Sold to the Hottest Bidder

by Layla Valentine

  Chapter Nine

  The next day, Eva went to the Park once again; Ari was five minutes early, bearing more food—this time from a Moroccan place near the first hotel he’d lived at in New York.

  “First thing’s first,” Eva said when they found their spot in the green, dappled depths of the wooded area where they could be alone.

  “What’s that?”

  Eva licked her lips, taking a quick, deep breath.

  “I got a phone call from a lawyer yesterday,” she said. “Apparently…I’m going to be sued.”

  Ari’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “I’ll make a phone call tomorrow,” he said.

  Eva held his gaze for a long moment, caution warring with hope.

  “Okay,” she said. “So the next order of business is figuring out how we met, and the story of our great and timeless romance.”

  Ari snorted. “We don’t want to make it too romantic, or too great and timeless,” he pointed out. “Believable is best.”

  “Of course,” Eva agreed. “Spontaneous and believable.”

  Ari served up the food, dividing it between them. “How about this: we met on a plane, on the way to a music festival,” he suggested as they began to eat.

  Eva laughed. “Too obvious,” she said, shaking her head. “It should be more mundane. Like…” she considered, savoring the flavors of the vegetable tagine. “We met at a pharmacy. Both of us were looking for allergy medicine—and there was only one box left of our preferred brand. We haggled over it and eventually decided to split it, after you graciously attempted to insist that I take the whole thing.”

  Ari snickered. “No—because then we’d have to remember what each of us is allergic to,” he pointed out. “What about if we met at some kind of charity event? We both ran the same 5K and got to talking, spurring each other on when we faltered. Love and sweat and bloody nipples?”

  Eva almost choked on a bite of cucumber salad.

  “I don’t think bloody nipples are an image you want to give future business partners,” she countered. “We could say that we met in a café. Some guy was aggressively hitting on me, getting louder and louder as I tried to tell him to leave me alone. You intervened, saving my precious virtue, and we got to talking after you bought me a latte.”

  “And you said my first story was too obvious!” Ari shook his head. “We can do better than this.”

  “Let’s go over our biographies for now; something will come to us,” Eva said. She and Ari quizzed each other, and Eva wondered if the Greek had taken the same tactic that she had with flashcards, or if he just had an innate good memory.

  They finished off their food and moved back onto the subject of their cover story. Ari wiped his lips with a napkin. “What if we said that we met here? At the park?”

  “Go on,” Eva said, smiling slowly.

  “We were both here on miserable blind dates,” he continued. “You somehow got set up with just—the most terrible guy ever. Total asshole. And the girl one of my friends set me up with was just awful; she hated all of my favorite bands, only interested in my money—all of those things.”

  Eva snorted. “So there we were, having the worst dates of our lives,” she said. “How did that end up with us meeting?”

  “That’s where it gets good,” Ari said, grinning. “You got into a fight with your guy. Couldn’t stand his attitude, or whatever. The girl I was with saw it going down, and rushed over to cheer you on.”

  “Totally ignoring you—that’s interesting,” Eva observed. “And was I in over my head? Is that where you saved me?”

  Ari shook his head. “You knocked him flat on his back. Someone called the police, and I stayed behind to be a very, very helpful witness for you.”

  Eva laughed out loud, considering the story.

  “I think that will do it,” she said after a moment. “It’s not too boring…it’s interesting and believable all at the same time.”

  “Thank you,” Ari said, inclining his head towards her.

  They fleshed out their story from there, each of them coming up with ideas for dates. As the afternoon dissolved into evening, Eva found herself torn between extricating herself from Ari and coming up with a reason to stay with him, in spite of the fact that she had told herself—again and again—that she would keep the situation between them professional and businesslike. Their conversation began to stray from the scheme at hand, and Eva found herself remembering the club they’d gone to the night she’d asked Ari for help, the way he’d charmed her, the way he’d invited her back to his hotel room.

  “Did you know you were going to ask me to pretend to be your wife when you first invited me back to your place?” Eva’s heart beat faster in her chest and she wasn’t sure how she wanted him to answer.

  “I was starting to think along those lines,” Ari admitted. “But I hadn’t outright decided.”

  “So having sex with me made you decide you wanted me to pretend to be your wife?” Eva raised an eyebrow, feeling oddly unsettled without knowing why. “Was it some kind of audition or something?”

  Ari shook his head. “Not exactly,” he said. “But the fact that we obviously had chemistry told me that we’d be more likely to pull it off than if—say—I’d found someone from one of the talent agencies to play the role.” He held her gaze for a long moment. “I think we still have plenty of chemistry, don’t you?”

  “Maybe,” Eva said. She could feel her cheeks burning as the blood rushed into her face. “I mean, it’s not like you’ve gotten ugly since I found out that you used to prank Eleni by putting shells under her mattress and telling her that it was the boogeyman.”

  Ari laughed. “And you haven’t gotten any less beautiful, even after you told me about cheating on your Algebra final,” he told her, and Eva’s heart beat faster in her chest. Ari looked around them. “It’s dark,” he observed.

  Eva glanced around, realizing the truth of what he’d said. “We should go home,” she suggested.

