Chapter 208 Nora Is in Trouble
She was speechless for a moment.
Steven pulled her hand over and placed it on his chest, letting her feel his firm, strong muscles.
Nora was so embarrassed she could barely breathe.
Steven lowered his head and kissed her lips, his palm cupping the back of her head as he drew her closer.
Nora instinctively tried to push him away.
But Steven was too strong; her resistance didn't stand a chance.
Gradually, his domineering, forceful kiss stole her breath away. Her body softened, collapsing into his arms as he kissed her—starting with a gentle brush, then deepening with unmistakable intent.
In a daze, she wrapped her arms around his neck, responding to his kiss.
Steven chuckled softly and asked, voice husky in her ear, "Remember what I said yesterday?"
Nora's face turned bright red.
He had said that if he came back again, he would "have her."
Nora bit her lip and said softly, "Not now, Steven. You worked all night, you're tired. Let's eat and sleep first, then we can talk about it tonight."
"Alright." Steven's fingertips gently brushed her lips, suggestive and teasing. "Let me get some sleep, then I'll have the energy to make you feel good tonight."
Nora's face burned hot.
"Come on, let's eat." Steven took her hand and led her out.
Nora sat across from him, happily picking the bones out of chicken wings for him. "I haven't bought groceries recently, there's only frozen stuff at home, make do with that. I'll buy some good ingredients tonight and cook for you."
He smiled and said, "You're going to cook for me tonight?"
"Yeah, unless you're working late again and not coming home?" Nora looked at him with a hint of resentment. He'd barely been home these past few days.
Steven couldn't help but laugh. "I'll come home. Tonight I want to eat that..." He suddenly couldn't remember the name.
"Beef stew?" Nora filled in for him.
"Right. Then I'll come home early tonight."
Nora smiled as she ate her oatmeal, feeling like everything was getting better.
She suddenly found herself looking forward to tonight.
All day, she was in a good mood. She brought lunch for Olivia, then busied herself putting goods on the shelves and writing labels with a marker.
Olivia was busy as well, but stopped to ask with a smile, "You're in such a good mood today. Did you find money or something?"
Nora smiled. "Or something."
"Did you set up the store promotion?" Olivia asked. "If not, hurry up. There are only three days left to register for the Green Monday event. We can use this chance to push sales."
"Right!" Nora quickly ran to the computer and asked Olivia, "Olivia, how much did you put in for promotion?"
"I put in 10,000 dollars for now, I'll add more if needed."
"Then I'll do 10,000 dollars as well." Nora registered for the Green Monday event in the backend.
In just seven days, Green Monday would be in full swing.
"But Green Monday definitely won't be as good as Cyber Monday. Too bad we missed the best opportunity." Olivia sighed.
"It's okay, Olivia. We only started this year, and our inventory is still small. If we suddenly got hit with something like Cyber Monday–level sales, we wouldn't be able to handle it."
For an event on the scale of Cyber Monday, stores need to stock up one or two months in advance, or everything falls apart.
During Cyber Monday, you get stockouts and shortages. Restocking takes time. If you don't stock up in advance, even if you get orders, you can't ship them.
If you take orders but don't ship, the platform will punish you.
So you need the capacity to handle that many orders. Otherwise, if you can't ship, even the store owner gets nervous when orders start coming in.
Every year before Cyber Monday, Willie would stock up tons of inventory, because whether domestic or international, big sales events are really important.
"True, we only have a few hundred thousand dollars worth of goods. We probably couldn't handle that many orders anyway." Olivia felt better about it. They'd make money this year, then tackle Cyber Monday next year.
——
On Steven's end.
He slept until the afternoon, only waking when his phone rang.
"What did you say?" Steven's brows tightened as his eyes snapped open. "The collaboration project between York Development Group and the Bennett Group was leaked?"
"Yes!" Clarence's voice was serious on the other end. "It's already trending."
Steven's expression instantly darkened. "Did you find out who did it?"
Clarence hesitated, not daring to speak.
"Why aren't you talking?" Steven rubbed his temples.
Clarence braced himself and said, "It was Ms. Adams and Mr. Andrew York."
Steven's expression changed slightly. "Nora and Andrew?"
"Yes, it seems the important confidential document you kept at Riverside Apartment was leaked. The information came out through Mr. Andrew's side, and we found that Ms. Adams's account has an additional five million dollars..." Clarence's voice tapered off.
Steven violently swept the lamp off his nightstand, his expression growing even darker. "Keep going."
"Maybe Ms. Adams was Mr. Andrew's person from the very beginning." Clarence finally finished.
Steven's eyes turned cold as ice. "You're telling me Nora really belongs to Andrew? That she stayed by my side all this time just to carry out his orders?"
"Possibly." Clarence didn't dare sound too certain, but if Nora hadn't done it, how else would Andrew have gotten that document?
Steven's expression was terribly dark. He got up and went to the study, pulling out that document.
Opening it, sure enough, several pages had been torn out.
His usually indifferent expression now turned sinister.
He went to check the study's surveillance, only to find the plug had been pulled out.
Steven sat in the computer chair, his his entire presence shrouded in a cold, icy aura...
—
After work, Nora went to the supermarket to buy groceries. She picked out things Steven liked to eat, putting them in the cart one by one, a slight smile on her lips.
Suddenly, her phone vibrated.
She took it out—Alton was calling.
Nora found it a bit strange, but she answered anyway. "Hello, Mr. Bridges."
"Nora, do you know something big happened?" Alton immediately asked.
Nora's chest tightened. "What happened?"
"You know Steven works at York Development Group, right?" Alton asked as gently as possible.
"I know."
"An important project he's in charge of was leaked. Did you know?" Alton was testing her reaction.
"I didn't know." Nora was very worried. "Is Steven okay?"
"A project leak is very serious for him, and right now, it looks like this matter has something to do with you."
"What does it have to do with me?"
"Five million dollars appeared in your account."
Nora's breath caught, her whole body froze. "What does that mean? Where's Steven?"
"Probably at home," Alton answered.
"Then I'll go find him now."
"Okay." They were all waiting to see how she would explain.
Nora carried the groceries, her mind in chaos the whole way.
Why would the project leak have anything to do with her? She'd never even been to York Development Group.
As she thought about it, she suddenly remembered Mr. Hayes.
Oh! it was him!