Chapter 30
ILIAS
Hold my Girl – George Ezra
Annoyed was an understatement.
Seeing how that asshole Thomas still had emotional power over Sofia made Ilias want to punch his smug face into the ground. His therapist would say that behavior wasn’t good for his progress, but fucking hell, did he deserve it?
They were in their room above the conference center.
Nothing fancy, but the view of the ocean helped keep his fists in check.
Two twin beds, and Sofia sat on one, laptop open on a video call with Elvira, her co-founder and now aware of their fake arrangment due to Thomas’ threat; Gabriella, her sister and lawyer; and Jamie, TerraVive’s manager.
The conversation had flipped to English as soon as Jamie joined. Ilias was now seated beside Sofia, his head resting on her shoulder while she waved her arms in frustration.
“How the fuck did he know about the 200k fund from TerraVive? Have we been hacked? Did someone snitch?”
His hand found her thigh, out of the camera’s view. He traced slow, soothing circles with his fingers. She started to fumble her words, flustered, until her hand shot down and stopped his.
“You’re distracting me,” she hissed in Spanish.
“I’m trying to calm you,” he whispered back, grinning.
Elvira took the lead, explaining that she had no clue how the information leaked. The new marine biologist they hired didn’t even have access to that data.
“I’ll look into it,” Jamie said. “Everyone calm down. You two—go work the crowd and act as disgustingly in love as possible. Gabriella, I’ll send you the contract if you want to review it. Elvira, please use TerraVive’s money and hire cybersecurity for Salacia. We need to seal this shit up.”
Everyone murmured in agreement.
Before the call ended, Gabriella looked at them, head tilted.
“Are you still faking it?” she asked in Spanish.
“Yes, why?” Sofia’s voice came out too high-pitched to be convincing.
“Because you two are very believable,” Gabriella grinned, and Elvira nodded mischievously.
“Vaffanculo,” Sofia muttered under her breath. “Alright. Let’s do what Jamie said. We’ll find answers later.”
They waved goodbye and ended the call. Sofia closed her laptop and slumped back onto the bed. He lay down beside her.
“Ready, habiba?”
“Why does that man always want the worst for me?” she asked, voice heavy. “Can’t he just leave me alone?”
“He looks like a guy who thrives on control. He’s obsessed with power. Admit it, did he have a tiny dick?”
Sofia burst out laughing, shaking her head, but didn’t answer. That only made Ilias more curious. Too accurate? Maybe.
“Let’s go,” she said, scrambling to her feet. “We’ve got a show to put on. Do you remember the story we made up, how we met, first kiss, all that?”
Ilias stood with a smirk. “You know it’s basically just the truth, right? We met in Ericeira, at your clean-up. We hit it off—”
“I hated you.”
“Yet we still hit it off,” he said, grabbing his sunglasses and heading toward the door. “Then we fell madly in love and followed each other wherever we could.”
“Good,” Sofia replied as he closed the room door behind them.
Ilias laced their fingers together as they made their way toward the conference room. Sofia smiled and waved politely at people passing by, but there was still that shyness to her that made him want to protect her and press her up against a wall at the same time.
Outside the main room, a long line snaked around the building. Teddy, the event organizer, waved them over.
“We have another panel finishing up inside. These people are all waiting for you. Isn’t that exciting?”
People in line called their names. They waved. Sofia looked like a deer in headlights. Ilias, on the other hand, was used to it. He’d been signing autographs and posing for selfies since he won his first title.
“I’m letting you lead this autograph bullshit,” Sofia muttered in Spanish.
“Hope one day you’ll let me lead in other ways,” he replied, low enough that only she could hear.
The flustered flush in her cheeks was all he needed to know she got the innuendo. And she wasn’t hating it.
When the conference doors opened, Thomas walked out, surrounded by a group of stiff-suited, polished assholes laughing like they owned the world.
Ilias instinctively pulled Sofia closer. She leaned into him, stiff and upright, but calm.
“Look, it’s Doctor Moretti Gómez,” Thomas sneered. “Remember her? She helped build our research and then ran off to start a boat business in Portugal.”
The people around him chuckled.
“And then, of course, she made an even worse decision pretending to be in love with a surfer.”
The laughter doubled.
“What’s your problem, dude?” Ilias snapped.
Thomas smiled, razor-sharp. “Just fascinated by how far Sofia’s fallen. Faking a PR relationship with you? You must be proud.”
“I love him,” Sofia said.
And Ilias’ heart stopped for half a second. Was she lying? Acting? Probably. Yeah, it had to be part of the script.
But the words still hit him like a wave.
“He understands me,” she added. “He listens to me, something you never did. So, stop bullying us, stop playing puppet-master, and go gloat with your rich friends—hi, Paola—and maybe, maybe, try doing your own damn research instead of stealing it from others.”
“Defamation.”
“Is it?” Sofia folded her arms. “Whatever. Let everyone come out so we can start our panel.”
“They’re all out,” Teddy whispered to them.
A grin bloomed on Ilias’ face as Thomas turned red with irritation.
“Let’s go in, habiba,” he said, wrapping his arm around Sofia and guiding her forward.
But Thomas stepped in, hand pressing into Ilias’ chest. “You’re going down. You and your little useless surf project.”
Ilias saw red.
He was going to swing. He needed to.
But once again, Sofia stepped between them.
“Are you obsessed with us, Thomas?” she spat. “Get a fucking life.”
And with that, she pulled Ilias toward the doors. They followed Teddy into the conference room as people filtered in. When they were finally alone at the front, waiting for the panel to begin, Sofia turned to him.
“He’s baiting you,” she said, her voice sharp. “You can’t fall for it.”
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, raking a hand through his curls. “I didn’t expect—”
“It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll figure out what he’s up to. But for now, it’s just us, okay? We’ve got a room to win over.”
“It’s us against the world, habiba.”
Sofia wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug.
“I’m glad you walked into my life,” she whispered.
And before he could say a single word, she turned and began chatting with Teddy, already wearing that perfect composed smile.
He stared at her for a moment longer.
God, he was fucked.