He Saved the Heir, Then Won His Heart novel · Chapter 16 of 56

Chapter 16: The Office

"I went to Lantern Lane to look at an heir," Xiao Chen said.

He kept his eyes on the road.

"A name in a tabloid. A way to hurt Chi Feng. That was all you were when I parked the car."

Shen Yan sat very still in the passenger seat with his cheek still red.

"And then?"

"And then you dropped a tray of skewers because you recognized my face, and you picked up every one of them off the ground before you looked at me again."

"They were somebody's dinner."

"Yes. I thought, that boy has been thrown out of everything he owned, and he is still apologizing to the floor." Xiao Chen's hands tightened on the wheel. "I didn't want your name. I wanted to be the kind of man you looked at the way you looked at me."

"Xiao Chen."

"That is the true thing. She's right that I'm convenient, and she's wrong about why."

Shen Yan did not say anything.

He reached across the console and laid his hand over Xiao Chen's on the gearstick, and left it there until they reached Harbour Street.

The chambers were on the ninth floor of an old building with a slow lift.

Xiao Chen had rented them under his own name three years ago, one room with a desk, a sofa, two filing cabinets and a window onto the water.

Nobody at Chi & Partners had known the lease existed.

He unlocked the door and the stale, papery air of six months met them.

He put down his bag.

Then he stopped, with one hand still on the door.

The skin of his neck had gone hot all at once, and his knees did not feel like his own.

"Xiao Chen?"

"It's not possible," he said. "I had mine two weeks ago."

"Your what?"

"My heat." His voice was strange and low. "After the blockers lapsed, the doctor said my cycle would come in clusters for a few months. She did not say this soon."

A wave of scent rolled off him and filled the little room.

Dark and warm, with cedar and smoke in it.

Shen Yan breathed it in and swayed on his feet.

"Oh," he said. "Oh. That's you."

"Lock the door."

He locked it.

He pulled down the blind over the window until the room went amber and dim.

When he turned around, Xiao Chen had put both hands flat on the desk and was breathing hard.

Shen Yan crossed the floor.

His own scent had sharpened, sweet and eager, answering.

He laid his palm on the back of Xiao Chen's neck, and Xiao Chen shuddered from head to foot.

"Not there," Xiao Chen said hoarsely. "Not with your teeth."

"I know. Your rule. I'm keeping it."

"Good."

"So where do you want me?"

Xiao Chen turned.

His eyes were black, the pupils swallowing the brown, and the mole under his left eye stood out against flushed skin.

"Everywhere. Take my shirt off."

Shen Yan undid the buttons with unsteady fingers and peeled the shirt back off his shoulders.

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