Bound by Desire: A High-Stakes Romance

Claire is contentedly carrying her smart wedding dress, customized through 3D printing technology, as she heads to her new home. This wedding dress, which can change colors according to her mood, was a surprise given to her by Dean half a month ago. I didn't realize that when I came back early from my business trip, the wedding dress was already ready and didn't need to be altered at all, so things went smoothly. As the saying goes, a good start is half the battle, and she almost reveled in the imagery of herself walking down the aisle with Dean on her arm. As an orphan, the one thing she had looked forward to the most was a home of her own. And now, happiness was already in her hands, and on the edge of her lips, a happy smile floated up. Paired with her delicate features, it made the surrounding pedestrians unable to resist looking back frequently. She swept her face to open the door of her new home, but heard a movement inside. Couldn't help but wonder for a moment, having said that she would wait for her to return from her business trip to decorate the new house, could it be that Dean had taken the time out of his busy schedule to come here first? Originally, he wanted to raise his voice to call his name, and thought about showing a promising smile. He still does not know that he came back early. It, for a moment, secretly covered his eyes, giving him a big surprise. In the bedroom, there came one gasp after another, a sweet female voice mixed with a rough male voice. Claire, even if she was more stupid, immediately heard it. She stiffened at once, and her hand shook slightly as she pushed open the door to the room. What she saw could be described as completely miserable. What she hoped was just her own hallucination; two naked bodies on the bed were entangled with each other. The dress in her hand, slipped down on the floor with a muffled dull sound, Claire's body, as if at that instant, was violently drained, as if her eyes staring at the bed in shock stopped all the movements of the man and the woman. The man was his soon-to-be-married partner, Dean, and the woman was familiar to the seams of her own bones; it was Lauren, her classmate for three years in high school, plus four years in college. Obviously, on the eve of her business trip, Dean still held her hand fondly, “Come back early, I'll miss you.” Is that the kind of miss that took her best friend and made her want to go to bed? “Uh...... Claire......" Two people tumbled on the bed, their snow-white skin blinding Claire's eyes. Dean hemmed and hawed, his hands scrambling for clothes on his body. Pulling and tugging, he tangled Lauren's clothes into his own. Claire almost laughed out loud at the ugliness of the two men. She ignored Dean's shouts and returned with a cold face. Surprisingly ...... she hadn't forgotten to pick up her own gown, the one that had given her fantastic pleasure back half an hour ago. Back to her own rented loft, Claire, as if the whole body was outside the general, could no longer support themselves, fell on the small single bed. Tears snaked down her cheeks, and she didn't know what she was grieving for. Her body gradually curled up, like a frightened little girl, covering her face and crying. I originally thought that happiness was within reach, but found that happiness and misfortune just a line of separation. The phone rang over and over, the ringtone was high-tech audio Claire had set up just for Dean, simulating the sound of a natural stream. Hatingly, she lifted the phone up and looked ready to fling it at the door. Her head suddenly cleared; she didn't want to waste her meager paycheck on a new one. Reason finally overcame her feelings, and she smoothly turned off the phone, lifted the covers, and smothered her head in the whole thing. It seemed to sleep, not sleep. We woke up. Surprisingly, it is already the dawn of the day. Only then did she remember that she had turned off her cell phone in anger yesterday, and naturally, the alarm she had set would no longer “work” for her. “s**t!” she cursed in a very unladylike manner, got up and put on the intelligent temperature-controlled pants and sweater, and after a minute of washing her face and brushing her teeth, she rushed out of the room like a high-speed magnetic levitation train. God, it would be a real curse to lose this month's perfect attendance award. If Dean and Lauren's betrayal was spiritual, the perfect attendance award was material. She can't lose the spirit and then lose the material. The emotional wound can be left to lick slowly, but this material gap is not easy to make up. Rushed to the company on a hungry stomach, favoring ...... the elevator just up, leaving her alone in the elevator door stomping feet. Full attendance award, full attendance award ...... She was shattered, if not for the fact that her secretary's office was as high as the twenty-sixth floor, she would have run up there with a hundred-meter sprint. The speed at which the elevator ran during rush hour was something to behold. Suddenly, her eyes glanced at the president's special vertical elevator, which was quietly parked on the 1st floor. At once overjoyed, this elevator running speed has always been witnessed, and there is no every floor must stop the “habit”. Without thinking, he pressed the button and dashed into the elevator. “Wait!” A nice male voice came in, as if blowing into a cool breeze. Claire reflexively pressed the “open” button. Maybe it was another colleague who wanted to get a full attendance award. Claire didn't mind the two-second delay on the principle of “sharing the benefits”. The person walked in smoothly, and Claire automatically acted as the elevator girl. Just when she wanted to turn around to say hello, the other person's outstanding features and cold demeanor immediately made her swallow back the words she was about to say. His hair was a light brown color, and his skin was more delicate than the sifted and rubbed moonlight. His features were as sharp and angular as a knife. Tightly pursed thin lips, with a hint of faint mockery, as if it was the entire world which he had trampled under his feet. Uh, he was indeed rather tall. At least a head taller than Claire herself, plus a ...... neck. She'd been in a hurry to get going today, and she'd worn a pair of flat, smart sneakers, which made her look shorter and shorter by the minute. What really froze her were the eyes, comparable to an Antarctic sea of icebergs and snow, without a trace of warmth at all. Claire took two steps back without thinking, tilting her head back to look at the elevator's indicator light. The two gazes that shot behind her made her feel as if there was an icy snake slithering down her spine. Standing like a thorn in her side, for the first time the elevator felt like it was running at a snail's pace. Luckily, her floor arrived first, and she snatched her way out of the elevator in a hurry, rushing into the secretary's office without daring to look back. Luckily, grabbing a last minute card, Claire then felt the sweat on her undershirt, sticking to her skin. “Claire, back?” Julia, her best friend, greeted her with a grin, her voice coming through the office's smart sound system. “Uh, back.” Claire responded, a hint of imperceptible bitterness in her voice. “Now you can prepare for the wedding in peace, anything else you need to buy, I'll accompany you tonight?” Julia's offhanded remark, however, brought up the old wounds that had been deliberately forgotten by Claire on a war-like morning, once again. Because there were five junior secretaries in the big secretary's office, and with so many mouths to feed, it was the easiest way to spread gossip, she just forced a smile to cover it up and went back to her desk. It was a good thing that each one had a separate tiny cubicle with frosted glass on three sides to block the curious eyes of others.