Page 2 of Billion-Dollar Dating Game

Thewhat? Zane cocked his head, both disbelieving of and bamboozled by this unexpected diversion. ‘You’re kidding.’

Privacy wasn’t assured once your bank balance hit a certain threshold, so yeah, sometimes they were on those tragic ‘youngest billionaires’ lists and occasionally some appalling clickbait list involving paparazzi pictures of them poolside, but this one was even more ick. ‘Who I date is no one’s business but mine.’ Zane shook his head, brushing it off. ‘And I’m not going to stop—’ He was happily married to his work, thanks very much. And very happy to play the little time he took away from it. Work hard, play hard—balance was best, after all. ‘—I’ve no plans to settle down. Ever.’

‘Neither do I,’ Adam snapped.

Zane blinked at the identical frowns deepening on Adam’s and Cade’s faces. The intensity was interesting. And possibly useful.

‘They’re turning our sex lives into a joke,’ Cade added after a moment. ‘And getting a lot of traction. And that’s not the kind of media attention I want for my business. Do you?’

Zane didn’t give a damn if people were so bored they wanted to bash his private life for their own amusement, but it clearly bothered both Cade and Adam.

‘Exactly how much traction are we talking about?’ Zane drawled.

Cade tensed even more. ‘The hashtag “onedatewonders” is the top trending topic in the US on most of the main apps today. That much traction. And just about every American female online seems to have an opinion now about our sex lives... We’re basically the red meat at the centre of a social media feeding frenzy.’

Adam winced.

Yeah,#onedatewonderswas a truly appalling hashtag.

‘My PR team is freaking out about it,’ Cade added. ‘Personally, I don’t give a damn what a bunch of clickbait junkies and their enablers think of my dating habits...but no way in hell am I letting anyone make me look like a jerk who can’t keep his junk in his pants.’

‘We need to find a way to shut it down,’ Adam muttered grimly.

Zane rubbed his hand along his jaw and considered the reactions of his rivals. Despite his protests, this article had obviously hit Cade on a visceral level, and Adam looked even moodier than usual. People made mistakes when they were emotional and both these guys were zooming towards anger and outrage.

Zane didn’t become intensely emotional about anything. On the rare occasion something slipped beneath his skin, he swiftly suppressed it, because after his father had walked out he’d had to ‘stay strong.’ After he’d realised his exhausted mother was struggling and secretly wanted him gone too, he’d learned not to ‘be a bother.’ When he was housebound recuperating for years he’d had to ‘be quiet’ so his overworked mother could rest...

He didn’t show hurt, didn’t cry, didn’t complain. When Reed Helberg had humiliated him more than once, he hadn’t so much as winced. Hell, when the first girl he’d fancied had hung him out to dry in front of her overly controlling father, he’d hid how stupidly muchthathad hurt him. And he’d vowed not to letanyonehurt him ever again. And besides all that, he’d spent years suppressingphysicalpain, which was a far tougher task than swallowing the mild embarrassment from this little internet flurry.

But perhaps he could direct Adam and Cade’s obvious discomfort to his own advantage. Indeed, the answer to the magazine slur was obvious to him. If they weren’t seen out with a series of women, then there would be no stupid tally and nothing for the trash columnists to report on. The question was whether Cade and Adam could cope with that constraint—was that, in fact, a prospect for a competition?

Zane deMarco thrived on competition. The tougher the better. It made winning all the sweeter.

‘What if we take ourselves off the market?’ he mused.

‘Forget it.’ Cade sounded horrified. ‘No way am Iactuallygetting hitched to shut this down.’

‘Absolutely not.’ Adam was even more appalled. ‘It’s out of the question.’

Zane bit back a chuckle. Yeah, both of them were too volatile and that was good. ‘Did I say anything about getting hitched?’ he countered, oh-so-mildly. ‘This is a countdown, right? So why don’t we stop the clock before it even starts. All we have to do is each date one woman—and one woman only—from now until Labour Day. Simple.’

Cade’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re kidding. You actually want to pander to this garbage?’

‘Not particularly, but I’m betting you two will break long before I do.’ Zane watched them closely.

Cade’s blue eyes glinted. ‘I’ll take that bet, because the last time I looked, you’re a bigger serial dater than the both of us.’

Usually true, but also irrelevant. While generally sex was a healthy part of his life, more than half of his most recent dates had ended early and chastely. He was tired of the more-than-sexual expectations he didn’t have the capacity to fulfil. But Zane would endure anything to get hold of this company, and what was a little discomfort or deprivation? He’d suffered far worse pain than having to sleep with just the one woman for a while. Besides which, it was only dating her, right? Not necessarily anything more.

‘You don’t even know what the stakes are.’ Adam shot Cade an astounded look.

Zane let the moment hang. He liked playing all kinds of games because his favourite thing in the world was towin, and because he’d come from having nothing for so long, he’d never been afraid of going all in. His risks had paid off.

‘My Helberg shares,’ he said softly and watched them both stiffen.

Uh-huh. That had their attention. His amusement rippled across his face but beneath that facade he tensed. Winning Helberg Holdings was non-negotiable.

‘Hold on a minute.’ Cade leaned forward, frowning. ‘You’d bet on Helberg? Are you serious?’

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