"You will pay for this dearly."
His words echoed in the room like a death sentence, but he didn't stop at threats. With one long, predatory stride, he closed the distance again. Emma tried to retreat, but her back slammed against the cold wall beside the bed. There was no escape.
Tae-min raised his arms to pin her completely, slamming his palms against the wall on either side of her head. His bare chest heaved violently with every ragged, angry breath, and the heat radiating from him lashed against her face like a furnace. Droplets of water from his raven hair fell slowly; one landed on her collarbone just beneath the neckline of her dress, sending an electric shiver through her entire frame.
"How much did they pay you?" he growled in a low, raspy voice saturated with danger. He leaned in until his lips nearly brushed her trembling ones. "Were you the bait? Was your job to seduce me, to make me touch you just so that bitch could snap those photos?"
"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Emma cried in a stifled whisper, her amber eyes brimming with tears. She struggled to breathe amidst the intoxicating scent of musk and sandalwood that was numbing her senses. "I've never seen that girl in my life! I swear to you!"
He didn't believe her. His right hand slid from the wall, and in a swift, sudden movement, he gripped her jaw with his long fingers. It wasn't a painful hold, but it was firm and commanding, forcing her head up to meet his obsidian eyes—eyes burning with rage, and another fire she didn't yet understand.
"Liar," Tae-min whispered, his thumb moving with agonizing slowness—almost unconsciously—over her trembling lower lip.
In that moment, something strange happened to Emma. She should have screamed. She should have shoved him away. She should have been seized by the usual panic attack that paralyzed her whenever a man tried to dominate or touch her in such an intimate way. But her body was betraying her in the cruelest possible manner. The rough touch of his thumb against her soft lip sent a surge of alien heat coiling through her lower abdomen. His hot breath against her skin made her knees weak. His anger was terrifying, but his masculinity was overwhelming—a magnetic force pulling her in despite every mental defense.
She felt a mad, desperate urge to close her eyes and lean into his touch. The internal horror at her own desire was far more agonizing than her fear of him.
"Your body is shaking, but not just from fear, is it?" Tae-min noticed the shift in her eyes, his pupils dilating slightly. His rage morphed into a dark curiosity, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper that danced along her nerves. His hand slid from her jaw down the length of her neck, brushing against her frantic pulse, before settling back on her slender waist. He yanked her hard against his completely bare chest.
Emma felt the unyielding hardness of his muscles against her, his skin's heat seemingly melting the thin fabric of her uniform. The friction between them was enough to ignite a blaze. She raised her hands to his bare chest to push him back, but the moment her fingertips touched his hot, damp skin, the shove turned into a hesitant touch. His muscles were taut as steel, pulsing with life beneath her palms.
"Don't..." she breathed, the word coming out as a soft moan. She gasped, her eyes lost in the obsidian depths of his.
"Don't what?" he asked audaciously. He leaned down and planted a harsh, swift, searing kiss on the sensitive skin of her neck. Emma let out a sharp gasp and squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers involuntarily digging into his pectoral muscles. "You just destroyed my career a few seconds ago. Don't I at least get to taste the trap I fell into?"
His lips moved with a lethal slowness along her jawline, inching toward the corner of her mouth, while his other hand slid down her back, pressing her tighter and tighter against him until she felt every contour of his aroused frame. She was melting in his arms. Her mind shrieked for her to flee, but her treacherous body succumbed to his destructive gravity, forgetting every scar of the past.
"Get away from her right now!"
A firm, booming voice shattered the charged silence of the room like a sword stroke.
Tae-min paused, lifting his head with an air of arrogant annoyance toward the source of the voice, though he didn't fully release Emma's waist.
Standing at the open entrance of the suite was Kento. He was breathing heavily, as if he had run the entire way there, and his warm hazel eyes had turned into two embers of cold fury. His light brown hair was slightly disheveled, but his sharp suit didn't stop him from appearing like a solid wall of protection.
