He leaned back, letting his spine rest against the chair. His crossed legs shifted into a more relaxed position, but the tension beneath his clothes was not nearly as easy to settle.
The reaction had come without warning.
And yet, somehow, it felt completely natural.
It was just that face.
Those lips flushed red from the spice.
The fine beads of perspiration gathered on the tip of her nose.
And those eyes that looked at him without the slightest awareness of what effect she might have.
She didn’t even realize what that fleeting little gesture of letting the tip of her tongue slip out and disappear again had looked like from his perspective.
Richard lifted his glass of ice water and took another sip, letting the rim rest against his lips for two seconds.
The heat burning inside him wrestled silently with his reason. Without showing the slightest change in expression, he crossed his legs more tightly, the friction of the fabric creating a faint, restrained sense of heat and tension.
His abdominal muscles tightened unconsciously, as though he were forcing that restless feeling—and every inappropriate impulse that came with it—back down.
Not yet.
He glanced at the watch on his wrist.
He still had several important international video conferences later tonight, along with the final terms of a lithium mine acquisition in a South American country waiting for his approval.
But that restless heat refused to listen to reason.
His body seemed to have warmed by another half degree.
Richard lowered his eyes and looked at the hand resting on his knee. His fingertips unconsciously brushed over the condensation gathering on the outside of his glass, slowly and deliberately, as though he were using that trace of cold to keep something under control.
Across from him, Elena remained completely unaware.
She picked up another bite of beef, her cheeks puffed slightly as she chewed. The heat made her draw in a soft breath.
Richard moved his gaze away from her lips and toward the dark night beyond the window. His jaw tightened into a hard, restrained line.
Once again, the chief assistant appeared silently at the entrance to the dining room, a slim tablet in his hand.
Richard lifted his eyes.
The assistant quickly stepped forward.
“Sir, we’ve just received an urgent internal briefing. The policy direction from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has shifted. It may affect our joint-venture negotiations. In addition, National Security has sent over several additional clauses that require your personal review.”
Richard took the tablet.
His deep-set eyes quickly scanned the dense text and charts covering the screen, and his brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
“…Notify the negotiation team. Move tomorrow morning’s meeting forward to one hour from now and have everyone join remotely. Send them this draft opinion and the requirements from National Security at the same time. I want their risk assessment and proposed countermeasures on my desk before the meeting.”
“Yes, sir.”
Richard’s attention returned completely to the tablet. His fingers moved across the screen from time to time, marking sections or entering brief instructions.
The dining room fell quiet once again.
The only sounds were the faint rustle of documents as Richard reviewed the files and the deliberately softened sounds of someone eating nearby.
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Taking advantage of his concentration, Elena finally dared to raise her eyes slightly.
She quietly and carefully studied him.
Under the warm light, the sharp contours of the man’s profile looked almost like a meticulously sculpted work of art. His nose was straight and well-defined, his brow deep-set, and his jawline clean and striking.
As he read through the documents, his eyes remained slightly lowered. Thick, dark lashes cast a faint shadow beneath them, partially concealing those unnervingly sharp black eyes.
This made him seem less intimidating and gave him a quieter, more composed kind of handsomeness.
His skin was remarkably well-maintained—firm, smooth, and almost completely free of wrinkles, yet it carried the mature, weathered charm unique to a man who had lived through years of experience.
Elena couldn’t help marveling silently.
In the original novel, Richard was only described as Victoria’s father, the head of one of the most powerful financial dynasties in the country—a man known for his ruthless methods.
But the novel had never mentioned his exact age or described his appearance in any detail.
Seeing him in person now, Elena found it hard to believe that he had a daughter as old as Victoria.
Victoria had attended middle school abroad and had even skipped a grade. Although she was in the same year as Adrian, she was three or four years younger than most of the students around them.
She was only eighteen now.
Even if Richard had become a father unusually young, he had to be at least in his thirties.
Unless he had been exceptionally gifted in that particular department and somehow became a father at eleven or twelve.
Technically, it wasn’t impossible.
