My Clingy CEO Husband

###Chapter 75: The Late-Night Harassment Text

The moment he heard the name "Maxine Rhodes," Ethan Hawthorne, who had been about to leave, stopped dead in his tracks.

He turned back, his gaze as sharp as a knife. "Passing the buck?"

Ethan Hawthorne’s voice dripped with ridicule. "Lydia Thorne, are you insulting my intelligence, or are you insulting hers?"

He narrowed his eyes, each word landing with crystal clarity. "Also, this is my final warning. Don’t come to Hawthorne Group again. Don’t appear before me with any more excuses. My time is precious, and I don’t want to waste it on someone as delusional as you."

With that, he turned and strode away.

Lydia Thorne returned to The Sterlings, utterly dejected. Facing Benjamin Sterling’s anxious questions, she forced herself to rally.

"President Sterling, don’t worry."

She squeezed out a confident smile. "I’ve already established initial contact with Mr. Hawthorne. A man of his status always has to maintain a certain front. It’s impossible to close a deal in one meeting. This was all within my expectations."

She elegantly smoothed her hair, affecting a profound air. "Besides, a partnership of this caliber requires patience and strategy. I’ve already left a deep impression on him. The next step is to wait for the right moment for another round of talks."

Benjamin Sterling was skeptical, but seeing Lydia Thorne’s confident appearance, coupled with the connections she had previously boasted about, he chose to believe her for the time being.

That evening, when Maxine Rhodes got home, she found Ethan Hawthorne was already back, sitting on the sofa and reading through some documents.

She put down her bag, took off her coat, and casually sat on the sofa opposite him. Recalling how her colleagues had been gossiping that afternoon about Lydia Thorne going to Hawthorne Group, she mentioned it offhandedly, "I heard Vice President Thorne went to Hawthorne Group to see you today?"

Ethan Hawthorne looked up from his documents, the warm light catching in his eyes and scattering into a faint smile. "Then why don’t you guess what she said to me?"

Maxine Rhodes predicted with pinpoint accuracy, "It was probably nothing more than her trying her best to show her sincerity. After you rejected the proposal, she might have even tried to pass the buck, implying that the core concept of the proposal was my work."

The smile on Ethan Hawthorne’s lips deepened, his eyes a mix of admiration and doting affection. "My Maxi, how did you get to be so smart?"

Hearing him call her "my Maxi," a blush crept up the back of Maxine’s ears.

Ethan Hawthorne paused, his expression turning serious. "But speaking of the Celestia project, I do want to have a proper talk with you."

"Hm?" Maxine Rhodes raised a slight eyebrow, meeting his gaze. "Mr. Hawthorne isn’t thinking of using his authority to open a back door for me, is he?"

"Not a back door."

"I’ve reviewed all of your previous public cases. From market positioning to creative execution, every single detail is flawless. What Celestia needs to reignite its spark is precisely your kind of deep-seated understanding of a brand and your unconventional imagination."

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze intense. "This invitation has nothing to do with your status as Mrs. Hawthorne. It’s simply because Maxine Rhodes is, herself, exceptionally talented. Of course, the process will be completely fair. Your proposal will have to win the approval of every member of the board."

Maxine Rhodes looked at the unreserved admiration and trust in his eyes. It was the highest affirmation of her personal worth.

A confident and dazzling curve formed on her lips. "Alright. In that case, I definitely won’t disappoint Mr. Hawthorne’s expectations."

Just as she finished speaking, Ethan Hawthorne’s phone chimed with a text message notification. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He glanced down, his brow immediately furrowing in displeasure. He then looked up at her, a hint of grievance in his tone. "Mrs. Hawthorne, if someone were to send your husband this kind of harassing text in the middle of the night,"

He turned the phone screen toward her. "Wouldn’t you be obligated to help me handle it?"

Maxine Rhodes paused, then stepped forward as requested, her eyes falling on the screen.

After seeing the explicit content, she raised an eyebrow, her tone unreadable. "Oh? So passionate and unrestrained, are we?"

Ethan Hawthorne took the opportunity to lean closer, his warm breath brushing almost imperceptibly against her ear. He lowered his voice, a hint of coaxing and undeniable command in it. "So, I’ll have to trouble Mrs. Hawthorne to handle this for me."

Meanwhile, after Lydia Thorne got home, the frustration from being rebuffed by Ethan Hawthorne didn’t dissipate. Instead, it fermented in the quiet of the night into a more obsessive thought.

’What’s one rejection? A man in his position has seen every kind of woman there is.’

’The more stoic and restrained he seems on the surface, the more he must crave someone to break the rules! As long as I’m bold enough, and persistent enough, I can definitely crack that icy exterior of his!’

Driven by this twisted logic, she leveraged the connections she had built up over many years. After much difficulty, she finally managed to get what was supposedly Ethan Hawthorne’s private cell phone number.

At eleven o’clock at night, she carefully crafted her words and sent the text message.

"Ethan, long nights can be so lonely, don’t you think? My bed is big and soft, and the temperature is just right. It’s just missing a powerful master like you. My nightgown is black lace. Is that a style you like? Or... would you rather unwrap it yourself? I even have a whip ready, waiting for you to come and inspect my work~ —Lydia"

Maxine Rhodes looked at the explicit message, raised an eyebrow, and waved the phone at Ethan Hawthorne beside her. "Black lace? A little whip? Vice President Thorne has really gone to great lengths for you. So full of fiery passion."

She deliberately dragged out her words, her tone dangerously sweet. "So that’s what you’re into?"

Ethan Hawthorne immediately threw up his hands in surrender. "I’m definitely not."

He leaned in, his warm breath tickling her ear, his voice low and impossibly sexy. "Compared to all that... I prefer nothing at all."

Maxine’s ears flushed, and she gave him a light, chiding tap. "Pervert!"

With that, she took the phone, her fingers flying across the screen as she typed: "Sorry, my husband just finished a big meal. Right now, he’s sprawled across my lap begging for dessert, so he’s a bit preoccupied. As for the black lace... I suggest you change into a turtleneck sweater to stay warm. After all, the nights are windy, the weather is cold, and the time is long when you’re all alone in an empty room."

She hit send.

She shoved the phone back into Ethan Hawthorne’s hands, tilting her chin up slightly, a trace of smug triumph and provocation in her eyes. "Are you satisfied with how I handled that?"

Ethan Hawthorne stared at the reply on the screen—a message that was both intensely suggestive and overflowing with dominance. The phrases "my husband just finished a big meal" and "sprawled across my lap" in particular were so hot they made his Adam’s apple bob unconsciously, instantly igniting the flame in his heart.

He shot out a long arm, wrapped it around her slender waist, and pulled her toward him. "You handled it perfectly. So perfectly that I feel like it would be a disservice to Mrs. Hawthorne’s brilliant counterattack if I didn’t immediately play my part."

His deep voice was thick with an uncontainable smile, the pad of his thumb caressing the delicate skin of her lower back. "So, shouldn’t I be sprawling all over you right now and making that accusation about begging for dessert a reality?"*****