Chapter 26

"Your kissing technique isn't very good," he remarked. "Not as good as mine."

When their lips first touched that night, neither of them moved. Fu Yuhe had gone still, as if stunned by the feeling of their lips meeting, and made no further move until Shen Yi took things further, setting the rest in motion.

If Shen Yi hadn't returned his kiss that night, stirring him up and bewitching him, things probably wouldn't have gotten so intense afterward.

In Fu Yuhe's eyes, Shen Yi's moist lips and the bright smile curving at their corners were all a form of seduction. Crude, despicable tactics... but effective.

"I was drunk that night," Fu Yuhe emphasized again.

Shen Yi looked up. "But you're sober now."

Fu Yuhe said, "So?"

"So..." Shen Yi abruptly leaned in, closing the already narrow distance between them until their hot breaths mingled.

Fu Yuhe's heart skipped out of rhythm. He lowered his eyes, then raised them again, his lashes trembling as he asked, "What are you trying to do?"

"I want you sober, so you'll remember how I make you feel," Shen Yi said.

"There's no need," Fu Yuhe said.

Shen Yi's voice was low and slightly breathy, intimate as he asked, "Then what is needed?"

"Your question is meaningless-" Fu Yuhe warned. "Don't come any closer."

Shen Yi said, "Why? Are you scared?"

Fu Yuhe reminded him, "I'm not someone you can toy with as you please."

"If this is toying with someone..." Shen Yi paused. "Weren't you the one who started toying with me?"

Fu Yuhe said, "..."

Shen Yi's gaze had remained on Fu Yuhe's thin lips the whole time. The feeling that night had been so wonderful that he sometimes longed for it, wanting more and more...

"You kissed me once, and I kiss you back. That's fair," Shen Yi said softly.

Their breaths were close enough to mingle, as if they were completely intimate, yet a distance still remained between them. They seemed both close and far apart, able to feel each other's breath but unable to touch. It tested a person's self-control.

Fu Yuhe said, "There's no such thing as fairness in this."

Only two fingers' width separated Shen Yi's lips from Fu Yuhe's. If either of them lifted his chin a little, their lips would meet, pressed tightly together. Yet Shen Yi suddenly stopped.

Nothing was more tantalizing than drawing close only to pull away. Fu Yuhe pressed his lips together. "You..."

The kiss he expected never came.

Shen Yi suddenly lowered his head, bracing one hand against Fu Yuhe's chin. Fu Yuhe raised his head, the back of it against the wall, his neck exposed to the air.

The collar button of his shirt was undone, and the curve of his prominent Adam's apple was both sexy and restrained. At Shen Yi's sudden movement, his Adam's apple bobbed as he mistakenly thought this was another deliberately cruel move.

Fu Yuhe gritted his teeth, his voice somewhat furious. "Shen Yi, you..."

The next second, his voice was replaced by a muffled groan. A sharp pain struck his neck, and a current seemed to run down his spine, leaving it tingling and numb. His pupils contracted for an instant.

Shen Yi released him and stepped back a few paces, an aggressive air lingering around him. "Ge, you're right. There's no fairness to speak of in this."

He licked his lips. "Then does that mean I don't have to play fair anymore?"

Fu Yuhe covered his neck, his face flushing a deep red, whether from anger or embarrassment-probably both. He didn't want to discuss "fairness" with him and cursed under his breath, "Are you a fucking dog?!"

It had been a long time since anyone had left him in such a sorry state. When their lips had missed each other just now, he had even felt a fleeting sense of disappointment.

"You can think so if you want," Shen Yi said calmly.

Verbal attacks of that kind had no effect on Shen Yi.

Fu Yuhe flung the school uniform jacket in his hand at Shen Yi and strode away, his retreating figure looking somewhat like he was fleeing.

Shen Yi caught the jacket and called after him, "Ge, don't go back on what you promised me!"

Fu Yuhe kept walking without answering.

Shen Yi ran his tongue over the pointed canine on the upper left side of his mouth and smiled, in a rather good mood.

He pushed the door open and returned to the room. Inside, Fu Cheng was still hard at work, immersed in the ocean of learning and completely absorbed, oblivious to all outside sounds. Shen Yi hung his jacket on the rack to one side and sat back down where he had been sitting.

Elsewhere, Fu Yuhe went to the dressing room instead of the study. He raised his chin and looked at himself in the mirror. There was a light pink bite mark on the side of his neck near his collarbone, with one tooth having left a deeper mark. He pressed his lips together, a dark cloud hanging over him, and raised a hand to fasten his shirt all the way to the top button, covering the bite mark.

...Little mutt.

On Sunday evening, Shen Yi had just returned from Fu Cheng's house. Fu Yuhe still hadn't come home when he left the Fu residence, and he had been getting back rather late for the past two days. As far as Fu Cheng was concerned, it was normal for his brother to come home late, so he hadn't noticed anything amiss.

Click-

The living room light came on. Shen Yi tossed his backpack onto the sofa, and the bag full of books landed with a dull thud. He changed into slippers and headed for the bathroom.

This was the place "he" had rented, and the rent wasn't cheap. In his opinion, it wasn't worth the price; he had probably been taken for an easy mark and overcharged.

At least the surroundings were decent.

Shen Yi went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. He cupped some water in his hands and washed his face, and the phone on the storage cabinet beside the bathroom mirror rang. He dried his hands and picked it up. It was a call from an unknown number.

"Hello," Shen Yi said, his clear voice carrying a slightly lazy tone.

"May I ask if this is Mr. Shen?" a young man's voice asked from the other end.