Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“What are you thinking about?”

A wave of warm, damp air enveloped me, and I felt a gentle nip on my earlobe.

“Are you a dog?” I started to say, but my voice was instantly drowned out by the sudden roar of a hairdryer.

Wei Yan was still shirtless, one eyebrow arched as he looked at me with a triumphant smirk.

I couldn’t help but let my gaze drift back to that tattoo. After a moment of consideration, I asked, “When did you get that?”

The hairdryer was loud, but he definitely heard me. He glanced my way but didn’t answer.

I raised my voice and asked him again.

This time, he clicked the hairdryer off and walked over to the sofa to grab a T-shirt, his response remaining vague.

“Do your parents mind tattoos? If they do, I’ll find some time this weekend to get it removed.”

It was true that Wei Yan and I had reached the stage where we were discussing meeting each other’s parents and getting married, but that wasn’t what I wanted to know.

“You’re acting very strange today.”

He leaned over the sofa and pulled me into an embrace from behind. The scent of lemon shampoo filled my nose, masking the faint, lingering smell of tobacco that usually clung to him.

I don’t like the smell of smoke, so he never smoked in front of me.

We stayed silent for a while until I was the first to look up.

I loved his eyes; they were like obsidian, deep as spilled ink. I could see my own reflection clearly in them before he leaned down and kissed me.

Our breaths mingled, and a suggestive tension began to drift through the air.

The ringing of a phone shattered the romantic atmosphere.

It was his phone. It kept ringing, but he pressed the power button to silence it without even looking. He pushed me back onto the sofa, ready to take things further.

The phone rang again.

“You should probably answer that,” I said, worried it might be something for work.

He gave a faint click of his tongue and reluctantly pinched my chin to give me a quick kiss before picking up the phone.

Sometimes, it’s strange how accurate a woman’s intuition can be.

The moment he answered, I knew that whoever was on the other end was someone special to him.

Even though his expression turned ice-cold in an instant, and even though he wore a look of mockery I had never seen before.

The person on the other end seemed to be talking incessantly. He listened quietly until the end, then spat out a single word: “Scram.”

He hung up immediately. He stood there with his eyes downcast, and the sudden silence made me unsure of how to speak.

“Go to sleep early.”

He reached out to ruffle my hair and started walking toward the balcony.

He was going for a smoke.

He probably didn’t know that I watched him through the glass balcony door for a long time afterward.

The cherry of his cigarette glowed bright and dim as he leaned against the railing, his figure tall and lean.

The city lights in the distance never slept. Estimating that he was nearly through a whole pack, I turned and went back to the bedroom.

A short while later, he came in.

He seemed to lean over me, and I opened my eyes to look at him.

We were very close. The warm yellow glow of the bedside lamp softened his sharp features; his amber eyes looked like a sunset at dusk.

“Not asleep yet?”

His voice was a bit raspy, sexier than usual.

“You smell like smoke, Wei Yan.”

“Doesn’t smell good?”

He seemed to flare his nostrils slightly, then straightened up to put some distance between us.

I nodded, and he looked down at me in silence.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

It was strange; he wouldn’t usually ask a question like that.

I tried my best to attribute it to him being worried I’d mind the smell of smoke on him.

But another suspicion was screaming in the depths of my soul, putting me on high alert.

Testing him, I said, “No.”

There was only a long silence.

“Okay,” he finally said, his voice gentle yet restrained.

I couldn’t decipher the emotion in his words, but I suddenly felt a massive void in my heart.

He didn’t hesitate to turn off the light. The room plunged into a long-lasting darkness, and my heart sank with every step he took.

Until finally, he reached the bedroom door.

When he closed it, he took the only light I had left with him.