I sat in the car and looked at my leg, which had just had its cast removed just a while ago. Suddenly, I felt sorry for myself.

If Noah hadn't persuaded me to participate in the qualifying race, citing its importance for the club's reputation, I would never have thought of entering it. The reason was that I had just been sick days before. I had had a massive headache and had taken painkillers to ease the pain.

Races like qualifyings put a huge strain on the racers' mental and physical strength. They were quite dangerous, so accidents often happened.

However, the medal I'd fought so hard to win turned out to only be a tactic for Noah to placate his latest lover with.

I took a photo of my divorce license and sent it to Ingrid. She immediately asked us to meet up by the lakeside.

It wasn't until I reached the place that I realized she'd brought along plenty of her other racing friends to have a bike race.

The huge motorway next to the lakeside was very seldom used by the public, and one end of it was currently lined up with huge, expensive superbikes. There were many young men and women there, chatting and joking with each other.

I stopped in my tracks and said, "I haven't fully recovered yet…"

"Nobody's asking you to drive. There are plenty of guys here for that!"

I only learned then that the rules of the race were simple—each guy had to choose a female partner to race.

A few pairs were already couples with each other, so they naturally planned to race together. There weren't many single men left in the line.

Ingrid then pulled me to the side and said in a hushed tone, "What do you think of Asher Princeton? He usually doesn't come even when invited. You're lucky today!"

A towering man in a racing suit was standing at the barricade with his back toward me. He was half-leaning against the barricade as the sun shone on his back. He gave off a clean yet ethereal feeling to anyone looking at him.

Slowly, he turned around to face us. I realized in glee that he looked exactly my type.

Ingrid then pushed me toward him. "Hey, Asher! Bring Lexy with you!"

Asher smiled as he gave me the once-over. His eyes were clear, and his voice was deep and soothing.

"Okay."

Ingrid then winked at me and said, "Don't let this chance slip by!"

Asher brought out a pink helmet and made sure to check it thoroughly before helping me put it on. He even pulled on the safety clasp to ensure that there was nothing wrong with it.

"Are you scared?"

It suddenly dawned on me that Noah had never treated me so gently ever since we got together, even if I had still raced in countless other races after that. He would only stand at the podium far from the top as he mingled with other club owners and elites.

He never once cared if my gear or equipment was safe or faulty, and he never personally checked anything. He was only ever concerned about my results and how much glory or benefit they would bring to his club.

I felt a sudden rush of emotions at Asher's question.

I shook my head and said, "Actually, I'm a professional racer. I just don't ride bikes that often."

Asher seemed surprised. He then replied lightly, "That's great! We can go full speed then. Hang on tightly to me!"

I knew just how fast these superbikes could go, so I hugged him as tightly as I could.

Asher started up his bike, and the engine roared to life. I could feel Asher's extremely muscular waist beneath his racing suit. His muscles were as hard as steel, and I could even feel each pec individually through the suit.

His racing skills were quite a contrast to how he looked—he was the aggressive type as he sped down the trail, quickly throwing the rest of his opponents behind him.

I had always been the one driving before this. This was actually the first time I'd been a passenger princess.

The wind screeched past my ears, and Asher's woody scent also invaded my senses gently yet assertively.

Asher chuckled. "Relax. You're too tight…"

I only realized then that I was clinging so tightly to him with my arms that he was probably having a hard time catching his breath.

I knew what he was trying to say, but I couldn't help my mind going straight into the gutter when I heard his ambiguous words. I got so embarrassed that I quickly loosened up my grip on him.

There was a sudden swerve up ahead, and I suddenly found my face smushed up against his back. Our positions got a little intimate. There were just two layers of thin clothing between us, and I was pretty sure that he must have realized my face was burning as if pressed against him.

As expected, we placed first in the race.

The prize turned out to be a dozen packs of beer.

I cracked open a can and raised it toward Asher to celebrate our win.

Racers rarely ever drank. I was particularly bad at holding my alcohol, but since I was a free bird now, I threw my head back and gulped the rest of the contents down.