But the odds were rather low.
Then again—
Judging by their appearances, Richard and Victoria didn’t look particularly alike.
Victoria was certainly a beautiful young woman, but Richard’s appearance was on an entirely different level.
Their heights were even more difficult to reconcile.
Victoria was slightly shorter than Elena herself. She probably wasn’t even five foot five.
Compared with her father, who stood well over six feet tall, the difference was rather striking.
Of course, everyone knew that Richard had never been married.
And no one outside the family knew who Victoria’s biological mother was.
Perhaps her mother simply wasn’t very tall.
There was another possibility. Reality was full of cases where both parents were tall, yet their child ended up being of fairly average height.
Various thoughts flashed through Elena’s mind.
…Was Victoria really Richard’s biological daughter?
She was still lost in her thoughts when Richard had already finished reviewing the documents. He set the tablet aside and picked up his fork again.
“Does your university dorm have a curfew?”
Elena froze for a moment, then nodded honestly.
“Mm. The doors close at eleven. It’s already…”
She glanced at the clock in the corner of the dining room.
“I probably won’t make it in time. But even if I arrive after curfew, it’s not completely impossible to get inside. It’s just a lot of trouble.”
From what she remembered, the dorm supervisor was extremely strict, and she would have to go through several procedures before being allowed in.
Richard looked at her slightly furrowed brows.
“Then stay here for the night. I’ll have someone drive you back to the university tomorrow morning.”
Elena’s heart began pounding wildly.
Judging from everything that had happened so far, Richard’s impression of her probably wasn’t too bad.
She wasn’t sure whether that alone would be enough to save her life, but perhaps—
it was at least a good start.
“…Thank you.”
Elena spoke sincerely.
“You’ve really helped me a lot tonight.”
Richard looked at the girl’s bright, star-like eyes and the faintly childlike excitement in her expression.
The corner of his lips lifted slightly.
He said nothing. He simply continued to regard her in silence, his gaze carrying a sharpness that seemed capable of seeing straight through people.
The butler quietly entered the private dining room, carrying a dark velvet tray in both hands.
Resting silently on it was a single earring.
A delicate rose-gold hoop held a small teardrop-shaped diamond pendant. Under the warm golden light of the dining room, it caught the light in tiny, shimmering reflections.
For an ordinary college student, it was undoubtedly an expensive piece of jewelry—something valuable enough to be worn on an important occasion.
But to someone like Richard, it was obvious that its materials, craftsmanship, and design were worlds apart from truly high-end jewelry.
“Sir,” the butler said respectfully, his voice calm and even. “The staff found this at the bottom of the pool while cleaning the pool area.”
Richard’s gaze shifted toward Elena across the table.
Elena was slightly startled.
She instinctively raised a hand to touch her earlobe.
Sure enough, her left ear was bare.
She had probably lost it when she fell into the pool earlier.
Richard made a small gesture with his hand.
The butler immediately placed the tray carefully near the edge of the table before bowing and stepping back.
Richard leaned slightly into the broad back of his chair, his gaze settling on the earring.
He extended his right hand.
His long, sharply defined fingers gently picked up the delicate piece.
The slender rose-gold hoop and teardrop-shaped diamond pendant swayed lightly between his fingers, catching the warm light and sending ripples of shimmering reflections across the room.
His thumb slowly and almost imperceptibly rubbed over the tiny, cool diamond, then moved to the rose-gold hoop.
The movement was neither forceful nor hurried, yet there was something strangely intimate about it.
Sitting across from him, Elena’s gaze involuntarily followed his long, powerful fingers.
When she noticed the subtle way he was rubbing the earring between his fingers, the faint flush on her face suddenly deepened, the heat spreading all the way to the tips of her ears.
For some inexplicable reason, she felt hot.
It was almost as though he weren’t touching a piece of jewelry at all, but something far more intimate and suggestive.
For a fleeting moment, Elena even had the strange sensation that the warmth of his fingertips was somehow passing through the air, as though they were slowly brushing against her sensitive earlobe instead.