Sold to the Hottest Bidder

by Layla Valentine

  Think, Eva. Think! She looked around as she stepped into the lobby, slowing her forward momentum to avoid drawing attention to herself.

  Eva’s searching gaze landed on a group of people standing off to the side in the lobby. She spotted Mahmood Al Akanish arguing with one of the other men in the group and her heart stuttered in her chest, a mixture of excitement and nervousness flooding through her. Her knees felt weak, but she strode forward anyway; this was the best chance she could possibly have hoped for: the entire group seemed to be waiting for their departure, not isolated in rooms.

  “Excuse me? Excuse me!” Eva threw back her shoulders and advanced towards Mahmood, keeping her gaze on him even as the security detail moved to intercept her, silent and stoic. “If I could please just have a moment of your time, Mr. Al Akanish,” Eva called out. “Five minutes—that’s all I ask.”

  After a tense moment, Mahmood Al Akanish stepped forward, saying something to the guards that had moved between himself and Eva. The guards stepped to the side, and Mahmood peered at Eva closely. “You must be very brave or very stupid,” he said coolly.

  “I am probably both, though right now I’m thinking slightly more on the stupid side,” Eva said, smiling nervously. She took a deep breath. “I couldn’t live with myself if you left without me at least attempting to explain the situation that ended so poorly last night.”

  “I’m not sure that it needs explanation,” Mahmood said. He glanced at some of the other members of the royal family and shrugged. “But I will hear what you have to say. Our driver is delayed.”

  “Thank you,” Eva said. She licked her lips; everything that she had thought to say, every word she had rehearsed on the drive into the city fled from her mind. “I know that you were expecting to see a reformed, serious man,” Eva began. “I know because Ari himself told me. And I understand that lying to you—creating this fake marriage—was deeply insulting.”

  Mahmood began to speak, but Eva plowed forward, the words tumbling out of her with little discretion or thought. “I met Ari at an open house,” she explained. “There was a misunderstanding between us—it was partly pride, and partly ignorance on both of our parts, but there was a…difficulty with the realtor involved. I ended up accidentally putting myself in a position to owe a realtor one hundred million dollars.”

  One of the women snickered, but when Eva glanced quickly in her direction, she saw sympathy in the woman’s eyes.

  “When I contacted Ari for help, he informed me that the businessmen and women…” she nodded to the rest of the Al Akanish delegation, “that he was attempting to make a deal with took family and business very seriously, and he asked me to pretend to be his wife, so as to demonstrate to you that he values your opinion.” Eva paused, uncertain of how to proceed.

  “One hundred million dollars?” Mahmood asked.

  Eva nodded. “Which he promised to pay, to make sure that the realtor wouldn’t have grounds to sue me,” she said, shaking her head ruefully. “As I’m sure you’ve likely figured out, I do not have a hundred million dollars.”

  “How long have you known him?” one of the women asked.

  Eva smiled wryly. “A little over a week,” she admitted. “But please believe me when I tell you that in that week, with both of us working as hard as possible, I have come to know the man that Ari Christodoulou really is.”

  She blinked a few times, feeling the tears starting to form in her eyes and struggling to keep them at bay. “I know that it was never his intention to insult you; he wanted to honor you, to abide by the idea you held of him, and the expectations you have of someone that you would do business with.”

  Eva took another quick breath, glancing at the various members of the board. “I came here to speak to you because I hope that you are all understanding enough to realize that Ari desperately wanted your approval. He has wanted to form a partnership with your company for years. He made an error in judgment in lying to you—but I’m sure that there have been things that you’ve wanted desperately enough to lie, even to such a degree as he did.” Eva caught a glimpse of one of the other men in the group smiling—just for an instant. “Please, reconsider the deal. I know that you won’t regret working with him.”

  “Thank you for your honesty, Miss…” Mahmood frowned. Eva—realizing that she had been introduced to him as Mrs. Christodoulou—chuckled ruefully.

