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With Ms. Jones, things were only likely to get much worse, and if he had any bit of conscience left, he would walk away from her now.

It was the right and sensible thing to do.

But for some fucking reason, he just couldn't.

She had made it clear multiple times that she wasn't interested in having an affair with him, and yet he still couldn't leave her alone. He had never wasted time going after a woman, but this girl already had him running in circles without saying a word. Virgins had always been fair game with him, but despite every chance to seduce her into submission, he hadn't been able to make himself claim her.

She had become both an enigma and obsession, someone like no other woman he had ever met.

She was...different.

And Acheron - the man whom Wall Street Journal had once described as an entrepreneur whose knowledge was almost prescient in his ability to size up situations with razor-sharp accuracy - had no fucking idea why that was so.



















Six

IT WAS A CONSTANT STRUGGLEfor Pippi not to gawk like a hick at her surroundings, and she could only mentally shake her head in disbelief when Acheron led her to the beautifully set table at his balcony. It boasted of the most beautiful views from just about every side - the cityscape in front, his private cocktail lounge on the right, and his rooftop pool on the left.

A pool, at several hundred feet off the ground!

Whatever was she doing here, having dinner with a man who lived in a world so vastly different from hers?

Acheron had pulled out a chair for her, but somehow she couldn't make herself move an inch. This was wrong. This was just so -

Wickham came in then, bearing a tray laden with several familiar-looking boxes.

Oh!

A startled squeak escaped her, and Acheron's eyes gleamed at the adorable sound of it. Her eyes followed Wickham's every move, widening with every dish the older man unveiled.Spring rolls. Baked pork buns. Prawn dumplings. Leaf-wrapped rice.And when Wickham opened a box containing two orders ofxiao long bao,Acheron swiftly pressed his lips together to contain his smile, having seen Pippi unconsciously lick her lips at the sight.

"I take it I've made the right choice?"

Pippi nodded, almost gushing 'oh yes' when a thought occurred to her, and she glanced at him suspiciously. Maybe she was thinking too much of this, but wasn't it too great a coincidence for Wickham to serve Chinese cuisine, and everything happened to be her favorites, too?

Pippi cleared her throat.

Knowing what she was planning to ask, Acheron responded with an unrepentant grin, "I had my assistant stalk your foodstagram."