Sienna Thornton was just about to say "You’re pretending to sleep, aren’t you?" but before she could, her lips were covered.
After a while of fooling around, Simon Forrester finally settled down.
He rested his head on one hand and played with the long strands of her hair that hung on his chest with the other, smiling: "Why did you co looking for tonight? What were you doing yesterday when I was about to leave, urging to hurry up and go?"
Who would have thought he could be so sensitive and hold a grudge?
Sienna had intended to butter him up, but when she thought about how he had been pretending to sleep just now to trick her, she put away her gentleness and feigned indifference: "You didn’t say anything all day, so I ca to check if you had passed out from a fever again."
Simon snorted lightly: "No one else but you can make feverish and pass out."
Recalling three years ago when he had a high fever and passed out, and she helped him cool down physically, the anger in Sienna’s heart suddenly vanished, bringing a chuckle as she snuggled over and softly asked him: "Seriously, during the last fever when I ’took care of’ you, did you really not know anything?"
"I knew everything."
"Did you know during the physical cooling too?"
"I knew."
Sienna’s face heated up, and with an "ugh," she burrowed into his arms: "You cunning devil!"
...
...
...
On her second day at the Treaty and Law Departnt, Sienna received a case.
At that ti, the final verdict for this case wasn’t out yet, but she had reviewed extensive materials and anticipated that the outco wouldn’t be optimistic. Therefore, with Director-General Linton’s approval, she led the mbers of Legal Division Two to conduct an investigation on this case for almost two months.
Six months ago, the final verdict was released, and the leadership held a eting overnight to discuss strategies.
Responsible for this case, Sienna Thornton, leading Legal Division Two, presented an almost perfect negotiation strategy at the eting, thanks to their thorough preparation earlier. The departnt leaders were quite impressed with Sienna Thornton, who had just been appointed as director less than two months ago.
During this half year, Sienna and her subordinates had been busy with this case, hoping to perfectly resolve it at the negotiation stage during the November trip to Valois.
This wasn’t her first ti going to the World Trade Organization; she had been several tis before as a full-ti lawyer at Vantage.
However, back then, she only assisted the Treaty and Law Departnt in handling cases as a foreign legal expert. Now, she led a team with tens of thousands of enterprises to the WTO for negotiations, which felt completely different.
Therefore, in the month leading up to the Valois trip, Sienna and her colleagues worked overti almost every day until midnight, hoping to return from Valois with good news.
During that period, Simon was particularly understanding and cooperative, even suggesting that they move to the design firm’s dormitory to save Sienna more than an hour commuting ti every day.
SY Design Firm is located in the middle of Regent Street, less than a ten-minute walk to Sienna’s workplace. Therefore, when Sienna ntioned that she would be working overti all October, Simon directly proposed that the two of them move into the design firm’s dormitory.
The design firm occupies a three-and-a-half-story standalone building. In fact, the fourth floor, excluding the large glass rooftop of the third-floor observatory, only has half a floor of usable space, which was made into Simon’s dormitory.
Despite being called a dormitory, its luxurious level rivals his apartnt in the New District. Master and guest bedrooms, closet room, study, living room, dining kitchen, bar counter, independent bathroom, and panoramic terrace—it has all the essentials.
On Simon’s first day there, he took Sienna to tour around, and Sienna, amazed at the dormitory that rivaled a luxury apartnt, recalled novels she had read in the past.
"People say that n set up lounges or dormitories at work just to do bad things with their secretaries!" she shouted to Simon while touring the master bedroom, who was organizing the closet outside.
The closet still had Simon’s suits and casual clothes that hadn’t been worn in three years. So clothes were outdated, and others were dirty.
His severe cleanliness led him to clear them all out and replace them with clean clothes brought from ho.
Seeing no reaction, Sienna ran into the closet and repeated her words.
Simon, wearing a black sports suit, was squatting and organizing the bottom drawer of the wardrobe. Upon hearing her, he scratched his ear with his index finger, speechless: "I’m not deaf."
"If you’re not deaf, why aren’t you talking?"
"What do you want to know?"
Sienna ran over, sat on the cushioned stool behind him, supporting her chin with one hand and lightly pinching his soft earlobe with the other.
She licked her back teeth, wickedly asking: "I want to know if you’ve brought a secretary up here..."
"What do you think?" Simon suddenly stood up, turned around, and leaned over her, his smile more mischievous, "If I don’t bring a secretary here, why would I make it so nice and big?"
"Huh???" Sienna was dumbfounded, grabbed his collar, pulling his outrageously handso face closer to hers, wide-eyed and asking, "Did you really bring secretaries up to ss around?"
Simon didn’t respond, just kept smiling.
She had initially hoped for his clarification, but seeing him like this, she felt utterly defeated, her heart sinking, head down, nose sniffing, feeling wronged: "I should have guessed I’m not your first. Soone like you couldn’t wait so long to find a girl. I’ve been too naive to believe you."
Seeing her downcast, he felt a pang of sympathy but decided to treat her problem temporarily, putting aside his softness.
"What kind of person am I?" he asked, his lips clearly amused.
Her head still hung low, voice buzzing: "Rich, handso, talented, charismatic... and both gentlemanly and warm-hearted. Except for the previous black mark of ssing around with secretaries, I think you’re the best man in the world..."
The more she spoke, the worse she felt, believing that soone like Simon surely couldn’t have been without won before her.
Yet the more she spoke, the more reluctant she beca, wishing she could own him completely. She used to think she truly owned him...
Seeing her genuinely distressed and conflicted, Simon felt it was enough, or else she’d run out the door.
He knelt on one knee, looked at her drooped little head, and though feeling tender, feigned seriousness: "Why ask such things? Aren’t you just giving yourself trouble?"
"I can ask questions, and you can choose not to answer, or even deny them!" She had heard the harshest truth in the world and, out of self-preservation, began to act like an ostrich.
Simon couldn’t help but laugh, embracing her, his warm, dry palm gently stroking her hair, bemused: "Deny? Doesn’t that equal deceiving you? Do you want to lie to you?"
"It’s not like you haven’t lied to ... You secretly bought my hostay before and kept my biological father’s matters from ..."
Simon was indeed aware he had deceived her, and not just about those two incidents...
His voice was utterly calm: "Those were benevolent lies."
Sienna’s mind went blank, pushing him away, initially wanting to lose her temper but realizing those were past matters, and bringing them up now would only strain their relationship.
She cald down her emotions, pretending to be composed: "Forget it, that’s all in the past. I won’t pursue it, but you must not bring won up here again in the future! If I find out, I’ll tell my dad!"
Though she said it, her heart was still bruised and battered, forcing herself to accept.
Originally just wanting to joke to lighten the mood, she ended up hitting a dead end.
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