There was a word that Nastasia did not know, however, it did not keep her from understanding what was being professed to her. Hearing such honeyed words fall off his tongue, fitting in line with the devilish playboy image she had of him, her first reaction was to roll her eyes and not take him seriously.
However, the gentle way he held her close, as if she were a precious treasure, had her pausing that thought. This, coupled with the way he took in her sent and relaxed boneless against her, made her reconsider the validity of his words.
Instead, all of these put more cracks in the great barrier erected around her heart. In fact, it wouldn't be off to say that, in all the time she had been in his care, gaping holes had already begun opening up to reveal a fleshy heart beneath.
It made her feel warm inside.
Although she was a woman who made great pains to be self-reliant after she entered college, in part a bit fearful of ending up like her mother after her father's death, the feeling of stability and safety he gave her was comforting. It was like having a mountain to hold on to in the face of hurricane winds.
This wasn't something she ever thought she would feel the need to seek out.
Perhaps she had gradually begun to gravitate toward this type of feeling due to her precarious situation. After all, being tossed into a world where she couldn't communicate with others and understood nothing of its inner-workings, there wasn't anything she could do to help herself.
Although she had been given power, which she discovered much later, she wasn't given any cheats. Everything she came to know, she had to gradually learn it over time.
Nastasia could be considered as an infant in this world. Lacking both communication and knowledge. To survive there needed to be a person to aid her. It was much like how a parent taught their child to carry on in the world and not falter beneath its trials and tribulations.
Li Yu Rong had been this for her.
He taught her how to write and speak the language of this world. He gave her shelter and protected her from things that tried to harm her from the shadows. As well, he gave her access to the wealth of knowledge written down in the books of his study, helping her to understand the parts that she could not grasp on her own.
Whether or not this was love or dependence, Nastasia didn't know. She had never been in love before. Her life had always been too preoccupied with hopping from one career to the next, learning all that she could learn so that she could be a pillar unto herself.
Although she couldn't be sure, as she thought about him and all that he had done for her, her heart couldn't help being doused in sweetness. The corner of her lip kicked up into a gentle smile and her eyes crinkled with a subtle happiness, unbeknownst to herself.
She was the type to go with the moment. It was why she had so many skills. Taking up new things once her fancy for it struck. Though she had never acted rashly with personal relationships, she felt that she no longer wanted to deny herself.
Especially not now, aglow with the night they shared and the fond reminiscence his warmhearted actions invoked.
Therefore, a few moments after Li Yu Rong uttered those sugary words, she lifted her arms to wrap around his broad shoulders. Her small, dainty hands pressed on his back, pulling him firmly against her. "Okay," she uttered lowly, the tone a bit shy in its deliverance.
Stiffening above her, Li Yu Rong had to take a second or more to process the utterance before he could be assured that his wishful heart hadn't lied to him. As she sat there in his arms without a reaction, he had been prepared to settle it with an off-handed joke before helping her to get ready for breakfast.
Her reaction was completely beyond his expectations.
A surge of a emotion filled his chest to the brim. It spurned him forward as he took her mouth with his lips and tongue, violently, to impart on her just how much her single-worded acceptance overflowed his being with all that he felt for her. One hand came to rest on her cheek while the other moved down the naked flesh of her side to her hip.
The heated skin flushed to his body ignited his desires and he fully intended to toss her about one more time before reluctantly parting from her so that she might fill her stomach. This thought in mind had Nastasia start to struggle to beg for leniency as her empty stomach couldn't handle a second more without a bite to eat.
Before either could get too far with their plans, Nastasia's stomach cried out, loudly, in protest. In the end, she didn't need to do anything as Li Yu Rong tore his mouth away from her with a lightly muttered curse. It was then, as the blanket fell away from them, that she was forced to recall that both of them were naked.
After what happened last night, of course, they would be. However, that didn't stop her from squeezing her eyes shut while a bit of red dusted her cheeks. "Y-Y-You! Doing this now, in daylight, bad!" She chastised him in her embarrassment.
A roguish grin twisted his lips as his eyes crinkled in amusement. As he leaned over her body, his long dark hair slipped passed his shoulder to trail down her chest. He asked with his lips right above hers. "Oh, why is it bad?"
She tried to keep her breathing even in this horrible position. His hair was tickling her breast, making it hard for her to sit still, to say nothing of how bashful she felt toward the closeness of his naked body in broad daylight.
"Indecent!" She cried.
Li Yu Rong laughed as he wondered when and where she learned this word. Taking his finger, he trailed it from her lips, down her chin, and across her heaving chest. "True, the things I did to you last night were rather indecent. In fact, the things I wanna do to you right now are just as indecent, but..." he murmured against her lips, "doing this with you is an expression of all the affection I feel for you, chǒng'ér. It's something that should be done every second, of every minute, of every day, regardless of day or night." He declared without an ounce of shame.
'Ah!' Nastasia screamed internally. 'I can't talk to him anymore!'
She tried to roll over to her side and curl up with her eyes closed, to avoid him. With how she felt after one night if he went after her like that every day, how could she find the strength to get out of bed?
His snickering rankled her bones. She really wanted to do something to get back at him but, while naked and in this position, she didn't dare.
Having had his fill of teasing her after being interrupted, feeling more in control of his body, Li Yu Rong stood up from the makeshift bed. He grabbed his discarded clothes and began dressing. Once he was done and saw that Asya was still as he left her, stewing in her embarrassment, he began gathering up her clothes.
Kneeling at the side, he reached over and forced her up. "Okay, if you want breakfast before its gone, you need to quickly get dressed." Though he said that, he insisted on helping her through the whole process, straightening her garb and then tying the robe and skirt in place with her sheer blue sash.
Through the whole thing, Nastasia ignored him, unable to face him after what he said and did. Her skin was too thin and didn't know how to react in the face of such salacious teasing.
As she tried to stand from the bed, her legs felt like jelly. One step and they buckled on her. Li Yu Rong caught her around the waist and pulled her to him, sweeping her up into a bridal hold. "Hey," she cried out, "I can walk!" She insisted.
"If you say so, chǒng'ér," however, even if she said so, he didn't put her down. Instead, he kept his hold of her as he exited the tent.
Nastasia, however, was occupied with thoughts of that final word he spoke. He often called her in such a way. This was how he called her when they were in the Palace of the Four Gates or when they were outside, but alone.
"Chǒng wù," was how he called her when they were in front of outsiders. It was also how other's referred to her when they placed Li Yu Rong's name in front of it, in a possessive form. Though she had asked after what it meant to Paoxiao and others living at the Palace of the Four Gates, no one seemed willing to give her an answer.
While he walked to where everyone was gathered for the morning meal, Nastasia noticed that eyes kept trailing them while trying to seem as if they weren't looking. The expressions on their faces were choked as if they had been dealt a serious wrong. This notice pulled her from her inward thoughts.
It was then she remembered Hui Se Ying's words as she woke earlier. Her face heated to dangerous heights as she buried it in Li Yu Rong's chest.
Suddenly, she didn't want breakfast anymore.