MasukWith Adrian pinning Stephanie down with his arms, there was no way for her to escape. It went without saying that she had no intention of escaping anyway. On the contrary, she allowed herself to be lost in the passionate kiss.After some time, Adrian's car finally emerged from the basement parking lot."Are we still going to Jardine for dinner tonight?" Stephanie asked.Adrian thought of something. With an unreadable smile, he replied, "Nope. We won't be able to go to Jardine tonight.""Oh? Why not?"Stephanie didn't really care much about it, but the smile on Adrian's face was so peculiar that she decided to ask anyway."It's nothing worth mentioning," Adrian said. "I'll take you somewhere else for a good meal this evening."Since he didn't want to speak of it, she didn't bother asking any further. She simply looked down at her crystal bracelet. Either way, all she cared about was being with him.…Gabriel was having dinner at Jardine this evening. Rowena Harding, an attracti
Only three of these crystal bracelets had been made, and they hadn't even been put up for sale yet. But somehow, Adrian managed to get one for Stephanie."It's so pretty," she marveled.The value of the gift didn't matter much to her. She had all the luxury items she could ever want. What she cared about was the thought he had put into it.Stephanie held out the bracelet to Adrian without saying anything, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. Getting the hint, he took the bracelet and gently fastened it around her pale, slender wrist.Once it was on, he didn't let go right away. Instead, he bent down and kissed her hand tenderly.Stephanie's heart thumped. She could almost feel the warmth of his lips lingering on her skin. She watched as he lifted his head once more and looked at her with a smile.Time seemed to come to a standstill."It really is pretty," Adrian said. "It suits you very well."Stephanie hummed in response. She ran her other hand over the bracelet, her heart
"W-What should I do? You have to think of something, Pierce! Maybe we should talk to Ms. Ford right now. I'll give her a proper apology," Aleysha cried out."Forget it. Don't try to talk to her now," Pierce said, worried that Stephanie might get upset if Aleysha appeared. "I'll handle this. You just have to remember not to be so rash in the future.""Okay. I got it. You're so good to me, Pierce. I'll never doubt you again." Aleysha hugged him tightly.Feeling her warmth, Pierce let out a quiet sigh.Even though she had been completely ridiculous just now, he couldn't stay mad at her. All he could think about was how to make a proper apology to Stephanie and how to prevent Adrian from getting too angry once he found out about this.One was his friend of many years, while the other was his girlfriend. This was going to be a tricky situation.As it happened, Pierce was overthinking it. Stephanie had no intention of telling Adrian about what Aleysha had done.It wasn't because she w
Pierce had wanted to snap at Aleysha, but the moment he saw Aleysha's tears, he couldn't stop his heart from softening.He rubbed his forehead, which was still furrowed, but his tone wasn't as cold as it was earlier. "I don't know what you were thinking, Aley. Did I do something to upset you?"After a pause, he added, "Even if you're upset, it's fine if you take it out on me as you like, but why did you drag Ms. Ford into it?"Suddenly, he remembered the way Aleysha lost her temper at him at the equestrian clubhouse a few days ago.For the past couple of days, they had both avoided mentioning that incident. Pierce kept convincing himself that she'd just been feeling unwell that day, and that he shouldn't be holding it against her, the woman he liked.But after the way she acted today, he couldn't help but think about that incident again.There were times when her behavior felt rather strange."Pierce, I…" Aleysha's eyes were still wet with tears. "I just feel a little hurt."Ta
But now that Aleysha was already Pierce's girlfriend, he was still refusing to let her join in on the meeting.If Pierce still had his guard up against her after all this time, then what was the point of all the effort she'd put into getting close to him and becoming his girlfriend?Gabriel had even seen them together!Aleysha was filled with resentment.Thus, her expression turned icy when she saw Pierce and Stephanie still standing together after the meeting, holding a tablet and discussing details of the project.Once they were done with the discussion, they looked up and saw Aleysha standing nearby, eyeing them with a grim expression."What's wrong, Aley?" Pierce swiftly came over to her."It's nothing." Aleysha let out a cold laugh. "It's just that you two seemed to be chatting so happily, so I didn't dare to go over and disturb you guys."Stephanie, who'd been thinking about the project, frowned when she heard those words. She felt rather mystified.From the moment she a
"What is it?" Tyler eagerly asked."Something you can use on the woman you love." Suzanne produced a small bottle from somewhere and handed it to him.Tyler took it before asking in confusion, "Use it on Steph? This is…""It's something good I got from abroad—a colorless, odorless drug." Suzanne looked down at her nails, her tone nonchalant. "As long as she takes it a few times, she'll gradually become cognitively impaired.""What did you say?" Tyler's expression changed instantly. "You want me to use something like this on Steph? Do you think I've lost my mind?"He nearly smashed the glass bottle on the spot, but Suzanne snorted, saying, "Oh, drop the act, Tyler. Stop pretending to be some devoted lover. What you want right now is to bring down Adrian and stop the two of them from being together, right?"If you can pull off what we just discussed, Adrian will have his hands full trying to save himself. And if Stephanie ends up becoming a fool herself, do you think the marriage a







