Bai Yue pinned her to the bed, her knee wedged between her thighs, and her hands pressing the other person’s wrists above her head. She loomed over her entirely, like a beast that had finally caught its prey.
Jiang Manru lay beneath her, looking up with a smile, the neckline of her nightgown completely thrown open from the earlier tussle. There was not a trace of fear on her face. Instead, she wore a mocking grin.
“Settling accounts?” Jiang Manru spoke, her voice lazy and laced with a hint of hoarseness. “What gives you the right to settle accounts with me?”
Bai Yue raised an eyebrow. “What gives me the right?”
“Go on, tell me,” Jiang Manru looked at her, unhurriedly counterattacking. “What do I owe you?”
Bai Yue leaned down, closing the distance until their breaths mingled, close enough that she could feel the other’s eyelashes nearly brushing against her face.
“Faking your pheromones, pretending to be a good girl to trick me into marriage,” Bai Yue muttered, her voice low, rumbling from deep within her chest.
“Oh?” Jiang Manru tilted her head, her movement carrying a hint of provocation. “How did I trick you?”
“You.”
Before Bai Yue could finish, the person beneath her suddenly moved. The motion was astonishingly fast, a twist of the waist, a shove of the knee, a push of the arm. Before she could react, Bai Yue was flipped aside.
Jiang Manru jumped off the bed, her bare feet stepping onto the floor as she retreated a few steps.
The shoulder strap of her nightgown slipped down her arm, revealing a rounded shoulder and her entire collarbone. Her long hair cascaded loose, a few strands clinging to her sweat-dampened neck.
She leaned against the wall, one hand hanging by her side while the other raised slowly to hook the fallen strap back into place.
Bai Yue’s gaze involuntarily followed those fingers, tracing from her shoulder, across her collarbone, down to her chest, until the thin strap finally settled back where it belonged.
Jiang Manru lifted her eyes to meet Bai Yue’s gaze, the curve of her lips deepening. Her posture was no longer that of a fleeing prey, but rather a hunter standing high above.
“Keep talking,” she said slowly, leisurely. “I’re listening.”
Bai Yue propped herself up, sitting on the edge of the bed as she watched her without moving.
Seeing that she remained silent, Jiang Manru took the offensive.
“From the day of our blind date,” Jiang Manru’s voice was soft, like she was telling a story, “you put on an act in front of me. Acting serious, acting steady, acting like you loved good girls.”
Bai Yue’s brows twitched.
“You sat across from me, dressed up like a respectable human being, saying your ideal partner was as pure as a blank sheet of paper,” Jiang Manru continued, a trace of amusement in her tone. “Do you know what I was thinking back then?”
Bai Yue said nothing.
“I was thinking,” Jiang Manru smiled, her expression extraordinarily vibrant under the moonlight, “this person is such a hypocrite.”
She paused.
“And later? We got married, and you kept up the act. Reluctant to be close to me, acting cautious every time you got near. What were you afraid of? Afraid I’d find out you didn’t want to touch me? Or afraid of being caught?”
She stopped for a moment. Her gaze slid down from Bai Yue’s face, sweeping over her collarbone, her chest, and the arm she used to brace herself against the bed.
“You actually didn’t want a good girl like me to touch you at all, did you?”
Bai Yue stared at her, her eyes burning like two clusters of fire.
Jiang Manru went on, her voice gentle and calm, yet growing clearer by the second.
“If you had told me the truth from the start, admitting you were a wealthy socialite with a chaotic personal life, I wouldn’t have played along with your act at all. But you didn’t. You sat there all solemn and upright, playing the innocent virgin. So what was I supposed to do? I had no choice but to play along with you.”
She spread her hands. Her gesture carried a hint of innocence mixed with craftiness.
“You played your proper Alpha, and I played my obedient Omega. Fair is fair.”
With that, she looked right at Bai Yue.
Bai Yue listened intently to the end. Without any warning, she dove off the bed. One second she was sitting there listening, and the next she lunged forward.
Before Jiang Manru’s smile could even fade, she saw the other person charging at her.
She turned and ran. Her bare feet slapped lightly against the hardwood floor. In two steps she reached the door, but just as her hand touched the knob, an arm wrapped around her waist.
Bai Yue’s arm hooked tightly around her waist, pulling her backward in one smooth motion.
Jiang Manru’s back slammed into a warm body. That body carried the lingering heat from the bed and the familiar scent of agarwood, radiating a leg-weakening pressure.
Before she could react, she was spun around and pinned against the door with a dull thud.
Her back pressed against the cool wooden panel, with Bai Yue trapped in front of her. Their chests were pressed together, and she could feel just how fast the other’s heart was beating.
