Chapter 11
Chapter 11:
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Alicia preferred to turn a deaf ear to Caden's animosity.
He opened the door and walked out without saying another word.
As soon as we left, Hank appeared.
"Mr. Ward, should I take Miss Bennett home?"
Caden's expression was colder than usual.
"That won't be necessary. You might as well use your mouth to find your way home."
Hank blinked, unsure of how to respond to that.
Alice didn't leave immediately. She went downstairs to buy some desserts and a cup of coffee. Then she went to knock on Hank's office door.
“Miss Bennett,” Hank exclaimed in surprise. “Can I help you?”
Alicia placed the sweets and coffee on her desk with a kind smile.
"I'm afraid I'll have to bother you, Mr. Ford. Please pass this on to Mr. Ward."
Hank was visibly surprised.
What shameless cruelty!
What could have been put in the coffee? Drugs?
Bleach? Battery acid? Rat poison?
Or maybe a few bugs?
Hank didn't dare pick up the coffee.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bennett,” she said politely, “but Mr. Ward only drinks coffee made from freshly ground beans stored in the company pantry.”
Alice lowered her eyes.
“It's okay. If it's too much trouble, then let's forget about it. “I just wanted to apologize to Caden, that’s all.”
As he pulled his hand away and straightened up, he accidentally knocked over his coffee cup, spilling its contents all over Hank's desk.
Started, Alice quickly grabbed the laptop and tried to dry it with a handkerchief.
Unlike her, Hank remained calm.
“It's okay, Mrs. Bennett. My laptop is waterproof. Let me take care of that.”
But Alice kept cleaning it, checking every nook and cranny to make sure everything was dry.
Hank wiped the rest of the coffee off his desk. When I turned to Alicia, I found her still fiddling with her laptop.
"There's nothing to worry about, Mrs. Bennett. Everything's fine."
She let out a long sigh.
"Well, that's a relief. But I'm really sorry. Why don't I go buy a new mug?"
"I assure you, Mrs. Bennett, that it is not at all necessary."
Alicia didn't insist any further. She said goodbye to Hank, gave him a shy smile and finally left the building.
As he watched her standing behind her desk, Hank couldn't help but feel a hint of unease.
Before he could think about it any further, he realized it was time for the meeting.
Inside the conference room, Caden sat at the head of the long table, ever the picture of sophisticated authority.
He had always been serious when he came to work, and his presence was significantly more intimidating when he came to business.
Hank brought his laptop over to begin the meeting presentation. He plugged in his USB drive and the large white screen flickered for a few seconds before shutting off.
Puzzled, Hank was about to unplug the unit when the screen suddenly came back on.
The silence that fell in the room was deafening and the air cracked with tension.
The screen showed no charts or graphs, not even a small piece of text. Instead, it showed a high-definition photo of a male private part in all its naked glory.
Caden's face darkened ominously.
Terrified, Hank rushed to shut down the laptop, but the program seemed to have frozen and the device wouldn't turn off. Caden's Adam's apple bobbed once as he squinted at the photo.
“Turn off the projector,” he barked at Hank. “Your laptop is obviously infected with some kind of virus.”
Hank practically lunged for the cable hub to disconnect the projector from the screen. What followed was a tense, almost eerie silence, probably caused by the unexpected photo, but no doubt amplified by the forbidding energy coming off of Caden.
While his face remained expressionless in appearance, a storm of emotions brewed beneath his icy eyes.
Hank opened his mouth to speak when Caden stood up and moved in front of him.
"Today's session is admitted."
And he walked out of the room, with Hank hot on his heels.
When they reached Caden's office, Hank rushed to open the door for his boss, but Caden stopped short.
“Care to explain?” Caden asked, staring at his hapless assistant.
Under normal circumstances, Hank would have rushed to his desk to track down the source of the virus.
Today, however, Hank not only refrained from making any efforts to rectify the situation, but was also unusually quiet about the debacle.
Hank straightened his back, although he kept his eyes glued to the ground.
"It was Miss Bennett."
The temperature in the hallway seemed to drop a few degrees.
"I know it was Alice, but how did she do it?"
Hank was a little surprised and raised his head before he could stop himself.
"How did you know it was her, Mr. Ward?"
“How else?” Caden replied, his tone curt. “Because those were my crown jewels paraded in front of my subordinates!”
In his nearly thirty years of existence, he had only slept with Alicia, and they had just had an intimate encounter in his office that very same day.
So she hadn't just blindfolded him for a fun, sexy romp, but dared to take a photo of him when he was at his most vulnerable.
“Ms. Bennett brought coffee and pastries to my table before she left. She asked me to give them to her to express her apologies. The next thing I remember, she spilled the coffee all over my desk and was cleaning it off my computer. It all happened so fast, and at the time I was more concerned about the possibility that she had tampered with the coffee or the pastries…”
Despite all Hank's musings, he never imagined that Alicia would upload a vulgar photo to his computer and sabotage his presentation.
With a click of his tongue, Caden stormed into his office and grabbed a bottle of ice-cold water from the nightstand.
Hank followed him slowly, his tone cautious,
"Should I call Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Ward?"
Caden could feel the blood pumping in his temples as he gritted his teeth.
«It is not necessary.
Hank studied his boss. Although Caden was still holding back his anger, it was clear he had no intention of pursuing the matter any further.
Hank breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mrs. Bennett is always so kind and soft-spoken. I had no idea she had a hidden wild streak."
Caden set down the water bottle with more force than necessary.
“Mr. Ward,” Hank continued, his curiosity already piqued, “who do you think the man in that photo is?”
The corners of Caden's eyes twitched slightly, but he didn't say anything.
However, Hank did not miss it. Trembling with fear, he bravely went forward and asked,
"Was it you, Mr. Ward?"
“No,” Caden replied nonchalantly. “It's not me.”
Hank finally allowed himself to relax.
"Of course not. It's just as I thought. You have problems in that regard, so it's impossible for you to have reached the alarming state shown in that photo."
Without further ado, Caden's fury flared again.
That moment was still vivid in his memory. They had been in this very office, and Alice had merely touched him with her delicate fingers. Her touch had been so brief that it didn't even count as teasing in his books.
However, her body's reaction had been immediate and intense. Looking back on it now, she could only regret the shame she had felt.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.
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