Page 42 of Beauty and the Billionaire

“I like you,” he whispered, wrapping his arms tighter around my torso. “I want us to go to Harringford and do what we did last night. Again. And again. And again.”

A laugh broke out of me as my heart leaped madly. “You’re going to get bored of me,” I said, half joking.

“Never,” Zain said firmly.

I didn’t even know when I had decided to do it, but my arms tore free of their numbness and wrapped around his body.

“You have to think better of me,” Zain warned me, holding me tightly. “And of yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I thought you changed your mind.”

Zain looked up at me, wearing two impossible expressions simultaneously. Happy and sad, both at once. “I know I’m only twenty-two, but I’m much more stubborn than you realize.”

Determined, I decided quietly. He wasn’t stubborn but determined.

“Kiss me,” he commanded me.

And there was no force in this universe that would have stopped me then. Every doubt that I had carried since waking up was gone. Every smart, rational thought jumped off the cliff. Every question of Zain’s interests and, more importantly, Zain’s determination were gone.

So I leaned in and pressed my lips hard against his. I kissed him deeply and passionately, and our faces grew hot by the time I pulled away to look into his eyes. Still, the happy-sad expression lingered, but it was much more happy after the kiss.

And I kissed him again, exactly the way my body craved to kiss him. My tongue ventured out and parted his lips against mine, sliding into his mouth to meet the tip of his tongue.

The fire burned hot in us both, but I needed to keep a lid on these feelings just now. We needed to go to the place where I was the happiest. And some small part of me glimmered with joy as I wondered how much happier I could be now.

CHAPTER 11

The Shape of You

Zain

The afternoon was strangelysunny when we arrived at Harringford. It was so inviting and promising that Dominic suggested a walk in the forest.

“You never know, it could be the last chance before winter,” he said in his uniquely gloomy and the-worst-is-bound-to-happen style.

“Carpe diem,” I said after dropping off the suitcase of new clothes in my room despite Orwell’s insistence that he would do it. The man treated me like royalty, and I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve it.

I still chose my old clothes for the walk in the forest.

Dominic waited for me downstairs. He wore camo pants, a nice wool sweater, and a thick vest, looking nothing like the polished businessman he was at all hours of the day. It was sexy as hell, and I stopped to admire it. “That look suits you,” I said.

“Does it?” Dominic seemed genuinely surprised.

“You look like a hunter,” I said in a low voice. Despite myself, I realized I was being seductive. He turned me on in the craziestways. “Tough, loyal, providing for his family no matter what it takes.”

Dominic threw his head back and laughed. It was an oddly warm sound, and I still wasn’t used to hearing it. Even so, it made my heart dance when he laughed. He was capable of such disarming smiles that I had to hold back against throwing myself at him.

We walked out into the brilliant sunshine, and Dominic pointed to the clouds gathering in the north. Dark and threatening, they warned of a storm that would bring the change in seasons.

“Today,” Dominic said carefully as we made some distance between us and the house. We walked down the side of a slope toward the forest. There was a foot trail that he must have taken often that we followed. “You seemed distressed when you returned.”

My heart clenched. Feelings I hadn’t had the time to process were still restless within me. “Is that why you thought I wanted to leave?”

Dominic nodded. “It’s likely that I would have seen a desire to leave in whatever you did just then.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. It was a generous display of self-awareness.

“To be perfectly honest, I was in a terrible mood all morning,” he continued. We were near the forest now, and Dominic stopped to look at me. “Truly, Zain, I was selfish. I only thought about how to preserve myself, thinking you must have realized that last night had been a mistake.”

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