My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 264

“you know exactly what I arn saying,” he said, his voice dropping to a lower register. “Three months. You call me when something happens with Ratia and the situation is bad enough that you need someone to talk to. I call you when Julian does something that makes my hest hurt, We have dinner twice a week that has nothing to do with sex. You kept the book I left here instead of giving it back.” He paused. “That is not just sex.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

The book was a valid point, and I resented it.

“The book was good,” I said. “That is not evidence of anything.”

“Sam.”

“Zane.”

“I want to make this official,” he said simply.

I stood up and walked to the window. Not because I needed to look at anything outside-the Brooklyn morning was doing its usual grey thing, and there was nothing illuminating about it. I walked to the window because I needed thirty seconds to collect myself, and the window was the furthest point from the bed without leaving the room.

The problem – the real problem, not the one I was going to say out loud — was that Zane De Windsor was one of the very few people in this city I genuinely liked. Not in the way you liked someone because they were useful or conrrected or professionally relevant. Actually liked. He was sharp and he was funny and he had the quality of listening to things properly instead of just waiting for his turn to speak.

And that was exactly why this was a terrible idea.

“Our bosses are sleeping with each other,” I said, turning around. “Julian is supposed to be married to Katia’s sister and is sleeping with Katia instead. There is a British man in a hospital with titanium screws in his jaw claiming to be Katia’s husband. There is a female racing driver trying to destroy both of their companies. There is an active murder charge being dismissed. “I looked at him. “Zane. Our situation is the least complicated thing in a very complicated ecosystem. The moment we make it official, it becomes part of the ecosystem. And then it is complicated.”

Zane looked at me for a long moment.

“You like me,” he said.

“I did not say that,” I said.

“You just listed every single thing that is happening around us in perfect sequential order,” he said. “You have been paying attention to all of it. You do that when something matters to you.” He stood up.”You like me.”

“I enjoy your dick, that’s all,” I said carefully.

“Sam,” he said, walking toward me. “That is the same thing.”

“It is categorically not

“It is,” he said. He stopped in front of me. Close enough that I had to tilt my head slightly to hold his gaze, which I resented because it made me feel small and I was not a small person in any sense that mattered. “Just say it.”

“Absolutely not,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because the moment I say it, you are going to be insufferable about it,” I said. “And I work sixty-hour weeks, and I do not have the bandwidth for insufferable.”

Zane smiled.

Let’s be t

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It was the smile he used when he had won something and was choosing not to make a production of it, which was the thing about him that made the book situation happen in the first place.

“Dinner tonight,” he said. “Not the office. Not here. Actual dinner. A restaurant. In public.”

I looked at him.

“The ecosystem-“I started.

“The ecosystem will survive one dinner,” he said. “It has survived considerably worse this week.”

He was not wrong about that.

“Fine,” I said. “One dinner.”

“One dinner,” he agreed.

He picked up his coffee, finished it, set the mug in my kitchen sink, and walked to the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle.

“For what it is worth,” he said, “I enjoy your pussy too.” He paused. “And your considerable contributions to my evenings.”

He left before I could throw something at him.

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