Reckless

The young lady was so hard to please.

Only that afternoon, Xing Yue had assured Bo Wuxue again and again that if it happened one more time, she would definitely refuse. Now that she actually had the choice, she wavered.

Xing Yue was thirty-five. She hated admitting that her age made her anxious, but everything around her weighed on her and hemmed her in. Her parents pressured her to marry, and her company kept pushing her too. She desperately needed a way to let off steam.

"I'm going to take a shower." In the end, she shamefully accepted. All that resolve she'd shown during the day vanished; despite what she'd said, she wanted to kiss Bu Yao with Snake Tongue.

Xing Yue opened her wardrobe and ran a hand along the rail reserved for sleepwear. At last, she picked out a nearly transparent black nightdress with ties across the chest, then dug out a pair of stockings.

The sight alone made Bu Yao's eyes burn. Xing Yue hadn't even put them on, and Bu Yao could already picture it.

She knew Xing Yue sometimes wore black stockings, though rarely, and only with a tight black dress. Come to think of it, Xing Yue had never worn them specifically for her.

While her imagination ran wild, Xing Yue placed both items in her hands.

"Will you wear these tonight?" Xing Yue asked.

Bu Yao froze for a moment. Then heat rushed to her face, and she refused almost on instinct. "How could I?"

She had never worn anything like this... Her usual clothes were elegant and dignified. Even when she dressed provocatively, she still looked refined. She had never touched anything that covered so little.

Xing Yue found her reaction endearingly awkward and laughed. "They're new. Washed, but never worn."

"Is that the problem?" Bu Yao demanded.

New or old had nothing to do with it.

Xing Yue didn't insist. She had only meant to tease Bu Yao and ease the tension, not actually make her wear them.

Before going into the bathroom, she took the medicine the hospital had prescribed for Bu Yao. After a quick shower, she read the instructions, filled a basin with hot water, dissolved the powder in it, and draped a brand-new towel over the rim.

Xing Yue came out carrying the basin in both hands, her steps languid. She had casually tied her hair into a low bun, leaving it slightly messy, with a few half-damp strands falling across her forehead. Her burgundy satin sleepwear made her skin look luminous.

The crossed collar dipped a little low, and misty droplets of water clung to the deep hollow beneath it...

Xing Yue did nothing more than walk over, yet every step landed squarely on Bu Yao's heart. Apart from her footsteps, the only sound in the bedroom was Bu Yao's restless heartbeat.

And the night's agitation was only beginning.

Bu Yao stared at her in a daze. She didn't even react when Xing Yue came close, until a hand suddenly slapped her calf—

Smack. The crisp sound rang through the room.

The spot turned red. The slap had been hard enough to sting, but Bu Yao didn't want to pull away...

Xing Yue set the diluted medicine on the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed, pressing down a corner of the blue-black sheet. "Where's your little tail? Let me put your medicine on."

At the way Xing Yue referred to herself, warmth spread across Bu Yao's whole body until she felt ready to melt. Xing Yue had never called herself that before. Bu Yao had only coaxed the nickname out of her last night, when they reunited and she'd gone out of her way to please her.

When Bu Yao still didn't show her tail, Xing Yue leaned toward her embarrassed face and said hoarsely, "Do I have to kiss your feet again? The young lady really is hard to please."

Bu Yao could clearly tell Xing Yue was teasing her. Her tone was nothing like it had been when she was angry at the hospital.

She turned away and lay facedown on the bed, burying her face in her arms. She couldn't look at Xing Yue anymore...

The bedroom gradually filled with the heady scent of camellias. Xing Yue knew it well. It was the scent unique to Bu Yao when she was seeking a mate.

Beneath the half-cover of the velvet blanket, petal-shaped Snake Scales appeared on those calves. They started at her ankles, quickly spread over her calves, then continued upward. The vivid scales against her pale skin had an indescribably bewitching beauty.

Before long, a snake tail slipped out from under the blanket and slithered across the bed. Xing Yue caught it.

The tip of an adult's tail was hardly thin. Her hand fit around it, but any higher and she wouldn't have been able to close her fingers. It was a plump snake.

"Is the water warm enough?" Xing Yue dipped the tip into the medicine and scooped some water over the tail.

So spoiled. The doctor had prescribed medicine, but Bu Yao wouldn't apply it herself; she needed Xing Yue to wait on her. Remembering that Bu Yao still didn't know how to put on shoes, Xing Yue suddenly tightened her grip on the tail.

"Ah..." The woman who had been silent all this time cried out in surprise. She turned her head, bewildered, to look at Xing Yue making trouble for her.

"Who are you planning to call for help tomorrow, young lady?" Xing Yue's face betrayed nothing. If anything, she looked gentle, virtuous, and harmless, even as she quietly bullied Bu Yao. "Outsiders aren't allowed in my home."

Unsure what she meant, Bu Yao sat up on the bed, her eyes glimmering. "Will you help me put them on?"

Xing Yue's eyes curved, and she smiled as she delivered her heartless answer. "No."

Xing Yue wouldn't let the wolf-tailed assistant into her home, but she wouldn't put Bu Yao's shoes on for her either.

The woman whose eyes had been hazy with desire a moment ago looked as though someone had dumped cold water over her. Her expression froze. "Then am I supposed to go out barefoot?"

"You won't," Xing Yue said with certainty.

The young lady cared too much about appearances. With her status, how could she possibly go out without shoes?

Bu Yao couldn't tell what Xing Yue was getting at, and it made her a little angry. She flicked her tail with a splash, sending water from the basin onto Xing Yue's burgundy sleepwear, where it clung wetly to her skin.

Xing Yue gave her a faint, knowing smile. "Figure it out yourself."

That only made Bu Yao angrier. Her tail struck the water again, sending up a bigger splash that soaked the bedsheet.

Xing Yue looked as if she'd discovered something remarkable. The fact that Bu Yao hadn't slapped her across the face with that tail was already a huge improvement in the young lady's temper.

"Oh?" She rubbed the tail in her palm and said with delighted surprise, "So the young lady knows how to sulk."

Bu Yao drew her brows together and raised her tail again, ready to lash it hard into the water, as if that might ease something inside her. But just as she brought it down, Xing Yue seized it tight. Scales scraped against her palm as she dragged Bu Yao toward her.

Caught completely off guard, Bu Yao fell flat onto the bed. Xing Yue lunged over her, gripped her cheeks with five fingers, and kissed her with an aggressively probing Snake Tongue. She stole all of Bu Yao's breath, her soft lips pressing and grinding against hers with rough insistence.

Their Snake Tongues entwined, lost in a reckless kiss.

Only when Xing Yue had had her fill did she end the kiss. She caught the hair at the back of Bu Yao's head and pulled her back a little, laughing softly. "The young lady can't learn to put on shoes, so she's throwing a tantrum at herself."