FENG LANG
I felt his neck pulsing in my hands with every beat of his heart. One twist, just a little squeeze, was all it would take. And I couldn't say I wasn't tempted. His hands continued to pull on mine. Like that would make any difference. Slowly—after he realized his attempts were useless—he lifted his head, like he was afraid of what he would see, and that was smart on his part. His eyes widened dramatically when he finally saw my face.
His heart thumped against his chest, and a vein on his neck raised. I couldn't help the satisfied grin that spread across my face. For what felt like minutes, I reveled in my superiority. What made it even better was the moment he realized that no one was going to help him. Then out of nowhere, he switched, causing my smile to falter.
His eyes thinned, and his gaze hardened. His hands dropped from my arm, and even the
quivering of his lips ceased as he pulled himself to stand straight, facing me squarely. I could still hear his heart pounding, but his face told an entirely different story. My brows creased. I quickly glanced at the guys behind me to find their faces with equal curiosity. What was he planning to do?
He parted his lips and spoke, "Do I know you?" The question threw me off guard. Yichen frowned, and Long snorted in response. The bastard. One look from me, and his plain face was back.
Did I make a mistake? Was he not the person I was looking for? I couldn't possibly have
gotten it wrong this time too... That was when I heard his heart skip after our eyes met again. The little lying fucker. I puffed out a breath.
Fine, I'd happily play along. I released my hold on him.
"Last week, around midnight? The details are still hazy for me." I didn't miss the subtle twitch of his lips after my last sentence. He didn't want me to remember, huh...
"I don't know what you're talking about.Thud thud! Lie. I scoffed. Let's do it this way then. I folded my arms.
"You do look very familiar, and your scent…" I brought my nose to the crook of his neck to take another whiff. He stiffened. "Brings back quite the memory."
He pulled his head back, pushing my chest with his hand. "I'm afraid you have me mistaken for someone else." He attempted to take a step back but was blocked by the tent's pole. "About my scent, I hear that a lot
from most of my clients. Have you by any chance been to Deluxe?" He quirked his brow.
Deluxe…. Did he mean the pleasure house? Was that where he worked? I gave him a once-over. "Do I look like I need a pleasure house?" I replied with a chuckle and saw his nose twitch.
"Well, I'm only here because Mr. Zhen invited me."
We both looked at Long, who nodded in agreement, though his face held a sly expression. "That's Ren, he's my—"
"I'm his companion for the night." Was that so? "And I expect you to at least respect my personal space." 'Personal space,' he said. He was good, really good. If not for my hearing, I might have fallen for his act.
I cleared my throat, taking a step back. "I guess I have the wrong person. Accept my apologies." I wasn't sorry. In fact, I was barely holding back my temptation to make an example of him. But good things, they said, come to those who wait.
He still stood between me and the pole, avoiding eye contact. Then slowly, with the same straight look on his face, he began to creep out from the small space, making sure to avoid my feet. I followed his movements. Once he was free, he began to walk toward Long, only to freeze when he almost bumped into someone.
"Lang Gao!" My jaw clenched immediately when I caught a whiff of the lavender scent, which was distinctly different from Ren's. What was her name again? Right behind her were two identical D-Gen M-Alphas. The three bore a striking resemblance to each other, so my hunch was that they were siblings.
Chairman Xu's daughter's eyes lingered on Ren for a few seconds, a pout forming on her lips as she gave him a once-over. One of the guys she came with walked toward me, extending his hand for a handshake. "Mr. Feng, it's—"
"Lang Gao, who is this?" Chairman Xu's daughter suddenly snapped, pointing to Ren.
I blinked, looking behind me. Surely, she wasn't talking to me. "Remind me of your name again?" I asked, and I heard Ruiqing chuckle.
She looked taken aback by my question, which only made me frown. How entitled did she feel?
"I- I— "
"It's Meilin. I'm Yan, her older brother, and that's Ze, my twin." The guy whose attempt at a handshake I'd ignored answered on behalf of his glitching sister. I didn't ask for a family introduction, but sure. I nodded in acknowledgment.
"I don't think you'd remember us, but we went to the same high school..."
"You're right, I don't." His voice cut off at my abrupt interruption. I really wasn't in the mood for forced cordiality, especially now that I had solid leverage on Chairman Xu. There was no need to pretend to be nice.
"That makes sense... You were—"
I nodded at Yichen. "When's the race starting?" Yichen checked his phone. From the corner of my eye, I caught the Ren fellow slowly creeping away from our group.
"In about twenty minutes." Yichen answered.
"Mr. Ren," He immediately froze, whipping himself around with wide eyes, which immediately dimmed. "Leaving already? The race hasn't started."
I noticed the annoyed look Chairman Xu's daughter, whatever her name was, gave him. He seemed to have noticed it too, as he sent a frown her way.
"And miss all the fun? I'm only going to the washroom. Is that okay with you? Or would you like to invade my privacy in there too...?" He cocked his head at me in a dare. Oh, he was tempting me.
My gaze lingered on the white tote bag hanging on his shoulder. I needed some sort of guarantee that he wasn't going to run off. Following him was out of the question, thanks to the Xu family tree over here. "That looks heavy. Mind if I take it off you?"
"Actually, it's not so—"
"You don't mind. Do you?" I glided past Chairman Xu's baffled daughter to grab hold of the bag in question, the surface of my skin sizzled at the contact. He felt it, and his eyes widened in understanding of his situation. It wasn't a request. It was an order.
"You know what, my shoulder's feeling a bit tense from carrying this the whole night." He pulled out his phone, handing the bag to me with a forced smile. "Thank you." He dragged out through clenched teeth.
"Don't mention it." I chirped. With one last look at all of us under the tent—lingering a tad longer on Chairman Xu's offspring—he strutted off in the direction of the washrooms. I watched his retreating form until he was
completely out of my view.
Let the game begin.