As soon as the call went through, an ecstatic female voice greeted, "Derick!"

Hearing her, Derick scowled unnaturally, "I heard you're having a welcome party for me. How is it going?"

A soft female voice could be heard in the background as Rebecca looked at Derick's side profile.

Her client, Nicole, was on the other end of the line. Nicole was the typical spoiled rich woman who kept pursuing Derick, especially now that he had just returned to the city. Coincidentally, Rebecca had taken over the event planning for the party Nicole was preparing for Derick.

When Derick rejected Nicole's invitation to a welcome party, she vented her frustrations on the event's organizer, Rebecca. Even though the latter's plan was impressive, Nicole rejected it three times in a row.

When Rebecca first saw the doctor's name on the diagnosis certificate at the police station, it immediately rang a bell. She couldn't believe her great luck when she realized it was the person for whom she had been arranging the whole welcoming party. Nonetheless, it was purely coincidental that she ran into the person Nicole was trying to pursue.

After Derick ended his phone conversation, he raised his chin towards Rebecca. Then all of a sudden, her phone began to ring. Rebecca looked at the caller's number and saw it was Nicole. Having a hint of what the call was about, Rebecca gave a quick nod to Derick before picking up her phone and walking out of the clinic.

As she had hoped, she finally solved her problem.

In the end, Nicole decided to go with the first version of her proposal out of the three. Rebecca went about making preparations for the various meals, drinks, and etiquette to ensure that the event could begin without a hitch three days later.

At the planning department's group meeting, the team leader congratulated Rebecca for fixing the situation. After their meeting, Lily, her colleague, intercepted her and said in a sarcastic tone, "You really nailed it this time around."

Aside from Rebecca, Lily was one of the top picks to succeed in the deputy team leader position. However, the higher-ups valued Rebecca more, and she was even more popular than Lily, making it likely that she would get the job.

"I appreciate your compliment," Rebecca replied.

Like a typical work-related drama, Lily suddenly took another step when Rebecca was about to leave and remarked, "You didn't succeed on this project by sleeping with your client, did you?"

Hearing this, Rebecca halted. "What did you say?"

"Don't act as if no one knows what you're doing." Lily heaved a disdainful sigh, brushed up against Rebecca, and bumped her hard as she moved by.

Sophia, another colleague inside Rebecca's workstation, had just brought her a glass of water and comforted her, saying, "That woman is really a bitch! A crazy bitch!"

Rebecca took the glass and replied, "It's fine," as she took a sip from it.

These kinds of things were not new to her anymore. In fact, after working for a long time, Rebecca had become accustomed to this kind of strife in the office.

Rather than focusing on Lily, Rebecca concentrated on completing the final preparations for Nicole's party. She was eager to finish the project as soon as possible to avoid working with customers like that again.

At the end of the day, Rebecca finally had time for herself. After working nonstop from morning to afternoon, she sat at her desk, drank coffee, and browsed through her contact list.

Only then did she notice an unread message from the contact number with a star on its name.

[I haven't checked out of the hotel room. I will wait for you.]

Reading the message, Rebecca felt a strange flutter in her chest. It had been nearly 24 hours since the man delivered the message. She lingered on the dialogue box for quite some time but ultimately decided not to send anything in reply. Instead, she simply put her phone away and left the company.

There weren't many times that Rebecca could leave work on time, but this was one of them. So, she decided first to take a stroll around the grocery store, where she purchased fresh milk and some fruits before heading to the Courtney neighbourhood to deliver them.

As she entered the house, she texted her brother from downstairs.

Two minutes later, Raynor came running down the stairs, signing, 'Sister!'

Rebecca handed him the things in her hand and signed, 'Take them to mom.'

Raynor looked at the groceries and gestured with his left hand, 'You're not going upstairs?'

Rebecca glanced at the window of the old-fashioned residential building and shook her head, 'No, I won't go up.'

Raynor continued to move his hands, signing, 'Sister, mom is too….'

But Rebecca interrupted him and said, 'I know. Don't worry about me.'

When Rebecca left the community, she took the subway to circle the city. After walking out of the station, she looked up and saw that it was a hotel.

Squeezing the hard key card in her pocket, Rebecca pursed her lips tightly and entered the hotel with her head lowered.

It had been only a day since she'd left this place. Hesitant, she stepped in front of the door and looked at their room number. After three minutes, she made up her mind and opened the door.

The room was pitch black when Rebecca walked in, so she couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. Just as she touched the wall and was ready to slide the room card into the card slot, she found her back suddenly pressed against a hard and warm chest, and the warm breath of a person flickered in her ears.

The man's voice was deep and alluring, "I've been waiting for you."

With that, Rebecca's half-body softened, causing the room card in her hand to fall to the floor.

The man who pulled Rebecca inside the room was taller and bigger than her, but he was clearly more agile than her.

When she felt the man's arms wrapped around her, Rebecca didn't dare move a muscle, nor did she dare breathe when he buried his head on her neck. She stayed still, unfamiliar with these kinds of things, especially when it came to this man.

"Breathe. I promise I won't bite," the man said with a chuckle, his breath gently touching Rebecca's skin.

