19
Shen Dai’s face immediately grew hot.
He grasped the hand that Qu Moyu had wrapped around his waist lightly, secretly interlacing his fingers with his own. He wanted to reciprocate his affection, yet felt too awkward and embarrassed.
His fingers were deliberately squeezed by Qu Moyu, causing him to inhale sharply in pain. He tried to withdraw his hand, but it was already fastened in place. Soft teasing laughter came from beside his ear. His face grew even hotter, it was about to burn.
”It’s so faint…” muttered Qu Moyu unhappily. Seizing the pheromone-blocking patch with his teeth, he peeled it off, then rubbed the pointed tip of his nose against the gland, as if breaking the mud seal on a jar of wine, releasing that long-hidden aroma. He inhaled deeply, allowing the delicate fragrance of the epiphyllum to seep into his lungs. It seemed that in an instant they were cleansed of the impure air he had inhaled throughout the day.
He turned Shen Dai’s chin and took his supple petal-like lips into his mouth, gently kissing them with earnest attention - this exquisite way of kissing was like taking one’s time to savour a dish.
Shen Dai felt his body relax. He closed his eyes, experiencing the sensation of the tips of their tongues chasing and colliding. His fingers were clasped by Qu Moyu with just the right amount of pressure, causing him to feel as though he was firmly captured. And yet by restraining his own strength, Qu Moyu made his intention to keep a firm grip on the other person all the more ambiguous.
Licking his moist lips, Qu Moyu asked, “Where did you run off to these past few days?”
“I went home to spend some time with my grandmother.”
“And here I was thinking you were embarrassed and didn’t dare see me.”
Shen Dai had no idea how to reply to these teasing words.
“See? You get embarrassed so easily,” said Qu Moyu, chuckling to himself.
“President Qu, I…”
“What should you call me?”
“…Moyu.”
“Right.”
Qu Moyu stroked his soft hair, remarking with a bit of disappointment, “You were a lot more eager during those three days.”
Trying to conceal his embarrassment, Shen Dai hastily explained, “It was because of heat. During that period, I tend to be a bit more…”
“A bit more what?”, Qu Moyu leaned close to his ear, then nipped his earlobe gently. “A bit more shameless? Well, I like when you’re a bit shameless.”
Shen Dai really wanted to jump out of the car.
Qu Moyu ran his hand down the line of his back, caressing him until it reached the base of his spine. Then, in a beguiling voice, he added, “Still, I’d like it if you'd take a little initiative - don't you know how to act a little spoiled?”
“I… I can learn.”
He let out a soft laugh, “Even this needs to be learnt? You’re an Omega, isn’t it just instinct?”
Shen Dai eyes could not stop flickering, “Maybe I’m still not used to it.”
“Then learn.”
Qu Moyu placed a kiss on his fair cheek.
“You have to learn to make me happy. For instance, to smile often when you’re in my presence, to take the initiative to get close to me, to act cute and spoiled, to be able to converse - of course, when I’m working you need to be sensitive to my moods. But when I require you…” Qu Moyu’s kisses gradually travelled lower, encircling that fragrance-emitting nape “…you have to be as shameless as you like.”
Saying this, he took a bite of the skin near the gland.
Shen Dai’s body trembled. He could not help but shrink his shoulders back. He paused for a moment, then took the initiative to put his arms around Qu Moyu’s neck, and nestled himself into his broad chest.
If he had understood these words correctly, what Qu Moyu wanted was for him to learn to ‘please’ him. To please - this word was especially interesting; it did not imply an equal exchange of pleasure but trying to ingratiate oneself with a superior. Therefore, it seemed only right that Qu Moyu would ask him to “please” him.
“Good boy. Do this well and you’ll be rewarded.” Qu Moyu smiled brightly and continued,
“Your grandmother has been ill, hasn’t she? With stage two stomach cancer, and she’s scheduled for surgery soon.”
Shen Dai stared at Qu Moyu blankly.
”Things like the hospital, surgery, post-operative care, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy - I'll take care of all of that for you, as a reward for your…’services rendered outside the scope of the contract’.“
At that moment, Shen Dai was overwhelmed with a rush of conflicting emotions. He opened his mouth to speak, but for a long while didn’t know what to say. By the time he finally found his voice, the only thing left on the tip of his tongue was a barely audible “Thank you.”
There was no one that wanted to constantly be indebted to another person for help, especially the person they were infatuated with. It was too heavy of a moral obligation.
But to Shen Dai, there were many things on this earth that were far more important than his dignity, not least of all his family.
“You’re welcome.“
Qu Moyu had a thorough understanding of the art of control. The way he saw it, everything in the world was transactional. And just as interaction between matter followed the law of conservation of energy, relationships between people followed the law of karma; everybody wanted what they desired for the least effort possible.
The two spent the whole the journey exchanging intimacies. Even as they stepped out of the car, the ambiguous feeling surrounding them hadn’t completely dissipated. But Qu Moyu did little to avoid the gazes of the driver and housekeeper. Everyone was acting like nothing was amiss. Of course, Shen Dai wasn’t going to make things difficult for himself, so he, too, pretended as if nothing had happened. Or perhaps since everything that could have happened had already happened, so what else could he do?
・・・
Despite living at the Qu residence for three months, this evening was only the second time that Shen Dai ate with Qu Moyu in the dining room. Over dinner, Qu Moyu asked a few questions about matters at the Research Institute. This topic brought Shen Dai back into his comfort zone, so he was able to answer them with effortless fluency.
Before leaving the table after dinner, Qu Moyu said to Shen Dai with complete ease, “I’ll come look for you after dinner.“ He spoke neither loudly nor softly, neither boldly nor shyly, but with the easy assurance of someone in his own domain.