Things happened right after that.

I felt so dizzy that I stumbled backward, and Asher had to catch me.

Ingrid then exclaimed, "Oh no! Lexy's terrible with alcohol. Can you please bring her back for me, Asher?"

I cocked my head to the side and stared up at him, who was also looking down at me. His eyes were gentle yet entirely focused on me.

"Alright."

His voice sounded heavenly. I could feel my insides melting into a puddle.

Noah used to tell me that I was very unladylike in my behavior. He kept saying that I was only a pretty face who would scare any other men away as soon as I opened my mouth.

For the past few years, I kept burying myself in work, trying to prove that I was worthy. However, the only thing I got in return was Noah's betrayal, time and time again, as he brought home different women who were more "ladylike" than me and showed them off.

It felt like a hundred years had passed since anyone had looked at me so tenderly as if I were the main focus of their attention.

When I finally got down from the bike, I swung my arms around his neck and found myself getting up on my tippy toes to kiss him on the chin.

Asher's face was a little grim as he helped me upstairs with gritted teeth.

I felt dejected and hung my head in self-mockery.

Maybe Asher was really only planning to send me back home and nothing more.

However, just as I struggled to stay on my feet while searching for the keys to my door, taking forever, he suddenly pushed me back against the door and started kissing me passionately.

I don't know why, but it felt as though this wasn't a kiss between two people who had just met less than 12 hours ago and fallen in love at first sight. It felt more like a desperate kiss between someone who had been pining after the other and held back for years until they finally couldn't anymore.

Asher's kisses were hot, passionate, and desperate. Every kiss felt like he wanted to pull me impossibly closer to him until we were merged together in one body.

I could even feel his heart thumping wildly. So, I reciprocated with some tongue action in the kiss.

After a long, breathtaking kiss, Asher suddenly let go of me and looked away, not daring to look me in the eyes anymore. He leaned back against the wall and fought to catch his breath.

"Lexy…"

I was a little tipsy, sure, but I wasn't completely drunk.

My steps felt light as a feather. I went to him, narrowed my eyes, and looked up at him.

Asher was very tall, even taller than Noah, and he had a slim waist, long legs, and very handsome, prominent facial features.

He looked both excited and restrained at the same time, making me drown in the delectable pheromones emanating from his body.

It was obvious that he was having a reaction toward me.

I pinned him back against the wall with my hand and cornered him.

"Asher Princeton, are you getting cold feet now?"

I tiptoed and pecked him on his red, swollen lips again.

Asher's breathing caught in his throat. He then slid his hand into my pocket, grabbed the keys to my home, and opened the door with it. Then, he picked me up from the ground and practically ran into the bedroom with me.

…

It was bright when I finally woke up the next morning. Asher was no longer in bed with me.

He had been at it tirelessly all night without giving me a chance to catch my breath as he stayed hard throughout the night. I was so tired out that I'd slept through the morning and only woke up late in the afternoon.

I forced my aching body to crawl out of bed and shuffled out of the bedroom. At once, I could smell something delicious from the kitchen.

There was some stew still bubbling very gently in a pot on the stove. I also found a plate of food in the oven, still warm and toasty, with some of my favorite ingredients in the cooking.

The kitchen had been cleaned and dusted, though showing signs of use.

Asher must have had quite a hard time trying to find something decent to cook in this lacking kitchen and pantry of mine. Yet, he still pulled through.

I sat down and served myself a bowl of stew.

With some hot food in it, my stomach started feeling less uncomfortable, especially after I had drunk the beer on an empty stomach yesterday. However, the hot steam from the stew seemed to have entered my eyes, and I found them welling up with tears.

I lowered my head and took a bite of the piping hot stew, letting my tears plop into the bowl.

In the past, Noah made fun of me for being a clumsy oaf in the kitchen and not knowing how to be a good wife. In fact, he often attributed his going out and seeking other women to my failure to act like a proper lady.

