Chapter Ninety-Five: Absolute Occupation

“Do you want to touch and see?”

Shen Yanlie cut her off before Mai Xijun could finish. One brow lifted slightly, his handsome almond eyes full of teasing as he looked at her. He took her wrist and slowly guided her hand toward the place beneath him.

“It knows you. Every time it sees you, it gets very lively,” he said at last, still not changing expression.

At his words, Mai Xijun’s hand suddenly tightened. Her fingers curled into a small fist.

“What is it? Are you scared?” Shen Yanlie laughed softly, his tone mocking. Lowering his head a little, he could only see the two brushlike fans of her lashes and her tightly pressed lips, which betrayed her nerves.

And yet he rather liked her like this, with a hint of shyness, carrying a trace of allure and seductive charm, though in truth she was still terribly inexperienced.

“What’s there to touch? Aren’t men all the same there anyway…” Mai Xijun blurted out in a moment of complete brainless impulse. The instant she said it, she was stunned even by herself. With a sincere, embarrassed laugh, she added, “You do it yourself.”

As she spoke, she took hold of Shen Yanlie’s wrist again and forced his hand little by little downward. But through every movement, she never once looked at his face. This man was far too wicked, far too devious. She had to rein him in, or who knew what would become of him.

If you pamper him, spoil him, indulge him, tolerate him, and let him run wild, then just wait and see: before long, he would be pushing his luck and climbing all over her.

Mai Xijun’s heart was pounding wildly, yet her gaze remained unfocused, unable to settle. After all, staring directly at some man’s most intimate place was hardly something she was brave enough to do… Even with air and cloth in between, even without any naked candor, her mind still could not help wandering into disgraceful territory.

“You, you… just have fun by yourself. I’m going out for a moment. I have something to do…” Mai Xijun stammered, letting go of Shen Yanlie’s hand.

Good heavens, that sweat pouring off her. “You do it yourself”... do what, exactly? She had only meant to tell him, in the gentlest way, that since he was ill, he should rest quietly and properly. Yet a perfectly innocent sentence had turned obscene in this moment.

“This is one thing I really can’t do by myself. Come here, baby. Kiss me~”

With that, Shen Yanlie yanked Mai Xijun’s arm toward him. The words had barely left his mouth when his other hand came up to cradle her face. Everything happened in one smooth motion. His soft lips met hers, gentle at first, then gradually and dominantly devouring, demanding, consuming.

She worried for him. He had no idea how tense she had been after taking his temperature, her concern nearly exposing every feeling she held for him. Back then she had known only worry, abandoning all caution and hesitation, rushing downstairs and heading straight for the nearest pharmacy.

But now he was full of life, vigorous and lively, a little endearing and a little clingy. Though the word endearing had no business fitting him at all, the way he called her baby was truly adorable and intoxicating beyond measure. It was so sweet it felt as though honey had been poured straight into the heart.

“You’re still sick. Don’t give it to me…” Mai Xijun teased the moment Shen Yanlie finally lifted his mouth from hers. There was a thick smile at the corners of her lips, though she already knew there was no taking any of this back now. His body’s urgent arousal made it impossible for him to stop again.

It had only been a few days apart. Only a few days without the scent of her lingering around him. And yet he found himself wanting her with such inexplicable intensity. He had always been certain of his self-control, never doubting it in the slightest, but with her he lost all measure.

“Forget it. Even if I have to die, I’m doing this with you.”

And with that, he kissed her again, this time on lips already swollen and red from his kisses.

Too obsessed. So obsessed it went clear to the bone. He wanted only this moment, only to hold her tightly in his arms and merge her into his very marrow. Everything about this was far too beautiful. The feeling she gave him was too irresistible to endure.

Shen Yanlie locked his arm around Mai Xijun’s waist and kissed her while pressing her step by step backward. One heel slipped; Mai Xijun’s other foot struck the bed frame. She had meant to steady herself by gripping his shoulder, but instead her arm looped around his neck, and the two of them fell together onto the bed.

Shen Yanlie’s laughter rang in Mai Xijun’s ears. She stiffened, and what little grace she had left vanished in an instant. This awful man. “What are you laughing at?”

Mai Xijun was irritated, but with Shen Yanlie’s whole body pinning hers down, she could not move at all. If she could, she would certainly have given him a proper lesson.

“Little Wheat, you’re really getting to understand me. You’re becoming more and more considerate of the mood,” Shen Yanlie said, lifting himself slightly on his arms to look down at her. Mai Xijun’s face flushed red again in a flash, like a ripe peach.

“What?”

She deliberately feigned ignorance, though in truth she really did not understand.

“Rare for you to be this主动 the first time,” Shen Yanlie said, amusement glimmering in his eyes as he deliberately twisted her intent.

