Chapter 3: The Boss Leaves, and I Stay!

Zhou Mingyuan froze, the anger on his face hardening into a grimace.

She had a point. Lin Wanshu was as meticulous as a spider spinning its web. If she’d shown up once, she might well be waiting downstairs. If Zhang Cheng left and she returned to find Zhou alone with Su Qing, their entire performance would have been for nothing.

He glanced at the tangled sheets, then at Su Qing’s rumpled burgundy dress. Its neckline hung open, revealing faint red marks Zhang Cheng had left. His anger flared again, mingled with humiliation and resentment.

“You mean… I’m the one who should leave?” His voice tightened. He looked at Zhang Cheng with growing hostility. “And he stays?”

What could be more humiliating than leaving his driver in a hotel room with his secretary?

Su Qing seemed oblivious to his discomfort. Tracing a circle on his chest, she said coaxingly, “Just endure it for now. Once things calm down, we’ll have plenty of time…” She let the words trail off, her eyes inviting.

Zhou swallowed. Looking at her lovely face, he finally gritted his teeth. Compared with the risk of Lin Wanshu catching them, a little humiliation was bearable.

He rounded on Zhang Cheng. “You behave yourself after I leave! Touch one hair on Secretary Su’s head and I’ll chop off your hands and feed them to the dogs. You hear me?”

“Yes! I hear you!” Zhang Cheng nodded rapidly, lowering his head as cold sweat broke out on his back.

“If I find anything amiss tomorrow morning, you’re fired!” Zhou snatched his jacket from the sofa and stormed out, slamming the heavy wooden door hard enough to shake the picture on the wall.

Silence fell. Only their breathing remained, along with the mingled scent of perfume and desire.

Zhang Cheng stood stiffly, gripping the hem of his clothes, afraid to look up. Zhou’s warning still rang in his ears, yet Su Qing’s sweet tuberose scent teased at his senses. He felt her gaze travel from his damp hair to his tightly pressed lips and his bare, scratched shoulders.

“Secretary Su, thank you for speaking up for me. You saved my job. I won’t forget it.” He looked up, his gratitude sincere.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Su Qing smoothed her dress and lifted her eyes. The chandelier cast shifting light across her already beautiful face.

“Why thank me?” She smiled knowingly, examining her burgundy-painted nails. “We’re ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ now. Shouldn’t we help each other?”

The softness with which she said boyfriend made his face burn. He waved his hands. “Please don’t joke, Secretary Su. That was all for the boss’s wife…”

“Nonsense!” She looked straight at him, her eyes bright. “Didn’t I say I’d be your girlfriend for a day? And you certainly weren’t shy in bed. You nearly wore me out.”

Zhang Cheng had no answer. It was true. He’d lost himself in her tenderness, forgetting who he was, the man in the wardrobe and even the woman watching from the sofa.

He stared at a stain on the carpet, unable to meet Su Qing’s eyes. His heart hammered against his ribs. The experience had been wonderful, and he wanted more. They were alone now. She had seemed happy too; perhaps she wouldn’t refuse if he made a move.

But Zhou Mingyuan’s warning hung over him like a knife. He was a driver earning six thousand yuan a month, with rent to worry about. In this economy, losing the job could leave him unable to survive. Zhou also had connections in the underworld. If he became angry enough, sinking Zhang Cheng in the river was not beyond possibility.

Reason tugged at him, but his gaze kept drifting upward. Su Qing had stood and was slowly tying the sash of her dress. Her long, straight legs were bare, and her bare feet rested on the carpet. Her toenails were painted the same burgundy as her fingernails.

“How are you so incredible?” she asked, blushing. “Even the boss’s wife couldn’t take her eyes off you. Do you have a secret?” Her gaze was almost affectionate, as though she were recalling what had happened.

“I… I suppose I was born that way. There’s no secret. I didn’t know myself until today.” Zhang Cheng was embarrassed, though a little proud. Mostly, he felt rueful. Heaven had given such a gift to a poor driver nobody wanted. Su Qing was his first woman.

Why couldn’t heaven have given him a brilliant mind instead? Then he might have excelled at school and gone to Peking or Tsinghua University, instead of working straight out of high school. After ten years, he still had no car, no home and no savings.

“Zhang,” Su Qing said lazily, “from today on, you have to play my boyfriend properly. Make it convincing.”

He snapped out of his thoughts. “Convincing? But the boss…”

She stepped closer. The top of her head reached his nose, and her lashes fluttered as she looked up at him. “His wife is still watching. If she sees through us, do you think he’ll let you off?”