With that, Rebecca started to relax. Her strained muscles, a little stiff from forcing herself not to move, came back to life.

It wasn't the first time the man had held Rebecca, so she wasn't averse to his touch. It was, however, the first time the man held her like this – unhurried and gentle.

Usually, they just rip their clothes off and do the deed, so Rebecca never minded it. It was, after all, what she wanted. It was the reason why she agreed to continue seeing him. He was good in bed, and Rebecca knew he wasn't the man who likes commitment, and neither was he a man who would ask her for a long-term relationship.

They were bed partners—nothing more, nothing less.

Rebecca should have run away, but she slowly relaxed in the man's gentle embrace.

"But I'll bite you if you ask me nicely," the man suddenly said.

Rebecca's eyes went wide.

Annoyed with herself rather than the man, she shoved him hard and quickly backed away toward the door. Cornered, she switched the lights, and the room lit up, revealing the man looking at her with hungry eyes.

"Forget it then. I'm leaving!" Rebecca stated and quickly opened the door.

"Wait!" Yet again, the man was beside Rebecca without her even knowing.

'How does he move like that?' Rebecca thought with annoyance.

"Stay! Promise I won't do anything you don't like," the man said with his utmost innocently-sounding voice, but he couldn't fool Rebecca. Something in his eyes told her she should run away. Fast!

The three knocks on the door stopped the man from talking as the man from the outside called and announced, "Sir, your dinner is here!"

"Leave it at the door!" The man answered the man.

"Were you expecting I'd come here?" Rebecca asked the man who dragged the food cart inside the room.

The man shrugged. "I had a feeling."

"I'm not hungry," Rebecca said firmly. It unnerved her that the man was being considerate of her. They were never like this.

"Then at least take a bite," the man was smiling, but something in his voice made Rebecca stop refusing the second time.

Rebecca had a feeling that the man could and would think of other ways for her to do his bidding. The thought scared her, but her body humming at the anticipation of the man's wicked ways betrayed her.

Afraid that the man could read her thoughts, Rebecca took the spoon he offered, scooped a spoonful of the beef stew, and ate it.

Then, she didn't talk afterward. The taste of the food filled her senses, and it sated the hunger she didn't know she had. Before Rebecca took another bite, she saw the man beside him hiding a smile by taking a spoonful of his food.

Rebecca didn't care. The food in front of her was too delicious for her to care about anything else.

...

"Would you like to take a bath?" The man asked Rebecca who was fixing the plates on the table. Before the latter could nod in agreement which he was sure she would, he added, "We can go together if you want."

Rebecca froze and looked at him with murderous eyes. "Please, go ahead," she answered through gritted teeth. "I'll go after you're done."

The man shrugged, not letting Rebecca's refusal let him down. He deliberately passed by her on his way to the bathroom while slowly unbuttoning his shirt collar, revealing his collarbone and large chiseled chest. It made him smile inwardly when he noticed Rebecca's cheek flushed red.

"You won't run away, won't you?" he asked when he was close enough for her to hear him.

"N-No!"

"Then wait for me, alright?" He said before leaning over and brushing his lips against the corner of Rebecca's lips.

The latter stared at the bathroom door as it closed. Suddenly, how she met the man flashed before her eyes.

Rebecca once had this crazy idea. She wanted to get herself wasted for the first time in her life and dared to do so. Exactly thirty days from her and Benson's divorce, she picked out the "quietest" bar she found online in the city and went there to get drunk.

When she woke up in a hotel the morning after, Rebecca found out she had grabbed a man at the bar. Apparently, she forced the man into joining her in her crazy escapade, continuing her drinking spree at a hotel.

But then, the man, a certified gentleman, was kind enough to let her sleep the rest of the night. When the morning came, and Rebecca woke up, she tried to leave as fast as she could in embarrassment. However, she failed to escape unnoticed.

...

When the man got out of the bathroom, he saw Rebecca walking back and forth in the living room. Unable to help it, a mischievous grin flashed on his lips. He liked teasing Rebecca and loved it more when she screamed and writhed under him with pleasure.

"The bath is ready," he said to get the woman's attention.

He wasn't the most handsome man, but he was confident in his physique and witty charm. So he paraded it in front of the woman, his robe tightly loose around his waist, showing off his chiseled chest.

It pleased him when Rebecca flushed and looked everywhere but him.

"R–Right, I–I should…." Rebecca stuttered as she scrambled to get her bag and walk past him. That almost made him chuckle, but he reeled it in. He thought it wouldn't be good for Rebecca to run away, which would most likely happen if he teased her too much.

So, he contented himself with offering an alternative. "I can help you wash your back if you—"

"No, thank you!" the woman almost shouted before shutting the door in his face.

Alone in the living room, the man laughed in rich amusement. He would not have stopped earlier had he not heard the woman's phone vibrating on the coffee table. With a slight smile, he stepped closer to the coffee table where the phone was and peeked.

When he saw the name on Rebecca's phone, his smile faded at once.

Rebecca took a deep breath, held it in, then exhaled while the cold water from the shower head above her beat down her already tired body. Then, she pressed her forehead on the tiled wall and asked herself, "What are you doing, Rebecca?"

