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Twenty Eighth Secret
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Darien stopped behind a line of cars at the red light and deemed it safe to take his eyes off the road momentarily. He glanced over at Zach.
He was special to Zach?
There was no chance the intern meant it romantically. He hadn’t detected any feelings of love on Zach’s side.
“In what way?” he asked in the most unbothered tone he could muster.
“It’s a little complicated to explain. Most people on my university course vowed to stay in touch after graduation, but everyone is just so busy with their jobs. My best friend is in Germany doing a Master’s degree and doesn’t text me much. Besides Emilia and the other editors, you’re the person I spend a lot of time with. That makes you special.”
Of course that was it. Zach had discovered the sad reality of growing up, it was impossible to stay in touch with former acquaintances once joining the workforce. Darien hadn’t been too sad to lose his
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Darien felt Zach’s body freeze up and he was ready to retract his arms. Then Zach relaxed and shifted position to make it a proper hug.“I’m sorry. It’s just got to me. I might never see my mother outside of a hospital again,” Zach said numbly.“You don’t have to apologise for displaying emotion,” Darien told him.Zach’s body was warm and he was hugging back properly. His own parents had rarely hugged him and when they had, he had felt like it was never a proper hug, like they had been keeping a distance.“I know, I just feel like I’ve inconvenienced you a lot today.”Darien didn’t want to hear that. He wanted to help Zach out without him feeling guilty.“We’re friends, you haven’t caused me any inconvenience. In fact I got an excuse to skip work and I’m being hugged properly for the first time in my life.”Zach drew back to loo
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Darien stared at him blankly and Zach took a full ten seconds to realise how his request had sounded.“I’ve got a sleeping bag somewhere here, I’ll sleep on the floor and you can take my bed. I just don’t want to be alone.”Darien blinked and nodded.“I see, that’s what you meant.”Zach nudged him. “What did you think I meant?”The billionaire looked embarrassed with the situation and Zach broke the tension by getting up to have a look for his sleeping bag. Unless his mother really had done a super tidy up of his room, it should be under his bed somewhere.He struck gold on a first look. He dragged out the sleeping bag triumphantly. It had served him well on school and family trips. Zach sniffed it cautiously only to smell fabric softener. His mother must have washed it recently. She probably hadn’t waited for long to wash everything after he had left.“I’ll
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Darien yawned and turned back over. Zach could tell that he was still half asleep.“If that’s what you want, I’ll stay. Just let me go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you get back,” Darien replied and his eyes closed again.He was asleep in seconds and Zach smiled. He wasn’t going to be alone. With that comforting thought in his heart, he unpacked some clothes and got dressed in the bathroom before going downstairs.Zach took the spare door key out of the vase of flowers in the hallway and left it on the table with a note for Darien. Then he took a cereal box out of the cupboard and left it next to the note. Darien might skip breakfast if he didn’t prompt him.His father was waiting by the front door when he came out. Zach saw how tense he was and all his feelings of worry that had been kept at bay were coming back. He fought them back down, he needed to be strong to support his father.“Let’s go,” he said.***Darien woke up slowly with a groan. He hadn’t slept as well as he could ha
The CEO's Little Secret Thirty Second Secret
Zach’s mind was in disarray. He couldn’t believe that his father had drawn the conclusion that he and Darien could be dating. Darien didn’t like him like that. The question was also putting Darien in an awkward position as a closeted gay. The billionaire looked extremely uncomfortable right now. He needed to correct his father’s assumption as quickly as possible. “We’re just friends,” he told him. “He’s not my type anyway.” That wasn’t quite the truth there. Darien was very much his type with his intelligence, wit and increasing kindness. He noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Darien looked disappointed. He didn’t know why. They weren’t supposed to be each other’s types. “I see,” his father said. “Are you going to introduce him properly now? I didn’t ask much last night as I wasn’t in the mood.” “This is my friend. He also works at Harper Publishing and was passing by at the right time,” Zach informed him. There was no way his f
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Zach’s heart stung at the words which didn’t make sense to him. He didn’t have any romantic interest in Darien. They were simply just friends.“That’s fine,” he replied. “We are really just friends and I would never aspire to be any more than that.”His father picked up his cup of tea and waved goodbye. It was clear the conversation was over. Zach was also keen for the conversation to end.“I’m going upstairs now,” he said.Darien was sitting on his bed frowning at his phone when he walked in. The billionaire looked up and smiled at him. It was a nice smile. Zach was glad to see he was content with staying at his family home.“Are you writing your story?” he asked.He didn’t ask to have a look despite his curiosity. It was Darien’s private matter and he wouldn’t snoop.“I’m checking over my drafted chapters for mistakes,”
