Chapter 5 Did You Think I Would Fall For The Same Trick Twice

"And I will always love you. I will always love you. You, my darling you..." At that moment, a familiar ringtone sounded through the room.

Upon hearing it, Pauline irritably rubbed her swollen temples. It seemed that someone had helped her charge her phone. She tried to reach for the phone at the bedside, but found that her limbs would not listen to her. In the end, she wriggled forward like a worm and grabbed her phone. If anyone had seen this scene, they would have found it ridiculous, almost comical.

In a bid to silence the ringtone as soon as possible, Pauline answered the phone without even looking at it.

"Big news! Last night, Edmund Lu, the golden bachelor who has been single for years, was forced to take responsibility by a woman!" The loud voice of her best friend, Hedy Tang, blared through the receiver, almost deafening her. "I always thought that Edmund Lu and his secretary were a couple. I even bought the fan fiction about them. But now, my dreams have been shattered."

"Why are you so worked up? Don't your dreams get shattered once a week?" Pauline grumbled, rubbing her eyes.

Hedy Tang was choked by her words. After a moment of silence, she said, "It's not easy to be your friend." Then, regaining her excitement, she asked, "Do you know what that woman looks like? The reporters didn't manage to get a photo of her! Edmund must really like her, huh? But maybe he just stopped the reporters from getting a photo because she's too ugly. He would never ruin his perfect image in public."

"Don't read too many romance novels. Do you want to delay your master's degree graduation again?"

When she heard Hedy Tang say that the woman in the news must be very ugly, Pauline felt frustrated but she held back the urge to curse her best friend.

Instead of answering Pauline's question, Hedy Tang teased,

"What's that sound over there? Did you secretly bring a man home?"

"What?" Pauline immediately looked around for the source of the sound. When she found it, she was so shocked that the phone in her hand fell to the ground. Edmund was leaning against the bathroom door and looking at her with a faint smile on his face.

However, the smile disappeared as soon as their eyes met, causing her to wonder if she had just imagined it.

His short damp hair and his curled eyelashes with drops of water hanging at the edges made him look irresistible. At the same time, with his thin lips, which were tightly closed, he looked somewhat innocent and approachable. Pauline's gaze followed the drops of water that slid down his face and along his strong chest, all the way down to...

She abruptly stopped and didn't dare to go on looking. It had to be said that God really favored this man. He had great looks, a great family background, and an unmatched temperament. The way he carried himself was something that people couldn't just learn; it was something that one had to be born with.

"Miss Song, have you seen enough? Or do you want to continue looking?" Edmund's hands moved to untie the towel around his waist, which scared Pauline so much that she instantly jerked her face to the side, her ears turning red in embarrassment.

Edmund slowly walked forward. "Don't you want to save your grandfather? Put that on and I'll save him."

Pauline traced Edmund's gaze with her eyes and saw a set of tantalizing lingerie which made her blush. She closed her eyes in pain, struggling internally with herself. She felt ashamed and aggrieved, but so what? Did her feelings matter more than her grandfather's life?

Making up her mind, she took the lingerie and headed to the bathroom.

But as if to punish her for her provocation last night, Edmund suddenly spoke before she could open the bathroom door. "Change here."

Pauline stopped and turned around. Her fingertips were tangled together, and her eyes flickered with emotions, silently refusing his demand. Sensing her resistance, Edmund began ridiculing her, "You've already slept with me. Why are you pretending to be so chaste now?"

Pauline's face turned pale and stiff, and she bit her lips so hard that they almost bled. She didn't understand why he wanted to humiliate her with such cruel words. Wasn't she already miserable enough?

Holding back her tears, she mechanically undressed herself. Now that she had made a decision, she had to go along with it no matter what. She felt like a soulless puppet at Edmund's mercy.

Once she was undressed, she hurriedly put on the lingerie and shyly looked at Edmund. "Is this enough?" She didn't know where to put her hands. If she covered her chest, the lower part of her body would be exposed, and vice versa. In the end, she just awkwardly wrung her hands.

"What?" Edmund pretended not to understand her words.

"You said that if I put this on, you will save my grandfather." Pauline's heart raced, and her face turned pale with anxiety.

"How can you believe a man's words?" Edmund approached her with a cunning smile on his face. "Miss Song, do you need me to teach you the right way to get something from a man?"

Seeing his face just inches away from hers, she instantly understood what he meant. With tears in her eyes, she leaned forward to catch his lips with hers.

But when she tried to deepen the kiss, she found that his lips were tightly pressed together. No matter how hard she tried to open his mouth with her tongue, she failed. Finally, she gave up and began pulling away, but unexpectedly, Edmund leaned forward that moment, crashing his lips against hers. His tongue invaded her mouth with a sense of emergency. Then, he accurately caught the tip of her tongue with his lips and began sucking on it. His strong hand on the back of her head forced her to bear the kiss, even though she was uncomfortable with the light smell of tobacco coming from him.

While they kissed, Edmund had his eyes wide open. Staring at her blurred eyes, he suddenly remembered the day she had bewitched him with these same eyes, and hatred surged up within him at once.

Immediately, he pulled away in disgust. Pauline gasped slightly with flushed cheeks.

"Miss Song, do you really think you can save your grandfather with your laughable ability? I advise you to learn from others about how to please a man," Edmund said, grazing her lips with his fingertips.

"Others?" Pauline looked at him, perplexed.

Edmund smiled and whispered a word in her ear, causing her to turn pale. Her whole body began trembling with shame. How could he compare her to a prostitute? Was she so filthy in his heart? She was so hurt by his words that her heart began to ache. The abrupt rush of pain forced her to bend down and touch her chest.

However, Edmund didn't seem to care about her at all. He grabbed her chin with his long fingers and said, "Don't pretend to be pitiful. It's disgusting. So what now? Don't you want to save your grandfather anymore?"

Upon hearing this, Pauline felt like she had finally had some sense knocked into her. The reason she had gone looking for Edmund was to save her grandfather. How could she allow herself to feel hurt now?

"Edmund..." she breathed, as if forcing herself to jerk into action. She leaned forward again and tried her best to seduce him, but her hands, which were trembling as she struggled to untie his towel, betrayed her.

However, her seemingly innocent behavior only made Edmund angrier. Every time he saw her tears, his heart softened a little, but he forced himself to remain cold.

"You don't deserve to say my name. You threw yourself at another man as soon as you slept with me! Don't touch me. You're dirty. What do you think of me? Am I just toy you can play with when you feel like it?"

Upon hearing these accusatory words, Pauline bit her lower lip hard to keep her tears from falling. The metallic taste of blood touched her tongue. She opened her mouth to say something, but then swallowed her words back down.

However, her silence only made Edmund more furious. "Did you think I would fall for the same trick twice? Get out! Don't appear in front of me again."

Even as she was pushed out of the room by Edmund, the only thing on Pauline's mind was her grandfather. "Please save my grandfather," she shouted anxiously.

"And I will always love you. I will always love you. You, my darling, you..." Before Edmund could reply, Pauline's phone rang again.

He glanced at the screen and found that it was a call from a man named Daniel Bai.

With a cold expression on his face, he handed the phone to her, along with her clothes. As Pauline took these items from him, she whispered, "You were the only man I ever slept with." However, her voice was so low that it disappeared in the air before it reached his ears.

"Hello, Dr. Bai. I beg your pardon? What's wrong with my grandfather?" When she heard Daniel Bai's words, her face blanched, and she quickly ran downstairs, putting on her clothes at the same time. "Okay, okay, I'll be right there."