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“Excellent. You go ahead and wait for me in the foyer downstairs. I may be a few minutes yet.”

“Yes, sir.” Zeno closed his laptop tucking it under his arm, and a smile flitted across his face.

Liam nodded and waited while Zeno got ready to leave the room. Fuck it. When he smiles like that, I just want to bend him over the nearest desk. He’s like an angel that I want to completely debauch.

With his attention on Liam, Zeno bumped into Nicolette as he stepped out from his desk.

“You clumsy idiot.” Nicolette hissed at Zeno. “Have you any idea how much a pair of shoes like this cost?” She pointed at an asymmetrically colored pair of shoes, and Liam waited for the other man’s reply. He wasn’t disappointed.

“Well.” Zeno tapped his top lip with the tip of a perfectly manicured finger. “If they were real Jimmy Choo, I’d say sixteen hundred dollars, give or take. But since they’re imitations, albeit good ones, I wouldn’t pay more than half that.”

“How dare you.” Nicolette’s face went pale, and she turned her attention to Liam. “You should sack him.”

“What for? Telling the truth? Madam, if he says they’re fakes, then believe me, they are.”

“I paid good money for these.” Nicolette glowered from Liam, to Zeno, then down at the shoes.

“If you genuinely believed they were designer shoes, you were deceived. If you knew they weren’t but paid more than he suggests, then you were ripped off.”

“I’ll get going, Mr. Williams. I’ll see you downstairs.”

“Very good. Is there something I can do for you, Ms. Ayling?” Liam asked. Fuck, I hope it’s something quick. I’ve had enough.

“Well.” Nicolette moved closer, until the smell of her perfume threatened to make Liam gag.“I thought that since you’d taken over the firm that I work for, that perhaps we could discuss a more personal merger. How about drinks, with dinner afterward? See how things progress after that.”

“Sorry. Not interested.” Liam wasn’t sorry in the least. She’s the last fucking thing on earth I’d do. A vision of a naked Zeno, his glasses precariously balanced on his nose as he bent over a desk, flashed unbidden into Liam’s mind.

“Well, how about skipping the drinks and going straight to the main event?”

“I already said I wasn’t interested. Now is there anything else?”

“Fuck you.” The woman turned on her fake designer heel and stormed away.

“Not a hope.” Liam muttered at her retreating back. “Anyone else want to speak to me personally?”

To his relief, no one did, and in the elevator, Liam leaned against its wall. For all the money he had, and the good he did with it, there was still something missing from his life. Or rather, that special someone. No one looking at Liam Williams, entrepreneur, billionaire, philanthropist, playboy, would also add the tag lonely man.

If he was honest, the one man he wished would look at him was Zeno. Since starting to work for him, the younger man had become almost indispensable to Liam. A hot flush of lust had burned down to a steady flame of unrequited love.

Fuck it all to hell. Thank the gods I have a night out coming up.

Straightening up, Liam shoved the self-pity aside and strode from the elevator and glanced around, looking for Zeno. The other man was sitting in a chair, laptop open, those slender fingers flying over the keyboard.

Although Liam owned a great deal of beautiful artwork, right then, with the light from a stained-glass window falling on him, Zeno was possibly the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. The light left a multicolored mosaic in Zeno’s dark hair. Yet again, heat pooled in Liam’s groin as blood headed south.

Nope. Not for you. Down, boy, behave yourself. You’re a good decade older, and his boss. What kind of position would that put him in? It’s not like he’s shown any interest in you. Liam was glad he’d buttoned up his jacket. It would hide a telling bulge since his cock seemed to have no interest in listening to its master.

“Hey. You ready?” Liam called out, and for second, as Zeno looked up, a smile on those full, too-kissable lips, Liam’s breath caught in his throat.

“Just let me shut down. Don’t you have a dinner or drinks date?” Zeno looked around and for a moment Liam was confused, but then he barked a laugh.

“What? With a woman who can’t tell fake from genuine? No fucking chance. Let’s get out of here. This place had a bad reputation for good reason. I think we’ll need to put more than a few good people of mine in before we’ll change its primitive mindset.”

“I wish there were more like you. Actually no, I don’t. There’s only one you. I wish more people thought as you do.” Zeno nodded, then pushed his glasses up his nose.

“I started at the bottom. I worked hard, got some good breaks. Some don’t get those breaks, and no matter how hard they work; they can’t lift themselves up far. Doesn’t mean they’re not good, decent people. Jobs define what a person does, not who a person is.”

“I like that attitude.” Zeno trotted around to the far side of the car as the chauffeur opened the door for Liam.