Her jaw dropped in disbelief. What?! She realized that he was trying to play a word game to pin her down and get away with it, but she was not going to give him the chance.

She held a hand on her hip as she berated. "Mr. Fort, you promised to call off the suit if I became an employee of Preston and Fort Group and I am now. And, if you are going to try playing word games with me…" Her gaze landed on his left cheek. "That will not be my limit."

Desmond felt a sting from her mere words. Although it was no longer swollen, it still irked him. Vicious woman… "You don't need to do that, thank you very much. I only wanted to know whether you are the kind of person who will take people's crap when others try to put you down."

"Are you worried that I will make you lose face for having a coward for an assistant?" She guffawed at the man's lowly evaluation of her. "Don't worry. I will kick the butt of anyone who crosses the line —and that very much includes you."

His lips curled into a curious smile. Did she have some weird hobby of threatening people?

"You will not need to do that." His smile turned devious. "Regarding the suit, the truth is, it requires time and effort to revoke it."

Did it? Zaria was ready to attack. "So what?"

"So, my dear naughty minx... I may need a little motivation. How soon I get it done will depend on your performance." When he finished speaking, he got back to work and acted like she didn't exist.

She wanted to curse him but couldn't. She was stuck working with him after all. If she scolded him too much, it would be a surprise if he did not make things difficult for her.

Bloody swindler. She scolded in her heart as she bit her tongue. Left with no choice, she left his office, swearing to get back at him as soon as a chance presented itself.

It was still early in the morning and she really didn't have anything to do before going to see Nina in the evening. Hence, she decided to go through some of the files left behind by the previous Executive Assistant. She thought they would involve important matters, but to her horror, they were mostly about Desmond.

The man was so hard to please that the poor girl had made notes about his likes and dislikes, how to read his mood, his character, and some details that were just too ridiculous to be imagined. One would almost think she was writing about a candidate she wanted as her marriage partner.

She idly browsed through a file named [Mr. Fort's likes] and immediately ripped off the name tag. Finding another name tag from the paper tray on the desk, she named it [Asshole Boss's Preferences.]

Satisfied with the new name, she stuck it onto the file, and weirdly, she felt more comfortable when she opened it to read.

In the file lay an endless list. Desmond hated talking about his personal life.

"No surprise there." She rolled her eyes when she read the top item on the list of dislikes, written in bold red font. He had a messy private life and more ex-girlfriends than could fit in an airplane. It would be surprising if he was comfortable about discussing his private life.

She moved on to the next items, which made her despise him even more than she already did. Why the hell would he hate talking about his family? He didn't tolerate any calls or messages from them either, and that made her cringe. If he hated them that much, why did he kick up a fuss about the news article? How pretentious!

Moving on to the likes, she was shocked to find animals on the top of the list. A man like him liked animals? Surely, that was misplaced and belonged to the list of dislikes right?

"Your asshole boss wants you to accompany him on business. Is that possible?" A deep voice spoke just as she was about to say something means, making her almost pass out from fright. She looked over the file, and just as she dreaded, Desmond was leaning against the door frame with his coat in his hands. He was reading the title at the back of the file."