Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 362

Chapter 362

Madeline’s POV

I had been wrapped in a robe on the deck, holding a glass of wine I’d barely touched, when I heard the bungalow door open. The weight of my conversation with Olivia still pressed against my chest like a knot that refused to loosen, and no matter how paradisiacal this place was, nothing seemed capable of easing the feeling that I was

wing inside a bubble about to burst.

That was when I heard familiar footsteps approaching.

Apollo walked into the bungalow with a different energy-almost radiant. He was wearing a light white linen shirt that only emphasized the tan he’d gotten under the Maldivian sun that day, and there was a satisfied smile on his face that told me his meeting had gone well.

“Aphrodite!” he called, heading toward me. “You won’t believe what I saw when I-” He stopped short when he really looked at me. “Hey. What happened?”

I tried to smile, but I knew I hadn’t managed to hide my mood completely.

“Nothing,” I said with a shrug. “I was just out here watching the sunset.”

He studied me for a moment, clearly not buying my evasive answer.

“Did you lose your sparkle while I was gone?” he teased, stopping beside my chair. “Want me to promise I’ll never leave your side again?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I replied, though I couldn’t stop a small smile from slipping through. “I was just a little tired.”

“Tired?” He raised an eyebrow. “From what? Lying in the most comfortable bed in the world, staring at the most beautiful ocean on Earth?”

“People can be tired even in paradise, Apollo.”

“Not in my paradise,” he declared with exaggerated confidence. “This is a fatigue-free zone. No melancholy allowed. Only pure happiness and… pleasure.”

“That’s not how emotions work.”

“Oh, no?” He crossed his arms, striking a theatrical pose. “So you’re challenging me?”

“I’m not challenging you.”

“I think you are,” he insisted, a mischievous glint flashing in his eyes, the kind I’d already learned meant trouble. “And I accept the challenge.”

“What challenge?”

“Making you genuinely smile within the next ten seconds.”

“Apollo-”

“This is serious, Aphrodite,” he interrupted, standing like a general about to charge into battle.

1/4

“If you don’t smile in the next ten seconds, I’ll be forced to use… extreme measures.”

“Extreme measures?” I repeated, fighting the urge to laugh at the overly serious look on his face.

“Nine seconds.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

Eight.”

“Stop it.”

“Seven. Six. Five…”

“Apollo, what are you-

“Four. Three. Two…”

Before I could finish the question or brace myself for whatever he was planning, Apollo simply scooped me up, lifting me straight out of the chair.

“One!” he shouted triumphantly.

“What are you doing?” I yelled, but I was laughing now, helplessly:

“Using extreme measures,” he replied, striding with purpose toward the private pool.

“Apollo, no!” I protested, squirming in his arms with zero real resistance because I was laughing too hard. “You are not going to—”

“I am.”

“I’m dressed!”

“And I’m not?”

Before I could argue any further, he jumped into the pool with me still in his arms. Warm water swallowed us whole, and when we resurfaced, I couldn’t stop laughing.

“You are completely insane!” I shouted, trying to sound angry, but the laughter ruined any attempt.

“It worked,” he said, swimming circles around me with a triumphant grin. “You’re laughing.”

“Because you threw me into the pool!”

“Details.” He shrugged. “What matters is the result.”

I floated there in the warm water, watching him. My clothes were completely soaked, my hair had to be a

disaster, and I probably looked like I’d been hit by a hurricane. But I was laughing. Really laughing—from deep

in

my chest, in a way I couldn’t remember doing in a long time.

The contrast was striking. Just minutes ago, I’d been sinking into heavy thoughts about my family, my future, the mess I’d left behind. And now here I was, drenched from head to toe in a pool in the Maldives, being watched by a man who had just made all my problems disappear with one impulsive act.

2/4

“What are you

“About how impossible you are,

“Good impossible or bad impossible?”

“I’m still deciding.”

we climbed out of the pool, laughing at our clothes clinging to our bodies and our tangled har

two soft towels and wrapped one around me with a care that was the complete opposite of the madness moments earlier.

We settled onto the loungers side by side, still slightly wet, watching the sun slowly sink into the horizon. There was something comforting about the silence that settled between us-it wasn’t awkward or tense. It was the kind of silence that only exists between people who feel completely at ease together.

“You know,” he said after a while, turning his head slightly toward me, “you’re even more beautiful when you really laugh.’

“I

“Was that a line?”

“It was an observation.’

“A suspicious observation.”

“All my observations about you are suspicious,” he admitted. “That doesn’t make them any less true.”

Heat crept up my neck. Even after everything we’d shared these past days, he still managed to disarm me with comments like that.

“You’re not going to ask why I was sad?” I asked.

“No,” he answered without hesitation. “If you wanted to tell me, you would have. And if you didn’t, you must have your reasons.”

The consideration surprised me. Most people would’ve insisted, pushed, asked a thousand questions. Apollo simply respected my space and focused on making me feel better.

“Thank you,” I said softly.

“For what?”

“For making me laugh. For not pushing. For… for being you.”

He turned fully toward me, looking at me with an intensity that made my heart race.

“I bet you can’t stay serious when I decide to make you smile,” he said, and there was something in his voice that was both a tease and a promise.

“That’s a dangerous bet,” I replied.

“Why?”

“Because you might be right.”

3/4