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Doamne. (EN: God.)

Where did that come from?

I can’t believe that thought just crossed my mind. Man or not, he’s younger than me.

Younger.

And he has plenty of beautiful women around him to choose from—women his age.

The way it should be.

“Selene, are you still here?” he asks, amusement playing in his stupidly beautiful eyes.

Oh my God.

“Obviously,” I reply dryly, waving a hand in the air. “Do you not see me?”

“What were you thinking about?” he presses, unwilling to let it go.

So, he noticed I’d drifted off.

Perfect.

At least he can’t read my mind, and there’s no way my face betrayed what I was thinking.

No way.

“Nothing,” I answer quickly.

Too quickly.

He chuckles low and rich, the corner of his mouth lifting as though my reaction is far more entertaining than it should be.

“You realize I actually have a job to do, right?” he asks after a moment, finally changing the subject. “I can’t afford to be away from the office like this, without managing anything,” he explains, his expression turning serious.

“Zayn,” I say slowly, forcing my voice to remain calm, “if you’re not with me on every single site visit and working alongside me every single day, I’m going back to my original schedule, and your project timeline is getting pushed back a lot further.”

He drags both hands through his hair and watches me with attention.

I’m getting under his skin.

At this point, I might even be doing it on purpose.

Because he gets under mine just as easily, and I’m not exactly handling it with grace.

The truth is, I could manage without him.

I could redistribute the workload to one of my lead supervisors and do only the final inspection myself. I’ve done it before. I have a team I trust for situations like this.

But I don’t want that.

If I’m making sacrifices, then he can make them too.

Side by side.

Without a word, he pulls out his phone and dials a number.

“Beatrix, I need you to clear my entire schedule as soon as you get to the office. Indefinitely.”