The suite in the hotel is dark and lightless.
A floor lamp emits an ambiguous warmth in the corner.
The woman is curled up under the man, her eyes brimming with tears. She is a little shaky, like a pitiful kitten drenched in rain.
"President, I'm sorry, I was wrong... Can you let me off the hook?" Sophia's trembling voice is full of sobs.
The more she cries, the more she arouses the beastly lust in the man.
Lucas idly played with the stray hairs at the side of her ear: "Too late."
He roughly ripped open the woman's clothes, pulled off his tie, tied the woman's slender wrists together, and showered her with hot kisses.
Then... Sophia closed her eyes in resignation.
...
The next morning, Sophia was awakened by the sunlight streaming through the curtains.
The sound of running water came from the bathroom.
She struggled out of bed, but every movement made her ache.
Then the sound of water stopped, and Lukas emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
His short hair was still dripping, falling in drops from the temples down to the sharp jawline and finally onto his perfect abs.
Lucas's long, white fingers expertly manipulated the phone, and the next second, Sophia received a text message reminder from the bank.
"One million for you, after that, you choose what to do."
"Thank you, President."
She put away the phone and put on her jacket haphazardly to cover her open shirt. The calm on the surface was hard to hide the collapse inside.
Sophia, what stupid thing have you done?
"What's on the agenda today?" Lucas's voice was cold.
"President, today's schedule is a meeting with the finance minister at 9:30, a business lunch with the consul at the embassy at 12:00, a video conference with the UK branch at 3:00 p.m., and in the evening, the boss and his wife are asking you to come home for dinner, but Noah and Robert have also asked you out, and you haven't decided yet."
Lucas nodded indifferently.
"Come to work at 9:00 sharp. I want..."
"I know, 60-degree hot Americano with Guicha coffee beans from Emerald Manor,"
Sophia replied respectfully, as if she had returned to being a professional secretary.
"Then I'll leave first, President," she said, giving a slight bow and turning to leave.
Lucas looked at the woman's slender waist and pair of long, white, straight legs, as well as the inconspicuous red stain on the bedsheet, and mused.
...
Back in her apartment, Sophia took off her clothes and plunged into the shower, letting the hot water cascade down her body.
As she scrubbed herself vigorously with the towel, tears kept falling. Her face was soaked, and she couldn't tell whether they were tears or water.
After the shower, she glanced at the clock. It was almost eight o'clock.
There was no time to grieve.
After drying her hair, she sat down at the dressing table and started applying makeup.
Sofia had just bought this apartment last year.
After her parents died in an accident when she was eleven, she was left with a considerable sum of money. However, she didn't use it, but used the savings from the two years she had worked at LU Group to pay the down payment on this apartment.
After graduating from the country's number one Tidu University, Sofia successfully got a job at LU Group thanks to her excellent grades and resume.
In just one year, she went from being an ordinary staff member in the administrative department to Lucas's personal secretary.
Lucas is a god-like figure in the business world of Didu. He is handsome, aloof, and unapproachable, and because of his ruthlessness in the business world, he makes all major companies tremble in fear.
However, at nearly thirty years old, he is not interested in women. He has thrown out countless women who have tried to climb into his bed.
One of them even took off all her clothes, but he simply kicked her out the door, leaving her sitting naked in the hotel hallway, crying.
So Sophia became his personal secretary, not because of her beauty. But because she was bold enough?
In fact, she didn't know why herself.
It was just that day in the company's underground parking lot, she happened to bump into Lucas, who was waiting for his driver. Without thinking, she approached and spoke to him.
"Hello, President, I'm Sophia from the administrative department."
Lucas glanced at her and turned away disgusted, as if he had seen a pile of rubbish.
"I want to be the president's personal secretary."
Lucas didn't say anything else, but the anger on his face was already obvious.
"Please, sir, give me a chance."
"Get lost if you don't want to get fired."
At this point, an ordinary person would be so scared by the hostility on the man's face that they would flee in a panic.
However, Sophia didn't. Because she had already made up her mind.
Sophia licked her lips and clenched her fists: "Please, sir, give me a one-month trial period. If it doesn't work out, I'll leave immediately."
At that moment, Lucas's Rolls-Royce pulled up, and the driver got out to open the door for him. He got into the car without looking back.
Sophia thought that was the end of it, but the next day she was transferred directly to Lucas's personal secretary.
During this month, Sophia did her best.
Every day before work, she could recite the day's schedule backwards, and she had memorized every habit of Lucas.
She would tidy up the office after he had thrown things in a rage, she would tactfully stop anyone he didn't want to see, and she would smile calmly when Lucas' friends teased her.
Perhaps Lucas also felt that she was a competent secretary, and he didn't transfer her again.
Thinking about this, Sophia felt a sharp pain in her chest.
It was also her own fault, blinded by revenge, she slowly began to plan to seduce Lucas.
Knowing that Lucas didn't like people touching him, she boldly moved closer to him, would touch his hand on purpose or by accident, would offer to adjust his tie, and would help him wipe the coffee stain from his mouth.
"Secretary Sophia, do you not want your hand back?"
"No, President, you wouldn't want to give it up," she said sweetly.
Sophia, who had no experience in love, tried hard to present herself as a master of the art of love, a sea goddess.
"Secretary Sophia is sure that I won't lay a hand on you?"
"President, I'm not afraid."
Sophia didn't really want to take Lucas, who was not interested in women, down from his pedestal. She knew very well that she didn't have the ability to do so.
She just wanted to see sad expressions on the faces of the man and woman, that's all.
However, she was too naive.
For this petty desire for revenge, she had provoked Lucas, the most terrifying man in the capital.
Quickly applying some light makeup, Sophia looked at herself in the mirror.
She had a small face, cherry lips, a delicate nose, big fluttering eyes and fair skin. She knew she wasn't ugly.
But it was also this same her, in high school, who was fat and wore thick glasses, and was mocked by Mason, who she had liked since childhood.
"She's so ugly and so provincial, who would like her,"
Sophia sighed. At that moment, a new message came on her phone:
"Sophia, are you coming home for dinner tonight? I've asked the servants to cook your favorite dish."
Home? She didn't have a home anymore.
Sophia put the phone down, changed her clothes, grabbed her bag and left for the office.
On the way, she stopped at the pharmacy and bought a box of contraceptives.