Chapter 34

After two knocks, Samuel opened the door.

Layla's eyes were met with the sight of a strong chest and an eight-pack abdomen, which made her gulp involuntarily. He was dressed in only a towel.

Wasn't he over thirty? How come he didn't have the greasiness of a middle-aged man, but instead had a body that could make people commit crimes? Had she not seen him exercising before?

"What's the matter?" Samuel asked with a magnetic voice while he looked down at her, stirring Layla's heart.

The charm of a mature man, indeed something her young male classmates couldn't possess. It had a great impact.

Fresh out of the shower, his hair was not gelled up meticulously as usual. Instead, it hung softly over his forehead, giving him a more relaxed and casual look. As for his facial features, they remained both cold and stunning.

Layla steadied her heartbeat. "I have two things to say, then I'll leave."

"I'm not in the habit of chatting at the door." Samuel said, turning his head and walking further into his room. Layla followed him inside but left the door open.

Samuel sat on the sofa, elegantly crossing his long legs. His legs, visible beneath the towel, were tantalizingly alluring.

She didn't know if he was wearing any underwear, and Layla was so shy that she didn't know where to look. He exuded sexuality from every nook and cranny of his body.

Samuel took out a cigarette, holding it at an angle, and used a silver lighter with a falcon pattern that was on the coffee table to light it.

"Click" there was a crisp sound, and a cluster of small but intense flames ignited and lit the cigarette.

Samuel took a deep drag, then slowly exhaled a milky-white plume of smoke through his nostrils. A man who could swallow clouds and spit out fog, he oozed an intoxicating charm of being mysterious.

Layla was mesmerized; the vision of him smoking was more captivating than any bad man she had seen on TV.

As the saying goes, women are attracted to bad boys. Finally, she truly understood the charm of a bad boy. It's not to say that smoking makes someone a bad person, but it has a certain naughty essence that is absent in everyday life. Moreover, the smoke he exhaled wasn't irritating, as if it was neutralized by his refreshing breath, and instead, it smelled good.

With his looks, physique, and charisma, there was definitely a reason for him to become the top male escort.

"Would you like to sit down and watch?" Samuel spoke with his cigarette already halfway finished.

Layla's face turned red. She actually stared at him while he smoked! She wanted to cover her face and walk away.

But she considered herself lucky. If it were any other woman, she would have already pounced on him and stripped him naked.

Instead, she held out the piece of paper from her pocket. "I forgot to give you this earlier."

Samuel glanced at the IOU she had placed in front of him. His slightly improved mood turned gloomy once again.

"Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the car repairs, and as you suggested, I'll compensate by cooking. As for the five thousand dollars for medication plus five hundred dollars in interest, I will pay it all off within three months, or maybe as fast as two months."

Samuel flicked the cigarette ash, looking at her with a cold smirk. "Do you think that by doing this, you can distance yourself from me and pretend there was nothing between us?"

"We never... had any... relationship." Layla's voice was small, betraying her guilt.

"Is it a common occurance to have no relationship with the men you've slept with?"

"I haven't slept with any other men." Layla quickly emphasized. He made it seem as if she had slept with so many men! She felt wrongly accused.

"I know I am your first man."

She was clean, and that's one of the reasons why he gave her the opportunity to get pregnant. Not just any woman could have the privilege of bearing his child.

It had been a week since that night, and soon he would know if she had conceived.

On another note, it was the first time he had been in such frequent contact with a woman within the span of just a week, meeting every day. Yet she seemed eager to get rid of him.

Why bring that up all of a sudden? Layla felt extremely embarrassed and somewhat angry. "Isn't that matter already over? Why bring it up again?"

"So, I should act like nothing ever happened, just like you?" Samuel retorted. She, a twenty-year-old girl, seemed more carefree than him, who was clinging on relentlessly.

Layla replied irritably, "If you took every encounter as a serious relationship, would you be able to handle it all?" He probably had "served" a woman from the United Nations, otherwise how could he afford a multi-billion dollar mansion?

Unfortunately, she was the first woman he had slept with, Samuel thought to himself.

Although there were countless women who actively threw themselves at him, he wouldn't touch someone he wasn't interested in. Before meeting her, he wasn't a man with intense desires in that aspect.

Of course, there was no need to explain these things to her. It was her own business to think whatever she wanted.

"Whether I can handle it or not has nothing to do with you. Just mind your own business." Looking at that IOU, Samuel couldn't help but be a bit aggressive with his words.

"I can mind my own business, so I don't need you to keep bringing up what happened that night."

Samuel couldn't care less about what happened that night, and he would never dwell on it.

"You should take care of yourself. I haven't even confronted you about hiding the fact that you're Vincent's uncle." Layla replied irritably.

She had considered asking him, but she knew this man wouldn't tell her the truth. She didn't want to continue guessing and drive herself crazy. The only way to get rid of him was to pay off the debt as soon as possible.

"And one more thing. Don't buy me such expensive work clothes anymore. Especially the brand that my boss loves, she's not happy about it."

Samuel left such small matters to Mr. Vandella and had already advised him to keep a low profile. Taking a drag from his cigarette, he asked indifferently, "How much?"

"Tens of thousands of dollars per set!"

"That's cheap."

"That's your opinion. I think it's expensive." Layla emphasized loudly, "An intern who earns a few thousand dollars, wearing clothes worth tens of thousands. If I were in their shoes, I would be suspicious too."

"You're there to work, not to gossip."

"Gossip exists wherever there are women, that's inevitable. Anyway, I don't want to attract too much attention. Just prepare something cheap for me."

Considering their different notions of "cheap" Layla added, "Within three hundred dollars will do."

Three hundred dollars? That would only buy the shabby and cheap work clothes like the ones that she wore on the first day, which tortured his eyes.

"I've said everything I wanted to say. I won't bother you anymore." Layla walked to the door, hesitated, then turned back and said, "Thank you for helping me with the hospital fees, but we belong to different worlds. Actually being friends might not be possible. Goodnight."

After finishing her words, she gently closed the door.

Samuel took a deep drag of his cigarette, extinguished it, and sat in front of the computer, working until four in the morning.

In the morning, when Layla got up, Mr. Morris had already sent a set of work clothes up to her room, neatly ironed.

"Miss Adkins, this outfit doesn't seem to be of very good quality. Are you sure you want to wear it?" Mr. Morris asked. Knowing Samuel's doting on her, no matter how luxurious the item, he would still give it to her.

"Hmm." Layla smiled. This average quality was exactly the "sense of security" she wanted, fitting her identity and status well.

She checked the price on her phone, $299, and couldn't help but smile. She had told him yesterday that it should be within $300, and indeed, it was within $300.

It rained all night last night, but it was a sunny morning. However, good weather doesn't necessarily mean a good mood.

Samuel had a gloomy expression since breakfast, frowning while reading through the documents in his hand, not saying a word throughout the meal.

The suffocating air in the car made Layla feel uneasy. She looked out the window silently, hoping to arrive at the company soon.