Chapter 2

The Liu estate was enormous.

The Liu siblings each had a private villa within the grounds.

Logically, since I was supposed to cultivate a relationship with Liu Sinan, I should have stayed in his villa.

Instead, Liu Chengxi placed me in hers.

Liu Sinan was delighted that no one would interfere with his trips out to see his boyfriend, so he raised no objection.

As a guest, I could hardly criticize my host’s arrangements either.

Besides, I still could not stop wondering whether Liu Chengxi was the woman I had spent so many nights tangled up with.

It had been years. Two people could look alike.

And the commanding presence Liu Chengxi possessed now, high above everyone else, bore no resemblance to the fragile little rabbit who had once trembled beneath me.

Living together would give me the perfect chance to test her.

If she really was that woman, I would have to think seriously about running for my life.

After Liu Chengxi brought me to the villa, she went to the study to work.

The housekeeper led me to a bedroom on the third floor. I stared at the extra door set into one wall. “What’s through there?”

“That door opens directly into Miss Liu’s bedroom.”

Three question marks might as well have appeared over my head. I chose my words carefully. “Wouldn’t that disturb her? Perhaps you could give me another room?”

The housekeeper’s tone remained gentle. “It was Miss Liu’s arrangement.”

In other words, she had no authority to change it.

I did not make things difficult for her. After thanking her, I shut the door.

The room came stocked with toiletries and pajamas. The staff at the Liu estate certainly worked fast.

As for clothes, Dad had promised before leaving that he would have my luggage delivered first thing tomorrow morning. He had been entirely blind to the refusal written all over his daughter’s face.

Whatever. I was here now. I might as well settle in.

I luxuriated in a long bath. I had just stepped out and wrapped myself in a towel when someone knocked.

At that hour, it could only be Liu Chengxi.

I spent a few seconds debating whether to put on the pajamas, then opened the door wearing nothing but the towel.

Perhaps because she had just finished working, Liu Chengxi wore gold, rimless glasses over the bridge of her nose. She looked powerful—and dangerously sexy.

I stared into her eyes, hunting for the slightest clue.

Yet she showed no reaction at all to the sight of me in a towel that looked ready to slip at any moment.

The woman I remembered would already have flushed to the tips of her ears and dragged me toward the bed.

Under Liu Chengxi’s calm gaze, my own ears heated instead. I tugged the towel higher. “Did you need something?”

Amusement flickered through her eyes, but she maintained the manner of a solicitous older sister. “I came to see if there was anything else you needed.”

“No. Everything’s here.”

“Undergarments too?”

Only then did it hit me: my luggage would not arrive until morning, and I had no clean underwear for tonight.

My blank expression gave her the answer.

“Wait here.”

She returned to her room. A short while later, the connecting door opened, and she came back with several pairs of panties draped over one hand.

I gaped at her. She, meanwhile, looked perfectly serious. “They’re new. I washed them, but I’ve never worn them. Pick whichever you like.”

She truly was shamelessly composed. She even had the leisure to tease me. “What, embarrassed? Of course, if you’re accustomed to sleeping without any, pretend I said nothing.”

The woman from five years ago had known exactly whether I wore panties to bed.

One glance told me these were not Liu Chengxi’s style. They looked more like mine.

I tested the waters. “Have we met somewhere before?”