The beauty laughed out loud. “So that means you’re an Alpha?”
“Yes.” Li Zhao answered earnestly, slipping into blind-date mode without realizing it. “My pheromone level is A-grade, cedar-scented, and I’ll be 30 next year.”
He really had gotten used to blind dates, after finishing his self-introduction, Li Zhao quietly waited for the beauty to speak. But the beauty only smiled, then crooked a finger at him.
“Come here.”
Li Zhao froze, wondering if he’d drunk too much and was hearing things. After all, based on his experience with blind dates, their current distance was already quite close.
Seeing Li Zhao sitting there dumbly without moving, the beauty crooked his finger again and said with a smile, “Didn’t you say I’m the most beautiful Omega? Then come over and smell my pheromones, see if you like them.”
“…”
Li Zhao heard the sound of his last shred of sanity instantly crumbling to dust.
In a daze, giddily floating, he moved from his seat to the beauty’s side, then sat up even straighter than before.
By now, the two of them were as close as close could get. Even with his arms tucked in, Li Zhao could feel his elbow faintly brushing against the beauty’s arm.
Li Zhao jolted, hunching his shoulders and tucking his arm in even further.
The beauty took a sip of wine, then set the stemmed glass down on the glass coffee table in front of him.
As he set down the glass, the beauty’s arm brushed against Li Zhao’s once more. Even through two layers of clothing, Li Zhao’s body tensed up instantly as if electrified.
“You seem nervous,” the beauty said softly, leaning in with boneless grace, his shoulder rubbing against Li Zhao’s. “Don’t come to bars often?”
“Mm.” Li Zhao’s head was spinning; his brain had completely lost the ability to think, leaving only instinctive answers. “First time here today.”
“The way you bought me a drink just now doesn’t look like a first-timer at striking up conversations,” the beauty said reproachfully.
“It really is my first time!” Li Zhao grew anxious and hurried to explain. “I’ve never done anything like this before. Today it’s… it’s because I saw you, that I…”
Though a bit drunk, Li Zhao was still an educated man who cared about his dignity. He was too embarrassed to admit he’d been moved purely by lust that he was a member of the looks-appreciation society. He opened his mouth and stammered over the word “that I…” for a long while, unable to think of anything else to explain.
The beauty smiled, resting his hand on Li Zhao’s shoulder, then laying his chin on the back of his own hand, his lips drawing near Li Zhao’s ear. “Relax, I was just teasing you. Don’t be so nervous.”
“…”
The sudden closeness only made Li Zhao more nervous. He could even feel the beauty’s orchid-sweet breath pulsing rhythmically against his cheek with each exhale.
Li Zhao grew even stiffer.
“Come, take a whiff of my pheromones,” the beauty’s voice was full of allure. “See if you like them.”
“Come on.”
Li Zhao’s soul had long since been completely hooked away by the beauty. Now he was like an obedient puppet, turning his head to meet the beauty’s gaze.
At such close range, Li Zhao could clearly see the beauty’s long, distinct lashes, his deep black pupils, and his flawless, pristine skin.
Li Zhao’s heart beat faster and faster. He sniffed, tentatively trying to catch the scent of the beauty’s pheromones.
He really did want to know. Very much.
“Can you smell it like that? You need to get close to the back of my neck.”
The beauty said this, tilting his face to one side and baring the back of his neck to Li Zhao.
Li Zhao’s mind went completely blank. All he could see was a stretch of the beauty’s slender nape, with slightly long hair tips faintly veiling the edge of his gland, a kind of alluring coyness, inviting yet withholding.
He wanted to smell it. He wanted to bite it.
Li Zhao was startled by the thought that had suddenly popped into his head, and quickly pressed himself back into the sofa cushions, keeping his dangerous mouth as far away from the beauty’s gland as possible.
The beauty probably noticed Li Zhao’s sudden retreat, and sat up to ask, “Does it smell good?”
“…Mm, it smells good.”
The beauty laughed. “Smelled something, did you? Enough to call it good.”
“…”
“Dummy.”
The beauty shot Li Zhao a reproachful glance, then raised a hand to summon the waiter.
