Offense - Chapter 33

Chapter 33

The curtains in the room had long been drawn. They were a heavy, navy blue, completely opaque, like a cascading ocean.

A very, very faint, musky scent lingered in the air.

Her palm was slick, as if she were holding a slippery fish.

The sensation was quite marvelous. If Lian Wan lowered her head just a bit, she could brush against the woman's damp eyelashes. Zhou Yanqian had actually let go of the tormented bedsheets and Lian Wan's hair long ago, and was now just staring blankly at the ceiling. But her body heat still enveloped Lian Wan's, a continuous, soft, and fragrant warmth flowing between them.

A feeling of deep attachment suddenly swept over her, unopposed, filling her heart like a churning blue sea. Lian Wan pressed close to Zhou Yanqian's ear, hugging her waist tightly amidst the rumpled sheets. She wanted to say something—something like in the videos she'd watched that afternoon. Something before or after, words that would make them both smile in tacit understanding. Then the camera would spin, and light and shadow would pour like flowing water over the woman's bare back. But she quickly realized she had already missed the opportune moment for such intimacy, right when she had kissed Zhou Yanqian without warning.

But just a moment ago, Zhou Yanqian hadn't seemed very willing. She had pushed her, even bitten her, but she wasn't strong, and it hadn't hurt at all.

As Lian Wan's thoughts churned, her mind, which had been feverish with desire, gradually began to cool.

What have I done, she thought.

So when Zhou Yanqian looked up, she saw Lian Wan's tightly pressed lips and, perhaps, a hint of well-hidden disappointment in her eyes. Lian Wan maintained her usual, inexplicable stubbornness, a reserved air that refused to show weakness despite her confusion. But her lips and the corners of her eyes were still crimson from their recent intimacy, making her look fragile and almost pitifully endearing. She said nothing, and Zhou Yanqian felt a strong urge to reach out, ruffle her hair, and make her smile.

As she thought this, her fingers lifted slightly before falling back down.

Although the evening had been somewhat unexpected, she wanted to see what Lian Wan would do next.

Their gazes met for an instant. Lian Wan hardly dared to look at Zhou Yanqian's face. She averted her eyes, hesitated, faltered, then finally met her gaze bravely. After a long silence, she spoke.

"I'm sorry."

A lock of hair slipped down her forehead as she spoke, making her look even more somber and downcast.

"I was too hasty."

Even without any experience, Lian Wan could sense how much tonight meant to Zhou Yanqian.

From the moment they met, with Zhou Yanqian sticking so close to her, to the bath set for two in the bathroom, the dishes on the table, the soup in the clay pot, and the unlit scented candle on the nightstand—Zhou Yanqian had planned out every detail of her ideal evening, step by step. And Lian Wan had been the fortunate object of this plan.

But in a moment where lust clouded her judgment, she had ruined all of Zhou Yanqian's careful preparations.

Her stomach was empty and her mouth was dry. Lian Wan lowered her eyes, her voice growing dejected without her realizing it.

She figured Zhou Yanqian must be just as hungry, and was probably cursing her inwardly. Feeling both miserable and guilty, she repeated, "I'm sorry."

Zhou Yanqian chuckled to herself.

Before her amusement could fade, she heard Lian Wan explain in a low voice, "I wasn't thinking straight just now. I just wanted to kiss you..."

"Oh?" A puppy can't be left without a response, Zhou Yanqian thought. She replied slowly, wrapping her arms around Lian Wan's neck.

She pressed against Lian Wan's warm carotid artery, feeling it tense up. She let out a deliberate little gasp and murmured ambiguously, "And what about the rest? Where did you learn that?"

The question was too direct. Lian Wan felt an instinctual embarrassment and, not wanting to answer, changed the subject. "You must be starving. Should we go eat?"

"I'm not hungry." Zhou Yanqian, for reasons of her own, snuggled into Lian Wan's neck and started laughing. She laughed for a good while before saying slowly, "Didn't you just sate my appetite?"

After she said this, the woman, leaning in Lian Wan's arms, clearly heard her suck in a sharp breath.

A breath she didn't seem to let out.

Zhou Yanqian looked up and nudged her gently. "Are you angry?"

"No." Lian Wan looked at her, her eyes a translucent black. Her skin was fair, and the flush of passion at the corners of her eyes was slow to fade. The color had only lightened, losing its intensity. Paired with her unconsciously pleading gaze, she actually looked somewhat innocent—not at all like the person who had pinned her down without a word half an hour ago.

Lian Wan said with complete sincerity, "I would never get angry with you."

"Mm," Zhou Yanqian said, "I'm not angry either."

She really, really wanted to reach out and stroke her head.

Lian Wan's voice was low as she pressed her face close. "I don't have any experience. I've always been alone, and my situation... it isn't good..."

"That doesn't matter," Zhou Yanqian said.

She finally stretched out an arm, wrapped it around Lian Wan's head of soft hair, and began to stroke it gently.

"I like you."

Zhou Yanqian whispered in Lian Wan's ear, watching it slowly turn red. "So it's okay, whatever you do to me."

Clothes lay in a heap by the bed. Their skin was hot where it touched, their stomachs were empty, and their minds were hazy. Yet the crystal chandelier remained bright, leaving no place for emotions or expressions to hide. The night was absurdly dazzling. As if a flash of white light crossed her mind, Lian Wan pulled back slightly, stared into Zhou Yanqian's eyes, and finally asked, "Why do you like me?"

Asking the question felt as satisfying as flipping on a light switch in the dark. A slight tingle ran from her spine to her tailbone. Zhou Yanqian's hand was still cradling her head.

Why would Zhou Yanqian like her? Only as the words left her lips did Lian Wan realize how long that question had been painfully circling in her heart.

In her mind, she silently listed the reasons related to this question she had pondered countless times:

Zhou Yanqian had attended a university Lian Wan could never get into and had been to so many places Lian Wan had never reached, even in her truck. She must have once had a good, respectable job—at the very least, one that didn't require her to toil from dawn to dusk in dusty workshops and on dirty roads, enduring gossip and scrutinizing stares.

She was so special, so beautiful, so attentive to her appearance—so different from everyone else here.

She had seen the glamorous world far away; even after returning to this small town, she still stood out so conspicuously. She ought to look down on everyone. She shouldn't have given Lian Wan a second glance, even as Lian Wan coveted her just like all the others.

Lian Wan had thought this from the very first moment she saw her.

But later, during those lonely, late nights, Lian Wan had learned to find reasons to comfort herself after waking from her dreams. She would stand on her balcony in the dead of night, clutching a beer, trying to convince herself that Zhou Yanqian didn't belong here, that she shouldn't be mixed up with someone like her. Zhou Yanqian should be living in a city, in a movie, in every summer night after a rainfall. Lian Wan would be driving her truck, and news of Zhou Yanqian would be on the radio, and the scent of her fragrant shampoo would drift through the air.

She would only be a brief passerby in Lian Wan's life, and Lian Wan's feelings for her were the very thing she should care about the least.

Perhaps thinking this way was enough to put Lian Wan at ease, enough to let her crush the empty beer bottle in her hand and talk herself out of her ever-growing greed.

But now, that was no longer enough.

Lian Wan's gaze was vacant, her long, beautiful eyelashes drooping to hide a host of complex emotions. Zhou Yanqian watched her for a moment, then laughed. "You want to hear me praise you?"

"You have to be sincere when you ask a question," Zhou Yanqian said, her smile radiant. "Kiss me, and I'll tell you."

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