This had been nothing but a one-night stand, and yet, I felt more coddled and taken care of than I'd ever been.

After resting at home for another day, I finally figured that I'd regained most of my energy back and decided to settle some of my official things.

As the manager and star racer of Noah's racing club, I had given all of myself to the club, including my time and energy, for the past few years.

Now that I was finally divorced, I didn't want to have anything more to do with Noah, and I planned to resign from my position there. I would go over and complete the handover process officially.

I changed into a set of clothes and set off for the club.

I pushed open the door to the office and saw Noah and his other disgusting friends there.

The atmosphere tensed when they caught sight of me. After a brief moment of silence, someone suddenly laughed and said, "Look, Mr. Lloyd. Lexy's come back to you after all. I told you—"

Someone immediately interrupted him and said, "It's good that she's back. Let's just forget about what happened. She'd been hospitalized for a whole month, so it must have been hard on her. Don't you think so, Mr. Lloyd?"

Noah's eyes were grim and dark. There was even a hint of ridicule in them.

He looked at me disdainfully and said with a dark chuckle, "Are you finally regretting it now, Lexy Jameson? Don't you think it's too late?"

It had only been two or three days since I had the last straw and gave up on him, divorced him, and now stood before him again. Yet, to me, he felt like a stranger now.

Was this really the person I'd been in love with for the past six years?

Suddenly, I found it disgusting yet hilarious at the same time.

I had no idea what spell I'd cast upon myself to put up with someone like him for six whole years.

"Mr. Lloyds, I'm only here to send in my resignation. From today onward, I will no longer be working for the racing club and no longer hold any position within."

I placed a notebook on the table before him.

"I've listed down all my job scope and tasks here. You can get someone to take over from me. Call me if there's anything you need help with, but I will only answer questions and queries that are directly related to work."

Noah's face remained dark and thunderous. He replied in an icy, arrogant tone, "The contract you signed with us is a ten-year contract. Have you not read about the penalty you'd have to pay if you terminated it early?"

I remained stoic. "I have, but the terms stated that the penalty only applies if the club never broke any rules or racing ethics."

Noah frowned briefly.

Just then, someone glanced at their phone and exclaimed, "Mr Lloyd! About the qualifying race last time… The organizers have released an official statement and corrected the list of winners. They… They also banned Quincy from racing for the next three years!"

Before going to the club, I had made a report and submitted all of the relevant proof to the organizers as needed.

Since this wasn't the first time I was dealing with them, they took my report very seriously and launched an investigation at once.

When I finally heard of their decision, it felt as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I sighed in relief.

Not wanting to get involved in Noah's matters anymore, I turned to leave.

I went down the long corridor and could still hear Noah angrily breaking and smashing things up in the office.

"How dare she… That shameless bitch! Get out! Get out of here!"

I went to the bathroom before leaving the club. Just as I came up, I saw a woman clutching the edges of the sink as she dry-retched into it.

I was just about to go over to her and ask if she was okay when she suddenly looked up at me through the mirror. It was Quincy.

No wonder I hadn't seen her in the office just now.

When she caught sight of me, she carefully stood up straight. She followed my line of sight to her slightly bulging tummy and said in a mocking tone, "That's right, I'm pregnant."

I answered emotionlessly, "Congrats."

Quincy then stared at my stomach for a while and suddenly burst into laughter.

"I mean, that's the most you could do, anyway, to congratulate me. Mr. Lloyd has never slept with you for the past two years, has he? That makes sense. You're so unladylike—of course you'd never know how to act like a lady with men. Nobody would ever like you like this!"

She paused for a moment and continued, "Oh, and by the way, Noah's mom called you a failure of a woman for not even being able to fulfil the least requirements of being one. She said you were like a hen who didn't know how to lay any eggs!"

Noah and I had been sleeping separately for two years. We hadn't functioned like an actual married couple for a long time.

At first, it was because the racing club was still in its initial stages, and I thought of helping him establish it by focusing on improving the club's reputation. That was why I never brought up the topic of children with him.

