Page 33 of Dex

Jett and Zach exchange looks.

“And?”Zach prompts.“Get to the point.I need to be somewhere.”

“Where the hell do you have to be?”

Zach ignores me.“Just spit it out.”

I lean back on the stool.“She picked me.”

Silence.

Then, “Who picked you?”Zach’s brows pull together.

“Yesterday,” I say, dragging it out.“Daniela Oliveira, the heiress, Brazilian Beauty Queen, she pickedme.”

Zach’s eyes go wide.“You’re kidding.”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”I ask.

“You didn’t even talk to her,” Zach mutters.

“Yeah, well, some of us still got it, huh, brother?”I clap him on the shoulder.

“Picked you for what … to mate with?Marry?Talk to?”Jett asks.

I scrunch up my face in disgust.“To form an alliance.To marry her.For one year.Purely a transactional arrangement.The same deal you were meant to enter.”

“You already spoke to Dad about it?”Zach asks.

“He called me in for a meeting earlier today.”

Jett pats me on the back, but his expression is wary.“Are you sure about this?”

“Iwasn’t.”

“He offered you money, didn’t he?”Jett says flatly.

“Can we not talk about the money?”I hiss.

Zach lets out a low whistle.“You get to marry herandget paid for it?Why the fuck didn’t she pick me?”

I down my scotch in one gulp, and Jett pours me another.Zach holds his beer bottle tight to his chest, watching me the same way Rio did yesterday when he looked at Daniela.

“You’re actually going to marry her?”Zach asks, voice tight.

“Just for one year.”

“I wouldn’t jump into this,” Jett warns.

“He’s giving me a million dollars a month.”

Silence.

Jett exhales sharply.“That’s more than he offered me.”

Zach stays quiet.

“I was expecting him to call us into a meeting today.Thought he’d come clean,” Jett says.

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