Below Deck Billionaire

Chapter 1

Few people in this world would dare give Theodorus Callisthenes – heir to ōceanós, a multi-billion-dollar Greek cruise ship company – a right royal bollocking. After all, his name meant ‘gift from God.’

Unfortunately, his brother hadn’t got the memo.

‘What. The. Fuck.’ Aristotle stormed into his office, eyes black as thunder, brandishing what seemed to be a newspaper.

Theo wasn’t alarmed. In fact, quite the opposite.

It was good to see some spark and fire in Ari after all those bleak years triggered by his first wife’s death.

Since meeting Kelsey, and marrying her three months ago, his younger brother had come back to them.

The Callisthenes family had a lot to thank the ex-cocktail waitress for and Theo would weather whatever foul mood Ari threw at him to have his brother happy again. Living again.

A woman he loved and a baby on the way.

‘I’ve just been on the phone to Dimitri Kouris who is backing out of the deal we’ve spent three months negotiating and the last three weeks putting the finer touches on, because of this.’

Ari slapped exhibit A on the desk, which turned out to be a trashy but popular tabloid rag.

With Theo – above and below the centre fold – on the front page.

It was a little grainy but for sure it was him, taken through partially open French doors, large as life, bare-ass naked, his modesty blurred out, indulging in a three-way embrace with two women, appropriate bits of them blurred but also very obviously naked.

Well… fuck.

Theo glanced at the picture dispassionately.

Once upon a time the memory would have made him smile, but all he remembered now was how his heart hadn’t really been in the experience.

Had he performed adequately? Yes. Had they gone away happy the morning after?

Yes. Had it helped him to stop thinking about her? About Tiffany?

No. It had not.

‘The online pictures are even worse.’

Theo could only imagine. ‘What can I say?’ Theo shrugged. ‘Women like me.’

His brother was clearly not in the mood for flippancy. ‘Three months,’ Ari roared, ‘down the drain because you can’t keep your cock zipped.’

The rather inappropriate urge to laugh took hold at the role reversal that was now playing out.

Not that long ago it had been him yelling at his brother to get a life.

Insisting he leave his den of grief and sending him undercover onto the Hellenic Spirit with strict orders to not only investigate what was going wrong with the cruise ship but to also have some goddamn fun for a change.

But laughter right now would be a bigger transgression than flippancy.

‘What I do in my private time is none of Dimitri’s or anyone else’s business.’

‘But it’s not private, is it?’ Ari hissed, ramming his index finger into that blurred-out segment of Theo’s anatomy. ‘It’s all over the tabloids!’

‘That’s hardly my fault.’

Why was he responsible because some pap with a zoom lens as big as the Acropolis had illegally invaded his privacy, catching him and two very lovely and very anonymous women in flagrante inside a hotel room in what was an entirely consensual tryst?

‘Oh, don’t be so fucking naive,’ Ari snapped. ‘You’re a rich, Greek playboy that the tabloids love to exploit for clicks. Shut your goddamn doors.’

Calmly folding the paper, Theo dumped it in the bin under his desk before rising from his chair and crossing to the expansive glass panelling that afforded him a bird’s-eye view across the Athens skyline.

The clutter of buildings both new and ancient sat cheek by jowl, dominated by the rise of the Acropolis and the crumbled majesty of the Parthenon sitting atop the rocky outcrop.

In the distance he could see the frenetic shipping activity at Piraeus and the sparkling water of the Aegean beyond.

From his luxuriously appointed penthouse office suite, he felt like a god, surveying the Callisthenes empire. Like Zeus staring down from Mount Olympus. And it never failed to swell his chest with pride in his family and love for his country.

But lately… now? He just felt restless. And unfocused. Like there was more to life than a shipping empire and this million-dollar view.

Sliding in beside him, Ari folded his arms and also stared out the window.

He didn’t say anything for long moments, as transfixed as Theo as they stood side by side in brotherly solidarity.

They spent a lot of time doing this, just standing here admiring the view together recognising in silence how blessed they’d been in life.

The Callisthenes family had come a long way from the moment their pappou had taken his pappou ’s struggling tender business – which he’d traded for several small fishing boats at the age of twenty – to an international juggernaut.

‘You know as well as I do,’ Ari said eventually, his tone more conciliatory, addressing the window, not Theo, ‘how eye-wateringly conservative Dimitri is. And as long-term friends of Marco Konstantinides, he already wasn’t your biggest fan.’