“Two Romantic Explosions, two Eternal Heartbeats.”
“Very good, sir.”
The waiter soon arrived with a tray. This time, besides the two pale blue drinks from before, the other two were dark red, looking rather like blood.
Li Zhao, dizzy and hazy, watched as the beauty held his hand, lifting the half-finished Romantic Explosion to his lips, the rim of the transparent glass pressing against his lips, flushed crimson from the alcohol raising his body temperature.
“Finish it,” the beauty commanded. “I like you better when you’re more drunk.”
Li Zhao’s brain was nearly shut down; the beauty’s words felt like pure seduction. He didn’t understand why the beauty would like him more drunk, but since the beauty said so, what reason did he, an Alpha, have to refuse? He simply opened his mouth and downed the remaining half of the glass in one go.
After finishing that half glass, Li Zhao was basically blacked out.
He didn’t remember how, under the beauty’s coaxing and enticement, he drank down the remaining two strong cocktails, but he was grateful that being drunk had only left him flushed and lightheaded, without doing anything more embarrassing or humiliating.
In a daze, a slightly cool night breeze swept past, blowing away the heavy scent of alcohol and bringing Li Zhao a brief moment of clarity.
He blinked hard and realized that at some point he had left the bar and was now standing on the sidewalk outside.
Beside him, a tall, powerfully built man was supporting him, keeping him from falling. Looking straight ahead from his eye level, he found himself staring right at the man’s prominent Adam’s apple.
?
Doubt rose in Li Zhao’s heart. Where’s my gorgeous beauty? Where did my big beautiful beauty go?
As he looked around wildly, a familiar voice came from above his head.
“What are you looking for?”
It was the beauty’s lovely voice!
Li Zhao looked up and there before his eyes was his big beautiful beauty!
Li Zhao’s brain went blank again, unable to process how the delicate, gorgeous beauty had suddenly turned into someone taller and stronger than even him, an Alpha… an extra-large beauty.
By all logic, at 180 centimeters, he as an Alpha couldn’t be considered short, so how was it that the Omega he’d set his sights on was a whole head taller than him?
“You’re… you’re so tall,” Li Zhao blurted out, without thinking.
The beauty smiled and said lightly, “Yes, I ate well growing up.”
Li Zhao thought to himself: indeed, and then some.
“Where are you going?” the beauty asked.
Li Zhao was about to say home when the beauty asked, “Want to go to a hotel?”
A h-hotel!!! Li Zhao bit down on his own tongue.
“Hss… that hurts…”
“Does it hurt?” The beauty leaned in, gazing at Li Zhao with a suggestive look. “It doesn’t hurt, does it? It should feel good.”
“…” Li Zhao’s cheeks flushed crimson. He quickly stuck out the tip of his tongue and, slurring his words, tried to explain to the beauty, “Oh, that’s not what I meant. Oh, I accidentally bit my tongue. My tongue hurths…”
“I see,” the beauty said, his gaze shifting from Li Zhao’s face to that small, red tongue tip. “Then how about I lick it for you? Saliva can disinfect, you know.”
!
Li Zhao snapped his tongue back into his mouth so fast that the rush of cool air nearly made him sneeze.
“N-no, that’s alright. It’ll be fine in a moment.”
The beauty straightened up, looking down at Li Zhao with a smiling gaze.
An amorous atmosphere spread between the two of them, and the evening breeze gradually cleared Li Zhao’s muddled mind.
Although he wanted to, considering that he and the beauty had only met for the first time tonight and things shouldn’t move so fast, Li Zhao decided to offer to see the beauty home.
Just as he was about to speak, the sound of a car pulling up and a honking greeting suddenly came from behind them. Li Zhao turned to look and saw a taxi stopped on the road behind them.
The driver rolled down the window and asked the two of them, “Excuse me, which of you is Mr. Ouyang? The car he called has arrived.”
“That’s me,” the beauty replied.
Hearing this, Li Zhao hurriedly stepped forward and gallantly opened the car door for the beauty.
The beauty walked to the door and stopped, reached out to tug at the hem of Li Zhao’s shirt, and looked at him with eyes full of allure, asking gently, “Are you sure you don’t want to?”
