Seemingly heartless yet full of feeling, seemingly tender yet without feeling

She had to admit, the crown prince was truly charming when he handed over money.

Xun Yuan thought of a question and answer that had once swept the internet:

-"When is a man at his most handsome?"

-"When he's handing over money."

She thought there was truth to that. Although it did not quite fit Zuo Tingyue, it was much the same.

Xun Yuan was not one to make a fuss. If he gave it to her, she would accept it. There was no need to draw such clear lines. It was only money.

Even taking a step back, if they parted in the end and she wanted a clean break, she could afford to pay it back.

Her slender fingers tapped the folder, and the corners of her lips lifted into a curve as she gave him a sweet, playful smile.

"Is this my payment?" she asked slyly.

She was bringing up an old matter, as though this were her wages for those few days she had spent as his assistant in Australia. Her rates as an assistant were very high, all right? Few people were willing to pay through the nose to hire her.

"Haven't I already paid you?"

Zuo Tingyue spoke in a low voice, his lips lifting in a soft laugh. His gaze held a hint of languor and darkness as he looked at Xun Yuan, dissolute to the bone, utterly improper.

Xun Yuan understood instantly. Damned pervert.

She did not want to argue with him over this. He never behaved himself. Turning her pale wrist, she picked up the document and took it away.

She left without the slightest reluctance. The hem of her silk nightdress swayed with her leisurely steps, her waist supple, the soft allure rippling from her steeped into her very bones. She cast her hook without thinking, without trying, yet still made hearts itch.

A subtle fragrance drifted through the air. She had left, but the fresh scent of her cedar-and-freesia shower gel lingered, floating beneath Zuo Tingyue's nose, barely there. Like its owner, seemingly heartless yet full of feeling.

The others in the reception room kept their eyes lowered and their heads bowed very low. The moment Xun Yuan had sat down beside their boss, they had all tacitly looked away.

Were they kidding? Who would dare watch their boss flirt with his woman? Wouldn't that be failing to read the room? Did they still want their jobs? Their salaries? Their bonuses?

Back in the bedroom, Xun Yuan looked once more at the signature on the document. She reached out and stroked those three characters. There it was in black and white, the security that man had given her, yet it also drew an even clearer line.

Money and power, he could give her. Anything else, she should not ask for. He did not want to give it.

In a word: You may take what I give you. Don't ask for what I haven't given.

Truly, seemingly tender yet without feeling.

Xun Yuan looked at it for a while, then put the document down and burrowed beneath the soft covers. It was already quite late. Who knew how long that group outside would be working? She needed her beauty sleep and certainly would not stay up with them.

"Dad, why are you giving me this?" The teenage Xun Yuan, dressed in white, asked the tall, imposing man before her.

"This? It's a treasure Daddy is giving our Yuan. You must keep it safe and never lose it, understand?"

The man affectionately pinched Xun Yuan's nose, the tenderness in his eyes enough to melt someone into it as he gave instructions to the only daughter he and his beloved shared.

They had been on the Yundian border then. She had been with her mother, and through a strange twist of circumstances, through fate, yet also through heaven's favor, she had been able to see her father.

Just like in the movies, moments of warmth were always brief. The scene changed to bloody images of a hail of bullets, and once again she saw her mother drenched in blood.

Torrential rain, unfamiliar surroundings, thugs pursuing them relentlessly, surviving in desperate straits.

Xun Yuan startled awake from her dream, her body drenched in sweat, unbearably sticky.

She had not dreamed in a long time, yet she had dreamed of her father while he was still alive. That had been the last time she saw him, that man so handsome he could shatter the heavens, that man who could hold up the sky for her and her mother.

Xun Yuan missed him.

She switched on the bedside lamp and sat dazed for a while. Only after a long time did she hear water running in the bathroom. Zuo Tingyue was back. She glanced at the time. Two in the morning. He had been busy until now again.

After waking from her dream in the middle of the night, Xun Yuan could no longer sleep. She sat up in bed and leaned back there, traces of vulnerability and pain still lingering in her eyes, lost and dazed. Anyone who saw that look in Xun Yuan's eyes would surely ache for her.

Zuo Tingyue emerged from the bathroom wreathed in moisture, and Xun Yuan turned toward the sound.

A bath towel was wrapped around the man's waist, his upper body bare, revealing his sharply defined chest. He had a fine physique, his muscles full in just the right measure, looking lean and powerful, thoroughly masculine.

He dried his soaking hair. As he moved, droplets ran down his V-lines and the grooves of his abdomen, disappearing below his waist.

"Only just finished?" Xun Yuan asked softly.

"Mm," Zuo Tingyue answered evenly.

"Had a nightmare?"

The sweat-damp strands at her temples clung untidily beside her ears. Her eyes were red and wet, as though she had cried, an allure touched with fragility.

"Mm," Xun Yuan admitted.

She simply looked at him with those beautiful, damp eyes, glistening with tears that hovered without falling, their outer corners flushed red.

She did not say a word. The hurt and vulnerability that seemed on the verge of spilling out, that stubbornness barely holding on, made the tip of one's heart soften.

I want to cherish her.

He was used to seeing her handle everything with ease. Beneath this woman's captivating, seductive allure lay an unmistakably proud, unbending backbone.

I want to cherish her.

In that instant, it was his only thought.

He tossed the towel aside and went to the bed, looking down at her. Bending slightly, he gently lifted her chin, his thumb brushing tenderly over the reddened corners of her eyes.

"What are you crying for?" His voice fell low and husky.

Was there anything in all of Harbor City that he, Zuo Tingyue, could not give her? What was there to cry about?

"I'm not crying."

Xun Yuan lifted her head and spoke stubbornly, though her voice trembled a little.

Zuo Tingyue watched her steadily for a few seconds, his expression unchanged, every emotion pressed deep into his eyes, giving no one a chance to glimpse them.

"All right."

"Going to sleep?"

Xun Yuan shook her head. "I can't sleep anymore."

Zuo Tingyue suddenly laughed. His magnetic, pleasing laughter soaked into the night, seductive and bewitching.

"I'll help you."

The man's three softly spoken words fell as his hand exerted force.

Zuo Tingyue laid a hand at her waist and lifted her into his arms with one hand, lowering his head to kiss her lips as they nestled close.

The crisp, cool fragrance on him swept over Xun Yuan as she tumbled into his embrace.

"I'm sweaty." Xun Yuan dodged his lips, finding a chance to speak.

Zuo Tingyue said nothing, his hands never stopping. He knew all too well how to arouse her. His hand brushed over her soft silk nightdress and settled on her snow-white, delicate skin.

Her waist, scarcely a handful, was held in his warm, powerful palm as he led her into another deep ocean.

At some point, rain had begun falling outside. Droplets battered the glass with a clatter, washing away all the filth.

Autumn had come.

Sweat ran over the man's prominent Adam's apple and dripped onto the woman's pale back, bringing a scalding heat.

Amid the rain and mist, Xun Yuan felt his surging vigor. The scent of male hormones spread, setting a pool of spring water shimmering.