"Boss, are you sure this outfit won't come out of next month's pay?"
Jessica tugged at her tightly tailored black evening gown with its plunging neckline. Looking thoroughly uncomfortable in her four-inch heels, she walked like a duckling taking its first steps.
Yang Ming kept both hands in the pockets of his bespoke Armani suit and nudged his gold-rimmed glasses up his nose.
"Have some ambition. It's called an employee benefit. Stark's paying, so you might as well wear it." Yang Ming shot her a sideways glance. "But if you keep tugging and tear it, you're paying the full price. I'll deduct it from your wages."
Jessica froze. Her hands instantly dropped to her sides, and even her breathing became cautious.
Saturday evening, Flushing Meadows Park, New York.
The Stark Expo's main venue blazed with lights and buzzed with voices. Nearly every politician, tycoon, and celebrity in the United States had crowded onto this prime patch of real estate.
The moment Yang Ming entered with his peculiarly imposing entourage, countless eyes turned their way.
Yang Ming was handsome and refined, his composed demeanor carrying a hint of calculating wickedness beneath its polished exterior. Jessica usually neglected her appearance, but with a little dressing up, her wild, hard-edged beauty was striking. Retsu Unohana wore a dark green qipao with a high slit, her gentle elegance as soothing as a spring breeze.
But the most eye-catching of all were the siblings from Asgard.
Thor wore a custom suit that his granite-like muscles threatened to burst apart. With his blond hair slicked back, he was practically a walking testosterone factory. Loki wore a stunning backless evening gown, proud and coldly beautiful, like a black swan surveying her territory.
Except this black swan currently had "Don't mess with me" written all over her face.