Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 300

Chapter 300

I said goodbye to my sister and set my phone carefully back on the little side table, sinking deeper into the warm, perfumed water. Steam drifted around me in soft curls, the whole room wrapped in that dreamy, fragrant haze that made me feel like I was floating on a scented cloud. From somewhere in the kitchen, I could faintly hear sounds-Nate, probably putting together our improvised meal, arranging everything with the same quiet attention to detail he always had.

Minutes slipped by peacefully, marked only by the soft whir of the hydromassage jets and the distant hum of London below. But slowly, I started to register something: he was taking longer than usual.

My original plan for this bath-well, the bath had only been phase one of a very specific sequence I’d carefully crafted in my head. The idea was: relax in the tub while he finished up in the kitchen… then have a much more physical, deliciously intimate “workout” once he joined me. Except an absolutely crucial part of this carefully curated plan was missing: the gorgeous Englishman who was supposed to be joining me any minute.

And now the water was starting to cool just enough to lose that perfect melt-into-it temperature. Plus, honestly, as luxurious as this bath was, I preferred his company to being alone.

I rose slowly from the tub, water streaming down my body as I reached for the soft, ridiculously expensive towel Nate always kept warming on the heated rack. I wrapped myself in the silk robe he kept in the bathroom specifically for me-another one of those thoughtful gestures that showed how intentionally he made me in his life.

space

for

Barefoot, I padded out of the bathroom toward the bedroom, feeling the cold marble floor give way to the plush rug spread over the polished wood.

I found Nate in the room, standing near the king-size bed, holding his phone like it was a bomb about to go off. Something in his posture stopped me cold. His shoulders were locked in a rigid line, his face pale even under the warm golden lighting, and his whole body taut in a way I’d never seen before. Gone was the relaxed, affectionate man who had kissed me breathless not so long ago.

“Nate?” I called softly, taking a cautious step toward him. “Are you okay?”

He looked frozen, staring at the phone screen like he’d seen a ghost or read the worst possible news. For one terrible moment, panic shot through me. Was he sick? Did he get devastating family news? Something with the company?

“Nate, did something happen? Talk to me!” I pleaded, heart pounding.

He lifted his eyes to mine slowly, and what I saw there made my stomach drop. It was a mixture of deep, painful guilt, real fear, and a resigned kind of determination that terrified me more than any words could have.

Without speaking, he pressed something on the screen with fingers that were visibly trembling.

Almost instantly, as if answering whatever he’d just done, I heard the familiar ding of a notification-from my phone, still in the bathroom.

Nate simply nodded once in the direction of the sound. A small gesture. But it carried the weight of a confession, of a truth about to be exposed.

My feet moved before my mind caught up, carrying me back toward the bathroom with each step echoing far too

1/2

loudly in the suffocating silence that had settled between us like a heavy curtain.

I picked up my phone with hands that had started to shake, though I didn’t fully understand why yet. A cold premonition was blooming in my chest, dark and heavy.

I opened my messages and saw a new notification in my conversation with Wanderer-that conversation that had been my emotional safe haven for months, my secret connection with someone I thought was a mysterious, poetic stranger.

My last message was still there on the screen, staring back at me-the one I’d sent during our stay in Bath, when all those little coincidences had finally become impossible to ignore.

[Tenth question: is your name Nathaniel Carter?]

And right below it, sent just seconds ago was the answer that changed absolutely everything between us.

[Yes.]

The shock hit so fast and so hard it felt like I’d taken a punch to the stomach and another straight to the heart. My phone slipped from my fingers before I even realized I’d lost control of them, hitting the bathroom floor with a dull thud. The room tilted, spinning in a way that made me dizzy and nauseous, the edges of my vision darkening as my brain scrambled to understand the sheer magnitude of what I’d just read.

Wanderer was Nate. Nate was Wanderer.

The man I’d fallen in love with in real life was the same man I’d fallen for online. All those intimate

conversations, all those secrets shared, all that emotional closeness… he knew. He had always known who I was, while I had spent months torn between two loves who weren’t two at all… just one.

It could have been beautiful realizing the two men who had shaken my world were actually the same, if it weren’t for the fact that he had lied to me the entire time. He had used everything we built online to win me over in real life, using my own vulnerability, my own secrets, without me ever knowing.

If he was capable of that kind of manipulation, what else was he capable of? How many other lies were woven between us? What else did he know about me that I didn’t know he knew?

My legs gave out completely. I felt myself collapsing as everything around me blurred into a consuming, merciful darkness.

The last thing I registered was Nate’s distant and panicky voice, calling my name with a desperation that echoed through the fading edges of my consciousness.