"You guys head back first," Joanne told her colleagues.

Without saying another word, Joanne jogged towards the car and stood beside the door of the driver's seat.

Bending down at the waist, she peeked into the window. Through the ambient light from the street lamps, she saw that Brian was asleep in the car. Even in the murky ambiance, the lines of his profile were distinct; he looked incredibly handsome.

Joanne rapped the glass of the window with her knuckles. "Brian."

Brian had always had a keen sense of awareness. At the rapping sound, Brian opened his eyes. Seeing that it was Joanne, he opened the door beside the passenger's seat. "You're done?"

"Mm." Joanne settled into the seat and buckled her seatbelt. "Shawn and the others can handle the rest. Why didn't you leave?"

"How're you supposed to go back if I leave?" Brian glanced at the clock. The sun would rise in another three hours, all of which would probably be spent on the return journey. "We'll go back to the apartment in the city?" He asked Joanne.

"Mmhm," Joanne answered hazily. She could no longer keep her sleepiness at bay. Once she settled herself into a comfortable position in the passenger's seat, she closed her eyes. Then she felt the rumbling of the car engine as it started. She fell asleep sometime later without even knowing it.

Brian's apartment was not too far from here. That, plus the fact that cars were scarce during this hour, enabled their car to arrive at the apartment building in less than ten minutes.

Joanne woke up on her own and followed Brian into the elevator. When the elevator doors slid shut, she leaned her entire body against Brian and buried her face into his chest. "So sleepy..." She mumbled.

Somehow, Joanne had gotten used to such intimate displays and could now perform them naturally without any hints of shyness.

Brian wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her upright and prevent her body from sliding to the floor. His other hand went up to her head to hold her face against his chest. They rode the elevator in silence. Shortly, the elevator reached the top floor. Leaning against Brian, Joanne dragged herself into the apartment.

"Shower?" Brian knew about Joanne's habit of always taking a shower after working in the lab.

Joanne buried her face into Brian's chest once again. "Nah. I'm so sleepy."

Her warm breathed caressed his chest through the thin fabric of his shirt. Brian felt a twinge of desire burgeoning inside him, causing his voice to turn deeper. "Then let's head to the bedroom, hm?"

Joanne nodded. Exactly how she got into the bedroom, she knew not; she might have walked on her own, or Brian might have carried her. Not long after, she felt the soft mattress beneath her body. Her entire body felt so relaxed as if every single pore on her body had been thoroughly massaged. Satisfied, she dragged a pillow towards her. A while later, she felt Brian lying down beside her.

Maybe it was because they had shared the same bed so many times before, but she found herself not minding his presence at all. Or maybe it was just because her hazy mind had yet to grasp what was happening right now fully. Closing her eyes, she asked hazily, "I just returned from a crime scene... Are you sure you don't mind?"

Brian adjusted the temperature of the air conditioner and then pulled the blanket over their bodies. At the same time, he dragged Joanne into his arms. "Hurry up and go to sleep."

All Joanne could feel right now was contentment and warmth. The corners of her lips lifted without her knowing it. She snuggled and rubbed herself against Brian like a baby silkworm.

Brian had gotten a few hours of sleep in the car, so he was not that sleepy right now. Also, if Joanne kept rubbing against him like this...

He reached out and stilled the movements of the "baby silkworm". "Joanne, stop moving around," he growled.

"Oh," Joanne answered. Perhaps it was because she had detected the dangerous edge to his voice, Joanne had stopped moving. Instead, she buried her head against his chest and held still.

Brian dropped a kiss onto her forehead and closed his eyes.

More than two hours later, a sliver of white, which looked about as murky as the color of fish belly, emerged in the eastern sky. The first shafts of sunlight spread from the horizon, illuminating all corners of the city.

At seven o'clock sharp, back in their villa in the suburbs far away from the city, Joanne's alarm clock went off. Meanwhile, in the CBD, Joanne was still fast asleep until it was nine o'clock in the morning. With his eyes tightly shut, Brian lay there with his arms wrapped around her sleeping form.

