03.

Emma Smith stirred and woke up, the white ceiling board was the first thing that caught her gaze as she laid upward.

Then she felt her bareness under the duvet, the fabric directly on her skin and when she applied friction on her thighs to confirm, her jaw dropped.

In a jiffy, she was fully awake and in complete shock. She heard breathing beside her and she slowly tilted her head toward the sound, praying that her thoughts turned out to be a mere hallucination.

A gasp flew out of her mouth and she hurriedly placed her palm over it to muffle the sound, her eyes widening.

Jace Sanders.

Emma wanted to punch herself right in the face so she could wake up and realize she was in a dream. No, a nightmare.

She had a one-night stand with her boss, right after texting her nudes to him!

How low was that?

At a slow, hazy pace, the memory of her ferociously pulling a man and dragging him to bed drifted into her mind, and she gasped again.

It was him, Jace Sanders! His scent was enough to have recognized him, so how didn't she?

Emma stood up quietly from the bed, concluding that this wasn't the best time to scold herself. Jace Sanders was a careful sleeper so she tried to be super quiet.

Slipping into her dress as quietly as she could, she picked up her panties and tiptoed to where her purse and phone lay.

She grabbed them and bent to pick up her shoes when she suddenly lost her balance. Pushing herself forward in three successive steps, Emma caught a grip on herself. She turned to the bed in horror and found Jace waking up.

Just as she grabbed her shoes and headed for the door, her eyes landed on the necklace she had stashed away in her purse earlier. It must have dropped from its confinement when she roughly undressed herself last night.

Just when she retreated to reach for it, Jace's eyes flung open, and she immediately sped out of the room before his senses could detect who she was.

Now seated in her car, Emma threw her stuff at the passenger's seat and breathed out. Her heart raced in her chest as she frantically started the car and zoomed off.

She wondered what Jace Sanders would think of her now. She lowered herself to him two times in one night.

Last night after being wasted and brushing off the random sweaty guys flirting with her, Emma got fed up and left for the restroom.

How she met Jace or ended up having sex with him, wasn't very clear in her memory.

When he had just her nudes, Emma still had hopes of getting over it and comfortably encountering him in the possible future after she had been fired.

But now? She would rather pluck out her eyes than face Jace Sanders again. Though brutal, he was a modest man who never condoned her 'improper' dressing.

He was too decent yet arrogant, heartless, and dangerous. How a man could possess all those qualities at once was almost unbelievable.

Emma discarded a lot of things from her old lifestyle because of him.

And now, she just had sex with that same man. Her heartless, overbearing, and goody-two-shoes boss!

Furtively, she parked the car at her apartment and dashed into her house. There, she gathered her belongings, which were up to an average amount. In the end, everything she owned fitted easily into a traveling bag, a hand bag and a makeup box.

Grabbing a seat, Emma picked a sheet of paper and pen and began writing her resignation letter. She added all the documents she brought home the previous night to work on and piled them into a folder.

She dumped her loads into the truck of her car before climbing into the driver's seat and taking off.

She placed a hat on her head and sunglasses over her eyes when she arrived at S.H. Instead of driving in, she came down from her car at the gate and walked up to the security guard.

"Good morning, Emma," the guard greeted her casually. Emma stopped him from opening the gate for her.

"Here, please give this to Mr Sanders when he arrives. Tell him I dropped it."

She didn't wait for him to respond before rushing back to her car. As she started the car with no idea where to go, her phone beeped.

A text from Boss.

Emma's chest tightened as she thought of what it could possibly convey. Her termination from S.H?

Well, she already resigned.

Impulsively, Emma clicked on the message and peered into it, expecting to see the words 'you are fired' written in bold, brutal letters, but she didn't. It was an averagely long text.

:-Miss. Smith, check your mail. Edit the attachment that was sent and bring it with you to the company. Don't be late.'

Emma's brows knitted. She could not believe her eyes.

Jace wasn't firing her? Why not?

She checked the text again to be sure she wasn't hallucinating and read the message for the second time.

Hastily, she dashed out of her car to the security stand, took back the folder, hopped into her car, and drove back to her apartment.

Arriving at her place, she glanced at the time. She had just forty minutes left to her resumption time. She quickly grabbed her luggage into the house, left them unpacked, and began working on the attachments that she found in her email.

She wasn't bothered that her boss had given her a task with no extra time and no beforehand notice. Instead, she was excited. Editing that file became the sweetest task she had ever been given in her life. As long as it meant that she still had her job.

When she was done, Emma immediately freshened up and flung open the side of her wardrobe that she set aside exclusively for her work clothes; ironed and ready to be worn.

Without hesitation, she grabbed a long-sleeved lilac shirt together with black pants and began pulling into them.

Afterward, she sat to quickly touch her face, which was wrinkled and etched with stress.

She concealed the bags under her eyes and coated her lips with a nude gloss.

Not very satisfied with her looks, Emma ran her fingers through her hair and realized that her scalp was still wet from the shower.

She ignored the temptation to sit back and dry her hair properly when her gaze landed on the time.

She had only two minutes left to get to the office.

If her boss had pardoned her for the indecent pictures she accidentally sent him and last night, he was definitely going to fire her for lateness.

She locked her door- not bothering to double check as she always did- and dashed to her car.

Parking wrongly into the driveway, she adjusted her clothes while running into the company.

The heels on her shoes made an awfully attractive noise as she stepped into the building. Most of the workers who had jobs on that floor turned to look at her in annoyance.

Emma went straight to the printer and printed out the edited file. She was making a second copy when Drake walked up to her.

"Hi, Emma."

"Oh, hi, Drake." She said impatiently, not sparing him a glance.

"Did you edit the file I sent you?"

"Oh, yes I--" she halted, facing him with horror in her eyes. "Wait, what do you mean the files you sent? Was it not Mr. Sanders who sent them?"

Drake shook his head negatively, "it was me. I had his phone, so I messaged you with it since you weren't taking my calls."

Emma went limp with shock.

If Jace Sanders hadn't sent the text, then he probably didn't expect her to be here.

"It was you who sent the text?" She asked to reconfirm, praying she heard him wrong the first time.

"Yup," he smiled cheerfully at her, noticing the blank look she was giving him. "Oh is that it?" He took the folder from her and peered into it for a moment. "Perfect. I only need one copy, send the other to Mr Sanders when he arrives."

The words clicked in her head.

"Wait," she stopped him before he could leave, "Mr. Sanders isn't here yet?"

"No. He'll be running a little late today. You might want to touch yourself up a bit before he comes in."

Emma gulped, nodding her head.

She could leave. She could escape before he showed up.

Emma turned around and took off.

She had already gotten to the exit and was about to open the door when it slid open, and Jace Sanders walked in.

Emma's heart dropped.