He Is CEO/Actor, She Is Actress novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: Terms
Wenxin takes off the ring and spends the night with Haoran, who sets the terms; in the morning he recasts her in a press release, and Madam sends a warm message summoning her to dinner.
The ring caught on her knuckle and she had to turn it twice to get it off.
She set it on the glass table beside his cufflinks. It made a small, clean sound.
Haoran watched it land, and did not look away from it for a moment.
"Terms," he said.
"You want terms?"
"I want them said out loud, so neither of us can pretend later what this was."
He walked to the window and stood with his back to the city.
"It lasts until the last day of shooting. Then it's over."
"Fine," Wenxin said.
"Nobody knows. Not your agent, not the crew, not my family."
"Fine."
"You don't stay the night."
That one landed somewhere low in her chest. "Fine."
"And in this room, you're Miss Tang and I'm Mr. Lu."
"Why?"
"Because if I say your name," Haoran said, "I'll forget what this is."
She took that as an answer. It was the answer she had expected: he wanted her at arm's length, even now.
"And the part?" she asked.
He took out his phone, typed with his left hand and turned the screen toward her.
It was a message to his assistant. Recast Su Min. Tang Wenxin. Draft the release tonight and send it at eight.
Below it, a reply had already come. Understood, sir.
"You paid first," Wenxin said.
"Yes."
"You didn't have to."
"Yes," he said quietly, "I did."
He put the phone face down on the table.
When he came back to her he moved slowly, to give her time to leave.
She did not leave.
His hand found the back of her gown, and the first pin Xiaotong had set came free under his fingers.
He took the pins out one at a time and laid each on the table.
Each small click came a little lower down her spine.
"Miss Tang," he said against her shoulder, very low.
Her breath went out of her. "Mr. Lu."
The gown slid down and pooled around her feet.
His mouth was on her neck, then on her collarbone, unhurried.
He took his time and wasted none of it.
She had expected him to be careful. He was not careful. He was thorough.
Her hands went to his shirt and shook on the buttons, and he covered them with his own and finished the job.
His skin was hot under her palms. His heart was going hard, harder than his face had ever admitted.
When he lifted her onto the edge of the bed, she pulled him down with her by the collar.
"Look at me," he said.
She looked at him.
In the light from the city, his eyes were the same eyes that had watched her carry groceries up the annex steps at eighteen.
He kissed her then, finally, and it was nothing like the careful kisses she had rehearsed in the mirror for scenes.
It was deep and slow and certain, and her whole body answered it before her mind did.
Nobody had touched her in three years.
His hands made up for every one of them.
They traced her ribs, the dip of her waist, the inside of her knee, before sliding between her thighs to stroke her wet clit.
Each place they stopped, she forgot a little more of the ring on the table.
"Haoran," she almost said, and bit it back, because it was against the terms.
He felt her bite it back. His hand tightened at her hip.
"Say it," he muttered. "No. Don't."
He moved over her and pushed his hard cock into her wet pussy, and she held on to his shoulders.
There was only his weight, his breath, and the low sound he made when she arched up to meet his thrust.
She heard herself make a sound she had never made on any set.
He fucked her slowly, keeping her on the edge for a long time, patient and relentless.
She gripped the sheet and begged him in broken words that were not Mr. Lu or anything else.
When her climax finally broke over her, her pussy clenching hard around his cock, it broke hard.
He came deep inside her a moment after, his forehead pressed to her damp shoulder, shaking.
Neither of them said anything.
At three in the morning she got up and found her gown, because that was the third term.
He lay with one arm over his eyes. He did not ask her to stay.
She put the pins back in by herself in the elevator, crooked, and walked home along the river with her heels in her hand.
At eight the release went out.
Her phone buzzed on the pillow while she was still in yesterday's makeup.
Lu Pictures announces a change of casting. Tang Wenxin will play Su Min in Letters Under Snow. Gu Xiaotong will play Su Min's sister.
Under it, Xiaotong had already texted her. Wenxin-jie!!! I'm SO happy for you. Drinks on me!
Wenxin read it twice and felt guilty.
Then a second message arrived, from a number saved as Madam.
Wonderful news, dear. Dinner at the house tonight. Sit where you always sit.
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