Free The Greek Billionaire's Counterfeit Bride by Lara Hunter, Evelyn Troy Page A

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