The Handshake…
Swiftly rising to her feet, Bai Qian coolly informed him, “I’ll see you tomorrow at the Eastern Sea King’s banquet for his son. We’ll start there as I’ve explained.”
He wasn’t ready to part with her yet. Not even close. Ye Hua’s precious time with Bai Qian was too brief and too short. Promptly he reached out for her hand to hold her back. However, she yanked away from his grasping fingertips somewhat fearfully.
At that moment he also saw her big tall tell. Her bluff, her ruse, her front. Bai Qian’s silent indicator accurately. A forewarning sign he’d previously noticed before she attacked him verbally. Hers was a fleeting flash of panic, uncertainty, and fear in her otherwise perfect masquerade of superiority, confidence, and pride. Ye Hua thought there wasn’t anything else she could say to shock him but he was wrong. So incorrect.
How accurate his speculation was when Bai Qian nonchalantly divulged, “I’d like to stay longer but I have something to take care of first before I come to Nine Heavens. I need someone else to deflower me because it would make our business agreement too personal if you did it again. I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early. Unless you’d like to make a deal with me?”
How nonchalantly Bai Qian threw out a twisted offer, “I’ll allow you to deflower me if you agree to make fake love to me with SuJin in the bed with us, and ignore her presence completely.”
At that very moment, Ye Hua understood Bai Qian was toying with him. Her claim they were debt-free was a lie. She wasn’t done punishing him yet for his past crimes and sins against her. Her mental anguish-fueled vendetta towards him had just begun.
Who was this cold woman who’d just treated her precious chastity like a bartering chip, and what had she done with the woman he loved? Was his beloved gone and forever lost to him? It was effortless and simple. Too easy to feel incredibly defeated when looking at Bai Qian’s icy, distant, lifeless gaze.
“I suppose Ghost Lord Li Jing wouldn’t mind deflowering me. Hence, I have other options if it’s not with you.” Bai Qian spoke coolly.
Bai Qian wielded the perfect verbal tool that was the ultimate catalyst for Ye Hua’s pure possessiveness of her. She grasped him so well. Too well. She knew his only motivation would be his sheer, selfish, self-centered jealousy because he couldn’t stand the thought of someone else touching her skin. Stroking her, lying on top of her luscious, silky body and being inside her inner warmth. The private place that belonged to him alone.
All he could do was a nod of his head in agreement.
However, even she seemed surprised that he willingly agreed to such an outlandish deal. He saw it again. A flash of fear. Her silent signal then the sharpened, focused, a gaze of detailed scrutiny, calculation darted and narrowed on Ye Hua’s face. She sucked in air through her nose sharpy. Facial expression hardened before she smirked in amusement.
Bai Qian nonchalantly reminded him of the rules, “You can’t kiss me or spew fake words of love. Is it possible for you to stop right after you tear me open? It’s not a pleasure but a means to an end so the quicker the better. I don’t care about the pain.”
Shivered down to the marrow in his bones, Bai Qian’s detached, cold voice chilled him. Doubting himself and worried there might not be enough time in the world to change her frozen, barren heart or determined, resolute mind.
“I won’t be able to stop myself that quickly. It’s been too long for me. Maybe we should rethink this? Perhaps I’m not the one for this task.” Ye Hua’s outright boldness surprised himself because regardless of his outer appearance, he was shaking in desperate anticipation to touch her again.
Hidden inside the long sleeve of his garment, Bai Qian couldn’t see his tensely balled up fists. So crushing was his grip that his nails were forcibly digging into his palm.
Informally she thrust out her hand, to offer a handshake on her chastity because they’d just agreed on a business deal. Ye Hua considered perhaps Bai Qian was telling the truth about being dead inside. She’d just cashed in her scared virginity most wantonly, carelessly like collateral for the transaction and requested a handshake to seal the deal.
Despite the apparent, clear warnings from his inner voice of reasoning telling him to walk, no, run. He couldn’t take a single step because he still loved, wanted and worshiped the very ground Bai Qian walked on madly.
Breathing slowly, Ye Hua forced himself to focus and gather his composure. He had to believe that he had a fighting chance and refused to go down without vying for his only love. Because relocating the flame of his life was an endeavor of the heart, and the very reason why it continued to beat.
Hesitantly because for him it was unquestionably love, Ye Hua took her hand and sealed their agreement with a handshake.
To be continued…