Noreen froze, caught off guard by the sudden question.


    Seth''s grip was still firm on her forearm. His usual easygoing tone was gone, reced by a detached,manding air. "The first night we slept together," he said, his voice cold, "I remember you telling me your heart belonged to someone else. You said I shouldn''t feel obligated."


    He paused, his voice growing even colder. "That man... it was Dn Wilder, wasn''t it?"


    Noreen''s expression stiffened. She couldn''t believe he still remembered her words from that night.


    Their first time together had been an ident.


    Years ago, Noreen had made an advance on Seth out of gratitude, but he had turned her down. Back then, she''d naively believed he was different from other men—that he wasn''t swayed by a pretty face or willing to take advantage of someone in a vulnerable position. That was why she''d willingly given up a schrship to study abroad, choosing instead to stay and help him build hispany from the ground up.


    They worked shoulder-to-shoulder during that first year, a time of grueling work and gratifying sess. Over the long days andte nights they spent together, Noreen found herself falling for him.


    But she never confessed her feelings. She stayed strictly professional, keeping to her duties and never once crossing the line. She was prepared to keep her love a secret forever. Only in the solitude of the dead of night would she allow herself to examine her feelings, turning them over in the moonlight, tracing the impressions he had left on her heart. Then, before dawn, she would carefully lock them away again, deep inside.


    But that quiet, solitary affection was shattered by the ident.


    A year after its founding, Aurelion Group was on the cusp of a major breakthrough. To bolster thepany''s public image and social standing, Seth had sponsored a schrship program for a group of gifted, underprivileged university students. The university, in turn, hosted a g in his honor, a gesture of thanks from the schrship recipients.


    Noreen was supposed to apany Seth to the g that evening, but an urgent call from the hospital changed her ns. There was an issue with her mother''s, Rosalind Gilmore''s,test test results, and she had to go there in person. So Seth went to the event alone.


    And that was the night everything went wrong.


    Someone at the g drugged him, nning to frame him in a scandal-making it look like he was using the schrship as a pretext to prey on young female students. At the time, Aurelion Group was in the critical. Po stage


    JPO stage for its first major project, facing intense scrutiny over its corporate transparency. A million eyes were on them; even the smallest misstep could have scuttled the entire public offering.


    Fortunately, Noreen had personally managed the schrship program, hand-picking every student. They were grateful to her, and when they saw something was wrong, one of them secretly called her. She raced to the g and managed to get Seth out of there just before the trap was sprung.


    It was Noreen''s first time. Drugged and out of control, Seth was rough, almost


    feral in his desperation. She trembled in the face of his relentless frenzy.


    She had no idea what the drug did to most people, but that night, it had turned Seth into a man of insatiable need. He took from her endlessly,


    азне


    his kisses bruising and violent, like a caged beast finally breaking free.


    Noreen lost count of how many times. All she remembered was the moment just before she passed out, when he asked her in a voice raw and unrecognizable, "Noreen, are you going to regret this?"


    She was too weak to answer, her body convulsing as darkness consumed her.


    When she woke again, Seth was already fully dressed, his back to her as he stood by the window. The dim light of the room cast his silhouette in sharp, cold lines, making him seem distant and unapproachable.<fn55d6> ???s ??????? ?s ?????? ?? find[?]ovel</fn55d6>


    Hearing her stir, Seth turned. His voice was still hoarse, but now it was utterly detached. "I''ll take responsibility for this."


    Noreen''s heart sank. She knew he was only saying it out of a sense of duty, and that wasn''t what she wanted at all. She had never intended to use what happened between them to get something from him.


    So she quicklyposed herself, forcing a calm she didn''t feel into her voice as she prepared to answer him.