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The two of them left for London the following afternoon. Zach looked back at his family home as Darien drove around the corner. It had been nice to spend time with his parents again although he wished he hadn’t been so fraught with worry for half the time. Darien had been declared his mother’s favourite out of his friends. She had been horrified to find that Darien had been enlisted by him to clean the house and had apologised profusely. She had even packed snacks for their journey back to London despite her condition. Zach was looking forward to the chocolate cake. When he had thought about going back to his hometown to visit his parents during his internship he had never imagined it would be with a billionaire. Darien had enjoyed his stay. He had given Darien a brief tour of the town’s attractions in the morning. The amount of money Darien had spent in the gift shops was impressive. The billionaire seemed to want to build a collection of seaside the
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The next week saw only occasional texts from Darien. Zach was always happy to get a text even if it was a short one as he knew Darien was very busy with work and didn’t have much free time. He ran into the billionaire once outside Austin’s flower shop and purposefully walked past the flower shop. Darien gave him a discreet thumbs up which made Zach smile. The weekend finally arrived after a long five days of learning how to edit low level erotica. It turned out that there was a database of words that needed to be used in those types of stories. It was a surprisingly interesting area of erotica. Zach stood waiting outside his apartment block and double checked that he really had packed his swimming goggles for the sixth time. He wasn’t comfortable swimming without his goggles. A red car he had seen before pulled up in front of him and the side window rolled down to reveal a wavy haired Darien. “You can get in,” he said. Zach eagerly got in the
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Darien was too surprised by the declaration to reply immediately. They had just decided they were friends after three weeks and now after another week, Zach thought they were best friends. Was this what being stuck in the friendzone was? He had heard the phrase before and had never thought he could ever apply to him given his lack of interest in romantic relationships. Now he knew what it felt like. It was flattering to know that Zach really had warmed up to him which was a miracle given what had happened when they first met, but he wanted to be more than his best friend. He became aware that Zach was looking at him with his big eyes. The intern clearly wanted a response to his declaration. “I thought we were just friends last week,” he said casually and licked his ice cream before it could drip on his hand. “I know I know I said that, I just feel like we’re closer than that. You just served me ice cream and you’re letting me use your
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The CEO's Little Secret Author's Note
Hello, This story has come to an end now. I just wanted to thank every reader who has supported this story over the past few months. My intention with this story was to create a CEO story that BxB story readers can enjoy as the genre is normally dominated with straight stories. I will miss writing this story as I had fun creating all the different characters. I am planning to enter the 'A Touch of Rainbow' contest at some point so you will all see me sometime soon. I am very excited for the contest. Thank you again for all the support. Cassandra Kim
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1 year later:“What did you think of my latest chapter?” Darien asked. “From an editor's perspective, not as my boyfriend.”Zach glanced at his boyfriend with a critical eye. He still couldn’t quite believe that his first client as a freelance editor was Damien Black.“I had to make a lot of edits, you changed character perspectives too frequently. It wasn’t a consistently written chapter.”Darien listened to his criticism with a pout and then his pout became a cheeky smirk. His boyfriend was always keen to flirt with him no matter how formal the setting was.“What did you think as my boyfriend?”“I have the same opinion,” Zach replied with the same stern tone.His boyfriend looked disappointed and Zach didn’t bother trying to placate him. Darien always bounced back from criticism about his writing. Zach checked his watch. He had an appointm
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The weekend went too fast for Zach’s liking. It felt like two days with Darien to himself had flashed by at an impossibly fast speed.He rolled over in bed and turned off his phone alarm. He was still at Darien’s house and they were getting up early so they could get to the office without being seen together by anyone.Darien groaned next to him.“Is it time to go to work already?” he asked sleepily.Zach pulled back the bedcovers with a yawn. He had his work clothes on hand, but he did need a shower before going to work.“It is time to get up for work,” he corrected. “You’re making breakfast, I’m going in the shower.”“That’s fair,” Darien agreed and got out of bed. “I’ll see you downstairs.”Zach had a quick shower and dried his hair using the hairdryer in Darien’s personal bathroom. He hadn’t used the spare room since the nig
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“I am ready for our date,” Zach said. “Did you give the reporters the slip?”He got into the passenger seat as he spoke and Darien did his seatbelt for him.“I got my PA to drive the car here and came down here a few minutes before you,” Darien explained. “I sent all the reporters away earlier. Anyone still here is just very persistent.”Zach took a careful look at him. Darien didn’t look tense at all. In fact he looked quite happy and free. It was good to see the change. It had occurred to him that Darien might have second thoughts about coming out publicly after the press attention.“Has all the coverage from the media been positive?” Zach asked.Darien grinned at him.“Only one tabloid used homophobic slurs- there’s already some legal action going there. The reaction has been good overall. I think I might have broken a lot of hearts in the process though.”
