"You... degenerate! Shameless!"I grinned, just as the waiter brought our drinks. I pushed the bill in front of Ava and said, "This is for work. Pay up."Ava picked up the bill, glanced at the expensive prices without a change in expression, and paid.I opened a beer, poured a glass, and pushed it towards her."Don't give it to me. I'm not touching anything in here. It's filthy. Including you.""Alright," I said, taking the glass back and taking a sip. "You're paying anyway."Ava snorted and went silent, her face a stern mask.I didn't bother trying to get a rise out of her again. I just sipped my beer and watched the various men in the bar.It was still early, so there were only about a dozen people on the second floor. The provocative dancer had only been performing for a short while before getting off the stage to flirt with someone.Before long, a few more groups arrived. They looked like tourists—from Astoria, Europe, and America—all of them oddly excited.It was then I remembere

I stopped and turned around.Ava had a mocking smile on her face. "Because Laura Wells dumped you for Caleb Vance. Because you saw how well she was doing, saw that Caleb had money and a career, you got angry. You were jealous, resentful. You wanted to win this project to prove yourself, to get revenge on them, to mock them. Am I wrong?"I couldn't stop myself from walking up to her, reaching out, and grabbing her delicate chin.Ava's face flushed with shame and anger. She grabbed my wrist, trying to pry my hand away."Don't move," I said, tightening my grip.She cried out in pain and stopped struggling, but her eyes still blazed with fury.I leaned in close and said, "Ms. Barlow, don't be so full of yourself, always thinking you can see through everyone. I'm not as complicated as you think. I just want to sleep with you."With that, I suddenly kissed her, forcing my lips against hers.She froze.Before she could react, I let her go, gave her a cold smirk, and walked into my room.Igno

Ava didn't move or speak, but Ken Corning, beside her, couldn't hold back. He stepped in front of her, pointed at me mockingly, and said, "Kian Shaw, you're a social degenerate. Stop bothering Ms. Barlow and just resign. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you, we got the BTT project. And it wasn't because of your talk. After you messed everything up, Ms. Barlow went to BTT herself and renegotiated to get it back. There's nothing left for you here. You should know when to leave."I looked at this clueless dope with confusion. I could understand him having a problem with me; we'd clashed before. But his intelligence level right now... was he trying to put me down without even knowing the facts? Where did this sense of superiority come from?And the rest of the project team, they were all looking at me like I was a fool, their expressions a mix of disgust and mockery. It was like their collective IQ had taken a nosedive."Mr. Corning, that was out of line. I think you should apologize to Ki

Seeing me freeze, Gavin Price assumed he was right, that he had seen right through me. He gave a contemptuous smile. "You're clever, and your method is good. But you're dreaming a little too big. Ava would never fall for you. And the Barlow family would never let her be with a broke ex-con. So, take the money and get lost."Gavin's words snapped me back to reality. I smiled and shook my head at him."Not enough?""Not enough.""One million."I didn't say anything, just marveled at how crazy rich people were. A million dollars just to get rid of a potential rival.And the thing was, I wasn't even his rival.If I had known this was going to happen, I would have acted more intimate with Ava earlier. I should have made a point of being attentive to her in front of Gavin, maybe served her some food. Even without chopsticks, I could have used a fork.If I had done that, Gavin's opening offer wouldn't have been one million; it would have been two or three. I could have bargained a little, and

Soon, Ava's phone started ringing. She didn't answer. It kept ringing, and she kept ignoring it.I started to worry. What if her phone wasn't on vibrate, and she couldn't hear it because her ears were damaged?At the same time, I was annoyed with myself. Why was I helping her?What did I care if she was being ganged up on by a bunch of guys? What did I care if she went deaf?But no matter how annoyed I was, I couldn't bring myself to leave her. It must have been my damn, overblown sense of sympathy.It wasn't until we were back in the hotel lobby that I pulled the shirt off her head. "Can you hear me?" I asked.She wiped the water from her face, her eyes red, and nodded.I snapped my fingers by her left ear. She nodded. I snapped them by her right ear. The sound was softer, and she didn't nod."Does your right ear hurt? Is there a ringing sound?""Mm," she nodded again."Crap," I couldn't help but curse again."Get upstairs to your room right now. Shake the water out of your ear. If i