Page 80 of He Is My Bride
“I love yoga.” Li Ying had been to a class exactly once.
While trying to fit in with the girls, Li Ying never began ignoring Huang Xiang. The man was too easily talked over, not that he seemed to want to take the spotlight, but at the very least Li Ying made sure he got to finish his sentences.
Hanjun kept his hand on Li Ying at all times now, letting his watchful eye scan the crowd, staring down anyone who was looking at Li Ying in a way he didn’t like.
At first Li Ying didn’t notice Hanjun keeping vigil, but he noticed when his hand began rubbing gently up and down his back.
Li Ying kept giving his conversation partners his full attention, but he was perceptive and aware of the gazes they were getting from everyone else now. Li Ying was used to being the center of attention and the life of the party though, so it didn’t bother him when others looked at him.
His way of speech and voice were lively, the way his hands talked and the way he moved all highly emotive. Li Ying liked to play with his ponytail or his nails while listening, nodding: ‘u-huh, u-huh!’ He laughed freely, clasping his hands together with a clap, re-capturing people’s attention just as they got their eyes off him. His highly animated way of being stood in contrast to the restrained, demure ladies who didn’t seem to want to take up space.
Li Ying didn’t mean to flirt, it’s just the way he was, and as such, he was captivating to follow. Like a little bird, fluttering and chirping in his stoic keeper’s hand. But Hanjun wasn’t having it: any man who dared to look at Li Ying for too long got his death stare. Li Ying looked up at Hanjun every now and then adoringly; ‘Right, right, Hanjun?’
“Mm.”
“Yeah? You like yoga in bed too?” Li Ying was tipsy by now and becoming bolder, but he was still nervous flirting with Hanjun in front of the others. He shifted his legs, switching his ankle over the other, and subtly rubbed them together.
Lin Yong was staring at him again, so was Wang Hao and a few others. Their attention was grabbed by those impossibly long legs, and the thick leather buckles closed around Li Ying’s ankles sparked their imaginations. Their companions didn’t fail to notice.
The more frustrated some of the girls got, the more Li Ying was being, well, Li Ying. If he noticed someone was annoyed at him he justdialed it up. Hanjun didn’t care about the jealous stares of the girls, but he did care about the stares of their men. Hanjun crept his hand up to Li Ying’s neck, rubbing a few times before giving his neck-hairs the slightest tug.
Li Ying got the good shivers, and he barely kept his eyes from rolling back as they reached the top of his head. “Hanjun…” he hissed quietly, blushing, wanting to chastise the man for getting naughty in public, but when he looked at Hanjun, he saw his steely eyes nailed at something else.
Li Ying followed Hanjun’s gaze and caught Lin Yong looking away slowly, sipping his drink. Li Ying had to give it to Lin Yong, his face was thicker than Wang Hao’s, who had snapped his head around quickly as if not wanting to get caught staring, again, but too late.
Hanjun bore his eyes on Wang Hao for longer this time, knowing the Wang could surelyfeelhis piercing stare if nothing else. Hanjun kept rubbing Li Ying’s neck right under his leather choker. Hanjun looked down at Li Ying and saw the man swallow, the continued stimulation putting a new kind of tension in his body.
Hanjun slid his finger under the choker and pulled it just a little tighter. Li Ying’s head was rushing as he felt the gentle squeeze against his throat. He let Hanjun pull him towards himself, though it was no more than an inch.
Hanjun kissed his hair, his eyes raising back to the crowd to see whether—yes: he caught a few of the men watching his possessive display, and as Hanjun locked eyes with one of them, the man couldn’t look away until it was over.
Hanjun released Li Ying and leaned back on the couch, his hand returning to rest on Li Ying’s shoulders.
Li Ying chuckled nervously and returned his attention to the girls he’d been talking with. They had gracefully turned to discuss with each other, pretending they hadn’t noticed anything. Li Ying was happy he was too nervous to be aroused or he would have been in trouble, even if he thought that had been so hot just now.
Are we being totally obnoxious with our flirting?Li Ying fretted.For a Wu, you sure like to show off to your peers, Hanjun!
Volume kept rising as people drank more. Someone proposed a drinking game, “Let’s play ‘Two Little Bees!’”
“Hear! Waiter, bring us baijiu!”
“I want to play, I want to play!” Li Ying raised his hand, cheeks already flush from booze as well as the flirting, but he was only getting started. “How do I play?”
“You know the game ‘rock, paper, scissors?’” Huang Xiang asked him and explained, “There’s a rhyme at the start: ‘two little bees fly down to a flower and fly,’ and at the end you play ‘rock, paper, scissors.’ If you win, you pretend to slap the other player; if you tie, you must both pretend to kiss, and if you mess any of this up, you have to drink.”
“Sounds fun, and simple enough.”
“However, I would like to propose a house rule.” Huang Xiang stood up and raised his hand.
“Let’s all hear Sir Xiang’s new rule,” Lin Yong declared and everyone turned to look at him.
Huang Xiang clasped his hands together audibly and began, “To make things more interesting, let whoever loses the ‘rock, paper, scissors’ take a drink as well after they are ‘slapped!’”
Everyone agreed that this was a good rule, since it would lead to more drinks going down.
One person was appointed as the drinks pourer, so the chugs could proceed swiftly to keep the quick pace of the game, which was meant to lead into the shot-triggering mess-ups. Due to this setup, the current players would take a seat at the centermost table, and everyone gathered around to watch and cheer them on.
“Let Sir Xiang go first since he proposed a new rule, and who volunteers to start against him?” Lin Yong seemed to assume a position of authority naturally, although he wasn’t the oldest in thegroup. He seemed younger than the Wu cousins, closer to Li Ying and Huang Xiang in age.
