Taeyong didn't bother going into work for even half the day. He spent it , making up for the last week. He'd gotten her into his bed halfway through the day, mainly because her bed was covered in melted chocolate. Chocolate and Nari went hand in hand, in more ways than one.
Taeyong breathed in and out, and looked over at a sweaty and satiated Kim Nari. He said, "You like me, admit it."
She opened her eyes slowly. "What is this pathological need you have of everyone having to like you?"
"What is this pathological need you have of being a hard-?" He rolled onto his side and ran a finger down the inside of her arm. "We're in bed after a nice bounce on the sheets. You can admit you like me just a little. It would be weird if you didn't."
"I might like you a little."
He tickled her side. "Just a little?"
"If you didn't try and charm everybody, I might like you a little more."
He grunted. "What do you have against charm? And why don't you fall for it? You make me work so hard." He laid his head in the crook of her neck and inhaled her scent. "It's exhausting."
"I'd believe you were exhausted if you weren't poking me in the thigh right now."
"Just ignore him. He doesn't realize we're having a serious conversation."
She tried not to laugh but he could tell she was biting her cheek to keep it in.

He nudged her thigh. "Come on. Tell me. How can you resist me?"
She shrugged. "I'm immune."
"And I'm asking why you're immune."
"Does there have to be a reason I don't fall down dead at your feet?"
"Yes, I think there does. Who was he?"
She crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling. "Just a charming man who made me think he loved me."
He laid his head on the pillow and stopped nudging her in the thigh. "Do you still love him?"
"Of course I don't still love him. It was ten years ago."
He stayed silent, just watched her, and she rolled her eyes and sighed. "I thought that I was. . . special, different. That with me there was real emotion behind the facade. There wasn't."
Taeyong looked at Nari and tried to imagine her before she learned not to believe the lies charming men told. It wasn't hard to see. She would have looked like every other woman he could charm. He said, "I'm sorry."
"Every girl gets the chance to be stupid once in her life. I had mine; I learned from it."
"I'm not him. I won't manipulate you."
She looked down at her body. "Uh-huh."
He grinned. "How about I won't make you fall in love me just so I can sleep with you?"
"Since I've already slept with you, it does seem like it's unnecessary."
Taeyong rolled onto his back, mimicking Nari, staring at the ceiling as if it held the answers to life's questions. He said, "I'm not going to hurt you. Right? You're not going to fall in love with me."

Nari rolled onto her side and said huskily, "Every woman does."
He felt a little queasy at the thought. "Does she?"
She patted his arm. "You're so worried about that. I wouldn't fall in love with you for even half your fortune."
"It's just I don't have a good track record."
She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "I'm immune, remember. I won't forget that you just can't help yourself. It's a disease."
"It's not a disease. I like making people happy."
"And it makes it easier for you to get your way."
He looked at her, at the cynical glint in her eye. "I'm lucky I got you into bed, aren't I?"
She nodded. "Don't forget it."
He leaned over, kissing her lightly. "I won't."
He held onto her hand and smiled into her eyes as he said, "As much as I would love to spend the rest of the evening right here, we're having dinner with Mother and Grandma in about an hour."
She groaned and rolled away from him, yanking her hand away. "No. Why? We just saw them yesterday."
"Because I have dinner with them every week."
She groaned again. "I thought last week's dinner was just to torture me."
"I'm afraid it predates you."
"Well, don't let me interrupt a long-standing tradition. I'll just have a night in."
He stood up, looking around for his pants, and Nari peeked at his . He looked over his shoulder and said, "Oh, that's too bad. I was going to say you could stay home if you weren't looking at my ."

"I was just. . . seeing. . ."
"Mm-hm. Maybe you can come up with something on the way to dinner."
She looked down again and thought it might be a fair trade-off. It was a pretty great .
When he went into the bathroom, she jumped up and rushed out the door to her room.
He yelled, "Hey! I wanted to peek, too!"
Nari took a quick shower, trying to erase all signs that she'd spent the last twenty-four hours in bed. She couldn't erase her bone-deep lethargy. Amazing how good relaxed every muscle.
She looked through her small wardrobe unhappily. She just didn't feel like dressing as a professional woman tonight. Now that she'd thrown caution to the winds, she wanted to look good. And if Taeyong wanted to rip off her clothes, she didn't want it to be because he thought they belonged in the garbage.
And, also, he had no problem destroying any garment he didn't like. She was going to have to go shopping just to have something to wear.
She threw on the shortest skirt and the highest heels she'd brought and went to find Taeyong.
He was waiting for her and he stared down at her legs when he saw her. "You never wore skirts to work."
He took her coat and held it out for her. She said, "Work is work. Skirts are for fun."
He cleared his throat. "You know you still owe me a peek."
She smiled at him over her shoulder and he said, "Oh, the hell with it. We're going to be late."

 
Nari hid in her bathroom with her phone in her hand. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was kind of glad to have it. Maybe she would join the modern world and buy her own when she got back home.
Lisa answered on the first ring. "Yo."
"Er. . . Hey."
"You slept with him! You totally slept with him!"
Ah, best friends. Sometimes you didn't even have to say a word.
Nari sat down on the rim of the tub and said, "I'm an idiot. A stupid idiot."
"Up for debate. Personally, I would have called you an idiot for not sleeping with him."
"You called me an idiot for even thinking of not sleeping with him."
"And? Was I right?"
Nari closed her eyes and whispered, "God, yes."
Lisa laughed. "Tell me he's as good as he looks."
Nari sighed loudly. "I really wish I could tell you he wasn't."
"Scale of one to ten?"
"I'm not going to rate him."
"Just tell me that you are now ruined for life."
"Highly likely." She would never look at chocolate the same, that was for sure.
Lisa sighed and Nari gave her a moment to enjoy herself vicariously.
Nari said, "His mother knows I slept with him. She took one look at me and nearly fainted."
Dinner had been a spectacle, there was no other word for it. Taeyong's grandma had helped a suddenly woozy Christine into her seat, put a glass of wine in her hand, and then ordered champagne for the table. And Taeyong had sat next to his mother, patting her hand soothingly, and, everyone once in a while, petting Nari's knee and sending his mother into another glass of alcohol. Nari had almost felt bad for her.

Almost.
Nari said, "His mother could sell passive-aggressive lessons. She called a fashion consultant."
"Oh, the horror."
"You weren't there. This woman was tall, beautiful, had gorgeous red hair, and her s jiggled whenever she walked. And she kept leaning them into Taeyong."
"And you ripped her arms off?"
"No. I should have done that. Instead I came home and slept with him."
"I think that round goes to you."
Nari was pretty sure that round went to Taeyong. "And then his mother called one of Taeyong's ex-girlfriends and told her to show up at dinner."
There was a long pause, and then Lisa said in a low voice, "Okay, that is y."
"Thank you." Nari had just been about to tell Taeyong to stop torturing his mother when a Nordic goddess had descended on the table.
Nari reluctantly said, "She was actually very sweet, and didn't stay. But still."
Sarah had only come to tell Nari that Taeyong had never hit her, would never hit any woman. Nari hadn't even been sure Christine had invited her to crash the dinner except Ellen kept glaring at Christine. And Christine had kept trying to get Sarah to stay.
Lisa said, "And you came home and slept with Taeyong again? Because that would really show his mother."
"No. I came home and called you."
"That round might go to his mother. Is Taeyong completely oblivious?"
Nari thought of Taeyong's face when his ex-girlfriend had shown up halfway through dinner. He'd been happy to see Sarah, and clearly found it hilarious that his mother was so blatant in her dislike of Nari.