In the end, Noah started getting sick of me and nitpicked me in every single way. Eventually, he stopped interacting with me even if we came home together, which was already rare in itself.

It had only been a few days, and yet, Noah's mom, Rosie Hampton, had already been so accepting of Quincy, the mistress in our relationship. I guess I had wasted all of my time and effort on Noah and his family.

Although he and I were already divorced, what Quincy said still left a bad taste in my mouth. I just chuckled at myself deprecatingly.

Suddenly, my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw that it was an unknown number calling me.

"Hello?"

I immediately recognized Asher's voice on the other end of the line. I guessed he must have gotten my number from Ingrid.

"I'm outside your racing club. Wanna have dinner with me?"

I didn't purposely cover the speakers to hide the call from Quincy. But judging by her facial expression, I bet she heard it, too.

Suddenly, I felt myself perk up.

"Okay. Wait for me."

I looked at Quincy, nodded at her, and said, "All the best with your eggs, you egg-laying hen!"

Quincy was so mad that her face turned purple with rage.

I couldn't be bothered about her reaction. I slid right past her out of the bathroom, flung my backpack behind me, and strode determinedly out of the door.

As expected, I saw the black Bentley Asher sent me home with last time. It was parked in a quiet and secluded corner outside the club.

I was just about to get into the front passenger seat when the backseat door opened, and a large hand pulled me in. I fell against the plush leather seats and immediately, I was welcomed by a flurry of heated kisses all over my body.

I could literally smell Asher's raging hormones in the air.

He kissed me long and hard, focusing on every microreaction of mine, treating me as if I was the only person he had ever had his eyes on in the whole wide world.

"I missed you. I missed you so much," Asher said, breathing erratically against my face as he sucked on my earlobes and collarbones. He also kept muttering soft nothings in my ear the whole time.

We had actually only been apart for a day.

However, Asher's emotions quickly strung me along, and I was immediately enveloped by his fiery passion.

We were a tangle of limbs in the cramped backseat, our bodies pressed closed together.

He buried his face in my shoulder and held me tightly in his arms.

"Lexy, what should I do if I've fallen in love with you at first sight?"

I didn't quite believe in love at first sight. However, I did believe in love at first fuck.

Asher made it seem as though there was no other woman for him except me, and I liked it very much. In fact, I even found myself thanking Noah for distancing himself from me and treating me like trash because I wouldn't have met Asher otherwise.

"Asher…"

I slithered my arms around his waist and started groping his muscles, slowly sliding my hand dangerously lower.

I was toying with danger, and I knew it.

Memories from that half-drunken one-night stand immediately flooded my mind as my body started reacting naturally to him.

Suddenly, sounds of footsteps appeared outside the car, and it quickly snapped me out of my reverie. I recalled that Noah's car seemed to have been parked somewhere nearby.

Noah wasn't the only one talking toward me—even the other people I'd seen in the office were also with him, and they were all heading toward my direction.

I recalled Noah justifying not sexually touching me for years because I was too unladylike and, therefore, undesirable to men.

However, right at this moment, Asher was looking at me with such intensity in his eyes that I believed he could only see me and nobody else around us.

I teared up and bit Asher lightly on the earlobe. "Asher, I'm just a clumsy oaf who doesn't know how to cook, clean, or care for other people. Why do you still want me?"

Asher lowered his head and kissed me, stroking my hair and tucking it behind my ears. He made me feel like a precious jewel he cherished with all his heart.

"I can just hire a maid to do all the cooking and cleaning for us. However, you're a woman that I'm in love with, and no money or compensation in the world could ever amount to you. I will go crazy even if I don't see you for just a single day…"

We continued making love in the backseat of his car. He teased me so much that I cried out in bliss with tears running down my eyes.

"Asher… A-Asher… Ah!"

Noah and the others could recognize my voice from a mile away.

"Wait, is that Lexy's voice I hear?"

"It does sound like her…"

Noah's face turned black. He stopped in his tracks for a bit before starting to head toward us.