Dearest Ah Lan

Chapter 7: Possessing Him, Rated 18+

"You did, Zhao Yunlan."

Zhao Yunlan sat up at those words, turning toward Shen Wei, hoping to read the reason for his melancholy. He'd noticed that there was something wrong, had been for a while now, but he'd become used to not asking. Shen Wei never shared his worries with him, but he hoped that would change tonight. Trying to catch his eye, Yunlan leaned closer when all attempts failed. "What did I do?"

Shaking his head in quick denial, Shen Wei moved back. With extreme difficulty, he resolutely ignored the delectable site so near him when Yunlan's robe fell open as he shifted on the bed. He really shouldn't have said anything about the turmoil bubbling up inside of him, almost choking him every minute since Yunlan's return, every day since he'd fallen in love. Because now, Yunlan was on the hunt.

"Shen Wei, talk to me," Zhao Yunlan urged on an uneven exhale. "Tell me what's wrong. Let me fix it." He shifted closer, intent clear in the lines of his body.

Shen Wei shook his head again, his eyes refusing to meet that gaze boring into him. Yunlan had the power to strip away all of the barriers that he had erected around himself with one glance, cutting through all of the subterfuge to get to Shen Wei's heart and his mind. He didn't want Yunlan to see his heart.

Feeling the bed shift under him, he looked up, mouth falling open on a silent gasp, his body thrumming with a hidden energy at Yunlan's surprising proximity. Jerking back, placing a hand behind him for balance, he rasped out, "I'm going to take a shower!" Scrambling off the bed, escape a strong urge in his mind, he moved to the closet to grab a clean T-shirt and sweats before practically running to the bathroom. Yunlan was a big, brooding presence behind, something he made all efforts to ignore while he made his cowardly escape.

Slamming the bathroom door shut behind him, he leaned against it, slowly knocking his head against the wooden surface. He had done it, had evaded the drugging pull of temptation. Another second on the bed, and he would have given in and taken that irrevocable step. Proud of himself, ruthlessly suppressing the gnawing hunger inside of him, Shen Wei stripped and stepped into the shower. He hoped the act of washing, the cold water running over his body, the door between them would all serve to drive away any more dangerous thoughts. And by the time he was done? Yunlan would have given up and gone home.

Twenty minutes later, Shen Wei stepped out of the bathroom, stopping dead at the sight of Yunlan still on his bed, one leg bent at the knee, a forearm thrown over his eyes. Mouthing a silent curse, Shen Wei stared in disbelief. What was he still doing here?! Shen Wei had just taken the coldest shower of his life, trying and failing to extinguish the flames burning inside of him; his only comfort had been that Yunlan would be gone by now. Why was he still here?

Moving forward cautiously, he leaned over the still figure, noting the even rise and fall of Yunlan's chest. Had he fallen asleep? He was so intent on him, that he lost his balance, lurching forward and catching himself from almost landing against those alluring lips by placing a hand on the nightstand, the other on the bed next to Yunlan's hip. Bumping against the furniture, he softly cursed, before straightening and shutting the partially-opened drawer with his hip. Moving from Yunlan's side, Shen Wei turned off the lights in the apartment, leaving a bedside lamp on for Yunlan's convenience before getting into bed. Muttering to himself about impossible men who didn't know when to leave, he pulled up the blanket, tenderly covering Yunlan's body, before covering himself with the soft material and lying back in bed.

After minutes spent contemplating the ceiling above him, where every rustle and movement from the man beside him caused him to freeze up, he turned on his side, his cheek pillowed on his hands, to take his fill of Yunlan's sleeping face. The fall of his lashes brushing his cheekbones, the rise of his nose, his delectable lips, that chin he wanted to bite, down to his throat and to the intriguing expanse of bare skin at the open neck of his robe. His hand reached out of its own volition, fingers sneaking in to caress naked skin before guilt drove him to pull back. Gathering the material close so that Yunlan didn't catch a cold, he softly petted the robe over his heart before slowly retreating.