  “Johansen,” she said. “Eva Johansen.”

  “I appreciate you coming to me, explaining what happened.” Mahmood glanced at his family members briefly and then turned his attention back onto Eva. There was the faintest trace of amusement in his eyes, a slight—almost invisible—twitch to the corners of his lips. “I think that there has been a misunderstanding all around,” he said.

  “I—has there?” Eva frowned in confusion.

  “We didn’t expect for Mr. Christodoulou to be married,” Mahmood said. “We had hoped to find him a mature and stable businessman, but there are many ways to demonstrate that—not just by being a family man. My own brother…” he gestured to one of the other members of the group, “is a bachelor at forty, and he is one of the sharpest businessmen I know.”

  Eva smiled. “I remember him having some very pointed questions about Ari’s strategy and tactics,” she said, inclining her head towards the man.

  “In any case,” Mahmood said, “none of us expected for Mr. Christodoulou to be married. The reason we left the way we did, and the reason that we rejected the deal, was because we were lied to.”

  One of the women stepped forward, then. “We considered it a grave insult,” she said, glancing at Mahmood. “Mostly because—as you’ve said—family is very important to us.” The woman’s green eyes gleamed with amusement. “But you have to admit, Mahmood, that a man who would spend one hundred million dollars, and spend a week getting to know someone so thoroughly, shows dedication.”

  Mahmood smiled. “Azita makes an excellent point.” He looked around at the other members of the family. “I believe that knowing what we do now, we can deal with Mr. Christodoulou.”

  Eva stared for a moment in shock; she had hoped—she had nearly prayed—that the family would reconsider the situation once they knew the truth. But hearing from the leader of the business himself that the deal would likely go forward was more than she ever would have expected.

  “Eva? What are you doing here?”

  Eva turned on her heel at the sound of Ari’s voice, and saw the Greek striding towards the Al Akanish group, a startled look on his face.

  “This lovely lady was just explaining to us what happened last night—and the week before,” Mahmood said.

  Ari didn’t quite stumble, but he came to a stop, his eyes widening.

  “Eva?” Ari looked at her and then at Mahmood once again.

  “She told us about the agreement you made and the reason that you made it,” Mahmood said.

  “We were very impressed to hear about the lengths to which you were willing to go in order to impress us,” Azita added.

  “The lengths…” Ari shook his head. “You told them everything?”

  Eva felt her cheeks burning. “Not quite everything,” she admitted. “But the relevant parts.” She looked at the members of the royal family. “And the truth in all of those parts.” Azita gave her a knowing look.

  “We’re pleased to have our misunderstanding corrected,” Mahmood told Ari. “The deal was a good one before we felt as though we’d been insulted; it remains a good one now that we understand what your intentions were.”

  “What brings you to the hotel, Mr. Christodoulou?” Azita tilted her head slightly to the side. “Did you come to explain as well?”

  Ari shook his head. “I came to wish you safe travels and a comfortable flight,” he said, shaking off the shock of the news. Eva stood back as Ari conferred with the members of the delegation—Mahmood in particular—and began to work out a schedule for making their deal to move forward.

  “We will have to meet again, at
a later time,” Mahmood suggested, shaking Ari’s hand. “Our driver appears to have finally arrived, and we have our plane waiting for us.”

  “Of course, of course,” Ari said, nodding quickly. “I will be in touch to confirm another meeting—perhaps it would be more convenient if I came to you in a few weeks to sign the contracts?”

  “Absolutely,” Mahmood said, nodding. “We will be honored to have you as our guest, and will feed you as well as you did us.”

  The group departed then, flanked by their security guards, and Eva and Ari looked on until their limo pulled out into the downtown traffic.

  A moment later, Ari sat down in a chair as if his legs were about to give out, and Eva rushed to him, concerned. “Are you okay? Are you mad at me?”

