Jade looked up.

Their eyes met.

She thought for a moment, then smiled, and Phei’s heart gave a traitorous thump against his ribs. Her smile was not wide or loud but it was the kind of soul-snatching smile that arrived softly and still managed to rearrange the room.

"As long as everyone else, I suppose," she said. "A week at most. I have a few things to set up here, and my family is starting a new company in Korea, so my parents will be away. That leaves me with quite a bit to fix and look after while they are gone."

Phei leaned back slightly, watching her with open admiration. "So, the elegant princess manages a floating dealership, quietly invests in aerospace, studies automotive engineering, handles the worldwide business empire while her parents are away, and still has time to personally guide troublesome customers through forbidden cars."

Jade laughed softly, covering her mouth with one hand, and the sight struck him again, graceful enough to bruise.

"I am not that busy, Phei. I am only talking big. Most of what I will do is read documents, sign documents, answer calls, and pretend I understand why adults enjoy creating so much paperwork. I am still far too young to handle my family’s worldwide empire."

Phei tilted his head. "Do you believe that?"

Jade’s smile changed, smaller now, hiding something behind it. "My parents believe it. They give me a few things to handle here in Hell’s Paradise and sometimes Paradise itself, but if they are away, most of the larger matters are handled by Park Soo-Hyun, my father’s right hand."

Phei studied her quietly.

He had heard that particular flatness before. It was the sound a capable person made when they had decided, preemptively, not to want the thing they were not yet allowed to have, so the waiting would hurt less.

Jade wore it beautifully, the way she wore everything, but he recognised the shape of it underneath.

Then he said, "They know what their daughter is capable of."

Jade’s eyes lifted to his.

"If I can see how formidable you are after only a few hours," he continued, "then they sure as hell know. Parents like yours do not miss something that obvious. They are probably watching how you grow into it, how you choose, how you handle weight when it is given to you piece by piece. Give them time to see how good you are.

"Prove to them how much of a beast you can be, and they will learn to trust you with much more."

Jade blinked.

Then laughed again, her hand rising to cover her mouth, eyes curved with amusement. "I do not know if you are complimenting me or not. A beast? Phei, that does not sound very graceful."

Phei laughed too, the sound warm inside the polished office. "In my world, a beast is always a good thing. A beast in business. A beast in engineering. A beast in design. A beast at negotiations. A beast at making grown men cry over contracts they signed willingly."

Jade’s laughter brightened.

He grinned. "A beast at making cars look like they were personally blessed by speed gods. A beast at smiling politely while secretly buying aerospace shares behind her parents’ backs."

"Phei."

"And lastly," he said, lifting one finger, "I even have a beast in causing chaos."

Jade’s eyes sparkled. "That last one must be Maddie."

Phei extended his fist across the desk.

Jade looked at it, amused, then leaned forward and bumped it with her small hand.

"Damn right it is Maddie," he said.

They both laughed, and for a moment the office felt less like the private room of an untouchable heiress and more like a quiet corner where two people had somehow slipped out of their titles.

Jade leaned forward slightly, chin almost resting above her folded hands. "Are you sure that is a good beast?"

Phei nodded without hesitation. "The best kind."

Jade’s smile softened. "You are right. I have known Maddie since we were young. She is many things, but she is good to those she cares about. If she loves you, she will give you everything. If she does not like you..."

"You are in for a treat," they finished together.

The shared words made them pause, then laugh again.

Jade looked at him more seriously after that, the humor settling into something graceful and sincere. "Thank you, Phei. Truly. For choosing my little business."

Phei’s eyes softened.

"You are too humble," he said. "And I would choose you each and every time."

The words landed differently.

Jade’s blush rose before she could fully hide it, delicate color touching her cheeks as her gaze lowered for a heartbeat. Phei had said it plainly, without the safety of a joke, and the attraction beneath his voice had not even tried to disguise itself.

It stood between them, elegant, honest and dangerous.

He gave her no time to retreat too far into embarrassment.

"Besides," he added gently, "I feel like the decision was made before Maddie even told me to come here."

Jade looked up again.

He smiled. "The car upstairs says as much."

She did not answer immediately, because there was nothing to add to that.

Phei was referring to the car ordered ten years ago, the one waiting on the third floor, connected to his father, mother and the Empress.

Coincidence, perhaps? Or perhaps not.

Either way, it sat here, in the same dealership he had chosen for his first car, under the care of the woman now sitting across from him with a blush still soft on her face.

And he was not mad about it.

Jade could see that.

Why would he be?

If anything, the truth had made him more thrilled, more restless, more alive with curiosity and anticipation. His first car was not merely a purchase anymore.

It had become inheritance, memory, design, fate and courtship tangled together in one impossible night.

And under all of it, quieter than the rest, sat the thing he did not say aloud:

His parents had stood in some showroom or workshop a decade ago and ordered a car for a birthday they already knew, somehow, they might not live to see. They had thought of him before he was old enough to remember thinking back.

Most of what his parents had left him arrived as weight, as inheritance, as danger wearing his family name.

This was the rare piece that arrived only as love, with no blade hidden inside it, and it had been sitting in the dark above his head for months, patient as a held breath, waiting for him to finally walk in.

He kept his face easy for Jade’s sake.

But something in his chest had gone very still and very warm, and it would be a while before it settled.

Jade watched him for a quiet moment, then smiled.

Phei smiled back.

And somewhere between the signed documents, the unspoken attraction, and the car waiting above them in secrecy, the courting truly began.