The briefing was still underway.
Listening to Lu Shiyan’s steady voice, Jiang Nuan ground her back teeth.
Afternoon sunlight slanted in from the side, casting a pool of warm golden light across the floor in front of her eyes. It was moving very, very slowly.
Something called reason had already been squandered almost completely over the past few minutes.
Fine, Lu Shiyan. So you won’t let her stop, will you?
Then don’t expect to get off easily either.
Her fingers curled little by little, like dust motes drifting in the afternoon glow, sinking down silently.
A gentle brush.
The light and shadows trembled once, then again.
Jiang Nuan’s ears had long since turned bright red. Even the base of her neck was burning, the heat surging upward and evaporating the last trace of clarity from her mind.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
She was doing it on purpose.
The afternoon light flickered once more.
…
“As for the documents, coordinate with the deputy commander.”
Lu Shiyan’s voice finally failed to maintain its composure.
The last few words came out too quickly, almost all in one breath.
“That’s all for today.”
“Send the follow-up arrangements to my terminal by tomorrow morning.”
“Then… there are still a few matters. When would the Governor be available? I need to report them in person—” the person giving the briefing said.
“Leave.”
The briefer fell silent for a moment. “…Yes, Governor.”
Footsteps sounded, moving toward the door.
The door opened, then closed.
Sitting beneath the desk, Jiang Nuan felt the sudden silence settle around her, and a thought slowly surfaced in her mind.
She had assumed the briefing would last at least another forty minutes.
After all, leaders loved meetings.
The more power they held, the more they enjoyed turning half an hour’s worth of material into three hours, and one document into some grand, sweeping narrative. That had been one of the core conclusions in the Organizational Behavior course she had taken at university.
How had this meeting ended in five minutes?
Then came the sound of a chair shifting.
The moment the thought of what would happen next surfaced, a hand slipped beneath her knees. Lu Shiyan lifted her straight out from under the desk.
She didn’t even have time to cry out before he had set her securely on the broad surface of the desk.
The edge of the desktop pressed painfully into her knees. Before she could even frown, Lu Shiyan leaned over her from behind, his chest against her back, trapping her between himself and the edge of the desk so she couldn’t move.
She leaned forward an inch, instinctively trying to create some distance.
His body pressed forward slightly, easily blocking that inch of resistance and refusing to give her even the smallest opening.
Exploring beneath the desk had been one thing. Being pressed against him for real was something else entirely.
She couldn’t help shrinking forward another fraction.
“Don’t move.” Lu Shiyan’s voice fell beside her ear. “What are you afraid of?”
Jiang Nuan said nothing. Her mind flashed rapidly back to that night at the apartment—the neon lights outside the window, her head tilted back.
She didn’t even know when she had started crying. She only knew that he had asked her something beside her ear, and she hadn’t even had the strength to shake her head.
Her face began to burn, the heat spreading from her ears all the way down her neck.
That time, in the end, he had only held himself back a little less than usual.
And she had already…
“I know what you’re thinking.” It was as though he could see straight through her fear. “This time, I’ll hold back more.”
He paused.
“Don’t worry.”
Jiang Nuan: …
It sounded like genuine reassurance, but his tone—
No matter how she heard it, it also seemed like a pointed reminder that last time he had only used seventy percent of his restraint, and she had already ended up like that. So this time, he was leaving her the remaining thirty percent.
How could she possibly feel reassured?
“This is an office—” Jiang Nuan struggled to say.
His broad palm passed through the long hair spilling down her back. His fingers slowly gathered it together, tilting her head slightly backward. He took control of the angle, forcing her to face him.
His mouth sealed over hers.
He invaded between her lips and teeth at once, his force far greater than she had expected. Her entire body instinctively arched backward, her back pressing solidly against his chest. One hand clamped around her chin while the other gripped her waist, leaving her nowhere to retreat.
Jiang Nuan’s fingers instinctively groped for the cool edge of the desk and closed around it tightly.
His lips and teeth pried hers apart and took hold of them with heavy insistence.
She could only endure him.
