Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

He held his mouth to TangShi’s, her nose pressed to his cheek and only pulled away a hairsbreadth to separate them when he felt her starting to panic. Both breathing heavily and unmoving from their statue like positions.

Rong Cai snarled at the show of affection, turning away as soon as YuZhi leaned in and kissed her and stormed off back inside, slamming the gate as he went and cursing out that asshole Leng under his breath. He spent all this time trying to get close to TangShi, being the gentleman, the friend, and this rude ass swoops in and publicly kisses her like he owns her. It made him crazy.

YuZhi waited, until he heard the smash of the metal gate clanging as it closed, and mentally high fived himself. Too immersed in his pissing contest to feel anything about kissing her this time. He knew it was petty and immature, but something about Rong rubbed him up the wrong way. He hated how he fawned over TangShi whenever he saw him with her.

He was now aware of the way TangShi was gawping at him with labored breathing, her eyes wide and her lips slightly parted in shock and felt guilty. He knew he shouldn’t have sprung that on her like this, but damn that guy needed a clear message to back off. He would maybe stop harassing her.

“YuZhi?” TangShi uttered nervously, her words coming out strained and quiet as her voice wavered and YuZhi loosened his grip on her. Leaning back to give her breathing space but not fully letting go.

“I’m sorry. I just missed you a lot these past few days and that guy knows how to rile me. It was for his benefit. I’m sorry, don’t think too much on it.” YuZhi apologized, mumbling his excuse, turned, taking her hand in his and led her back to his car. Fully aware of how flustered she was and yet he wasn’t sorry at all.

“If Rhea saw that….” TangShi caved, her own sense of guilt eating away at her and allowed YuZhi to lead her and deposit her in the jeep before she fully calmed herself down. Blinking his way as he got in too and they both put on their seatbelts.

“She needs to get used to things that are nothing to do with her.” He answered under his breath, not quite loud enough for Tang to hear yet she caught it, only just.

Unlike that time they kissed properly, YuZhi seemed unaffected and like he had not done anything at all wrong this time. While TangShi’s heart was racing, butterflies were going wild in her stomach, and she was lightheaded. Her thoughts hectic over the way his soft lips had pressed to hers and she couldn’t remove the memory of how he felt and smelled when that close to her.

It was a nothing kiss, a literal pressing of his closed mouth on hers and yet TangShi was completed knocked for six. Maybe because she was aware her feelings for him were growing stronger the longer she was around him, that the simplest of touches were starting to be meaningful lately. So this one blew her mind.

“Tang? Did you hear me?” YuZhi snapped her out of her dazed state by putting his hand on hers as they drove home. Making her flinch in surprise because she wasn’t aware she had zoned out.

“What?” She balked his way, unsure what she missed and tried to pull herself together. Knowing she was being weird and should ignore that peck as nothing, the way he seemed to be doing.

“I said where to? What do you want for dinner? Japanese, Western, Korean?” YuZhi really was not overthinking it at all, and happily focusing on what to put in his stomach. Maybe because this time was with intent and in his head had a purpose, whereas the last time, was purely emotional.

“Ummmmm….. you pick. I don’t mind.” She turned away to stare out the side window, pressing her palm to the cheek that was shielded from him to cool her temperature and tried to bring back her sense of calm

“I fancy sushi. We’ll go hit a Japanese restaurant then. Also, did ZhengLi give you the schedule for the upcoming events we need to attend. He said he would put in a brief about each, so you know exactly what to expect and wear. Use your credit card and I’ll sort out the bills.” YuZhi was already focused on other things, and she tried to regulate her breathing to sound normal.

“kayyy.” She answered halfheartedly, her mind elsewhere. Unable to figure out YuZhi’s two extremely different reactions to the same thing.

“Hey, you okay?” YuZhi reached out and planted his hand over her head, cupping the top gently, his thumb rubbing her hair as he turned her to him, and she smiled impulsively.

“I’m fine. I just….. I didn’t expect the kiss, after what happened ….” She didn’t want to bring up the last time as he had abandoned her for days after.

“I’m sorry. Although, you should get used to the occasional peck given we will be expected to do it sometimes. Red carpet events normally have some degree of photographers demanding kiss shots. It’d be weird if we never do it.” He shrugged, letting go of her to signal a turn off and went back to focusing on the road.

“Right, of course.” Her face flamed again, her breathing raspier as she hit a full-on flutter and YuZhi side eyed her with a small frown.

“You can’t act like that if we ever do it in public, Tang. It’s obvious I don’t kiss you if you freak out and clutch your pearls.” He smiled, a mischievous look on his face, amused at her, and TangShi reddened further.

“It was unexpected, if I had known…maybe I wouldn’t be so flustered.” She tried to excuse her obviously weird behavior.

“Should I pull over and do it enough times I can no longer shock you with it?” YuZhi winked, playful at how much this was turning her into a sweet virginial mess. He never thought TangShi would be overly prude to a peck, given eight years ago he had his tongue in her mouth around an hour after meeting her.

“What?!?! NO!!” TangShi squealed it at him, thinking he was serious and slid away with wide eyes and raised palms as though he was going to maul her to death. Mortified, embarrassed, and excruciatingly shy.

YuZhi burst out laughing, reaching out to catch her pointer finger in between two of his and shook her hand to mock her. Eyes on the road, but his genuine warm laugh echoed around them and lightened the mood. TangShi rarely heard him laugh and when he did it, was the most melodic sound. He had a sexy voice anyway, but his laugh was particularly nice.

“You’re so easy. Relax. I promise next time I have to do it; I’ll warn you first. It shouldn’t be something we have to do often but maybe we should do it a few times to stop the shocked reaction. You look about ready to cry or faint. Was it really that bad?” YuZhi headed in the direction of his favorite sushi bar and kept glancing her way as she returned to sitting properly and straightening her dress. Smoothing her hair in a bid to calm back to a normal level.

“Sometimes, I really don’t trust you.” She joked, smiling at him with a reserved shyness and got a wink in response. YuZhi reached out and smoothed his hand over her head and down her ponytail.

“You can always trust me. I promise, Tang. I’ll always protect you even if sometimes my methods seem a bit weird.” YuZhi was back to serious and scolded himself mentally, that if there was ever a next time he should prewarn her before lunging on her.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.