Konstantinides. The name jabbed the spot inside that no amount of sexual shenanigans or three-way trysts could erase.

He was thirty-five years old and still felt the guilt and shame of what had happened when he was eighteen.

Angelika Konstantinides had well and truly moved on, finding happiness with a family of her own, but many, it seemed, had not.

‘What’s the old man playing at?’ Theo didn’t address his brother, either. ‘We don’t need him. He needs us. He would cut off his nose to spite his face?’

‘Probably. Yes. He’s as proud as he is conservative.’

‘We’re trying to throw him a lifeline.’

Dimitri, an old friend of Yanis Callisthenes – Theo and Ari’s grandfather – ran a successful but comparatively small charter business.

Or he had anyway. It was now seriously on the rocks and taking on water.

It was only a matter of time before it went under.

And the old curmudgeon seemed determined to go down with it.

But what of the fate of his almost three hundred employees? ōceanós could easily absorb the Kouris company and give them the lifeline they desperately needed.

‘I wouldn’t put it past him to go with one of our competitors.’

Frustration boiled in Theo’s gut. ‘But they’ll break his company up and sell it off bit by bit. We’ll keep it intact and running and get it turning a profit again. He knows this.’

Damn it, if it were up to Theo he’d cut the old fool loose.

Let him fuck around and find out just how much worse off his company would be if one of the sharks ominously circling was to swallow it whole.

Theo Callisthenes would look like a goddamn angel by the time the snack-sized Kouris empire had been devoured.

But they’d promised their grandfather they would get this done. And as Ari kept reminding him – it made good business sense.

‘He’s a Greek man of a certain age, which means he’s bull-headed and used to having things go his way. This whole experience had humbled him and he’s angry and wounded and looking for any excuse to not take charity from one of his oldest friends.’

‘Charity?’ Theo snorted. ‘The price he’s asking for that lemon is extortionate.’

Ari fell silent, obviously not, as the CFO, prepared to dispute Theo’s statement even though he knew it to be right and they both stared at the view for long moments.

‘What’s up with you?’ Ari asked, finally interrupting the silence.

Feeling his brother’s gaze on his profile, Theo muttered dismissively, ‘I’m fine.’ Because if he knew the answer to that he’d be doing something about it. None of the usual things – partying, sailing and polo – were working any more.

‘No, you’re not. You’ve been acting like the world’s supply of available women is about to run out and you’re trying to get to every single one of them. I mean… you’ve always been ridiculously horny, but this is extra even for you. You’re out of control.’

Theo clenched his jaw. His brother’s summary hit a little too close to the bone. ‘I’m not,’ he ground out, tension creeping into his neck and shoulders. After fucking up badly when he was younger, Theo maintained ruthless control over his sex life.

One and done.

‘Yes. You are. It’s like you’re on goddamn heat or something. What happened?’

‘Nothing happened.’ Do not think about Tiffany. Do. Not . ‘You’re just jealous because you’ll only ever sleep with the one woman for the rest of your days.’

Instead of feeling chastised or insulted, Ari threw his head back and laughed like it was the dumbest comeback he’d ever heard. ‘Theo, Theo, Theo.’ Ari clapped him on the shoulder. ‘One day you’re going to learn that there is something better than sex.’

‘Let me guess.’ Theo held the back of his palm to his forehead for dramatic effect as he slipped his hand across his heart. ‘Stroking the belly of your pregnant wife?’

That was not for Theo. He’d taken care of that potential a long time ago, getting a vasectomy at the age of twenty-two.

‘Close.’ Ari grinned. ‘Sex with a woman you love.’

Theo rolled his eyes. His brother always had been a one-woman guy. Unlike himself, who’d been team one-night stand ever since the fiasco with Angelika. ‘Now you sound like Pappou.’

Their grandparents had been married for over sixty years and were still madly in love. Openly affectionate and utterly content in each other’s company, they extolled the virtues of love, marriage and monogamy with all the zeal of cult members. His parents had also sipped the Kool-Aid.

Ari grinned. ‘That’s because he knows what he’s talking about.’

Sex with love. Something Theo had avoided at all costs and yet, after keeping her firmly out of his brain for this conversation, he was suddenly thinking about Tiffany.

Again.

Tiffany, who he hadn’t had to have the conversation with because she hadn’t been there the next morning when he’d woken. Tiffany, who hadn’t returned his messages or even, apparently, asked after him. Tiffany, who’d returned his flowers.