Mai Xijun’s face darkened. “Shen Yanlie, could you not be so shameless?”

She almost wanted to howl, but in this unclear, intimate atmosphere, her momentum was weakened all the same.

Shen Yanlie said nothing more. With the pad of his thumb, he gently stroked her cheek. Thick, overflowing affection began to gather around them, boundless and reckless.

“Let’s go traveling. To every place you want to see.”

His voice was calm, steady in tone, no longer wild with arrogance, no longer savage or sinister. So it turned out that beneath his bones he had always been a man overflowing with tenderness. She should have known this long ago. She should have known it the night he, while she was drunk, seemed harshly to seize her hair, yet still lowered his lips in a lingering, gentle kiss.

A scorching breath. A hint of intimacy. It flowed between them.

Mai Xijun’s eyes shone like stars, finding their focus for Shen Yanlie in the dark night. She was like a lighthouse in the darkness, bringing a faint, radiant brilliance to his dim and obscured life. Enough to overturn him completely. Enough to turn his entire future upside down.

“As long as you want it, I’ll go with you to the ends of the earth.”

There was unusual firmness in Mai Xijun’s words, and with it her conviction. She was a woman with faith, just like the name he had once used for himself: Destiny.

Destiny: the meaning of fate. In the meetings arranged by fate, in coming to know and understand one another, they would follow the course of destiny and move toward each other with earnest effort.

Now she would try to draw closer to him, to love him, to care for him with all her heart, just as he had done for her. He had opened his heart to her, opened his arms to her, and offered her all his tenderness, giving her every softness he possessed. She would remember it all, remember every good thing about him. And in return, she would surely answer him with twice the love.

Born lonely and bereft, having tasted every chill and warmth this world could offer, he had opened himself to her so completely. She wanted to say that she was willing. Willing to place him deep in the softest place in a woman’s heart. She would love him with everything she had, using her tenderness to the bone to answer his soaring and unrestrained spirit.

“I’ll remember that. From this moment on, Mai Xijun, I allow you to like me. I’m giving you permission to manage me, including...” The corner of Shen Yanlie’s mouth curved with a wicked, seductive smile. “Whenever you want me, just open your mouth, and I’ll give myself to you right away.”

Good grief.

After hearing Shen Yanlie’s words, Mai Xijun could only feel those two words in response. Damn it all. Every time she tried to say something moving and beautiful to him, it fell apart, because there was always a difference between men and women.

Perhaps when a woman says, I love you most when you are serious. It is so handsome.

But a man would never answer in that way. Take Shen Yanlie, for instance. He would absolutely say, I love most the look on your face when you’re enjoying the pleasure I give you in bed.

That. That was absolutely the greatest difference between men and women, and an insurmountable one at that.

Shen Yanlie smiled and pressed a kiss to Mai Xijun’s lips. This woman was far too tempting. Whether it was her smooth, delicate skin, the tightness of the most intimate folds of her body, or her cool, proud, refreshing temperament, everything about her made him unable to stop wanting more.

Yet he still remembered his original intention in drawing near to her. Thinking of that, his heart still trembled. Yes, at the beginning he had only wanted to take back his necklace. Nothing more. And now, step by step, he was sinking deeper and deeper. She was like a marsh, and he had fallen in without a single complaint. There was no way back for him now. No road left to turn onto either.

“Don’t talk anymore. Let me love you properly.”

Shen Yanlie spoke before she could, cutting off Mai Xijun’s words. At that moment, she must have felt utterly useless, turned into a little mute, forced to be led by him through everything. She was being controlled by him so easily.

He began to invade inch by inch, in measure after measure. His kisses were delicate, lingering, and long, as if carrying endless attachment, each step sinking deeper into the marrow and carving itself into the darkest depths of memory.

Everything between them still felt unfinished, as though it would never be enough.

Because the fever had only just broken, his body was no longer burning hot like a furnace. Instead, it held a faint coolness.

In the dark of night, every gentle movement of his was a gathering force for what was to come.

Mai Xijun stared with wide eyes, as if she meant to carve his image deeply into her soul. Even if it were to wear through bone and tear apart her gut, she did not want to forget him.

With the rise and fall of his movements, his pace quickened and quickened. She could no longer suppress the soft sounds that escaped her lips. Even while fully conscious, her gaze never left him. And he, in the darkness, watched her the same way. Just as it had been on that night in Venice, when he learned she was a virgin, her very first time. Suddenly, he had wanted only one thing: to remember that instant forever, to remember this feeling, to take in every line of her face and see it clearly.

And on this night, he was utterly domineering, occupying her, lingering with her in endless, tireless tenderness, leading her up to the highest peak, to gaze upon the most beautiful clouds in all the three realms.

A bone-deep ecstasy.