  Ari stared at her for a moment. “Or you could come back to my place,” he countered. “We could keep working on our backstory. I don’t have anywhere to be in the morning.”

  Eva pressed her lips together; she knew that if she went back to his hotel with him, she would end up having sex with Ari. She had sworn to herself that she would keep the situation platonic; but it had been impossible not to remember what he looked like naked, what he felt like inside of her, what he’d tasted like with her fluids on his lips.

  “We do have some powerful chemistry,” Eva said tentatively.

  “And one night together isn’t enough to convince an entire group of people that we know each other’s bodies in and out,” Ari agreed.

  Ari took Eva’s hand as they made their way out of the park, towards the entrance. Eva’s mind reeled as he hailed a cab and ushered her into the back seat, directing the driver to the hotel he was staying at.

  Before Eva could wrap her mind around the decision she’d made, Ari kissed her hungrily, letting his hands wander all over her body in the safe darkness of the cab.

  “God, I’ve been thinking about this ever since…” he shook his head, brushing his lips against her jaw. “I’ve barely been able to think straight.”

  “If you’re able to remember everything…” Eva bit back a moan as one of Ari’s hands slipped up between her legs, caressing her inner thigh. “And you haven’t been able to think straight…”

  Ari chuckled lowly. “About anything other than you,” he told her in a whisper. He kissed her again, and Eva pushed aside any thought of what his words might mean, instead giving into the heat of the moment.

  “Sir? We’ve arrived,” the cab driver said, sounding uncomfortable. Eva’s cheeks burned with a blush of embarrassment, but Ari seemed utterly at ease with the situation. He handed the cabbie a large bill—Eva couldn’t see the denomination, but the driver’s eyes widened at the sight of it—and told the man to keep the change, before claiming her hand and leading her out of the car.<
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  Eva barely noticed the details in the lobby of The London as Ari guided her towards the elevators, his hand tightening on hers with the urgency that Eva could feel just as certainly as he did.

  As soon as they were alone, on their way up to the penthouse suite, Ari discarded any pretext of propriety, pushing Eva up against the wall and kissing her once more, his hands wandering hungrily over the curves of her body. Eva moaned against his lips, pressing her body against his, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, feeling the heat in him and almost completely oblivious to the progress of the elevator.

  When the doors opened, Ari broke away from her lips, and Eva followed in his wake as he steered her down the short corridor that led to his suite. Unlike their first tryst, Ari seemed to have no patience whatsoever as he unlocked the door and pulled her through it. Eva nearly tripped over her own feet and stopped him for just a moment, kicking off her shoes in the entryway and pulling herself up to kiss him quickly on the lips.

  “Aren’t I supposed to be the impatient one?” Eva raised her eyebrows.

  Ari grinned wolfishly. “I did say we were both impatient.”

  Eva’s clothes fell away as Ari led her across the living room area and towards the bedroom, and she struggled—but succeeded—in peeling off the suit that he wore piece by piece. Eva yelped as Ari threw her onto the bed, launching himself after her. He kissed her again and again, his hands gliding over her naked body, caressing and teasing her.

  Eva realized with shock that in spite of the lack of prolonged foreplay, she was already tingling all over, already soaking wet, slick with desire. Ari’s hand slipped up between her legs and he teased her with his fingers, barely avoiding her clitoris.

  “You don’t seem to need much patience,” Ari murmured against her lips.

  “Not this time,” Eva agreed.

  Ari shifted down between her legs, his fingers withdrawing, and every nerve in Eva’s body seemed to tingle with anticipation as she felt the thick, hard heat of his erection rubbing against her labia. She moaned out as Ari thrust into her all at once, filling her up in an instant.

  “Oh—oh, fuck.” Eva wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing her hips down to meet his thrust. Almost immediately, Ari began to move inside of her, rocking deeper and deeper, rubbing along her inner walls.

  Eva fell into his rhythm, thinking once again—for as long as she could think—that it was amazing how well they moved together, how perfect he felt inside of her. She trembled in Ari’s arms, touching and kissing him everywhere she could reach, twisting and writhing underneath him as every movement of their bodies together brought her closer and closer to orgasm.

  Ari kissed her again and again until she was breathless, trailing his lips down to her breasts and back up to her lips. “God, Eva—you feel even better than I remembered,” he murmured against her neck as he began to thrust harder and faster inside of her.

  All at once, the tension deep down between her hips seemed to almost snap, and Eva cried out, words tumbling past her lips as wave after wave crashed through her. She barely felt Ari’s cock inside of her beginning to twitch, she was so lost to the sensations coursing through her body; but when Ari moaned into her shoulder, shuddering against her, Eva felt the sticky-slick gush of his climax inside of her.

  She gasped and panted, slick with sweat and trembling with the aftereffects of her climax. On top of her, Eva felt Ari’s delicious weight, the heat of his body sinking into her.

  “That was amazing,” he murmured.

  Eva nodded breathlessly. “It was.”

  “Give me fifteen minutes and we can do it again,” Ari suggested.

  Eva chuckled. “I need twenty at least.”

