I Accidentally Sent My Boss a Message Meant for My Best Friend - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Do you know how to tie a necktie?”

What?

I probably did. As a child, I’d played with my father’s ties until curiosity drove me to ask him to teach me.

“Come here and help me.”

Wasn’t that a little inappropriate?

Didn’t he know how to do it himself?

I kept the questions to myself and obediently walked over.

He was so tall that the top of my head barely reached his collarbone. I fumbled with the tie, increasingly conscious of how strange this was.

We were standing far too close.

More precisely, he could have raised his head and given me room.

He did not.

He kept his face lowered, each even breath brushing the tip of my nose. A faint scent of tobacco clung to him.

The office was so quiet I could almost hear my own heartbeat.

Then his low, seductive voice sounded beside my ear.

“Want to find out?”

My hands stopped dead.

I stared at him in disbelief.

Find out… what?

He seemed to understand the question in my eyes. One beautifully shaped hand rose from behind his back, his long fingers hovering by my ear and barely grazing the hair at my temple.

“The pinker the fingertips…”

“Why don’t you find out how rough I am?”

Somehow, while I was tying that necktie, we ended up on the desk.

Then the sofa.

Then against the floor-to-ceiling window.

He really was rough.

Nothing like the restrained, rational boss I knew at work.

He was his complete opposite.

I wanted to die of embarrassment.

A long while later, he had finished dressing while I was still pulling up my trousers.

“You can go.”

???

He stood with his back to me, smoking beside the window.

That was it?

He had nothing else to say?

“I’m leaving on a business trip tomorrow. Pack my luggage for me.”

The words came in the same tone he used for any ordinary instruction.

That really was it.

As if nothing had happened.

So I was just something he used to relieve stress?

I laughed bitterly, my chest tight.

Forget it! With looks like his, I was the one who had gotten the bargain. Hiring a man that gorgeous would have cost money.

He truly was the coldest person I had ever met.

Capitalists had no hearts!

I opened the office door.

More than a dozen people tumbled into my arms.

“What are you all doing?”

They scrambled upright and began tidying themselves with suspicious haste.

“Uh, I have a document for President Qin to sign.”

“I need him to approve a project payment.”

“I… came to clean the floor outside his office. It looked a little dirty.”

I ignored them and strode away.

“Li Yue, you were in President Qin’s office for two hours. What were you doing in there?”

“Exactly! Tell us in secret. I promise I won’t tell anyone else.”

“Did President Qin really do it with you?”

“I thought he didn’t like women. You must have some serious skills.”

“If you really become the boss’s wife, please give me a promotion and a raise! From now on, I’ll follow your every command.”

“Me too! Me too! Li Yue, I’m your loyal underling from this day forward.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

So annoying! So annoying, annoying, annoying!

I buried my head in my arms.

They were unbearably loud.

Smack!

I slapped a palm onto my desk.

“I already told you, I was helping President Qin organize documents!”

“Documents! Do you hear me?”

“If any of you spread rumors, President Qin will not let you off!”

Ding.

The clock struck quitting time. I snatched up my bag and fled.

These people were more terrifying than a horde of zombies.

A message from Qin Lie popped up on my phone. It was a location pin.

“Have everything packed before seven.”

Ha.

Of course. To people of his wealth and status, sleeping with a woman meant nothing.

Why would he give it a second thought?

This was my first time visiting Qin Lie’s home in the six months since I had started working for him.

The moment I saw the entrance to his residential compound, I sucked in a breath. If no one had told me otherwise, I would have mistaken it for the lobby of a five-star hotel.

No. It was several times grander.

The complex had a swimming pool larger than a university athletic field and a golf course stretching beyond sight. There were cinemas, bars, billiard rooms, tea houses—every imaginable form of entertainment.

The people who lived here had no reason to leave the gates at all.

At sixteen, all I had known was that the boy I secretly loved seemed as bright and pure as a breeze beneath a clear moon. His grades were exceptional, his values sound, and he respected women. He had been bold, carefree, and unruly.

At twenty-five, I finally understood the gulf between us.

He had become quiet, reserved, and dignified. Even…

Everything had changed except the distance separating us.

An ordinary middle-class family on one side. An old-money dynasty on the other.

Earth and sky.

I had prepared myself for the difference, but an unexpected sense of inferiority still washed over me.

A man like him would always be beyond my reach.

And yet I still couldn’t stop myself from walking toward him.

He opened the door for me, and I began packing for his trip. As I worked, I looked at the man seated at his computer and felt something twist inside me.

“Mr. Qin, everything’s packed.”

“Mm.” He nodded.

He stopped me before I left. He looked as calm and composed as ever.

“I’m sorry.”

He paused before speaking again.

“I didn’t know it was your…”

“First time.”

The feeling in my chest became indescribable.

What did he mean, he was sorry?

Was that his way of making it clear he had no intention of taking responsibility?

Sorry, and that was that?

Why did he have to say it aloud? We could have pretended nothing happened. Why did he have to bring it up to my face?

I hadn’t felt this hurt before.

Bastard.

I left before he could see my tears.