Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 244

Chapter 244

Every step I took toward the glass door felt heavier. Charged. Like I was walking straight into a moment that would change something in a way I wouldn’t be able to undo later. My heartbeat sped up. Nerves and determination mixed in an electric rush under my skin.

I reached the ornate door. A cool draft slipped through the gaps, brushing over my heated skin like a quiet invitation. I lifted my hand toward the gold handle and drew a breath to steady myself.

“Look at that…”

Alexandra’s cutting voice sliced through the air behind me. Each word carried that venomous tone I had already learned to recognize.

“Ready to parade around like nothing happened out there. I’ll give you that. You’re brave. But I wonder how far that bravery goes once the entire Kensington office starts talking about you.”

I turned slowly. She stood a few meters away. Perfect posture. Perfect hair. Perfect dress clinging to her perfectly curated persona. Her red lips curved into a smile that never touched her eyes. There was something predatory in the way she watched me. A cat who’d cornered a bird and was deciding how to break its wings.

“Alexandra,” I said, keeping my tone neutral.

She approached with slow, measured steps. Her heels clicked sharply against the marble like a warning.

“You really think you can just pretend nothing happened on the terrace,” she said, each word dripping with malice. “Think you can walk around being the perfect little employee after I made it very clear to everyone exactly what kind of… relationship… you have with the COO.”

“What kind of relationship?” I asked. My own voice steadier than I expected.

“The kind where you sleep with someone more important so you can climb the ladder.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Nate has nothing to do with my professional competence.”

Alexandra laughed. A brittle, high sound that reminded me of glass cracking under pressure.

“Oh sweetheart, you really are naive, aren’t you?” she said, stepping closer. “The truth almost never matters. What matters is the story people believe. And let me make one thing clear. The closer you try to get to Nate, the more I will make sure your life turns into a nightmare.”

Her eyes gleamed with something cold and vicious.

“I can tear you down and send you crawling back to Verdania in pieces. Crying. Humiliated. And believe me. I have every resource I need to do that.”

For a second, fear tried to creep in. She was a Kensington. A rotten branch of the family tree apparently. But then Zoey’s words echoed in my mind. ‘Don’t let her win by knocking you down’.

I straightened my spine, lifted my chin, and met her stare without blinking.

“You don’t control my life, Alexandra,” I said. My voice was so calm I was surprised by myself.

Her smile widened, slow and smug.

I left Alexandra standing there and followed the shift of guests as everyone drifted toward the stage. The timing couldn’t have been more inconvenient… or more convenient. Part of me ached with frustration at having missed Nate in the gardens. Another part welcomed the break from the intensity of the night.

Onstage, Christian took center position, flanked by Kensington’s international COOS. And then I saw him-Nate stepping out from the side of the stage, composed, polished in his dark tux. He moved to stand with the other executives.

Even with the distance between us and the crowd packed between us, our eyes found each other as if pulled by gravity. In that brief lock of attention, every moment from the night crashed together. The unsaid things. The split-second choices. The almosts and the not-quites.

His expression was impossible to fully read. There was a question there. Maybe frustration that I hadn’t met him outside like he expected. But there was something else too. Something intense enough to cut clean through the crowd and settle deep in my chest.

I let out a slow sigh and gave him a tiny shrug. That silent, universal gesture of What did you expect me to do? The moment had slipped through our fingers. The timing had been wrong. Again.

Nate dipped his head almost imperceptibly. A quiet acknowledgment. A hint of understanding. Maybe even resignation. Then he turned toward Christian as he approached the microphone.

Christian’s voice filled the hall, confident and controlled as he talked about international growth and strategic partnerships. I tried to focus. I tried to look like I belonged among the guests listening politely.

But my mind kept replaying that charged look Nate and I had shared across the room.

Some moments get postponed. They don’t disappear.

And I had a feeling that ours was still to come.