  Instead of going at it again, they slowly maneuvered themselves, shifting until Eva found herself wrapped up tightly in Ari’s arms, eyes closed, enjoying the delicious crackle and tingle of pleasure still coursing through her nerves. Her breathing slowed, and while Eva told herself that she should go back home, it didn’t seem at all urgent; the bed was so comfortable, and Ari’s body felt so good pressed against hers that the thought of getting up was impossible to entertain. She slipped from a doze into a deep, contented sleep.

  Hours later, she woke up. For a moment, Eva was completely disoriented, but then the events of the night before crackled through her brain and she turned over in the bed, looking at Ari, still asleep. Oh God. This was a terrible idea.

  She slid underneath the sheets, shifting away from the Greek. Having sex with him again was the very last thing I should have done. She glanced at Ari again, and wanted to scream at herself.

  At some point during the night, she had had a dream: in it, Ari had confessed to her that he had been absolutely infatuated with her from first sight, and that his scheme of pretending that she was his wife had been nothing more than an excuse to convince her to spend time with him.

  Eva covered her face with her hands and sighed. I like him. I more than like him. And it’s not just that he’s the best lay I’ve ever had, either.

  She shook her head and carefully slid out from between the sheets, needing to get away from the Greek and all of the complicated emotions that just the sight, the presence of him, evoked. Get a hold of yourself. You’re in this to keep from getting sued—once it’s over you and Ari Christodoulou will part ways and you’ll never hear from him again.

  As Eva gathered up her clothes and began to get dressed, she couldn’t help but feel sad at the advice she’d given herself. The dream lingered in her mind, even as she found her purse and quietly left the room.

  Chapter Ten

  The Hyde Park dining room at The London had been completely transformed; as Eva stepped into the room at Ari’s side, she took in the bunting and banners, the decorative touches that the staff had implemented in the name of one of their most appreciative and loyal clients.

  Eva still wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the details of their pending dinner with the royal family; Ari had reserved the entire building—in spite of the fact that they were only using the one room. For the next three hours, The London would be empty of everyone but the staff, Ari, herself, and their guests.

  She glanced at Ari, taking a deep breath as they approached the table where the members of Al-Akanish Shipping had already settled. She was in a dress so expensive that even during the fattest days of her previous life as a con artist, she wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Ari had had his personal assistant buy her matching shoes and coordinating jewelry as well—including the engagement and wedding ring that she would need so as to pretend to be his wife.

  She felt the familiar frisson of nervousness that always came to her in the moment before she made a pitch, or got into the moment of a new scam; there was the lurch in her stomach, the certainty that when it came down to it, she would forget every single detail that she was supposed to remember. Her hand tightened on Ari’s and he glanced at her.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Eva said, nodding ever so slightly. She knew that she looked as beautiful as anything short of surgery could make her; she had spent hours in a salon earlier in the day, being primped and primed, made up and styled. She looked flawless—as anyone would expect a wife of a billionaire to be.

  Eva looked at their assembled guests and carefully apprised them one by one: they were mostly men, with two women at the table as well, and Eva wondered if the women were siblings or wives.

  She had suggested to Ari that it might be a good idea for her to research their guests in more detail, to have some conversational gambits to turn to, but Ari had pointed out that it would be in keeping with her status as his wife to know only a few things about his clients—he had always kept his personal and professional lives separate.

  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” Ari said as they came to the table. He inclined his head towards each of the representatives, drawing Eva closer. “You know who I am already, but I would love to introduce you all to my wife, Eva.”

>   “Pleased to meet you,” Eva said, nodding at each of the members of the royal family. Ari pulled her seat out and Eva carefully sat herself down, mentally performing a last-minute skim through the information she had assembled over the course of the week.

  “How did the two of you meet?”

  Eva glanced at Ari, fighting back the urge to grin at him.

  Taking turns, they told the story they had concocted. They were still talking when the servers came to the table to take everyone’s orders, and Eva was glad for the interruption—it lessened the chance that anyone would think too hard about the story of their meeting.

  The dinner moved forward, and Eva’s initial nerves faded as she spoke more and more, exchanging small talk with different members of the party at their table even as Ari discussed weightier business matters. She found herself remembering details that she would never have imagined possible—things that she had learned in random, idle conversation at the bar they’d gone to, during their first tryst together, and in the relaxed moments between quizzing each other.

  “Your life seems like it would be very interesting,” one of the guests at the table remarked. “The wife of a billionaire.”

  Eva grinned at the man, reaching out and touching Ari’s hand in a show of affection that wasn’t difficult to perform. She had struggled with the conflict of her feelings towards the Greek ever since she had first recognized them. She had given herself permission to indulge at least her craving for contact with the man, if only in public.

  “Does your wife find it interesting?” Eva asked. “Whenever I can pry Ari away from his work, we have good times together.”

  “What do you like to do together?”

  Eva cast her mind back to the things Ari had said that he liked to do.

  “Well, of course, no two people have exactly the same interests,” Eva explained. “But we like to go to concerts together, and of course, Ari has his boat. Whenever the weather is nice enough, we love to go out on that.”