Chapter 103

A dull sound echoed from her neck. The hand Jiang Li had been resting on Li Huan’s back paused in place. As if in disbelief, she repeated the question, “Complete marking?”

The wrist on her back hesitated, no longer continuing the caress, as though on the verge of refusal. Li Huan tightened her arms, locking the woman firmly in her embrace. A fanatical light gleamed in the depths of her eyes.

With a low hum, her scorching breath washed over Jiang Li’s neck again and again. Li Huan restrained herself before extending the tip of her tongue to lightly lick the skin. Rich pheromones burst forth on her tongue.

Wanting to lock a rebellious little cat thoroughly into her own cage was clearly something that required a great deal of mental effort, Li Huan thought.

She would need a bit more patience.

“That’s right, complete marking.” She gripped Jiang Li’s back, refusing to let the woman in her arms budge an inch. Lowering her head, the tip of her nose brushed against the soft neck. Li Huan narrowed her eyes and asked softly in return, “Doesn’t Li Li want to?”

It wasn’t that she was unwilling, but once they completed the marking, the two of them would never be able to separate again.

“Do you like me that much?” Jiang Li tilted her head. The person buried against her neck seemed to halt her movements because of this puzzlement.

Her scorching breath slowed along with her shifting thoughts.

Jiang Li couldn’t quite understand Li Huan’s train of thought.

At the very beginning, she had trapped Li Huan in the Jiang Mansion because of that damned heat period, keeping her from going out. Li Huan had clearly shown some resistance toward her back then.

Later, for the sake of a task, she had tried to strip Li Huan of her freedom, confining her in the Jiang Mansion. After succeeding, she had left during Li Huan’s susceptible period because her body had collapsed from having to deal with 123.

For someone like herself, Jiang Li couldn’t even find a reason why Li Huan would like her.

So even though she had returned from abroad because the task hadn’t announced completion after so long, she had no intention of getting entangled with Li Huan.

Even if they had done all those things that seemed intimate to others, hadn’t it all been because of the pull of pheromones?

The task was just a tiny bit away from completion. Jiang Li only needed to keep her distance and watch Li Huan while time passed.

For that remaining sliver of progress, she could just wait it out. Barring any major accidents, it would finish eventually.

But after they met again, why did Li Huan now seem completely unbothered by everything she had done before?

No—perhaps it was more accurate to say that she even seemed to like her a lot now, going so far as to do something so presumptuous for her sake.

Jiang Li had to admit she had treated Li Huan well, but not so well that it explained why Li Huan liked her this much even now. It left her utterly baffled.

Before, Li Huan had obeyed because Jiang Li was keeping her as a canary. But what about now?

“Or… do you like my pheromones?” she ventured hesitantly—this was the other possibility Jiang Li could think of.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt the arm around her back stiffen. The breath buried in her neck stopped entirely, as if the entire space had frozen in absolute stillness.

Then, Jiang Li was suddenly yanked up from the floor.

She let out a startled cry as her body pitched forward toward Li Huan’s expressionless face. Her hands flailed wildly in the air. “Wait! Hold on… ahh!”

Li Huan ignored the noise in her ear and simply scooped the woman up, settling her onto her lap.

She felt that some things needed to be discussed with Jiang Li, point by painstaking point.

Perhaps she could even gain something unexpected from it.

Jet-black hair spilled across the sofa like the seaweed of a siren, tempting the fishermen on the shore.

Li Huan leaned back against the sofa, her intense gaze fixed on Jiang Li’s face. She frowned, deciding the distance between them was still too great.

“Wait! Hold on! What are you doing?”

Jiang Li had just steadied herself when her “seat” shifted again. Li Huan’s straight legs bent at the knee, and the woman who had been perched on her thigh now slid down further.

Their breaths mingled clearly in the space between them.

At such an intimately close distance, there was no way for the Jiang Li in her arms to escape. It was a perfect position.

Li Huan gazed contentedly at the woman right before her eyes. She reached out, threading her fingers through Jiang Li’s to interlace them perfectly, then pulled back while lying down. Her eyes lifted, a hint of danger flickering within.

With the woman locked securely in her embrace, unable to flee, Li Huan felt assured enough to release a thread of the dark thoughts she had kept chained in her heart.

Of course, she knew she couldn’t scare the person in front of her.

So… Li Huan unhesitatingly placed herself in a slightly vulnerable position. The light and shadow danced in her upturned eyes as she curved her lips.

“Then, let’s talk about how Li Li seduced me and then abandoned me.”

Caught off guard by yet another heavy accusation, Jiang Li pointed at herself in disbelief. “Me? Seduced and abandoned you?”

“Seduce and abandon”—it typically meant deliberately toying with someone at first, then discarding them once bored.

Jiang Li didn’t think she had anything to do with that phrase at all.

But the seriousness on Li Huan’s face told her that this was exactly how she appeared in Li Huan’s eyes.

“Doesn’t Li Li feel that way at all?” Watching the confusion on the face before her, Li Huan’s eyes twisted with a trace of hurt under that gaze. She sighed.

“………”

Jiang Li nodded along with Li Huan’s words. The fingertips clasped in her palm scratched lightly in response, and her shoulders shrugged upward in helpless bewilderment.

She stared blankly down at their tightly clasped hands—or more accurately, the ones Li Huan had gripped tight.