In contrast, these words threw Shen Dai into a state of uneasiness. Returning to his bedroom, he flipped through a good dozen or so pages of dense scientific literature before he managed to calm himself down. Then he took a shower, scrubbing himself so thoroughly that his skin turned red.
Damn, this wasn’t good. He never used to get so anxious this easily, but whenever it came to Qu Moyu, his anxiety would just skyrocket. Because back then wasn’t the same as now. Back then, he had lost all his senses under the influence of heat, whereas now, to be completely lucid, and for Qu Moyu and him to…… - he was going to need a bit of mental preparation.
As he came out of the shower, he noticed a few toiletries on the wash basin that hadn’t been there before. Turning back to look, he realised that even a few new bottles and jars had been added to the shower cubicle. Suspended on the wall hook was a bathrobe that clearly wasn’t his size.
He walked out of the bathroom and opened the wardrobe. Inside he spotted a few sets of loungewear belonging to Qu Moyu. And then there were the neatly arranged condoms and bottles of lubricant inside the drawer of the bedside table. Had all these been placed in the room during the few days that he was away?
The few vague fragments of memory that he had produced different answers.
He had been so tormented by carnal pleasure that he was on the point of losing consciousness.
During this time, Uncle Heng and Auntie Lan had entered the room more than once to bring meals and miscellaneous items, as well as clean and tidy the room.
Meanwhile, Qu Moyu had even made a few calls, went over various contracts and used his laptop to conduct a few video conference meetings.
In fact, he had remembered much of those three days. It was just that being too ashamed to remember, he had instinctively blocked it from his memory.
He recalled that the first time Uncle Heng came by: it was to bring condoms. The first time Auntie Lan came by: it was to bring over the bite stopper.
Qu Moyu had already started thrusting against his reproductive cavity, causing an intense amount of pain. It was a type of innate impulse of Alphas that would occur before ejaculation - the desire to enter the reproductive cavity to form a knot and sow the seeds of their future offspring. But that was absolutely something Qu Moyu would never do. It didn’t matter if it was condoms or the bite stopper, these were all for the sake of stopping this ‘impulse’, and preventing Qu Moyu from forming a genuine connection with him.
Qu Moyu only needed him as a convenient bed companion. This much was clear to him from the beginning.
That evening, Qu Moyu came over to Shen Dai’s room.
Shen Dai mustered up his courage and took the initiative to embrace him. Standing on tiptoe, he reached up for a kiss. The pair did not stop kissing as they made their way from the doorway and onto the bed.
So, it turned out that sex in a state of total awareness could also make one succumb endlessly...
・・・
The next day at work, Shen Dai could not stop himself from yawning all morning. Qu Moyu had only done it once the night before, but an Alpha’s stamina was really too formidable. Still tired and sleepy, he was once again almost late for work in the morning.
As he was in the middle of checking some data, Shen Dai heard a commotion coming from outside the laboratory.
Looking outside through the window, he saw a group of people passing by. He could see many familiar figures, some of them from the research department, but also some from the corporation. And then there was that one person he didn’t want to meet, but couldn’t ignore due to his exceptional stature and appearance: Qu Chengchen.
He knew that Qu Chengchen was here to inspect the laboratories involved in chemical production and likely would not go over to where he was, yet he still hid behind a filing cabinet. Though he still resented Qu Chengchen for the two times he had provoked him and for making things difficult for him, he knew that he was helpless against a top-tier Alpha. And if he couldn’t deal with him, he could at least stay out of his way.
He hadn’t expected that half an hour later, the office director would knock on the laboratory door, leading that group of people inside. He asked solicitously, “Engineer Shen, President Qu mentioned he’d like to inspect this area as well. If you’re not too busy, could you pause your work for a moment?”
Cheng Zimei was absent, leaving him as the only one in charge, and he couldn’t simply pass off the responsibility.
His gaze swept quickly over to Qu Chengchen, who wore an ambiguous half-smile. “Good afternoon, President Qu,” he said politely. “Good afternoon to all the senior staff. If you don’t mind, I’d like to explain some of the work we do here.”
After leading them on a tour of the laboratory and finishing his explanations, he assigned a few trainees to handle any questions
“Engineer Shen, we meet again,”said Qu Chengchen as he strolled up in front of Shen Dai. Smiling tactfully, he continued, “I feel quite bad about what happened last time. I heard you even had to go to the hospital afterward?”
”It was nothing. I did too much overtime during that period so I was just a little tired.”
Shen Dai steadied himself and met Qu Chengchen’s gaze. At the very least, in front of so many people, and in his own laboratory, he could still hold his ground. ”You didn’t affect me at all, President Qu.”
Qu Chengchen let out a knowing “Oh?”: “That’s good to hear. Otherwise, not only would I have undermined your presentation, but to subject you to pheromone interference on top of that. It would almost seem as if I were bullying you.”
“I don’t quite like the word ‘bullying’ either. It makes us sound like elementary school students.” With an insincere smile on his face, Shen Dai continued, “But whenever the two of you brothers scheme against each other, it’s always you who takes it out on me. So, what other word should we use to define that?”
Qu Chengchen’s eyes flickered with astonishment. Suffice to say that over the course of his lifetime as a top-tier Alpha, or at least, ever since he had gone through the differentiation process, he had never once encountered an Omega who dared provoke him.
As the metaphorical kings of the jungle, top-tier Alphas were for the most part treated with deference by Omegas. Especially the one standing before him now, who had always appeared quiet and obedient. Even if his appearance didn’t quite resemble that of an Omega, everything else about him was no different from that of an average Omega. So when he saw the obvious rage and contempt in Shen Dai’s eyes, he began to suspect that this Omega’s “quiet and obedient” demeanour had never been for him, but was merely something he put on for Qu Moyu.