Chapter 390 - 370: Won’t Let Me Go

Despite having seen each other naked so many times, she still couldn’t help but feel shy.

"Get out, I’ll be quick!" She frantically grabbed a towel to cover herself, but it was too small. It barely covered anything, leaving the rest of her almost completely exposed to his gaze.

The man had already taken off his jacket. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt, and right in front of Georgia Thorne, he pulled off the white garment. "Let’s shower together!"

"You!" Georgia Thorne bit her lower lip. "You’re shameless!"

Elliot Sheridan leaned over her. "Shameless? As long as you like it, that’s all that matters!"

"Hmph!"

Georgia Thorne turned her head to one side, refusing to humor the old rogue.

"Do you like it?"

"Hmph!"

"You don’t like it?"

"Yeah, I don’t like it!"

"You really don’t like it?"

"So, do you like it or not?"

"I like it, I like it!" Georgia Thorne, starting to get scared by his teasing, frantically grabbed his hand. She looked at him with pleading eyes, shaking her head.

"But you just said you didn’t like it. Why the sudden change of heart?"

’...It’s all your fault, you jerk!’

The first time Nancy Hughes saw Dylan Heston was on her first day as an intern at the Sheridan Group.

Dressed in a black suit, Dylan Heston strode right past her.

His gaze was fixed forward, his somber eyes seemingly oblivious to anyone around him.

Nancy Hughes had seen her share of handsome men, but Dylan Heston was something else entirely.

Later, she learned of Dylan Heston’s identity through office gossip.

’So that’s who he is,’ she thought. ’No wonder his eyes are so intense.’

A month later, she made a mistake at work and was told by her team leader to stay and work overtime to redo the documents.

By the time she left work, it was already nine at night.

A frigid wind howled. She stepped out of the office building, all bundled up, but a blast of oncoming cold air instantly set her shivering.

Georgia Thorne had gone to the Thorne family home that evening, so Nancy was alone in the apartment again.

She was waiting at a red light to cross the street.

Bored, she glanced around and spotted a familiar face not far off.

Even though she had only seen Dylan Heston once, his face was for some reason etched deeply into her memory.

Dylan Heston was crouching on the ground, holding a lollipop and consoling a little girl who was bawling in front of him.

The little girl looked very young. She stopped crying when she saw the candy and gave Dylan Heston a hug and a kiss.

Dylan Heston smiled, and his smiling eyes were stunning.

Then, his gaze seemed to sweep in her direction.

His smile vanished as he stared coldly at her. Nancy Hughes’s heart began to THUMP-THUMP-THUMP wildly.

Her brain lagged for a second before she quickly whipped her head away.

Just then, the light turned green, and she lowered her head, hurrying across the street with the flow of pedestrians.

’What is wrong with me?’

In Nancy Hughes’s eyes, Dylan Heston was not a good person.

Her colleagues gossiped that he was in the mob—drug trafficking, smuggling, he had done it all.

Everyone knew he was a criminal, yet the police lacked the evidence to arrest him. Meanwhile, he supposedly had dirt on every major official.

That was why everyone in Portmire regarded him with a mixture of fear and reverence.

Dylan Heston was an enigma. People were terrified of him, yet they all wanted to see him behind bars.

She didn’t know why she was thinking about Dylan Heston. Perhaps it was because his smile, as he comforted that little girl, had been so incredibly pure.

For the first time in her life, she lost sleep over a stranger she had only seen twice.

It wasn’t until dawn that she groggily fell asleep.

Her classmates all envied her for landing a job at the Sheridan Group, but only she knew how tough it was to get by in a large corporation.

As a newcomer, she was just a gopher, running around all day after her seniors. Whenever someone was short-handed, she was the one sent over.

She even had to attend business dinners like this one.

Nancy Hughes sat quietly to the side, casually taking a bite of her food.

Suddenly, her team leader called her name. She looked up in confusion to see him shooting her a meaningful look.

"What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and toast President Sullivan!"

Nancy Hughes snapped to attention. She picked up her glass and said in a clear voice, "President Sullivan, I’d like to propose a toast to you!"

Nancy Hughes wasn’t much of a drinker. She especially disliked baijiu, always finding the taste odd.

Steeling herself, she downed the full glass in one gulp.

Yet President Sullivan just held his glass, unmoving. Nancy Hughes forced a smile. "President Sullivan, you..."

President Sullivan was the client for their current project. He was fat and greasy, with a pair of lecherous eyes.

Nancy felt a chill and had the urge to gouge his eyes out. ’So disgusting.’

President Sullivan held up his glass. "There’s no sincerity in this toast. How can you propose a toast from so far away?"

’He’s just making things difficult. He clearly wants to take advantage of me!’

Resisting the urge to splash her drink in his face, Nancy Hughes glanced at her team leader.

The team leader frowned, gesturing for her to go over and properly toast him.

Helpless, she knew that when you work for someone else, you have to learn when to yield.