“No worries. I’ll ask, and Li Li answers. Once all the questions are done, you can go back and reconsider if what I said was wrong?”

Li Huan gently scratched the back of Jiang Li’s hand, subtly diverting her attention without a trace. A sparkle of amusement danced in the depths of her eyes.

Devouring the fisherman on the shore always took some effort.

“First off, what does Li Li think of our relationship?”

“Someone I once kept as…?”

Jiang Li spoke hesitantly, eyeing the unchanged smile on Li Huan’s face. Finding her own words odd, she added slowly, “Ordinary friends, I guess.”

Carrying the urge deep in her heart to bite down on this woman, Li Huan lowered her brows and gaze. She let out a soft huff at the person sitting on her lap.

“Would ordinary friends sleep together?”

It was a question, but Li Huan emphasized the verb in the middle.

Jiang Li fell silent for a moment before retorting defiantly, “That was five years ago. We’re ordinary friends now.”

Right. So not asking for any commitment before sleeping with you had been the worst mistake.

Even in their most passionate moments, they had only indulged in the pleasure of the here and now.

Annoyance churned in Li Huan’s heart. She inwardly cursed her past self countless times—why hadn’t she seized the chance to demand something from Jiang Li’s mouth? Anything would have been better than having nothing now.

The light in her eyes visibly darkened, and the smile on her face faded. Jiang Li tried to lift herself away, avoiding that gaze.

She had only spoken the truth.

“Fine. Then does Li Li still remember that susceptible period we spent together before?”

The woman on top of her tried to leave, but Li Huan refused to allow it. A flicker of fire flashed in her eyes as she yanked Jiang Li back down.

An Alpha’s strength far surpassed an Omega’s. Li Huan didn’t even use much force before Jiang Li was pinned firmly on her lap, unable to move.

Their bodies clung together in extreme intimacy, skin pressed tightly to skin, their gazes entwining in the air.

After mentioning the susceptible period, Li Huan stared fixedly at Jiang Li’s expression, not missing a single detail. Her heart pounded wildly, and a glint flashed in her eyes.

She had never asked Jiang Li if she had been intimate with other Alphas in those five years, or if she had helped anyone else through their susceptible period…

She didn’t want to ask. She didn’t dare.

If she got the awful answer she had already imagined, Li Huan would simply lock the woman in front of her away and exhaust every resource to hunt down that damned ex.

A dead ex would never have the slightest chance of appearing before Jiang Li again.

“Hey!” Seeing Li Huan’s lowered eyelids, as if some anxious beast was stirring in her heart, Jiang Li instinctively reached out and smacked her shoulder hard.

Li Huan looked up, something new in her eyes—was it longing? Or fear?

Jiang Li wasn’t sure, but she could answer the previous question. “I remember that time.”

As if compelled by some force, she studied the look in Li Huan’s eyes and added, “After all, that was the only time I’ve spent an Alpha’s susceptible period with one.”

It was the first time, and the only time.

So Li Huan automatically filtered out the extras, arriving at a conclusion that softened her heart—

She was Jiang Li’s one and only Alpha.

With that realization, Li Huan felt indulgent enough to yield a little on the “ordinary friends” remark. A smile overflowed at the corners of her lips again.

The sharp tip of her fingernail dug into Jiang Li’s chin. Li Huan chuckled lowly as the recently softened face glared back at her.

It clearly hurt, so why not resist, Baby?

That instinctive gentleness, that unconscious yielding to her—wasn’t it something even she herself hadn’t noticed…?

Li Huan boldly played with Jiang Li’s chin, swinging it back and forth before her. The budding thorn in her heart was effortlessly soothed by the woman in front of her.

It was exactly this goodness that made her unwilling to let go, no matter what.

Li Huan lifted her closer, laying bare all the emotions in her eyes for Jiang Li to see. Her long lashes curved as she breathed out softly.

“So, what does Li Li think—”

Jiang Li’s ears twitched slightly as she listened to the low voice murmuring by her ear. Her back stiffened, and her hands unconsciously gripped the woman tighter.

“—about how I, who you accompanied through my first susceptible period, spent the five years after we parted?”

Slowly, word by word, Li Huan posed this question.

She asked with utmost seriousness. Jiang Li thought of the few bottles of pheromone liquid she had left behind, which should only have helped with withdrawal.

So, Jiang Li guessed, “Took suppressors? Or maybe got marked by some…”

Before she could finish, Li Huan clamped a hand over her mouth.

They faced each other directly, and Jiang Li could clearly see the rage and disgust burning in Li Huan’s eyes right then. Towering fury scorched her dark pupils to a deep, smoldering black.

Disgusting.

Just hearing those words from Jiang Li’s mouth—suggesting she had anything to do with someone else—made bile rise in Li Huan’s stomach and throat, churning with acrid nausea.

Forcing down the wave of revulsion, Li Huan pressed tightly over Jiang Li’s lips, not allowing a single word to escape.

The leaping flames nearly solidified into tangible fury as she leaned her entire body forward. Their faces drew perilously close.

Her, anger-tinged eyes exuded heavy pressure.

Li Huan emphasized to Jiang Li, word by word.

“I relied on Li Li’s pheromones to get by.”

So don’t discard me.

Don’t link me to those others.

I’m not unclean.