  “Mad at you?” Ari looked up at her, shaking his head in disbelief. “I am the furthest thing in the world from being mad at you right now.”

  Eva sat down next to him, still shocked. “I thought you might have considered it overstepping my boundaries,” she admitted. “But I just couldn’t let them go without doing something. It’s partly my fault we got found out.”

  “I can’t believe you pulled it off,” Ari said, laughing softly as he shook his head again. “I can’t believe it. What did you tell them?”

  “The truth,” Eva insisted. “Most of it, anyway.” She smiled wryly. “I told them about how we actually met, and the agreement we made, and why you were so committed to the lie in the first place.”

  Ari held her gaze for a long moment, and Eva wondered if he was going to kiss her or yell at her.

  “I need to show you something,” Ari said finally. “I assume you’re free for the afternoon?”

  Eva stared at him in confusion.

  “Yeah,” she said, nodding slowly. “I’m free.”

  Chapter Twelve

  As the cab wove through the Manhattan traffic, Eva wondered if a person could actually die from curiosity; Ari had said nothing about where they were going, or what he wanted to show her, merely insisting that he would explain when they arrived at their destination. “If you’re not angry with me, or upset at me, why can’t you tell me what you’re about to show me?”

  “Because that would ruin it,” Ari said simply. Eva thought she could see amusement in his eyes, but he glanced out through the window in the next moment. “I have some things I want to discuss with you, as well, but we need to get there first.” He looked at her for just an instant before turning his attention out through the window once more. “We’re almost there.”

  “I feel like I might actually die from not knowing,” Eva said. “I got practically no sleep last night, and then the whole thing with the Al Akanish people…” She shook her head.

  Ari turned his head and held her gaze for a long moment.

  “Okay,” he said finally. “I will tell you one thing about what we’re doing.”

  “Please.”

  “You didn’t give me much of a chance to reply to you last night, about what you said,” Ari explained.

  “Well—it wasn’t just that I didn’t give you a chance,” Eva pointed out. “There was the whole issue of the eavesdropper that interfered.” She frowned. “Why would you need to reply?”

  “For a lot of reasons,” Ari said with a slight smile. “I wanted to answer to a few of the things you said.”

  “Go ahead, then,” Eva said, feeling a mixture of confusion, doubt, and hope.

  “The first thing is that I want to apologize—deeply, truly apologize—for giving you the impression that things were nothing but business between us. At least…on my end.”

  “You know how I feel,” Eva protested. “I told you.”

  Ari nodded. “I do know how you feel. But you don’t know how I feel, because I didn’t get a chance to explain.”

  “I’ll be quiet then,” Eva said wryly.

  “I wanted to tell you that I feel the same way,” Ari told her quietly. “If I had thought that you actually wanted to see me—really see me, not just as my pretend wife, but as the woman I love—then I would have told you right away, instead of trying to invent an excuse to keep seeing you.”

  Eva stared at Ari in shock.

  “You—you have feelings for me?”

  Ari grinned. “You cannot be a very good con artist—or all that great at reading people—if you couldn’t tell that I am absolutely and stupidly in love with you,” he said.

  “You’re in love with me? But we’ve only known each other for a week!”

  Ari laughed. “Eva, we spent that week getting to know each other well enough to pretend to be married. I think we know each other well enough to know if we’re in love.”

  Eva considered that for a moment and then laughed, shaking her head.

  “You’re right,” she agreed.

  Before she could say anything more, Ari’s arms wrapped around her, and he pulled her face up to his for a passionate kiss. Eva hadn’t known how much she had wanted that kiss until she felt Ari’s lips pressed to hers, until she felt the heat of his body sinking into her through their clothes. The question of where they were going dissolved from her mind, and for a few moments Eva could only think of how good and how right it felt to be in Ari’s arms, how relieved she was to know he felt the same way that she did, how much she wished that they were somewhere alone, where she could show him just how strongly she felt.

  The car came to a stop, jolting Eva out of the sensual reverie of her embrace with Ari.

