Beneath the Perfect Disguise, I Quietly Slipped Away Chapter 10

When Lucian leaned in, I was stunned.

A rush of heat traveled from the cheek he lightly touched to my neck, then spread through my whole body.

He quickly took a step back.

I froze.

"W... Why did you do that just now?"

"Sorry. You're just... really cute."

Lucian looked down at me. His lake-green eyes sparkled like the ocean under the sun.

"I wanted to kiss your cheek, but I was afraid it would be too forward."

"Aurora. I like you. Would you be my girlfriend?"

I was completely dumbfounded.

When colleagues winked and gossiped that the boss liked me, I hadn't taken it seriously.

Lucian was the General Manager of our French branch.

French-Russian mix, young and successful.

A face so beautiful it blurred gender lines, like a merman from the deep sea.

My personal interaction with him started when I stayed late at the office to practice the language.

Once, I fell asleep from exhaustion and woke up with a thin blanket over me.

When Lucian didn't speak, his expression looked very serious.

"Overtime is not a good habit."

Being criticized by a leader is always awkward.

I was just about to explain when I saw a mischievous, child-like smile in his eyes.

Lucian said in broken Mandarin:

"But hard work deserves a reward."

"Aurora, you teach me Chinese, I teach you French, okay?"

I was flattered.

There was no reason to refuse.

With his help, my spoken French improved rapidly.

Within two weeks at the new company, I landed a super-large contract.

It threatened the promotion chance of a colleague at the same level.

He tried to use my nationality as an excuse to incite others to isolate me.

At the general assembly, Lucian didn't hold back his praise for me and called him out by name.

He made an example of him to defend me.

Colleagues said they had never seen Lucian go to such lengths for anyone.

But I thought, inappropriately—

Ah, so being Madison feels like this.

Actually, after coming to France, I rarely thought of Connor.

After all, I knew long ago that my leaving wouldn't cause any impact on him.

Without expectations, how can there be disappointment?

What's more, Connor had always been calm and restrained.

He couldn't possibly be like those domineering CEOs in the melodramatic romance movies he despised most—

Appearing inexplicably in the country where I was.

"Aurora!"

Right at this moment.

I looked at the man walking toward me with a dark face—the man who shouldn't be here.

Before I could even widen my eyes, Connor pulled me into his arms uncontrollably.

His breathing was unstable.

"I thought I saw... Fuck, I thought—"

Lucian’s slightly surprised voice rang out from the side.

"Mr. Pierce. I didn't know you and Aurora knew each other."

I was shocked too.

Why did Lucian know Connor?

I was just about to push Connor away.

He seemed to suddenly realize there was a third person present.

He let go of me but switched to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

Connor's tone was unruffled, but his right arm clamped around my shoulder like an iron wall, making me unable to move.

"I should have mentioned it earlier. Aurora is my girlfriend."

In just a few minutes, the information overload was explosive.

My brain, like an overloaded computer, crashed directly.

I couldn't figure out what Connor was doing at all.

Without thinking, I blurted out:

"Let go of me! We already broke up!"

Hearing this, Lucian narrowed his eyes, his gaze toward Connor turning cold as ice.

"Please let go of her."

"I know you are our client."

"But I have to be responsible for my employee's safety."

"Otherwise—"

The two men were of similar height.

Their excessively handsome looks were also evenly matched.

Extreme Eastern structure crashing against superior Western contours.

The atmosphere instantly became tense.

Connor’s aura sank completely. For some reason, he was full of hostility toward Lucian.

"The CEO of your company suddenly kissing an employee's cheek..."

He interrupted Lucian, letting out a cold sneer through his nose.

"I don't think that's very professional, do you?"