Chapter 83 | Lin at the Window

The north room was dark except for the lamp beside the bed and a strip of moonlight slipping through the partly open lattice.

Lin Yueyao stood at the window.

Xu Tianlong closed the door behind him.

She didn’t turn.

That was enough to tell him she hadn’t been standing there because she liked the view.

Xu unfastened his sword from his waist and leaned the sheathed blade beside the low table. The room smelled faintly of clean water and the plum fragrance Lin preferred on her robes. Outside, the guest courtyard had finally gone quiet. No carts. No suppliers. No men trying to turn a contract into a threat.

Lin’s fingers rested on the wooden sill.

"Did Golden Crescent get the herbs?"

"Yes."

"At the ordinary wholesale rate?"

"For that load."

A small pause.

"And you hit someone."

Xu looked at her profile. "The men who blocked the door."

Her mouth twitched before she stopped it. "I heard."

"Then why ask?"

"I didn’t ask whether you hit them. I said you did."

Lin finally turned her head enough to look at him. Moonlight flashed along the white streak in her hair.

"Su got the contract herself?"

"She did."

"You didn’t take over?"

"No."

Lin looked back through the lattice.

Xu waited.

The silence stretched until she exhaled through her nose.

"She’s good at it."

"She is."

"Very good."

"Yes."

Her fingers tightened slightly on the sill.

Xu crossed the room until he stood near the window, not touching her yet.

Lin stared into the courtyard for another moment. "I don’t dislike her."

"I know."

"That’s irritating."

A laugh almost escaped him.

Lin cut him a flat look. "Don’t laugh."

"I wasn’t." The corner of Xu’s mouth moved anyway.

"You were."

"Can’t prove it."

"I don’t need to."

That got the laugh out of him.

Lin’s glare held for a breath, then softened despite herself.

Xu rested his shoulder against the wall beside the window. "Ask me."

Her jaw tightened.

"Tianlong..."

"Ask."

She went still. That old aristocratic control settled over her so neatly that most people would have missed the strain underneath it. Xu didn’t.

"What is she becoming to you?"

He took a moment. He knew what he could answer. Anything beyond that would be a promise about Su that Su herself had never made.

"Golden Crescent is hers," he said. "Her choices are hers. I haven’t promised her a place in this room, and I haven’t promised she won’t ever choose one."

Lin’s eyes sharpened.

"That wasn’t comforting."

"It wasn’t supposed to be a lie."

Her lips pressed together.

Xu reached out and closed his hand around the wrist she had braced on the sill.

"Look at me."

She did.

"You’re the woman I chose as my wife."

Lin’s breath changed.

"You were the first woman who chose to stand beside me when I had nothing worth choosing. I don’t forget that."

"Being useful doesn’t make another woman more married to me than you. Running a business well doesn’t move you out of my bed. Su doesn’t need to become smaller for your place to stay yours."

The tension in Lin’s wrist eased under his fingers.

She looked away, but this time only as far as his chest.

"You make it sound simple."

"It is simple."

"It isn’t."

"For you, apparently not."

Her eyes snapped back up. "You—"

Xu pulled her closer by the wrist.

Lin stopped with her body almost touching his.

"Still worried?" he asked.

Her answer took too long.

"Less."

"Only less?"

"Don’t get greedy."

"Too late."

That finally broke her control. A quiet laugh slipped out, brief and unwilling.

Lin shook her head. "You spent the day beside a beautiful merchant, came back late, and somehow I’m the unreasonable one."

"I didn’t call you unreasonable."

"You were thinking it."

’A little.’

Xu kept that to himself.

Lin studied him. "She likes you."

"Maybe."

"Tianlong."

"I don’t know what she’ll choose."

Lin’s gaze held his.

Xu rubbed his thumb over the inside of her wrist.

"I know what you chose."

Her expression changed.

Not dramatically. Lin rarely gave him anything that easily.

Her shoulders loosened. Her chin lowered a fraction.

Then she reached behind herself and pushed the lattice shut.

The wooden panels met with a soft CLICK.

She slid the latch into place.

When she turned back, Xu was already closer.

"Better?" he asked.

Lin’s eyes dropped to his mouth. "A little."

"Liar."

"Husband."

The word came quieter than the rest.

Xu cupped her jaw and kissed her.

Lin made a soft sound into his mouth and leaned into him before pride could make her reconsider. The kiss started slow. Familiar. Her lips softened under his, then parted when his thumb traced her cheek and his other hand settled at her waist.

"Mmh..."

He kissed her again, deeper this time.

Lin’s fingers caught the front of his robe.

"Tianlong..."

"Mm?"

"Nothing."

Her eyes narrowed.

Xu brushed his lips across the edge of her mouth before she could answer.

That made her breath hitch.

He moved down to her jaw, then the side of her neck. Lin’s head tipped back against the shutter. The cool control in her face lasted until his mouth found the sensitive place below her ear.