  “We’ve arrived,” the driver said, and Eva pulled back from Ari’s lips, from his body, feeling hot and cold flashes as the blood rushed through hers, flooding her face and then shifting down to her hips in a confusion of messages.

  She suddenly remembered that she had been consumed with curiosity about where Ari was taking her, and looked through the window. Ari stepped out on the other side of the cab, and Eva stared in confusion as her eyes took in the sight of the entrance of the building she had worked in a mere week before.

  The door to the cab opened, and Eva numbly accepted Ari’s hand, letting him help her up out of the back seat. She stood on the sidewalk, staring at the building, trying to understand why Ari would have brought her there. She turned, giving him a silent, querying glance.

  Ari grinned at the utter bemusement on her face. “I have a surprise for you, like I said. Come with me.”

  He took her hand and led her into the building. Eva followed in his wake, trying to work out why Ari had brought her to the place where they had first met. She remembered the apartment that had kicked off their whole relationship as he ushered her onto an elevator and pressed the button for the top floor—the penthouse apartment.

  “Why are we going to the apartment?”

  Ari’s eyes glittered with mischief and anticipation as he grinned at her.

  “You’ll see,” he said. “Stop trying to ruin my surprises.”

  Eva pressed her lips together, more questions gathering on her tongue, but she could tell that the Greek wouldn’t answer them, no matter how much she protested.

  The corridor where they emerged from the elevator was vacant—unlike the night that they’d met. Ari led her down the short hallway, and Eva felt her heart beating faster and faster with the memory of everything that had happened there: the lawsuit that the realtor wanted to bring against her, the embarrassment of having to talk to the police, the pique she had felt when Ari had seen right through her at the open house.

  Ari took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. “I picked these up this morning—I was worried I’d end up being late to see the Al Akanish group off, actually,” he explained as he opened the door and ushered Eva through it.

  “So you managed to convince her not to sue me,” Eva said with a smile, looking around at the furnished entryway and into the living room.

  “When I told her that I was more than willing to pay the hundred million you’d promised for the unit, she was happy to consider the matter settled,” Ari told her. He paused and grinned befo
re continuing. “Of course, I may have also implied that if she tried to wet her beak further by suing you on top of getting my money for the unit, I would clobber her in court with the most expensive attorney available.”

  Eva laughed, shaking her head. “I should have guessed it would come to that,” she said. “So is the surprise that you’re now the proud owner of this apartment? Because that’s not really a surprise.”

  Ari snickered. “Come into the living room,” he told her.

  Eva nodded, following him into the spacious center of the apartment. It was exactly the way that she remembered it, save for the fact that the catering equipment and the people were gone. The fireplace in front of which she and Ari had engaged in a bidding war looked just as magnificent as it had before. Ari led her towards it, coming to a stop almost exactly where he had stood during their first altercation.

  “Okay, now what?”

  Ari grinned irrepressibly. “Close your eyes.”

  Eva sighed. “You’re really milking this, I hope you realize that.”

  “Just close your eyes, Eva.”

  She did as she was told, and heard a muted, metallic clatter.

  “Hold out your hand.”

  Eva hesitated for just a moment before complying. She heard the metal clink once more, and then something cold and hard connected with her palm.

  “Open your eyes.”

  Looking down into her hand, Eva saw a set of three keys, attached to a keychain with a tag that bore her initials.

  “What’s this?”

  Ari shook his head when she looked up to hear the answer.

  “It’s your copy of the keys to the apartment,” Ari told her, grinning broadly. “I picked them up this morning, too.”

  Eva looked from the keys to Ari, over and over again, trying to understand what he had just said.

  “You got me a copy of the keys?”

  Ari nodded, still smiling.

  “You—you want me to live with you?”

  “I thought I had made myself clear,” Ari said. “I’m in love with you. I want to see you, not because you’re pretending to be my wife, but because I enjoy being around you.”