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Darien was caught off guard by the question. Since Zach had admitted to being in love with him, his desire to come out as a gay man had been forgotten.As it stood, he wouldn’t be able to take Zach to many places on a date out of fear of being recognised. That wasn’t fair to Zach and he didn’t want to be like that either.He wanted to come out.He waited for the feelings of panic and fear over admitting to being gay to appear and they didn’t.Darien realised he had completely changed now.Since meeting Zach and falling in love with him, he had lost his fear of public opinion. He was content to come out and be honest.“I feel like I can,” Darien told him.Zach’s face lit up with excitement and he pulled him into a hug.“That’s really good, Darien,” he said. “I fulfilled my end of the contract without knowing it.”Knowing that people were going to judg
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Zach was very reluctant to leave Darien in the evening, but he knew he couldn’t call in sick for another day. Darien dropped him off outside his building after a long kiss. Zach entered his apartment building and hesitated at the stairs. He did like to stay fit by taking the stairs, he had just done too much physical exertion to manage all those stairs. He elected to take the lift up to his floor instead. Emilia was sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in and he tried not to act like his whole body was sore from having sex with Darien. “Did you call in sick to work?” she asked suspiciously. “We did,” he admitted. He had already eaten dinner with Darien. The billionaire had surprised him by ordering a Chinese takeaway and they had eaten it in the dining room, the plastic containers and cheap disposable chopsticks contrasting with the fancy table and chandelier. Emilia snorted and took a sip of her coffee. “I’m glad that t
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Zach was very quick to agree to the date request.“Of course I’ll go on a date with you. Isn’t that what we've been doing unofficially anyway?”“I want to go on a date with you as your boyfriend,” Darien pointed out. “That’s different.”Zach realised he was correct. They had gone to places first as two people in a business relationship, then as friends and best friends. Going somewhere as boyfriends was going to be different.“When did you want to go on a date?” he asked.Darien looked over at the clock on the wall and turned back to smile at him.“There’s no time like the present. Let’s make use of our ‘sick’ day. I don’t think I can wait until the weekend and I’ll need to send you home at some point today so you can get to work tomorrow.”Zach didn’t have any reason to disagree with that idea. He didn’t want
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It had certainly been a rollercoaster of a day. Zach had thought Adam’s date request had been the peak and then he had thought that confessing his love to Darien would be the peak. Instead the peak was an attempted acid attack from Darien’s most psychotic ex-girlfriend. Darien drove the car at a steady speed and kept glancing at him. Zach still didn’t feel like speaking. Giving his statement to the police officers at the scene had taken most of his energy. He was probably in some state of shock as well. One moment he had been on his way to confess his love to Darien, the next he was being shoved to the ground by Darien to avoid an acid attack. He had a lot of questions for the billionaire, but he was too tired to start that conversation. His eyes closed and the next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by Darien. “Come on, Zach,” Darien said softly. “I don’t have the strength to carry you up the steps so you are going to have to walk yourse
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Zach stared at Adam in surprise. Despite Meghan’s regular teasing comments, he had never expected to receive a confession from Adam.Another part of his mind noted that he had received two confessions in the past three days. He was becoming popular.How should he respond to this one?Unlike Darien, Adam was just asking him on a date. He wasn’t confessing his love. Zach made up his mind very quickly.“I only see you as a friend,” he said gently. “I don’t think it would work out between us.”He felt no feelings of love towards Adam. The editor was just a very friendly co-worker who was very attentive to him.Adam looked away for a moment and Zach didn’t know what to do. He didn’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings, but it wouldn’t be fair to get Adam’s hopes up by going on a date with him. He would only be leading him on.“I accept your answer,” Adam replied