Kento marched into the suite with decisive strides, completely ignoring Tae-min's intimidating aura or the fact that Asia's biggest star was standing there half-naked.
"I said, get away from my employee, sir," Kento repeated in a stern Japanese tone that brooked no argument. He reached them in seconds.
Tae-min's eyes narrowed, raking over Kento with a look of disdain and assessment. "And who the hell are you to tell me what to do in my own suite?"
"I am her direct manager, and I am responsible for her safety," Kento said coldly. He reached out decisively, gently but firmly grasping Emma's wrist and pulling her out of Tae-min's arms.
The moment Emma was separated from Tae-min, she felt the chill of the air hit her, as if she had just woken from a demonic spell. She stumbled slightly, and Kento supported her, placing a familiar, protective hand on her shoulder. She was shaking violently, her face a deep crimson, gasping for air as if she had been drowning.
Sparks flew between Tae-min and Kento. Tae-min was feeling a double surge of rage now. Rage at the scandal, and a deeper, more unsettling annoyance at seeing another man touch Emma and pull her away so easily, as if she belonged to him.
"This employee of yours, brave Manager, is the one who let a paparazzi into my suite," Tae-min sneered, running a hand through his wet hair with practiced arrogance, even though his jaw was tight with fury. "Photos have been taken of me with her. This scandal will tank my company's stock and incinerate my reputation. I swear I will sue this hotel and see her in a prison cell."
Emma's eyes widened with genuine terror this time. She looked at Kento, horrified. "Kento-san... I swear, I didn't do anything! I was cleaning the room and he just came out, and then a strange girl with a camera appeared..."
"I know, Emma. Calm down," Kento interrupted, his voice warm and steadying. He looked at her with an absolute confidence that made her heart settle. Then he turned to Tae-min, his tone returning to a sharp, clinical chill. "Our security system logged a sasaeng breach on this floor. Security is hunting for her now, and we will review the CCTV footage to clear Miss Emma's name. The hotel will take full responsibility for the security breach, and we will coordinate with your management to contain the situation."
Kento took a step forward, placing himself as a human shield between Emma and Tae-min. "But don't you dare—and I repeat, don't you dare—try to intimidate my employee or use this situation to touch her again. If you have a complaint, file it with management, not by flexing your power over a terrified girl."
Tae-min's eyes flared. No one had ever dared to speak to him like this. This brown-haired manager was actually challenging him?
Tae-min smiled slowly—a cold, diabolical grin. His gaze shifted to settle on Emma, who was hiding behind Kento. His look carried a promise, a dark lust, and an inescapable threat.
"Contain the situation?" Tae-min mocked in a low voice. He picked up a black silk shirt from the bed and slipped it on slowly, leaving it unbuttoned to expose his chest. "The photos will be on the internet before you finish your sentence, Manager. And once the world sees this girl's face in my arms, it won't matter what the CCTV says."
Tae-min stepped closer, ignoring Kento and addressing Emma's trembling soul directly.
"Your simple life is over, konbini girl," he whispered, his eyes piercing through her. "Your name, your face, your past—it all belongs to the press tomorrow. The whole world will think you're my secret plaything."
He tilted his head slightly, the mocking smirk returning. "Your noble manager won't be able to protect you from the hell that's about to open up. The only one who will be able to save you from this scandal... is me. And we'll see very soon who comes crawling to the other, begging for mercy."
Tae-min turned his back on them and walked toward the suite's balcony, leaving Emma drowning in a new kind of terror. She wasn't just afraid of the scandal; she was terrified by one undeniable truth: despite his cruelty and his threats, her body was still burning with a sick longing for that moment she spent in his arms.
Kento took her hand gently and led her toward the door. "Let's get out of here, Emma. I'll handle this. I won't let him hurt you."
Emma looked at Tae-min's broad, retreating back, then at Kento's kind, safe face. She felt as though she were standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss—and falling was only a matter of time.