His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 122

Olive’s POV

My fingers flew across the keyboard like I was trying to set a world record for fastest typing speed.

Click. Click. Click. Click.

The sound filled my new office, Senior Vice President of Strateg Development, the nameplate on my door read, but my mind wasn’t on the quarterly reports in front of me.

It was on him.

One person. Precisely one infuriating, dangerous, impossible person.

And I was trying desperately not to think about him.

It had been one week. Seven whole days since the incident. Since Williams Mercer’s scandals broke. Since Hopkins Enterprise was miraculously saved. Since Grayson promoted me

One week since I’d last spoken to Zane.

And for some reason I couldn’t explain, couldn’t rationalize, couldn’t justify-I’d been avoiding calling him.

My phone sat on the desk beside my keyboard, silent and accusatory.

I’d picked it up at least fifteen times today. Scrolled to his name. Hovered my thumb over the call button.

And then put it back down.

Because I was still confused. Still trying to figure out what this was. What we were.

When he’d ambushed me in Chicago at his photo shoot and dropped that proposal-the fake relationship, the two-month arrangement to make Cole mad-the goal had been simple. Clear. Transactional.

Make Cole Maddox jealous. Enraged. Destroy his ego.

But it had morphed into something else entirely. Something I didn’t have words for. Something that made my chest tight and my thoughts scattered and my heart do things hearts weren’t supposed to do in fake arrangements.

And the worst part? The absolute worst part?

He hadn’t called me either.

No texts. No random appearances at my apartment. No flowers delivered with cryptic notes.

Nothing.

Radio silence.

And that terrified me more than I wanted to admit.

Different thoughts kept spiraling through my mind on an endless loop. Was he tired of me? Had saving Hopkins been his way of ending things on a high note? Had he decided I was too much trouble, too complicated, too-

“Olive. Earth to Olive.”

Brenda’s voice cut through my spiral like a knife through butter .

I jerked my head up to find her standing in my office doorway, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised, wearing a pink suit that screamed “I’ve been promoted to a higher rank and you shouldn’t mess with me.”

She looked incredible. Confident. Powerful.

And extremely amused by my mental breakdown.

“You’ve been off for the past week,” she said, walking in without waiting for an invitation and dropping into the chair across from my desk. “Why don’t you just call him?”

I stared at her for a second, my fingers freezing over the keyboard.

Then I went back to typing. Aggressively. Like if I typed hard enough, I could drown out her question.

“No,” I said flatly. “I won’t call him. If he doesn’t call, I won’t eithe

The words hurt coming out. Like little shards of glass scraping against my throat.

I could feel Brenda’s eyes on me. Could practically hear her internal monologue about how pathetic I was being.

“Well, that’s too bad,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. The scheming, manipulative smile that meant she was about to say something that would gut me. “Hmm, maybe he’s moved on. Found himself another chick. I mean, he’s hot. Ridiculously hot. Any woman would want someone like him.”

My hands stopped moving.

The image hit me like a sledgehammer-Zane with another woman. His hands on her waist. His mouth on her neck. His cock buried deep inside her while he claimed her the way he’d claimed me.

My stomach twisted violently.

No. No no no.

I forced myself to keep typing, to keep my face neutral, to not le Brenda see how much that thought was destroying me from the inside out.

“Is there anything you actually need?” I asked, my voice coming cut sharper than intended. “Or did you just come here to

torture me?”

Brenda laughed. Full-on laughed. Like watching me suffer was the highlight of her day.

“Oh yes, actually,” she said, sobering slightly but still looking way too amused. “Did you hear that Cole Maddox-your mediocre, bitchy-ass ex-lost a potential huge gig? One that could’ve skyrocketed his career. And apparently, he’s being framed for something. I can’t really grasp all the details, but it’s bad.”

I blinked, genuinely surprised.

I hadn’t heard about Cole losing anything. Not that I really cared-I’d blocked his number weeks ago-but it did explain why I’d been seeing his name pop up repeatedly on my blocked calls ist.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “So he’ll get a new one. He always does.”

Brenda shook her head, and something in her expression shifted Became more serious.

“No, he won’t,” she said. “He’s being sued for illegal acquisition of contracts. They’re saying he fraudulently obtained the deal

in the first place. And now…” She paused dramatically. “This is where you come in.”

I raised my head, staring at her with what I hoped was a neutral expression but probably looked more like panic.

“The Al Quantum Company that Cole lost the deal to?” Brenda continued. “They’re one of our new partners now. And they specifically requested you to select three candidates for their upcoming shoot. Three hockey players from different teams. And you’ll be supervising the entire project.”

My heart started pounding.

No. No way.

“The email with all the details should be in your inbox,” Brenda said, standing up and walking toward the door with that infuriating confidence of hers.

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