His lips are so soft, he tastes like mint and coffee. From this close, I can smell his fresh laundry soap and a hint of his Oakwood perfume.

The kiss is not demanding. He just kisses me right there to calm me down. Soft kiss... his hands cup my cheeks softly.

"Breathe," he says huskily. I realized I still hold my breath. Once I try to breathe, he kisses me again. I don't know how long we've kissed.

There is someone knocking on the door, and I stumble backward. I touch my lips, which I'm sure swollen from the kiss. I feel my face hot. I look at Ethan and he looks away. His face also flush. I can make Ethan Hall blush?! Wow...

He clears his throat and glances at me. Our eyes lock and he nods a little, as if he is making sure I'm okay. I nod back. "Come in," he says, his eyes still on mine.

"We settled everything, Ethan. The shareholders are at lounge now. We can call them anytime. Mrs. Hall already finished her visit with the last department. Because it's almost time, so she said that she will go straight to the meeting room," Sarah says without looking at us. She focuses on her phone while telling Ethan the update.

I force my hand to not touch my lips. It's still tingling from the kiss. God, I need to stop thinking about that. I need to focus on the work.

Ethan looks at his watch. "Okay. Can you tell the admin to call the shareholders in 10 mins? And the manager in 5 mins?"

"Perfect" Sarah says. "Do you still need Madeline here? Or can I take her with me?" Is she teasing Ethan? No way. I need to screw my head altogether. Bad bad hormones. Stay away from me, please!

He clears his throat. "You can have her, Sarah."

Sarah and I step out from Ethan's office.

"You okay?" Sarah asks once we're outside Ethan's office.

I nod mutely.

"Well, Ethan can be a bit intimidating. Hell, he can be very intimidating and demanding. But he's a good guy." She smiles.

"It's okay, Sarah. Ethan just asked me a few things. Get to know each other." I smile, or at least I think I smile.

Sarah looks at me longer than usual and nods. She takes some printed paper from her desk. "Can you bring this to the meeting room and tell the admin when to call the manager and shareholder like Ethan said earlier? You can wait for me down there. I'll wait for Ethan." She gestures at Ethan's office.

"Sure, Sarah." I take the paper from her and go to do my work.

Inside the elevator, I take a deep breath. Why did he kiss me after he accused me? He said I'm the one who came into his bed. Helloooo!! I was sleeping there. I only hope his people can find the answer for us.

And right now, I have an additional problem. How can I work with Mr. Pop My Cherry as his executive assistant? How can I work closely with him, while all I can think is his hand on my body, his lips... Stop!!!

And like magic, the elevator stops and opens the doors. Let me know that I'm on my destination floor and berate myself for keep thinking about my big boss's lips! So unprofessional, Madeline Parker!

I walk outside the elevator. There are two admins there. Sarah says that these staff will call for the meeting members. So all I need to do if there is a meeting is to inform them. And they will do the magic. So I ask them to call the shareholders and managers at designated time.

I go to the long hall. Our meeting room is the farthest and the biggest one. I walk through a lot of separate meeting rooms. Variety from small to medium to large.

There are voices from one of the meeting rooms. The first person is a man with an angry voice. Sarah said the meeting rooms are soundproofed. The door must be ajar, that's why I can hear their conversation.

"How on earth the camera is gone? We don't have any proof. We can't confront him! Useless!" the angry man says in an irritable tone.

"Ben, relax! That woman will help us," the other man says. Why his voice sounds familiar to me?

"How do you know they had sex when you don't have the recording?"

"Madeline was a virgin. I saw the blood on the sheet. They definitely had sex. Ethan took her virginity under influence. He must be roughed to her that night. For all we know, Madeline hated him so much right now. Hell, maybe she killed him this morning when she was introduced to him," that man says in a joyful voice. And I realized that is Thomas's voice. And did I hear that right? God, I feel like I want to vomit all of my breakfast. I run to the restroom, but l faintly hear the other guy's words.

"And Helen cannot help him this time," he says happily, follows with his boom laughter.

I heave all my breakfast in the toilet. Oh God!

I try to compose myself, but all I can do is cry. 2 minutes. Give me 2 minutes and I will confront Thomas.

***

I go to the meeting room.. There are around 10 people there and more coming. Thomas is nowhere to be seen. I can't look at anyone. I just put all the paper in place like Sarah asked me to. And then I go outside. It's better for me to wait for Sarah outside. I'm not in a condition to socialize with other co-worker. I walk with my head down. I bump into someone on my way out.

I immediately recognize this broad shoulder and this scent. Ethan Hall.

"You okay?" Ethan holds me. His hand around my waist. Even though his voice is clipped but his eyes worry. Is he worry about me? Or worry about his position? "Sweetness?" There is a hint of worried in his voice, and for some reason it makes me want to cry.

I straighten myself and nod. "Thanks for catching me, Mr. Hall". He looks at me deeply, like trying to find the answer in my eyes, and then he nods and moves forward.

I spin around to go outside and I face to face with Thomas. I freeze.

"Mads." Thomas smiles at me. "You look great." He squeezes my shoulder. I need a shower! I don't want his dirty hand to touch me. Before I can do anything, someone calls Thomas. I peek from Thoma's back. It's him! The who talked with my stupid ex earlier. I recognize his voice. Thomas says his goodbye to me and walks to that person without realizing I'm still studying that guy. The one who talked with him earlier. Who is that old man?

What are they planning to do? But I'm too raw to think. So I go outside and see Sarah talking to a man with a suit. The man touches her tummy. The gesture is intimate. So I just wait there next to the door.

There is another woman walking toward the room. She looks at me and scans me from head to toe. She sneers at me. Really? And then she passes me while flipping her platinum hair in front of my face. Her heavy perfume goes to my nostril. So weird. She's pretty. Not as pretty as Meredith. But her face is pretty. It will be prettier if she doesn't have the "I'm better than you" air around her. I wonder who she is. As far as I know, Hall Industries doesn't hire based on their looks. Especially in the manager level and up. This meeting is for our shareholders. Not some lowly employee can join this meeting without their boss's permission.

Sarah comes to me with the guy she was talking with. "Madeline, this is my husband, Toby. He's our marketing director."

"Hi, nice to meet you Toby." I smile at the guy. He is a handsome guy, and you can see that he loves his wife so much, and he is very protective of Sarah's baby bump.

"Hi Madeline, hope you can handle Sarah's job. It's a big shoe," he says with a hint of proud. Sarah blushes, shaking her head shyly.

"Wish me luck," I say. And the 3 of us get into the meeting room. People are still talking with each other. Sarah and I walk to the corner to make sure the presentation slide is ready with the multimedia guy.

I see Thomas is there. Talking with the multimedia guy. What are they talking about? The multimedia guy doesn't seem too happy with whatever coming out of Thomas' mouth.

Before we arrive, Thomas clicks something on the computer and the projector on with a pic that looks familiar to me. 4 pictures college into 1. I walked to the room with the dress I wore that night. Ethan walked to the room, and he looked flush. I walked out of the room wearing shirts and shorts; they zoom it so it's only half body. And the last picture is the worst, the room I've spent a night with Ethan, not only the room but the bed with my blood on it.

Oh. My. God!