Page 23 of The Love Bargain

“You told me Sabine was finding you a match. I thought you were working together.” Zane’s features twist into an angry scowl, and he clenches his fists.

“That’s how it started,” I admit. “I wanted to help her with the business because I could see it was important to her.”

“Yeah? Then what? You end up in bed together?” His voice rises in indignation.

Admittedly, from Zane’s perspective, things look bad, but his reaction is over the top. Sabine is keeping Zane in the dark about the trouble her business is facing.

I know both sides of the story, but disclosing that information could break Sabine's trust. Where do I draw the line? Fuck.

My loyalty from now on is to Sabine. If our friendship means anything to him, he’s going to have to trust me on this.

“What do you expect me to say?” I spit out. “I can’t deny it’s true, but you’ve got the facts all wrong.”

“You mess around with my sister, and you dare say that to my face?” Zane’s mood darkens. “I’m so fucking mad at you,” he says, curling his hands into fists. “If there weren’t so many people walking around, I’d deck you.”

“For the record, I’m not messing around with Sabine. I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

“Shut up.” Zane shakes his head. His Adam’s apple bobs above the collar of his T-shirt as he swallows his rage.

“I don’t need your approval to fall in love with Sabine.” A maelstrom of emotion sweeps over me, confusing everything.

Sabine has risen to take the top spot in my life, and I’m not willing to let go of her.

“Wait, back up. Did you say you’re in love with her?”

Dragging a hand through my hair, I look at him and sigh.

“Absolutely, one hundred percent in love. I tried respecting the boundaries, but the more time we spent together, the more difficult it was to deny how I feel. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it, but everything happened so fast.”

“And she feels the same?” Zane looks toward the hotel rooms above.

“Yep. We’re a couple,” I say, confirming everything.

Zane softens his stance, and the anger is gone from his voice.

“Look, everything changed when I realized she has to fall in love with someone, so why not me? I’ll do the right thing by her, and we both know I’ll take better care of her than anyone.”

There are other, more intimate reasons as to why I feel territorial toward Sabine, but Zane doesn’t need to hear them.

“Is that right?” He arches a brow.

“Yeah, even better than you.”

“Dude, I don’t wanna hear any dirty details. She’s my sister, for fuck’s sake,” Zane says. “And for the record, the reason I was so strict about you not dating her was if you got together and things didn’t work out, I’d have to kill you.”

“Fair enough.”

“And that would suck because it would mean losing my best friend.” Zane embraces me warmly, slapping my back a little harder than necessary.

“Sorry to do this, but I need to go and find her,” I tell him when we break apart. “I only left the table to answer a call. She’ll be worried.”

“Sure, although I need to call her too. I bet she’s upset.” He shrugs, and we leave it at that, promising to catch up with each other later.

A rush of tenderness makes my heart feel like it’s opening to new possibilities. I’d only considered what it would feel like to lose a friend, not gain a brother.

Our relationship will change. We’ll be closer in some ways, but in others, he’ll be in the dark. I’m tempted to tell him

I’m proposing as soon as possible but decide to leave it as a surprise.

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