That tug, that look, and that question, it was like the first domino being pushed over. In just a few seconds, they toppled the entire fortress of reason Li Zhao had painstakingly built, plunging him back into that drunken haze.
A smile from a beauty was worth a thousand gold. Li Zhao felt he was beginning to understand King Zhou of Shang, King You of Zhou, and various other kings.
And so, as if possessed, Li Zhao nodded. By the time he came back to his senses, he was already sitting inside the taxi.
In the enclosed cabin, without the night breeze, Li Zhao quickly sank back into that tipsy state, dizzily blacking out.
In a daze, the car stopped. With the beauty supporting him, Li Zhao got out and walked into the hotel.
The beauty handled all the check-in arrangements. Li Zhao felt as if he’d fallen asleep, and it wasn’t until his back hit something hard that he slowly came to.
“Baby, you’re awake?”
Li Zhao forced his eyes open and saw the beauty’s face inches from his own, and those smiling, affectionate eyes.
“We’re at the hotel?” Li Zhao asked.
“Mm,” the beauty said. “You have one last chance to back out right now. Do you want to use it?”
Having said this, the beauty fixed his burning gaze on Li Zhao, waiting for his answer.
Li Zhao didn’t know if it was because he was too drunk, but he distinctly saw provocation in the beauty’s eyes rather than seduction.
The combative nature buried deep in every Alpha’s bones was thoroughly ignited. A knife hangs above the head of lust but they were already inside the hotel, and slinking back out would be far too pathetic. The liquor emboldened Li Zhao, and he decided to go a little crazy for the sake of love at first sight. This beautiful Omega was his, and he was determined to have him!
After bravely making this decision, Li Zhao reached up and wrapped his arms around the beauty’s neck. Tilting his head up to look at this man who stood a full head taller than him, he asked with the last shred of his rationality, “You… you’re an Omega, right? Just a bit on the tall side, right?”
The beauty carried Li Zhao in from the door of the room, all the way to the bedside. From start to finish, his eyes never left Li Zhao, gazing at him with appreciation and amusement.
Finally, the beauty pressed a hand to Li Zhao’s waist and pushed him down onto the bed, his tall body bearing down on him like a mountain.
“Right,” he said.
Li Zhao fell into the most beautiful dream he had ever known.
An indescribable night…
The next day, when Li Zhao opened his eyes again, his head was splitting with pain.
Between the hangover and the wild night, even lying perfectly still, an entire galaxy seemed to streak across his vision.
For someone as methodical and by-the-book as Li Zhao, this feeling was utterly foreign. He lay there clutching his head for a good ten-plus seconds before he registered where he was.
Memories of the previous night came flooding back in fragments. Too shocked to dwell on them, Li Zhao’s first reaction was to clutch the blanket tightly and carefully turn his head to look at the space beside him.
Empty.
Li Zhao let out a breath of relief, he couldn’t tell whether it was from relaxation or disappointment.
Bracing himself against the bed, he struggled to sit up. The sheet that had been gathered at his chest slipped down, and only then did Li Zhao realize he wasn’t wearing anything on his upper body.
!!!
Well, considering what had happened last night, being undressed was probably normal… Li Zhao consoled himself not to make a fuss, but his hands couldn’t help lifting the sheet to peek underneath.
Good grief nothing on down there either.
Just as Li Zhao was pulling the sheet aside and leaning down to look further, the sound of a door opening suddenly came from inside the suite, followed by footsteps in slippers.
Li Zhao hastily dropped the sheet and sat up straight, but his head was too dizzy and his reactions too slow, the beauty walking out of the bathroom caught sight of his rather indecorous little maneuver.
“Ahem.” Li Zhao cleared his throat, making things worse in his attempt to cover them up, and greeted him with feigned calm. “Morning.”
“Morning.” The beauty smiled and walked straight over to the bed, sitting down on its edge.
He was still wreathed in fresh, clean moisture, his hair damp as if he hadn’t bothered with a hairdryer. Worst of all, the only thing he wore was a bath towel so short it could barely be called one, leaving his lean, muscular torso and powerful thighs entirely on display.