RUTHLESS TEMPTATION || MEANIE/MINWON

Chapter One

The suit was conservative, gray, and boring.

Jeon Wonwoo eyed his reflection in the mirror with a disappointed frown. He looked...fine, but the suit didn't achieve the effect he had hoped for: he didn't look older.

Maybe it had been too much to hope for.

Sighing, Wonwoo ran a hand over his smooth jaw, wishing he had some manly scruff to hide his baby face. He was twenty-three, for God's sake. It was embarrassing that most people didn't believe he was of drinking age and he had to have his ID on him at all times. Wonwoo blamed his ridiculous mouth: because of his full upper lip his face seemed set in a perpetual pout. It made him look very young, and while normally it wasn't a problem, it was a pain in the ass to look like a sixteen-year-old when one had to attend an important business meeting. Not that he attended all that many important business meetings.

Wonwoo smiled grimly at his reflection and squared his shoulders. Well, that was about to change. He was going to prove to his father that he could be trusted with the important stuff. Sure, his father was going to be furious when he found out, but this chance was too good to let it slip through his fingers. He wouldn't get a chance like this again. Normally back in England his dad kept him on a short leash, watching him like a hawk. Wonwoo would have liked to think that the reason for this was his dad's over-protectiveness, but he wasn't delusional: Jeon Taesoo simply didn't trust his son. Wonwoo tried not to take it too personally —Jeon Taesoo trusted no one—but it was time to change that. He hadn't graduated with honors from Oxford only to spend his life being a pretty face for his father's marketing campaigns. Wonwoo had always hated it, but he was downright sick of it after the last two months he had spent in Moscow, attending meaningless events in his father's stead for the Russian branch of Jeon Industries.

The email Wonwoo had received a few days ago was a welcome break from the mindnumbing routine he'd grown accustomed to. Well, technically, the message wasn't for him. If Wonwoo hadn't been in Moscow, his father's people would have simply forwarded it to the main office in London where his father currently was. Strictly speaking, Wonwoo was supposed to do the same instead of reading it, but he had been bored and restless and the message had intrigued him.

Taesoo,

My secretary seems to be having trouble getting through to you. She informs me she's been unable to reach you. I told her you were a busy man. But I'm a busy man, too. I'm also not a very patient man. We have things to discuss. Saint Petersburg, Feb 21st, 9 p.m., restaurant "Palkin." I expect you to be there. Don't be late. You know how much I hate tardiness. I would hate for our friendship to be ruined over such a small thing.

Looking forward to our meeting,

Kim Mingyu

Wonwoo had read the message several times. Something about it was off. The friendly tone seemed fake. Or was he just imagining that? He didn't think so.

Kim Mingyu. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but Wonwoo couldn't remember where he'd heard it. But the man, whoever he was, must be important enough to be able to assume such a superior tone with Jeon Taesoo. Hell, the guy was practically ordering his father around. Wonwoo had never met anyone who had enough power—and nerve—to do that. Everyone knew Jeon Taesoo wasn't someone to be trifled with. Wonwoo's father was known as the most ruthless, most powerful British billionaire—a billionaire who was rumored to have dealings with the Italian and Russian mafia. Wonwoo wasn't deaf to the rumors about his father; they'd been around all his life, but no one could ever prove anything. Not even he, Taesoo's only son, knew for sure. The fact that the email's sender wasn't at all worried about ramifications despite Taesoo's reputation meant that, whoever that man was, he wasn't someone to be trifled with, either.