Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 209 Two months had passed since the dinner with the Franconian investors, and things were finally starting to settle. London fall had arrived in full force, turning Hyde Park gold and red in a way I could see perfectly from the office window. The mornings were colder now, demanding thick coats and scarves, and the afternoons grew dark earlier every day. I had gotten used to the city's rhythm, to Gwen's unwavering three-o-clock-tea routine, and to the red buses that still made me smile every time they rolled past the glass.

More importantly, I had gotten used to my new routine at work. The whispers in the hallways had faded until they were gone. People stopped giving me strange looks when I walked through the marble corridors of Kensington. Margaret went back to greeting me with her warm, genuine smile. I was almost certain Nate had handled the situation behind the scenes.

I never asked directly, but I noticed the way he always included me in important meetings, how he openly asked for my opinions with other colleagues present, and how he treated everything I said with the kind of professional respect I had been desperate for. His attitude set a tone for everyone else. Little by little, they went back to seeing me as the market-development specialist I actually was, not the Verdanian woman tangled in elevator gossip. And yes, he was Nate now, and I was Annie... As friends. The problem was that this friendship was getting more complicated than I expected.

Not because our dynamic was uncomfortable. It was the opposite. Nate was funny in a way that caught me off guard, making sharp, clever comments about difficult clients that made me laugh in the middle of serious meetings. He was unbelievably intelligent, not just in business but in literature, history, even Verdanian politics, which he claimed he'd started studying "for professional curiosity." I learned he COU riving at the office at seven every morning to read newspapers from three different IS day.

spoke four and once spent six months backpacking through Costanora during university. of these little discoveries made it harder to hold on to the idea that we were "just friends." d

had become a regular presence over the past few weeks, always with some perfectly reasonable professional excuse like consulting for Valentian clients, meetings about Euradian partnerships, and market analyses that supposedly needed a Kensington family perspective. Alexandra always arrived looking flawless, like she'd stepped straight out of a fashion campaign, with her perfectly

I hated admitting it even to myself. ad no right to feel jealous. Nate and I were only friends. We had established that clearly that night, and since then our relationship had been perfect. Professional when it needed it made sense. Completely free of any sexual tension

was developing real feelings for him. The kind of feelings that made my heartbeat pick up the moment he entered a room. The kind that made me pay too much attention to the way he smiled while explaining something complicated. The kind that kept me awake at

way most people talked about bottled water, knew important people on three continents, and carried herself with the easy confidence of someone who'd always known exactly where she fit in the world. I had no chance of competing with that, even if I wanted to. And I didn't want to

finally accepted that I needed to do something about my pathetic love life. Gwen was at her desk reviewing contracts, a steaming cup of tea next to her computer, when I approached with a level of determination that startled even me. "I said, pulling up a chair and sitting beside her desk. "I need to talk to you about something important." urse." She saved the document and

I finally figured out what my problem is." "Your problem?" She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "You have a problem I don't know about?" "I've been in London for months," I said, as if that explained everything wrong in the universe. "And...?" Gwen waited, unimpressed. "And I still haven't given myself a chance to