At 9:30, Brian's phone vibrated vigorously against the surface of the nightstand. The buzzing sound pulled Joanne from her dreams back into reality.

She opened her eyes and was caught slightly off guard when she realized that she was still in Brian's arms. Then, as she remembered what had happened yesterday, a wave of emotion slowly crept into her heart.

Brian must have been exhausted after spending an entire day at work yesterday. He did not have to accompany her when she was suddenly called into work.

But if Brian had not been there, she really would end up having to drive from the crime scene to the apartment in the middle of the night. That did seem a bit frightening now that she thought about it.

Would she even be able to survive after leaving Brian?

"Buzz... Buzz..."

Brian's phone vibrated a second time. Brian was still holding Joanne against him, and he showed no signs of wakefulness.

Joanne took Brian's phone from the nightstand and glanced at the screen. She picked up when she noticed that it was Gavin calling.

"Mr. Brian! Dearest brother of mine!" Back in the office, Gavin was losing his shit. "The meeting is about to start. For God's sake, where the hell are you?! Why aren't you showing up?!"

"Um, Brian... he..."

"Joanne?!" Gavin felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him right on top of his head. He was shocked into a daze and only recovered himself after a long time. "Don't tell me Brian still isn't awake..."

"Um, well, he isn't..."

The phone was snatched away before Joanne could get her words out. Surprised, she stared at Brian, who had suddenly woken up. Then, she said, "Gavin called, asking you to go to work."

Brian hung up the phone without batting an eye, and then he dragged her back under the covers. "Mm," Joanne said as she instinctively began to struggle against him. Brian tightened his hold. "Aren't you sleepy?"

"I am," Joanne said tiredly. "Your phone woke me up."

Brian kissed her forehead, causing the person in his arms to stop moving. He pulled the covers and draped it over her. "Sleep with me for a while. Wake me up at noon."

Could he afford to sleep until noon?

"But what about your work?" she asked curiously. Since she had been called in last night, she was allowed to take the morning off. But Brian... "Isn't there a meeting he needs to attend?"

"Gavin can handle the meeting," Brian said. "It's not like the company will collapse if I skip work for half a day."

Joanne was rendered speechless. "Wait... Wasn't Brian a workaholic in the past?" She wondered.

The workaholic himself had skipped work. Well, it turned out that Joanne was not the only one who was surprised by this fact; the entire staff of Lambert Group was shocked. Gavin, on the other hand, had straightaway assumed that the world had plunged into madness.

Gavin had heard it just now; it was Joanne who had answered Brian's phone. She had told him in a sleepy voice that Brian was still in bed!

"Fuck. He's the boss, and yet he's hugging his wife in bed while leaving his assistant to run his company?"

Inhumane! Utterly and outrageously inhumane!

Gavin stomped into the conference room and told everyone that the meeting had been postponed to this afternoon. When someone asked him about the reason for the delay, Gavin responded by first clearing his throat twice. Then he said, "You guys have to get used to Mr. Brian's new work habits. He's got a sweet wife at home now. So the 'oh-I-woke-up-late-so-I-might-as-well-skip-work' show shall begin today."

Everyone, "..."

A fuming Special Assistant Gavin collected all the documents and then stomped out of the conference room. He headed straight into his office to do Brian's job for him, feeling nothing but disgruntlement while doing so.

Brian had gotten the girl just like he wished, and he had now relinquished the hold of his "empire"; Chris had discovered real love, too. As for Gavin himself... Godammit! He also wanted to start dating and then skip work like a boss!

But still... Ugh. Was there no lady out there who would notice him, a single, rich, handsome, and nice young man?

Gavin did some soul-searching, probing into thoughts meticulously. After a while, he realized how lonely his life truly was.

Noon arrived in a blink of an eye.

Not even Joanne could stay in bed until this time, despite her habit of lazing around in bed. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she woke up and saw the time.

Shockingly, though, Brian was still asleep.

Somehow, she found that interesting. So she lay flat on her stomach in bed with her chin cradled in both palms and just watched him.

