Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 18

Even in the darkness, I could sense his hesitation.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." I swallowed hard. "Please."

I heard him get up, his footsteps soft against the carpet. The mattress dipped slightly as he lay down beside me, keeping a respectful distance.

The heat of his body was palpable even without touching. My heartbeat slowed, despite another flash of lightning briefly illuminating the room. The thunder that followed didn't feel quite as terrifying now.

"Better?" he asked, his voice gentler than I'd ever heard it.

"Yes," I admitted, thankful for the dark hiding the blush on my face.

We lay in silence for a while, only the sound of the rain hammering against the windows filling the room.

"So… storms?" Christian finally asked, amusement lacing his tone. "Never figured you'd be afraid of something."

"Everyone's afraid of something."

"And yours is storms. Why?"

I sighed, rolling onto my side to face him in the dim light.

"It's a ridiculous story."

"Now you have to tell me."

I rolled my eyes, even though he probably couldn't see.

"When I was eight, my cousin Edward dared me to explore the storage room during a storm." I paused, the memory surprisingly vivid. "He said ghosts appear when it rains hard."

Christian let out a low chuckle.

"And you believed him?"

"I was eight!" I protested, swatting what I hoped was his arm. "Anyway, we were in this dusty old storage room my dad used for junk, when a lightning bolt struck really close to the house. The lights went out, and I swear I saw something moving in the dark."

"A ghost?"

"A cat. But at the time, I screamed so loud I tripped and fell off a wooden ladder my dad kept there. He used it to reach the higher shelves."

Christian laughed outright now.

"Did you get hurt?"

"Broke my arm. And ever since, every time a storm starts, I remember that moment of absolute terror."

A louder crash of thunder made me instinctively edge closer to him. His hand found mine in the dark, fingers lacing with mine in a steady, grounding gesture.

"No ghost-cat's gonna get you," he murmured, and even without seeing, I could hear the smile in his voice.

I laughed, surprised at how safe I felt at his side.

"Your turn," I said after a beat.

"My turn?"

"To tell me something embarrassing. Fair's fair."

He was quiet for so long I thought he wasn't going to answer.

"Christian?"

"When I was twelve, I fell into a pool trying to impress my grandfather's business partner's daughter." A soft laugh escaped him. "The problem was, I didn't know how to swim."

I gasped.

"What happened?"

"The gardener saved me. I coughed up water for an hour and swore off pools for a while."

I smiled in the dark, picturing a younger Christian being dragged out of the water.

"And you got over the trauma."

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