Nancy Hughes took a deep breath, plastered on a smile, and walked toward President Sullivan. "President Sullivan, please allow me to offer you this toast!"

President Sullivan looked at Nancy Hughes up close and smiled with satisfaction. "Mmm, not bad, not bad at all!"

His lewd gaze roamed all over Nancy’s body. It was impossible to tell if his "not bad at all" was for the drink or for her.

Nancy Hughes was quite attractive, with a fair complexion, delicate features, and a very demure look.

But being subjected to that old man’s stare made her wish she could just gouge her own eyes out in disgust.

’It’s a public place,’ she thought. ’I’m just offering a toast. Surely he won’t try anything.’

But she was clearly too naive. President Sullivan, an old fox long accustomed to the city’s nightlife, "casually" grabbed her hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "Hughes, how old are you? Got a boyfriend?"

Feeling even more repulsed, Nancy discreetly pulled her hand from his grasp. "I already have a boyfriend!"

"Is that so? What a pity!"

Nancy Hughes gave a dry laugh. ’Is this old lecher trying to pressure me into sleeping with him?’

Back in her seat, she scrubbed at the hand he had touched with a wet wipe, over and over. ’I’ll have to properly disinfect this when I get home.’

For the rest of the dinner, President Sullivan’s interest was fixed primarily on Nancy Hughes.

The reason was simple: of all the women present, she was the youngest and had the most innocent, unseasoned look.

And as it happened, that was exactly President Sullivan’s type.

Often, closing a deal over dinner depended on more than just professional competence.

In her mind, Nancy Hughes was secretly cursing out President Sullivan and his entire family tree.

Throughout the evening, Nancy drank far too much. Her head was spinning, her vision was blurry, and she felt nauseous.

Fortunately, she had called Georgia Thorne earlier and asked her to come pick her up.

When the dinner finally, mercifully ended, the old lecher, President Sullivan, enthusiastically offered to drive her home.

’Getting into his car would be like walking into a trap.’

"That’s alright, my boyfriend will be here to get me any minute!" Nancy Hughes said with a sweet smile. President Sullivan laughed awkwardly. "Well, perhaps we’ll see each other another day, then!"

"Of course. Take care, President Sullivan!" Nancy Hughes said, bowing slightly as he left.

In truth, she didn’t have a boyfriend; it was just an excuse she’d fabricated.

She tried calling Georgia Thorne, but the phone just rang and rang.

The baijiu she’d drunk earlier was starting to hit her hard. Nancy Hughes leaned against a wall to steady herself as she walked.

After taking a few steps, she heard her phone ringing in her pocket. ’It’s probably Georgia calling back.’

Before she could answer, she stumbled right into a solid wall of a person, and her phone slipped from her grasp, clattering to the floor.

"I’m so sorry!" she apologized instinctively.

A low, pleasant voice sounded from above her. "It’s fine."

Nancy mumbled an affirmation, snatched her phone off the floor, and apologized again to the man before turning to leave.

Suddenly, her legs gave out, and she passed out.

She had really reached her limit.

She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when her head began to throb with pain.

When she opened her eyes, she saw an unfamiliar ceiling. The air smelled strange, thick with a strong, masculine scent.

’This isn’t my bedroom!’

The thought shot through her mind, and she bolted upright in bed, looking around in a daze.

’Where am I?’

’A hotel? No, that doesn’t feel right.’

A cool draft hit her skin, making her shiver.

Her gaze drifted downward to her own body. ’My clothes... where are my clothes?!’

’Don’t tell me... was I assaulted by that President Sullivan? But I don’t feel... anything.’

Nancy panicked. She had gotten so drunk that she’d forgotten everything.

Without a second thought, she grabbed some clothes from the closet, threw them on, and hastily fled.

Heart pounding in her chest, she hailed a taxi and rushed back to her apartment. Only after she was huddled under her own blankets did her racing heart begin to settle.

’Oh, right... Who was that man I bumped into? Was he the one who brought me here?’

Nancy Hughes slept in her room for an entire day, able to recall only blurry fragments of the night before.

She seemed to recall throwing up and making a huge mess, and the man frowning at her in disgust.

’Yikes. I must have caused him a ton of trouble.’

After that day, Nancy Hughes did her best not to dwell on that night, deciding it was best to just let the memory fade.

Nancy Hughes went back to her usual routine at work, and the project with President Sullivan was finally completed.

She was gradually getting the hang of her work and finding herself becoming much busier.

Another month passed, and the end of the year was fast approaching.

Nancy Hughes was already starting to work on her own designs, developing her own creative ideas.

Before year-end, the company was holding an exhibition, and each team was required to produce three evening gowns.

Nancy Hughes was assigned to assist a senior male colleague. "Hello, Mr. Gunn!"

"Just drop your things anywhere and come give me a hand!" Mr. Gunn said, sparing her a quick glance before adding, "Hold on tight! Don’t let go!"