believe you and Liu Jinhai are meant to be?” he admonished her.
Baozhen knew what that was like. He’d once thought his first love would be his only love. The only love possible in his overflowing heart. It was everyone’s rite of passage, but Lian was so sensible and Jinhai was such a... The scoundrel just wasn’t enough for her, and Lian should be bright enough to see it.
“Oh, Baozhen, you sound so serious.” She sighed.
“This is serious. We grew up together.” This was exactly the sort of conversation he was not good at. The serious ones. “I’m older than you. There are things I know from experience.”
Lian stiffened. “Are you saying you have a duty to protect me?”
“You have no real brothers.”
She made an impatient sound. “You of all people should know. Perhaps Liu Jinhai is not my other half—the summer to my winter, the dragon to my phoenix.” The lantern light gave her eyes a wicked gleam. “But at least he might like me enough to kiss me properly.”
Properly?
The wolf instinct took over and a lightning streak of fire shot through him. He reached for her and pulled her against him roughly. Lian grabbed on to his shoulders to steady herself before his mouth descended.
She made a startled sound as his lips pressed against hers. The moment he felt her yielding against him a fever streaked through him. He had known Lian all her life. If she wanted to flirt and kiss someone just to satisfy her curiosity it should be him.
And he had no intention of keeping this kiss “proper.”
* * *
The first touch of his lips stole everything from her. All strength drained from her limbs and every breath was surrendered to him. Baozhen was kissing her. Kissing her. But it was so much more than the brief meeting of lips he’d shown her in the courtyard. It was breath and body. The smell of him was so close. The roughness of his mouth was urging her own to yield, to open to him.
His arms tightened around her and his kiss was relentless. Magnificently so. She could feel the heat of him as he surrounded her. Her own skin had come alive...her senses were awake and sharpened, demanding more.
When he broke the kiss, she was gasping for air. Her heart pounded as if she’d run a hundred li.
“Baozhen...” She murmured his name, her voice filled with wonder. He’d devastated her.
“Put your arms around me,” he urged in a low voice.
Her hands gripped his upper arms, the crisp material of his tunic clenched in her fingers. Then she circled her arms around his neck as he pulled her fully onto his lap. His mouth captured hers again.
She sighed into the embrace. His palm traced a slow path down her spine before curving at her waist to pull her close. Their bodies molded together, soft against hard. If the first kiss had been meant to destroy her defenses, this second kiss was intended to savor the victory. Baozhen’s touch was confident as he tantalized her. With each caress her body responded, becoming flushed and swollen with pleasure.
So many nights trying to imagine what it would be like to be kissed. Not by anyone, but by Baozhen. She’d wondered if she’d know how to kiss him back, or where to put her hands. All those doubts fled in his embrace. He held her and guided her. There was nothing to do but feel.
He coaxed her lips gently apart and a tiny shock rippled through her at the touch of his tongue inside her mouth. Every muscle within her tensed, but she gripped him tighter, exhilarated. He explored her with just the tip of his tongue, inviting her to taste him in the same way. Before long she’d grown bold, reaching for him with every part of her, her body pressing against him. He was broader, harder, stronger than she’d imagined. And she ached with a fever more intense than any she’d ever suffered. An ache gathered low in her belly, in the soft place between her thighs.
Baozhen lifted his head and continued to hold her cradled against him, though they no longer kissed. In the dim light his eyes looked black and endless. He was breathing hard and she could hear each labored exhalation. Down below she could feel him hardening, and it fascinated her. This was the way a man kissed a woman he burned for.
“Your reputation is well-deserved,” she said in awe, barely able to find her voice.
“Don’t say that.”
He rested his forehead against hers. His skin was damp and flushed, though the night was cool around them. She didn’t say anything. She was too happy to think of words.
They stayed that way, folded around each other, for what seemed like a long time. Was she brave enough to try to kiss him now? She definitely, definitely hoped there would be more of that.
“We should go.”
Before Lian could gather her courage, Baozhen gently lifted her from him and back onto the bench.
The darkness hid her look of disappointment. She would have been content to stay there all night.
Baozhen held the lantern for her and they hardly spoke as they made their way back to their street. Lian couldn’t help glancing at him as they walked side by side. Every inch of her had become awakened and newly aware. She searched his face for some small sign that things had changed between them—that she was something more to him than the plain, skinny girl who lived in the next house over.
Baozhen turned to her as they neared the front gate of her house. He slanted her a half-smile that held unspoken knowledge and a shiver of pleasure coursed through her. She didn’t care if he’d given this sly look to a hundred other girls. He was looking at her that way now. Only her.
“No one is home yet,” she ventured as they came to a stop and he handed her the lantern. The light sputtered inside, the candle nearly spent. “They won’t be back for hours.”
She could see the walls of the Guo residence just beyond her house, and the thought of watching Baozhen disappear inside them tonight left a hollow feeling in her chest.
He ran his thumb over his mouth, swiping at the color that lingered there from the tint on her lips. There was something so masculine and assured about the gesture.
“That’s a foolish thing to tell me,” he admonished.
Heat rose up the back of her neck. How silly of her! She should have left him gracefully and then waited for Baozhen to come to her—but there had been so many times when she’d waited and watched from afar, hoping he’d turn away from his newest beauty just to notice her. Give her one little look.
Here she was once again—overeager and naive before him.
“Farewell, then,” she mumbled.
Hastily, she ducked through the gate without looking back. She couldn’t wait to disappear into her room and bury herself beneath her quilt.
A moment later she heard the sound of footsteps behind her and her heart leapt.
* * *
Lian. Foolish little Lian.
Baozhen followed her through the garden, appreciating the tapering of her waist and the slight sway of her hips beneath the thin robe she wore. He was discovering all those things very quickly. That she had a waist and hips, and a luscious mouth and breasts, and all the parts a woman held in her arsenal to bring a man to his knees. His blood pumped so hard he could barely think.
Lian was the most dangerous sort of woman. She was impetuous and passionate and she lacked any fear of him. She was also too innocent to know how this game was played, and too bold to play it with caution. If Jinhai had come to the park tonight, as Lian had intended, would it be a different wolf now following her irresistibly to her chamber?
Foolish Baozhen.
The courtyard was silent as Lian opened her door. She used the candle from the lantern to light the oil lamp inside, and Baozhen found himself for the first time in Lian’s sleeping quarters. He noticed