Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 460

Chapter 460

Marcus’ POV

I watched Madeline walk away from the hall, my frustration growing by the second. I had no idea what I’d done to deserve that icy treatment. I was seriously considering going after her when I felt someone step up beside me.

“Trouble in paradise?” Dante asked casually, appearing with two glasses of wine and offering one to me.

“Something like that,” I muttered, taking the glass but never taking my eyes off the door Madeline had disappeared through.

“I don’t know what you did,” he went on, “but I’m on her side. Women are always right.”

“What? You don’t even know-”

“Let me guess,” Dante cut in, leaning against the wall in that deliberately casual pose he’d perfected over the years. “She’s having one of those inexplicable female mood swings? Loves you one minute, acts like you’re radioactive the next?”

I looked at my cousin with a mix of amusement and exasperation.

“It’s not exactly-”

“Of course it is,” Dante interrupted, with the confidence of a man who believed himself an expert. “Look, cousin, I’ve been through this more times than I can count. Women are complex, mysterious creatures. The key is not trying to understand them.”

“Dante…”

“No, no, let me finish,” he said, gesturing dramatically with his glass. “You’re making the classic mistake of a man in love. You’re trying to decode every look, every sigh, every mood shift. Total waste of time, man!”

I laughed despite myself. There was something oddly comforting about the absolute simplicity of Dante’s worldview, even knowing it was completely wrong.

“The formula is simple,” Dante continued, clearly slipping into professor mode. “Flowers. Chocolate. A romantic dinner. And if none of that works, jewelry always fixes things. Good sex helps too. Though I can’t say whether you’re an expert in that department…”

I laughed out loud, slowly shaking my head.

“You’re giving serious relationship advice based on… what? Your one-night stands?”

“Hey!” Dante protested, feigning offense. “Some of my conquests lasted several nights. A whole week once!”

“A whole week,” I repeated, shaking my head. “Impressive commitment.”

“Exactly! And in each of those deep, meaningful relationships, I learned something valuable about the female psyche.”

“Like what?”

Dante paused dramatically, as if he were about to reveal the secrets of the universe.

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“Never ask ‘what’s wrong?’ when she says nothing’s wrong,” Dante declared. “It’s a trap, cousin. A deadly trap.

11

“Dante, you do realize you’re talking about my wife, not some girl I met at a bar, right?”

“Wife, girlfriend, casual fling,” Dante shrugged. “In the end, they’re all part of the same beautiful, seductive, mysterious species. The only difference is the level of complication.”

I watched my cousin gesturing animatedly as he laid out his absurd relationship theories, and something clicked. Not that long ago, I’d been exactly where he was. The confident womanizer, only interested in uncomplicated fun, convinced that understanding women was impossible and unnecessary. As long as we were having a good time, that was enough.

And now… now I was in a relationship that had started as a matter of convenience and turned into something infinitely more complex and meaningful. I was trying to navigate feelings I hadn’t even known I was capable of, with a woman who managed to leave me completely disoriented and utterly fascinated at the same time.

One moment, Madeline was completely in love-melting into my arms, laughing at my jokes, looking at me like I was the best thing that had ever happened to her. The next, she was irritated, building emotional walls, refusing to talk, acting as if my presence caused her actual pain.

But even with all the confusion, all the emotional unpredictability that drove me crazy, I couldn’t imagine my life without her. We had an incredible connection-in bed, in spirit, in everyday life. Conversations that lasted for hours. Comfortable silences. Intimacy that went far beyond the physical.

Maybe I hadn’t chosen to marry her for traditional reasons. But I had every reason in the world to want to keep that relationship. She was carrying my child, or at least the child I had chosen as mine, regardless of DNA.

11

‘…and that’s why you should never, ever buy red flowers after your first fight,” Dante was saying. “Red is too intense. Light pink says ‘I’m sorry.’ Red says ‘let’s have wild sex.’ You don’t want to mix up the message.”

“Dante,” I interrupted, turning to him with sudden clarity.

“Yeah?”

“You know something? You’re a Kensington. This is going to happen to you too.”

“What?”

“First Christian, now me… your time’s coming.”

Dante frowned, genuinely confused.

“What are you talking about?”

around us,

“makes any

“Finding the love of your life and realizing none of this,” I gestured vaguely at the party sense anymore. All these casual conquests. All these games. This whole philosophy that women are incomprehensible…”

“Why are you cursing me?” Dante laughed, though there was a nervous edge to it.

“If that’s a curse,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “it’s the best one anyone could ever put on me.”

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And with that, I took off after Madeline, leaving Dante standing there with an expression somewhere between confused and slightly terrified by the possibility that I might be right.

I ran through the cold corridors, my breath forming small clouds in the night air. I needed to talk to her. Needed to understand what had changed so drastically between us. Needed to figure out how to fix whatever was broken.

When I pushed open the door to our cabin, I was met with silence and darkness.

“Madeline?” I called, turning on the lights. “Madeline, are you here?”

No answer. The cabin was empty-and that’s when I noticed her things were gone. Her suitcase had disappeared, along with her bag and coat.

That was when I saw the note on the pillow. A folded piece of paper with my name on the front. I opened it with slightly trembling hands.

[I got a ride home. Don’t worry.]

D

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