Rash decisions were, after all, seeds of mistakes. Rebecca never intended for their relationship to go this far, but after that morning, when they agreed to exchange numbers, she asked the man to meet her again.

The man, on the other hand, didn't even hesitate and decided to meet with her the weekend after they met.

That one time happened again and again and again until Rebecca found herself having a bed partner in the face of the man.

While Rebecca let herself drown in her thoughts in the bathroom, the man suddenly knocked from outside. She listened and heard the man shouting, "You still alive in there?"

Rebecca laughed bitterly, then turned off the water and shouted back, "I'll come out in a minute!"

...

Rebecca immediately saw the man sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette as she entered the living room.

He looked so serious, looking as though he had been waiting for her to come out and take a seat. Once she did, the man leaned closer and caressed her cheek.

'He smells like cigarettes,' was Rebecca's last thought before the man took her lips in a not-so-gentle kiss. As their kiss deepened, the man grabbed and squeezed Rebecca's right breast through her robe, causing her to break their kiss with her surprised gasp.

As if unsatisfied, the man took out her right breast, squeezed it, and planted kisses on it.

Because of that, Rebecca could only let out a long groan. Her breathing accelerated more when the man started teasing her nipple next, prompting her to slide her fingers into his hair and push his head to her breast.

"Don't stop!" Rebecca protested when the man stopped but gasped, moaned, and writhed again when the man adjusted their position to have better access to Rebecca's left breast this time.

Fast as a flash, Rebecca pushed the man onto the couch and sat on top of him, her legs spread wide open on either side of his closed legs. She tried to keep afloat to avoid pressing on his cock through his robe, but the man pulled her waist and pressed her most sensitive and wet part to him.

With that, pleasure shot through Rebecca's body. She didn't care if it would hurt, but she pulled the man's hair and initiated a deep kiss while her waist swayed with the rhythm the man had set.

The man teased Rebecca's tongue out, licked, and played with it before nipping at her bottom lip, which made Rebecca tremble in pleasure.

"Stop teasing me!"

Rebecca knew she was starting to sound desperate, but she didn't care. All she wanted was for him to put his big throbbing thing inside her, but he kept playing with her. So when he gripped Rebecca's waist harder, pressing his aching cock harder on her clothed body, she gritted her teeth and pleaded, "Please… Mmmm. Put it in!"

Rebecca felt the man smile when he kissed her exposed neck before lifting her and laying her spread wide on the sofa.

After untying his robe and revealing all his maleness for her eyes to see, the man slammed his cock inside her.

As soon as he did that, Rebecca's back bowed as he thrust in and out of her.

"Tell me what you want," the man groaned as he pushed deeper inside her to get better access to her lips.

"Tell me!" he demanded again, pulling his cock halfway from her pussy and then banging it back in her.

Rebecca gasped and grabbed at the man's shoulders. "Faster!" she managed to groan out. "I want you to go faster! Please!"

...

The smell of food woke Rebecca up the following day. Sluggish with her night activity with the man, she slowly got down from the bed and looked for him. After looking around, she found him preparing another set of food on the dining table — no doubt it was something he had ordered from the hotel restaurant.

"Good morning!" he greeted.

Rebecca thought the man must have woken up early because he looked even more refreshed. He was wearing a striped polo shirt and black slacks, paired with black leather shoes, and his hair, almost always mused when they were together, looked unusually styled this morning.

Rebecca had noticed it before, but the man didn't seem to be an ordinary man. He spoke of class and wealth. And although she couldn't confirm it, the clothes he was wearing looked to be custom-made for his build and physique.

Rebecca might not be well-off, but she had met many people just like him in her line of business to know that the man was no ordinary man.

"Morning," Rebecca mumbled while she watched him.

"Breakfast?" he invited.

"Yes, please," Rebecca said excitedly. She was famished, and her stomach grumbled in agreement.

Rebecca sat across from him and started eating, her eyes glued to her phone. She was sending a message to Sophia when her mobile phone suddenly disappeared from her sight.

When Rebecca looked up, she saw that the man had snatched her phone away.

"I was just –"

The man didn't bother to hear Rebecca out and insisted, "No phones while you're eating."

...

Before leaving, Rebecca grabbed the man's arm and pushed the room card into his palm. "I'm giving it back," Rebecca said when the man looked at him in question.

However, the man only stared at the room card for a full minute before looking back at Rebecca.

"Keep it. I reserved the room for three months," he answered when Rebecca looked at him in question. "You can use it anytime."

"Three months?" Rebecca repeated, surprised that the man would go so far as to reserve this expensive room for their little rendezvous. "I didn't realize we agreed to a three-month relationship. Isn't that a little too long?"

"Long?" The man quirked an eyebrow, his lips curling in a smirk. "You must have had quite a few relationships in the past. How many have you had?"

"N–No. I only meant…." Rebecca couldn't see her face, but she was sure she was as red as an apple. She was no player, and it was her first time proposing a one-night stand with the man in front of her. She wanted to explain herself but stopped herself from doing so.