Jiang Manru tilted her head up, gazing into those eyes inches away. They blazed with an unnameable ferocity and overflowing desire, as if wanting to devour her whole.
Bai Yue rested her hand by the side of Jiang Manru’s head, boxing her in between the door and her own body. Her other hand remained clamped around Jiang Manru’s waist, fingers tightening until she could feel how slender it was beneath the thin fabric of the nightgown.
Looking down at her pinned against the door, Bai Yue saw the fresh marks lingering on her upturned neck. Her chest heaved slightly, and the shoulder strap she had just pulled back up slipped down once more.
At this moment, she finally stopped pretending.
“Running away?” Bai Yue smiled, her voice carrying a hint of danger.
Jiang Manru didn’t speak, just looked back at her. The curve of her lips remained, but her breathing had turned a bit ragged.
“Director Bai’s propriety,” Bai Yue lowered her voice further, articulating each word, “wasn’t that exhausting to keep up?”
“Not as exhausting as President Bai’s uprightness,” she replied softly. Her eyes danced with amusement as she stared straight at Bai Yue, every word rolling off her tongue like a tease. “Acting was hard work.”
Bai Yue stared at those pink, moving lips that kept provoking her, setting her throat on fire.
“Fine. You win,” she asked. “Still want to play?”
Jiang Manru lowered her gaze, avoiding eye contact.
This action made Bai Yue slightly uneasy. She lowered her head, pressing her forehead against the other’s, nose touching nose.
“Speak,” Bai Yue urged.
The moonlight washed over them, sketching their tightly pressed figures into a single silhouette.
“What do you want from now on?”
Jiang Manru tilted her head away with a lazy, uninterested weariness, firing back, “What do you mean by what do I want?”
“I mean,” Bai Yue paused, “us.”
Jiang Manru reached out, looping her arms around Bai Yue’s neck to pull her down. She pressed her lips against Bai Yue’s ear, whispering with a smile that could melt bones:
“Let’s do it first.”
She nibbled lightly on Bai Yue’s earlobe.
Bai Yue’s body stiffened for a second before a smile bloomed across her face, spreading from the corners of her lips to her eyes and her entire expression.
She lowered her head and bit down on that patch of neck, applying a punishing, deliberate pressure.
Jiang Manru let out a soft hiss.
“Bai Yue,” she laughed, her voice breaking off mid-sentence, “go a little easier.”
Bai Yue ignored her and bit down again.
Jiang Manru laughed harder, her entire body going limp. If she hadn’t been pinned to the door, she would have slid right down to the floor.
“Still laughing?”
Before the words fully left her lips, Bai Yue’s kiss descended.
Filled with ferocity and hunger.
Jiang Manru’s back pressed flat against the door, leaving her nowhere to retreat. Nor did she want to. She lifted her arms to wrap them around Bai Yue’s neck, kissing her back.
The kiss grew deeper and fiercer.
Bai Yue’s hand slid down from her waist, cupped the back of her knees, and hoisted her upward.
Jiang Manru was lifted entirely off the ground, her legs automatically wrapping around Bai Yue’s waist. Though her back remained pressed against the door, her whole body now hung suspended from Bai Yue.
“The door panel is cold,” Jiang Manru wheezed, her voice hoarse beyond recognition.
Bai Yue’s lips curved. “To the bed, then?”
Jiang Manru didn’t answer, instead pulling her down for another kiss.
Bai Yue carried her toward the bed. Her knees hit the edge of the mattress, and she lowered Jiang Manru onto it.
Jiang Manru’s back sank into the soft cushions, her long hair spreading out like a blossoming flower.
Bai Yue pressed down over her, her knees wedging between Jiang Manru’s thighs. Her hands pinned the other’s wrists as her lips left her mouth, trailing down her jawline, across her neck, and over her collarbone.
Leaving no inch untouched.
Jiang Manru tilted her head back, her breathing growing more erratic, her body growing hotter. Her hands slid down Bai Yue’s back, fingertips tracing the line of her spine and leaving a trail of shivers in their wake.
Bai Yue’s movements stuttered for a fraction of a second before turning even wilder.
Outside the window, the moonlight slowly shifted, and the city lights went out one by one. The room was left with only the sound of their intertwined breathing and muffled sighs spilling past their lips.
After what felt like an eternity.
Bai Yue finally stopped, propping herself up to look down at her.
Jiang Manru lay beneath her, hair disheveled, her nightgown long since discarded.
“Well?” Jiang Manru prompted. “Tired?”
Bai Yue let out a light huff. “What do you think?”
Jiang Manru smiled.
“Then I’ll wait.”
Bai Yue stared at her, then dipped her head to bite her lips. Muffled against her mouth, she murmured, “No need to wait.”
Jiang Manru’s laughter spilled out, only to be swallowed up by another kiss.