Desmond was unable to stop her in time and grunted in pain when she jabbed him. He tried to restrain her on his lap and lock her down. "Babe, are you trying to kill your boss?"

She flung his hands off her and jolted out of his lap huffing in anger. "Your fiancée was here barely a minute ago yet you are already flirting around? Have you no respect?!"

He chuckled at her explosive temper that he had not encountered in a long time. "Does that mean I can flirt if she was here long ago, or if she didn't come?" seeing her glare, he shrugged. "I wanted to tell you about us but you interrupted me before I could explain. Are you ready to hear it now?"

One part of her wanted to hear his so-called explanation but her rationality convinced her otherwise. What did an engaged man have to say about being a womanizer? That he was forced into the engagement and that he didn't love Natalie? How many women had he said those lies to? Besides, he was her superior. She so badly wanted to slam his head against the edge of her desk. "Get lost! If you don't, I will sue you for sexual harassment."

He raised an eyebrow and was about to ask whether she was sure that she didn't like it when he realized just how serious she looked. She really meant it… She was truly enraged.

Although he was not afraid of being sued, he knew to retreat when she looked this angry. Why was she so upset though? He wondered.

One moment she was smiling at him in the elevator and averting her gaze and secretly smiling because he winked at her and the next, she was jabbing him and threatening to file a complaint against him for sexual assault. Women were indeed strange.

It wasn't long before he saw her again as she went to his office before he could fully concentrate on his work. She wasn't here to report anything and directly brushed past him to head to the corner several steps behind his desk. He tilted his head to see her reach for the coffee machine. He hadn't asked for anything…

He was still trying to figure out what she was doing when she reached for the coffee machine and disconnected it from its socket. Was she here to take it away? His lips curved upwards. Finally, he could once again ask for coffee.

She took the machine to who knows where without telling him a word of it. As if on cue, he immediately asked for coffee over the intercom.

The woman was back with a white cup and placed it on his desk with a grin he couldn't quite understand. It was as though she was anticipating something. "Your coffee."

"Thank you." He smiled and mentally added, 'for taking the damned thing away'. Did this mean she was no longer angry with him for whatever reason was making her fume earlier?

She smiled and left the office but he knew better than to be fooled by that smile which didn't reach her eyes. The way she ignored his words proved that she was still angry and it made him wonder if he had done something wrong. Did he overstep the boundaries?

He took a sip and the word he was about to say turned into a curse. "F***!" He called her back in rage and asked, "What the heck is this?!"

"I guess you have eyes, Mr. Fort. Besides, don't you know what you asked for?" She left his office without turning back and he had to ball his fists. Yes, it was coffee. He could agree that it looked the part. But how could he still call it that when it tasted like a bitter, concentrated saline solution? Did she mistake sugar for salt?

No way. From her wicked smile, she had done it on purpose.

…

It seemed like the woman had resorted to playing pranks because that was what she did for the most part of the day. From sending him files full of nothing but insults about what an asshole he was to adding random ingredients to his takeout lunch and water, she was nonchalantly doing things that people wouldn't usually have the guts to do to their bosses—and she was doing it with an evil smile. It seemed like he had been too lenient with her, she was playing around too freely.

The man looked at the cup of coffee that she had sent to his office through an intern in the afternoon—on her own free will. The coffee wasn't black or dark brown. It was something between scarlet and pink.

However, he didn't have the heart to punish her. Whatever helped her vent her anger.

…

"Are you trying to poison me?" He asked the next time he saw her, on their way to a meeting in a conference room.

She shrugged and gave him a sinister side-glance with her beautiful hazel eyes. "Are you worthy?"

"Haha…" A laugh escaped his lips. Was she saying that he was too lowly for her to take the chance to poison him? "But I could sue you for trying to harm your boss."

"Did I?" She entered the elevator and would have closed the door on him if he wasn't fast enough.

Bored that he had not fallen for her little scheme, her lips twitched. She tapped on her phone rapidly and gave it to him.

He was intrigued to see the dictionary application on the screen and the content was even more outrageous.

Slander.

Verb.

Make false and damaging statements about someone.

His eyebrows raised at her. "Are you claiming that I'm slandering you?"

"If you claim that I tried to poison you, no one will want to employ me in future. Is that not defamation?" She responded shamelessly, rendering him speechless. Where did she get the guts to say such words in the face of the multicolored water and coffee she had sent him earlier?

"Will it really affect you? You always have the option to go to the Sparks." He deliberately taunted.

She pressed the button to the eighteenth floor button instead of the fifteenth—probably on purpose—and he had to correct it while wondering what had gotten into her. He ignored her antics and asked, "Are you planning to go?"

She merely smiled and threw a question back at him. "What if I want to?"

"I will not allow you."

She shot him a look and he wondered if that was a threat. Was she going to continue pranking him? He really couldn't take her pranks anymore, he decided to give her the rest of the day off. "You can go home after the meeting."

"Gladly. Thanks." She was already feeling so overwhelmed that she didn't think she could handle it for a minute longer so she didn't pass on the chance to leave work earlier, even if it would only be an hour earlier.

Before leaving, she made sure to get everything that Desmond would need ready. She also told him to call the intern if he needed anything.

…

As soon as she got home, she took a long, warm bath and grabbed a tub of ice cream. Thoughts flooded her mind as soon as she flopped onto her bed, none of which were things she wanted to think about.

She thought about the short time they spent together with her stolen identity. At the time, she knew that he was engaged and fooling around like the damned homme fatal he was, but she couldn't claim to have felt nothing from their close contact. The man was a good kisser despite his narcissism. Despite the sour outcome that had resulted later, he had been recently acting all crazy around her and she couldn't claim that it did not affect her.

She had not entirely been against his flattery, she had merely hoped to hear something different from him. After all, he always looked humoured when she mentioned his fiancée. She somewhat hoped that he would one day clear the air and tell her that their so-called engagement was merely a rumor; that it was a business strategy—like what many celebrities did in this era.

Who would have thought that with the appearance of Natalie, all the hope she didn't know she had been holding would shatter into smithereens?

Could it be the reason why Liam didn't want her to be too close to him? Was it because he knew that she might be swayed by his insanely seductive looks and that she would end up feeling sad once she realized that she was making a clown out of herself?

It was as though Des felt her sadness, he climbed onto the bed and placed his paw onto her forehead to offer comfort. She smiled at the cute thing and hugged him with a sigh. "Why am I thinking about him? He isn't ours. He was never meant to be ours.