Harmless Teasing

Nastasia woke to the comfort of Li Yu Rong's arms.

Though bleary-eyed upon waking, it didn't take her long to realize where she was. She shifted a bit but was careful not to wake the man that held her close. The wooden ceiling, the hole that had been opened in the side when that monstrous thing took her overboard, and the simple wooden furniture spoke of their return to the boat.

She had always been a really light sleeper. It bothered her that, since coming to this world, she seemed to sleep heavier than the dead. After a moment laying there, basking in the warmth of Li Yu Rong's body, she carefully wiggled out of his grasp.

She replaced her body with a long, round pillow. Although the length and width were all wrong, she hoped it would be enough to prevent him from noticing her absence. After she felt it was good enough and it didn't seem as if he would wake, she started to slip from the bed so she could walk toward the door.

At the moment, her face was too bashful to confront him, but she wanted to know what had gone on well she was asleep. To that end, she decided to sneak out and find Paoxiao to get her answers. However, before she could scoot all the way off the bed that fit two people quite snugly, an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back.

"Did you really think a pillow could compare to you?" Li Yu Rong lazily drawled as he drew her flush against his chest. Not fighting it, she laid her head on his shoulder and did her best to avoid looking at his face.

As he touched her, she couldn't help remembering all the ways he played with her body that night.

Seeing that response brought a smile to his face. The obvious shy flush to her cheeks was rather endearing. Hugging her, he rained light kisses down her neck to her shoulder before asking. "Just where were you trying to sneak off to?"

Knowing that he would tease her should he find out the truth, Nastasia quickly responded as she tried to calm her racing heart from his actions. "Not want wake you, I go ask Paoxiao what happened while I sleeping." She told him in her broken Chinese, which seemed to be more mangled than usual beneath his wandering hands and lips.

Wanting to further tease her, his hand traveled into her robe, loosening it with its entry to slide down her shoulders. "We're on our way to Youyun Village," his hand traveled down her side, sliding to rest over her bare bum, "for Poaxiao to properly lay his sister to rest."

Asya's hands clenched in his robes over his chest. The heat from his hand was making her restless. In fact, her thoughts were going over the night she lost herself to him that she didn't hear anything he said after that last sentence. Though she had been thoroughly eaten by him, it didn't mean that she had become immune to these types of advances.

The sheer embarrassment they invoked in her, made worse with the sunlight peeking through the broken wall disavowing her of the obscurity night offered, was palpable. Swallowing hard she tried to push down the feeling while she, discreetly, tried shifting her bottom half out of his reach.

However, her shifting here and there was causing an uncomfortable friction in a certain part of his body. Li Yu Rong had only intended to tease her a bit, delighting in her flushed cheeks, as he ate a bit of tofu. As he had told her, though her mind was too preoccupied to hear it, it was better for her to rest as much as she could now than to wander around the deck.

In a few moments, they would reach the end of the Water Sky and would need to continue on foot to reach Paoxiao's village. Being that it was a place purposefully concealed, guarding great secrets of the Spirit Realm, it was fraught with many dangers. They would only be able to take short incremental breaks after long periods of moving.

Especially during the night.

At night their ability to stop would be far and few in between their strenuous trek forward. Even without taking Asya, the trip would have taken a bit of time to surmount as using spirit energy was forbidden. If they wanted to make it in one piece, they could only forgo using it despite the overwhelming population of ferocious beasts dwelling in the expansive forest that concealed village from notice.

Although this was a trip that was going to be well out of their way, Li Yu Rong didn't mind going. The annual meeting this year was a farce meant to entrap him so there wasn't much point in keeping the appointment.

He also wasn't worried about the information he received from Wei Ping. Even if they set up camp with an army to surround his Palace of the Four Gates, he estimated it would take more than a week to finally pierce through the barrier he created. Li Yu Rong had long suspected that something could occur while he was away due to the bits of intelligence received prior to the trip that he expended more energy than normal when placing the arrays.

Besides, when considering how well Paoxiao watched Asya for him, it was the least he could do to afford the golden-eyed demon the time to properly lay his sister to rest. So, he didn't bother to worry about all those things for the moment.

As that part started to grow, as that hand of his resting on her smooth bottom traded in its innocence to be naughty, he tossed aside one more care. Li Yu Rong's intent to tease became an intent to possess. Concern over her ability to endure during the journey dimmed as his desire for her rose.

Flipping them over, pressing her beneath him, he caught Asya's lips with his as she opened her mouth in surprise over the sudden shift. His mouth and tongue attacked her, stimulating every inch of the velvety wet flesh within. Draining all the fight that rose at this abrupt onslaught from her bones.

The domineering kiss was a testament to his overwhelming want of possessing her all, of binning her to a point where she could not live without him just as he felt that he could not live without her. Unable to do without the sweetness she provoked in him.

Li Yu Rong had not intended to take more than taste after she ignited this fire from her rubbing. In the beginning, he still had the frame of mind to feel worried for her sake, the journey would be tough on one not use to roughing it in such rigid terrain. However, that frame of mind shredded before he even finished taking her once.

How could anyone have their beloved in their arms and still have the will to let go?

In fact, he couldn't find this will in himself until they both lay panting and exhausted. The minute he pulled away from her she was out like a light hoping that, as she drifted, he'd let her off seeing her exhaustion.

The poor souls out on the deck did their best to go about their own doings as they heard the ambiguous noises floating out the room from time to time. They had been ignoring obvious happenings in the ship's cabin, doing well to pretend nothing was going on until the ship finally reached its destination.

Now the question became: Do they interrupt and tell Li Yu Rong they've docked at the Shenlan forest's edge, or should they wait until the loving couple finally came out on their own?

Ha! Did this question even need to be asked?

Obviously, they waited.