"Ah..."

Xu stayed there, kissing and sucking slowly until the sound deepened.

"Nn... Tianlong..."

His hand moved from her waist to the curve of her ass through the silk robe. He squeezed.

Lin’s hips shifted against him.

"Husband..."

"What?"

She swallowed. "You’re enjoying this too much."

"Yes."

Xu kissed her again.

Long enough that her fingers loosened from his robe and slid around his neck instead. Long enough that her breathing stopped being even. He took his time with her mouth, tasting every quiet sound she tried to keep behind her lips.

"Mmh... mm..."

His palm moved over her back, then lower again. He pulled her flush against him so she could feel exactly what the kissing had done to him.

Lin shivered.

"Still only a little better?"

Her cheeks warmed. "You can tell."

Xu smiled against her mouth.

Then he stepped back.

Lin blinked.

He loosened his own outer robe and let it fall over the chair beside the wall.

Her gaze followed the movement.

Xu stood in front of her, fully hard beneath the thin inner layer, and saw the exact moment her composure slipped again.

"Kneel."

Lin’s lips parted.

A faint flush climbed higher over her cheekbones.

She lowered herself before him, silk whispering around her knees.

Xu threaded his fingers into her black hair, careful around the pale streak at her temple, and looked down at his wife.

Lin looked back up.

There was pride in her eyes even like this.

Pride, affection, and a heat she no longer bothered hiding.

She opened his inner robe with steady fingers.

His cock sprang free.

Lin’s breath caught.

"Still staring?" Xu asked.

Her mouth curved faintly. "I’m appreciating."

He laughed once.

Then Lin wrapped her hands around him.

Her grip was warm and firm. She stroked slowly at first, watching his face with the same concentration she brought to a sword problem.

Xu’s hand tightened gently in her hair.

"Use your mouth."

"Mm."

She leaned forward and kissed the head.

A warm flick of tongue followed.

Xu’s jaw tightened.

Her eyes brightened with quiet satisfaction.

She licked along the underside, slow enough to be deliberate, then wrapped her lips around the tip.

SLURP.

"Mmh..."

The vibration went through him.

Xu exhaled through his nose.

Lin took more.

Her cheeks hollowed around the shaft while her hands worked what her mouth hadn’t taken yet.

SLURP... SLURP.

"Nnh..."

Xu combed damp strands away from her eyes.

"Deeper."

Lin looked up at him through her lashes and obeyed.

The head slid past her tongue, farther into her mouth.

"Mmph..."

She paused, breathed through her nose, then pressed forward again.

GHK.

Her throat tightened around him.

Xu’s fingers flexed in her hair.

"That’s it."

Tears gathered at Lin’s lashes. She stayed on him and swallowed instead of retreating.

GULK.

The sensation punched straight through Xu’s control.

"Fuck..."

A small amused vibration traveled around him before pleasure swallowed it.

"Mmmph..."

Xu guided her by the hair, not forcing speed, only setting the depth.

In.

Out.

Her lips shone. Saliva slipped along his shaft and over her fingers.

SLURP. GULK. SLURP.

"Ngh... mmh..."

She took him deeper again.

GHK... GHK.

Her throat worked.

Xu’s hips shifted forward before he stopped himself from giving her too much at once.

Lin’s eyes flicked up to his. She pulled back just enough to breathe, lips swollen and wet.

"Don’t stop because of me," she whispered.

Then she took him back down.

Xu’s control thinned.

"Good. Take it."

Lin’s fingers tightened around his base while her mouth moved faster.

SLURP! SLURP!

"Mmph! Nnh—"

Her throat accepted another deep stroke.

GGK.

Xu felt the pressure build hard and fast.

Lin’s eyes stayed on him.

That was what finished it.

"Yueyao."

His hand held her hair as his hips pressed forward.

"Swallow."

His cock pulsed deep in her mouth.

SPURT. SPURT. SPURT.

Lin’s eyes squeezed shut.

"Mmmph!"

Warm semen filled her mouth in heavy pulses. She swallowed around him while he was still releasing.

GULP. GULP.

Xu groaned low in his throat.

"Fuck... good."

Lin stayed there until the last pulse eased.

Then she drew back slowly.

A thin strand of saliva connected her lower lip to the head before it broke.

She swallowed again.

GULP.

Xu remained hard in front of her.

Lin wiped the corner of her mouth with her thumb, then looked up with a small, almost smug softness.

She opened her mouth.

Empty.

Xu ran his hand over her hair.

"Good girl."

The smugness vanished beneath a sudden blush.

"Husband..."

"Stand."

Lin rose.

Xu lifted her face and met her mouth before she had fully straightened.

She tasted faintly of him.

Lin made a surprised sound, then melted into the kiss.

"Mmh..."

His hand moved down her back.

"Take it off. All of it."

Her lashes lowered.