The lines of fatigue and exhaustion from last night had vanished from his face, perhaps because he had now replenished his sleep. Right then, the only things she noticed on his face were his handsome features as well as his flawless skin that would make any woman envious.

Not even a single pore could be seen on the skin of his face!

Joanne refused to believe that to be the case, so she inched closer to his face, and then closer again. This was purely in the interest of meticulous research; there had to be a flaw somewhere that she could find.

Just then, Brian suddenly opened his eyes.

In her fright, Joanne sucked in a deep breath, and her body instinctively moved to get up. Brian had different ideas; he reached out and tugged at her body. She failed to resist the force behind Brian's pull, so she ended up falling right on top of him.

To any watching the entire scene, it would seem a lot like it was Joanne herself who had willingly thrown herself onto Brian's body.

This... This was just far too intimate.

Joanne forced out a laugh and tried to cheat her way out of the potential interrogation which awaited her. Right. As if Brian was that easy to fool. He did not release his hold on her, not even when her smile was practically frozen on her face.

"I have to be at work by one," she said, playing the work card. "Also, I don't think it's a good idea if you don't show up at work by the afternoon. I mean, sure, Lambert Group won't collapse, but what would your employees think of you?"

Brian refused to allow Joanne to change the subject. "What were you looking at just now," he asked. His strong, slender hands were still gripping her waist like a vice.

Well, it seemed like no gimmickry could get her out of this. Joanne stuck with the truth, "Looking at you, of course."

Brian seemed rather satisfied with that answer. He arched his brows. "You miss me that much? Really? After just one morning?"

Joanne could not help but laugh. Then, she picked up a fallen eyelash from the corner of Brian's eye. "It's because you've dropped an eyelash."

She studied the lash. "Not bad. Your eyelashes are so long that they rival my own."

Brian, "..."

Smiling, Joanne placed the eyelash into Brian's hand. "I'm going to brush my teeth," she said.

Only when she was out of the bedroom did she begin taking in the apartment unit.

The apartment was spacious, though it only had one bedroom. It was a studio apartment; the living and dining rooms were joined together, and there was an open kitchen. The classic European style decor exuded a modern vibe; it was simple, but at the same time, elegant. All in all, it did seem like the kind of place where Brian would occasionally stay for one night.

Joanne walked to the foyer and opened the shoe cabinet. Peering in, she saw a pair of pink slippers which were meant for women. The slippers came in size 37; her size was 36.

Joanne hesitated over the decision to put on the slippers. Okay, more like she was struggling with the suspicion that was brewing inside her mind. "This is just a place Brian will stay whenever he works late and is too lazy to go home," she thought. "Why's there a pair of female slippers here?"

She slipped her feet into the slippers and went into the bathroom. The cabinet contained only a simple set of male toiletries. The bathroom counter was bare of any objects except for an electric toothbrush, which was the same brand as the one Brian was using back home.

Nothing else was suspicious other than the slippers.

For some strange reason, Joanne felt relieved at that. She would not know how to handle it if she found other traces of female presence.

Just then, Brian suddenly appeared at the bathroom doorway. "Spare toothbrushes are kept in the drawer on your left. There aren't any spare towels. Do you want to use mine first? Or do you want me to call someone to bring you a fresh one?"

Joanne glanced at the time and realized that they were running out of time. "I'll... I'll use yours, then." After all, there were a few dry, neatly-folded ones stacked inside the cabinet.

"Mm," Brian said before he walked away. Then, Joanne heard his voice as he told someone on the phone to bring their brunch. She locked the bathroom door, brushed her teeth, and then took a quick shower. By the time she got out and went to the dining hall, brunch was served on the table.

Brian held a necktie on the one hand, while his other hand held his phone to his ear as he gave out work-related instructions. When he noticed her presence, Brian handed the necktie to her.

Having lived under the same roof for a while, they had at least formed some understanding between them; Joanne took the necktie and began knotting it for Brian as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

One thing she could not quite figure out was why Brian was so keen on having her knot his neckties these days.