"This is the first time—and the last."

That's what Asher Keating told her, cold-faced and buttoning his shirt, after one night he never should have had.

Leah Sinclair was no one. A broke college student buried in debt after her grandmother's surgery, selling her evenings at a high-end escort club just to survive.

She wasn't supposed to end up in his bed.
He wasn't supposed to come back.

But he did.

After the second time and the third, Leah cursed viciously in her heart: "Damn man! You really can't trust a word men say."

Many years later, Asher looked at Leah sleeping beside him and sighed to himself: "Sure enough, you shouldn't be with the same woman more than three times, or you'll really be in for it."

Was it possession... or affection?

A choice that began as a transaction but became true love, with only the wish... to never forget their original intentions.

"Preparations? What preparations?" Leah Sinclair was a little lost.


"He wants to marry my daughter. Is he not going to make any preparations at all? Does he think he can just get something for nothing?"


"And you know you only just got back? You returned yesterday and ran off with him just like that. Doesn't he owe me, her mother, some kind of explanation?"


Mabel Grant's voice wasn't quiet, and Asher Keating heard everything. Just as Leah was hesitating, Asher took the phone from her. "Aunt Mabel, you can come anytime. I'll be ready anytime."


There was a brief moment of silence on the other end. "You'd better be."


Without waiting for Asher to say anything else, Mabel Grant hung up. Asher handed the phone back to Leah, who looked a little embarrassed. "My mom's just got that kind of temper."


Chapter 172 - Chapter 172: You Guys Are a Little Too Intense