shrugged.

“It’s worth billions,” he replied. “The company in question is owned by members of the royal family of Al Akanish.” Eva’s eyes widened; she didn’t know much about the royal family, but she knew enough to know that they were one of the largest shipping empires in the world.

“Why would you lie to them about what you’re like? It’s not like your reputation is entirely made up—they’re going to figure it out.” Ari scowled.

“Lying about yourself is how you got here,” he pointed out. “Don’t act as though you’ve got some kind of moral high ground.” Eva bit back an angry retort and took a slow, deep breath.

“I’m just pointing out—with all due respect—that a week is not nearly enough lead time for a con like this,” she said quietly. “And I can’t believe that if this is a company you’ve wanted to get on the hook for years, you didn’t figure out this plan until just now.” She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling the heat in her cheeks as she remembered that she was naked—they both were.

“I’ve been thinking about this plan for months,” Ari admitted. “But I haven’t found anyone I could really trust to make it work properly.”

“No? Not with all the women you’ve been seeing? Surely one of them would be a better candidate than I would,” she pointed out.

“None of them would give me the kind of respectability I need for this contract,” Ari said, shaking his head. “Your name hasn’t been connected to mine in the tabloids; you’re a safe option. Then too, you have every reason to go along with it and keep quiet.” Eva rolled her eyes.

“That much is obvious,” she agreed. She licked her lips, wishing—fleetingly—that she hadn’t had sex with him.
It was a good idea at the time. Don’t let it cloud your reason: it was just sex.
Eva took a deep breath and sighed. “How are we going to make this happen?”

“Obviously, we’re going to need a cover story,” Ari said. Eva nodded; that much was plain. They would need to explain how they had met, why she hadn’t been in the tabloids, why Ari was suddenly married.

“You realize that we have so, so very much to explain, right?” Eva raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t even remotely acted like a married man—do you think they won’t have done their research? I mean, if you’re worried about them thinking you’re a woman-chasing party boy…” she shrugged.

“Clearly you’re more well-versed on plots like these than I am,” Ari said dryly. Eva pressed her lips together.

“I want an agreement on this,” she said, keeping her voice level. “If I’m going to pretend to be your wife, you’re going to need to pretend to be my husband, too. And you need to be able to treat me with respect and genuine affection by the time we’re playing this out.”

“Understood,” Ari said, inclining his head towards her.

“To that end: you stop making snide comments about my past.” Eva held his gaze, knowing that she was at a disadvantage in their current negotiation; but she had to stand her ground—just as she had with the irate caller—even if it meant that she lost out.

“Fair enough,” Ari said after a moment. “Anything else?”

“We’re going to come up with our story together,” Eva told him. “It needs to be as organic as possible.”

“That makes sense,” Ari agreed with a nod. Eva sighed.

“I think we can make this work,” she said. She shook her head. “I sure as hell hope we can make this work.” Ari grinned.

“If nothing else, it’ll make for a great story—sometime years from now.” Eva laughed.

“That it will,” she agreed. “I can tell my future kids—if I ever have them—about how I pretended to be a billionaire’s wife so he could seal a business deal.” Eva glanced down at her naked body and sat up, climbing out of the bed.

“Where are you going?” Eva collected her underwear from the floor where it had fallen, slipping into the damp panties and pulling the bra on in a few quick, practiced movements.

“I’m staying right here,” she said. “But I really think that if we’re going to pull this off, we’re going to need to keep things completely businesslike between us.”

“Why?” Ari watched as she pulled her dress on and then came back towards him. Eva spotted a chair tucked away underneath a side table in the bedroom and pulled it over to the bed where Ari sat.

“Because we need to focus,” Eva told him firmly. “We need to devote as much time as humanly possible to inventing an entire relationship, and if we have sex again, that’s just going to make it weird.” Ari held her gaze for a moment, and Eva could see the thoughts churning behind his eyes.

“Okay,” he said, nodding. “I can see that.”

“So,” Eva said, taking a deep breath and exhaling it in a sigh. “We’re going to have to rehearse and practice and work on this every day until this meeting.” She licked her lips and considered. “What kind of meeting is it?”

“A welcome dinner,” Ari said. “The night before the paperwork is due to be signed.”

“You’re going to have to pay for a dress,” Eva told him. “Nothing I own will be appropriate to play your wife.”

“I figured I would need to supply the wardrobe for the evening,” Ari said with a shrug. “I’m not a total naïf.”

“Okay,” Eva said, nodding slowly. She could feel the lingering slickness between her legs, and the sight of Ari’s tantalizing, naked body distracted her. “Can you put your clothes on, please? Not that I’m not enjoying the view, but…” Ari raised an eyebrow but stood, finding his pants on the floor. He put them and his shirt on, and sat back down.

“I can meet with you tomorrow at Central Park,” Ari told her. Eva considered that and nodded.

“That’s good,” she said. “We’re going to need to work at this hard—you know that, right?”

“I do,” Ari confirmed.

“We’re going to have to know everything possible about each other,” Eva continued. “Stupid things. Details that people don’t even usually know about their spouses, we’re going to need to know.”

“If people don’t know those things about their spouses, why would we need to?” Eva chuckled.

“Because we have no idea what kind of questions are going to come up in conversation,” she pointed out. “And we don’t want to end up in a position where we’re confused or stalling or panicked.”

“Makes sense,” Ari said with a nod. “I look forward to it. Unless you want to get started tonight?” Eva considered that; they didn’t have much time, but she knew her mind was too fogged from alcohol—and sex—to really focus.

“Tomorrow,” she said. “Let’s both get some sleep and meet up.”

“Give me your number,” Ari suggested. “I’ll give you a time to meet with me once I know when I’ll be free.” Eva stood and scribbled down her phone number on a pad the hotel had provided.

“Good night, husband,” she said, giving him a wry smile.

“See you tomorrow, wife,” Ari replied.

Eva found her purse and smoothed her hair before leaving the hotel room, reflecting on the odd situation she’d found herself in. In little more than twenty-four hours, she had gone from a straight life to a new con; she had been fired from her real job, met a billionaire, put herself in hot water, and now she would be working with someone to pull the wool over a major company’s eyes.

As she rode the elevator down to the ground floor, Eva thought about the task ahead. She was going to have to do her best to forget completely about the sex that she’d had with Ari; just thinking about it sent a jolt of heat through her body that she couldn’t ignore. Even as she’d been sitting in the chair, fully dressed, it had been impossible not to look at the gorgeous Greek.
This is going to be the most difficult scheme of my life,
she thought frankly.