Marcus's POV
The hallway is quiet as Marcus walks Zoe to her suite.
His hand is still on her waist from dancing and he's trying to convince himself to let go. The night is over. The performance is finished. Letting her go is the right thing to do.
He doesn't let go.
They reach her door and Zoe turns to face him. Her dark curly hair is falling out of its style now. Her makeup is slightly smudged from the evening. She looks tired and beautiful and completely real.
"You were amazing today," Marcus says, and he means it in a way that goes beyond the performance.
Zoe laughs but it sounds uncertain. "I barely knew what anyone was talking about. Half the time I was just nodding and hoping nobody asked me a follow-up question."
"You handled it perfectly." Marcus steps closer without meaning to. "Made people laugh. Fit at my side like you belonged there. Like you've always belonged there."
The words come out before he can stop them.
Zoe's expression shifts. Something vulnerable crosses her face and Marcus realizes with painful clarity that this weekend is not going to be enough. Three days. Seventy-two hours. How is that supposed to be enough when he's been waiting fourteen years?
How is he supposed to go back to his life after this? Back to empty penthouse dinners and board meetings where no one sees him. Back to success that feels hollow because she's not there to share it.
"You should get some rest," Marcus forces himself to say. The words feel like they're cutting him up from the inside.
"Yeah," Zoe says quietly. "You too."
She reaches up and touches his face for just a second. Her fingers are gentle against his jaw. Then she pulls away and disappears into her room.
Marcus stands in the hallway for a moment trying to remember how to breathe.
He walks back to his suite and the silence is deafening. The room is expensive and empty. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the Hamptons but all he can see is Zoe's brown eyes in the darkness.
His phone buzzes.
A text from Carter: "How's the fake girlfriend experiment going?"
Marcus stares at the message for a long time.
He types: "It does not feel fake."
Then deletes it immediately.
Tries again: "Fine. All going according to plan."
Hits send before he can think about what it means. Before he can admit that nothing about this is going according to plan. That Zoe has completely dismantled every careful calculation he made. That watching her navigate his world tonight, seeing her shine even though she was terrified, made him realize he doesn't want this to end in three days.
Carter responds: "Good. Just don't do anything stupid."
Too late.
Marcus has already done something stupid. He's already crossed a line that can't be uncrossed. He's already let himself imagine a world where Zoe stays. Where the contract expires and she stays anyway because she wants to. Because she's falling for him the way he's falling for her.
He changes into sweatpants and tries to sleep.
At two in the morning he's still awake.
His mind won't stop running. Won't stop replaying the evening. The moment when she told him she was an artist and he saw the light come back into her eyes because someone finally acknowledged her talent. The way she fit against his body when they danced. The look on her face when the older investor said she was special.
She is special. She's always been special.
Marcus gets out of bed and walks to the window.
The ocean is dark. The beach is empty. The whole resort is asleep except for him because he's wide awake and terrified.
He imagines a different version of this weekend. One where he didn't hire her with a contract. One where he just called and said hey, I found you and I never stopped thinking about you. One where she said yes because she wanted to, not because she was desperate.
In that version, she'd be asleep in his bed instead of down the hall in her own room.
In that version, the contract would say forever instead of three days.
In that version, he'd be allowed to love her openly instead of hiding it under the guise of business.
But that's not this version.
This version has lies and desperation and a contract that proves he was too afraid to just be honest. This version has her depending on money that he's giving her which means she can never really trust that he loves her for her. What if she thinks he's just buying her affection? What if she walks away when this is over and he's right back where he started?
Fourteen years of waiting.
And he's still waiting.
Marcus lies back on the bed and stares at the ceiling and realizes he's made a massive mistake. He should have told her the truth before they left Manhattan. Should have explained why he really hired her. Should have given her the choice to walk away before she got close enough to destroy him.
But he was too afraid.
He was too desperate.
And now he's completely trapped because the more time he spends with her, the less he cares about the contract and the consequences and the potential for complete disaster. All he cares about is keeping her close long enough to figure out if maybe she could feel something real for him too.
His phone lights up.
A text from an unknown number: "I can't sleep. You?"
It's Zoe.
Marcus sits up immediately, his heart hammering.
He types back: "Yeah. Couldn't sleep either."
The response comes fast: "This is weird right? Being here. Being together but not really being together."
Marcus stares at those words for a long moment.
"Yeah," he types. "Weird is one word for it."
"What's another word?" she asks.
Marcus thinks about it. Thinks about what word could possibly capture this feeling of being so close to something he wants desperately but knowing it's not real.
He types: "Real. It feels real."
There's a long pause. Long enough that Marcus thinks maybe he made a mistake. Maybe he revealed too much.
Then her response comes through: "It does feel real. That's what scares me."
Marcus doesn't respond. He just lies there in the dark with his phone in his hand reading her words over and over.
She's scared. She feels it too. The thing that's building between them. The thing that's supposed to be fake but is becoming increasingly difficult to pretend about.
He types: "Don't be scared. I've got you."
But the truth is he's terrified. Because tomorrow they go back to pretending. Tomorrow they go back to the performance. And he has no idea how he's going to survive having her so close while keeping this secret.
He has no idea how he's going to let her go when the weekend ends.
His phone buzzes one more time.
"Promise?" Zoe asks.
Marcus types: "I promise. Always."
He doesn't know how he's going to keep that promise. Doesn't know how he's supposed to protect her heart when his own is completely destroyed already.
All he knows is that somewhere down the hall, Zoe is awake and texting him and thinking about him the way he thinks about her.
And that's either the most beautiful thing that's ever happened to him or the worst mistake of his entire life.
Probably both.