Fourteen: Wife

He watched her sleeping self like a hawk, tracing her voluptuous figure under the dim lights of the room. Since they were 'mortals', the next stage would be for him to take responsibility by marrying her, but would 100 days be enough for her? From the number of times they had came together in passion the night before and how she had moaned his title 'Dijun' endlessly, he understood how sensual she was, being a ninetailed fox.

What was to be of their relationship after the promised period? The issue of her suitors would continue to exist even if he chased them away, as long she remained single and available.

There was one possibility. What if he found an opportunity to make her his Queen? How would she be convinced to accept? Since her aunt was already engaged to the Sky Kingdom, and there was no need for such an union, what could he use as an excuse?

..................

"Good morning," she whispered, and he whispered 'good morning' back to her, only with a 'honey'. She felt a bit teased by him calling her in that manner, and she pouted, till he called her Jiu'er.

His next question proved to her how shameless he was. "Did I do a good job satisfying you last night, honey?" he teased.

What had she just got herself into, by allowing it to happen? She speedily snapped back, "You're so thick-skinned. How can you ask a woman the morning after.." she blushed and stopped just before the word sex. In fact, she was marveling after how it had happened last night.

He continued staring at her. "You were exceptional in your responses last night. I doubt I did a bad job."

She turned red with embarassment, and cupped her cheeks, turning to face the other side of the bed. "I didn't say I didn't like it."

"Jiu'er, let's get married," he said.

Marriage?

"The part of the mortal marriage I told you about," he explained.

"How do mortals get married?" she asked.

"It starts this way," he demonstrated by getting down on one knee. "I, Dong Yang, promise to make Bai Jiu'er happy for the rest of her life. Bai Jiu'er, will you accept me in your heart and make me the luckiest man in the world?"

She giggled, and told him, "You're the cold god but you're so cheesy. Where did you learn those proposal lines?"

"From a manga," he admitted, and then produced a small box from his pocket. It was a proposal ring, embedded with gems. A decently sized stone sat on the top of the ring, shimmering under the sunlight entering the room.

Jiu'er, you just wait. I will make you my queen, he thought silently, as he put the ring on her finger. On the table, a bouquet of flowers lay with a proposal card. He had everything prepared, she thought to herself in glee.

The procedures for marriage rites had been even simpler than in the immortal realm. They said their vows, signed their names on a book and received a paper certifying they were married. It was so fascinating, yet short-lived since it was only 100 days before they were due to return to the immortal realm.

They were intimate almost every other night, and he had been sweet to her, although they would sometimes tease each other over trivial matters. Most importantly, they lived together as a married 'mortal' couple, and she would be involved in the Jiuchongtian Group's businesses. They were nicknamed the power couple, and what they chose to do behind the closed doors of his office and the bedroom, nobody else needed to know.

In an instant, three months were up. They still had a week before the 100 days ended. He took her on an escapade to the beach resort for their remaining days in the mortal realm.

How did she end up feeling so much for the cold god? she wondered, as she reminisced of their 'mortal love' journey. She believed that although their journey was a bit fast-paced, the Dijun had not side-tracked and he had performed all the necessary steps. But what was his merit in doing all these? It dawned upon her that maybe, he was in love with her too. Had they actually opened their hearts to each other? But, he had never for once mentioned thode three words.

There would be one way to find out if he loved her. From being with him, she had discovered his Achilles heel, and that was his jealousy and possessiveness. She needed to find an opportunity to make him jealous, and maybe he would admit that he loved her. But what was the point in her making him admit that he loved her? Would it change their lives in the immortal realm? She had not actually been looking forward to returning to the immortal realm, but he had duties in his palace.

He returned with the drinks he had bought for them to see her chit-chatting with a handsome, male stranger, and he fumed instantly. What did she think he was? She witnessed him booming with rage at the stranger, who immediately took his leave.

"Jiu'er, we're married," he reminded her. She glared at him. "I wasn't getting fresh with him."

He looked down at the ring on her finger, and then caught her unexpected grins, realising how she had meant to test his jealousy. He wanted to punish her so badly, that in a flash she had her body pinned by him on the sand, unable to move from the vehement kisses her was ravaging her with.

"You were naughty," he said after the punishment was done.

"I just wanted to know if you loved me," she found herself blurting out.

"Is that question so important?" he inquired. She shot back, "It won't be a complete mortal love without the 'love' bit."

"Oh," he said, before gazing into her eyes and rewarded her with an abrupt peck on her lips. "Have you heard of the phrase 'action speaks louder than words'? Hasn't my actions for the last three months spoken for themselves for what I feel for you?"

She turned red, and bashfully looked away, only for him to cup her cheeks in his hands and stare into her eyes intently as he teased her again with yet another kiss. His kisses had been so addictive, that she just yearned for more.

"We'll just continue in the room," he said, bundling her up in a blanket in his arms and heading towards the elevator without a further word from her. As she was slightly immobilised by his gaze on her, he carefully unclasped her bikini top and slid off her bikini bottom, as she lay without a stitch on her in bed. Them, her took off his swim trunks, almost immediately, she placed her hands on her exposed privates. "No, not now, please," she pleaded.

He looked a bit displeased, but he indulged her and covered her exposed body with a blanket. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She sighed. "I just don't want this all to end, and us to go back to our respective lives. I don't want you to go back to being Dijun, and I just want to enjoy every moment of you being my husband. I just can't bear for this to end."

He pecked her on the lips. "It's all up to you what you want us to be after the 100th day in the mortal realm, my dear wife."

Did they have fate together as immortals? Would he continue to have feelings for her even when he went back to being the cold and heartless god? she questioned herself. But now, she wanted him.

She threw off the blanket and flung herself into his arms, kissing him. He understood. "We still have a few days," she said.

"Make good use of the remaining days."

She laughed and teased him back with a flirtatious look, "How do you want to make use of those days?"

She found out soon enough, as she was too exhausted every night to even walk, so he resorted to carrying her around the resort. Since he was Dong Yang, and CEO of the Jiuchongtian Group, he wasn't bothered about how people would see either of them. Furthermore, they were legally a married couple.

On the last day of their vacation and the hundredth day of marriage, she was marveled to see that he had prepared a surprise for her. They went to a classy restaurant for dinner, and he had ordered a spread of various delicacies from all the world, ranging from Spanish to Mexican to her all-favourite Asian cuisine.

What was he up to? she wondered. From the look of it, he must have a few tricks up his sleeve.

Nonchalantly, he said, "I recall you mention you have the problem of blind dates and suitors, and you want Dong Hua Dijun to get rid of them." He thought to himself, and I really want to get rid of them, I don't want her to have any suitors at all. In fact, I don't want her to have anyone at all, aside from me. Or their attention.

She giggled at how cute he was, calling himself by his own name, but she recalled that he had said that while they were in the mortal world, they went by their fake mortal identities and not their individual immortal noble statuses. And so, she gave him her affirmative.

"What if I have an idea?" he revealed.

Her eyes lightened up. "You have a solution?"

"Exactly," the cold god said. He definitely had a way with everything, since he was after all, the master of the universe, regardless it was then or now. Even the current Sky Lord, Hao De had to bow to him. "I have a proposal."

"What is it?" she looked at him gleefully. "Do you have a machine that you can suck them up into, and send them all into outer space, or do you have a magnet that you can repel them from me?" He was amused by her reply. Presumably she had read too many novels or watched too many dramas.

"My dear wife, you are adorable," he said. "But that won't keep them from coming. One solution I would like to propose to you, is the possibility of us having an union."

"Union? Like the two of us?"

"Be my queen," he said smoothly. "This way, there will be no more suitors."

"But our feelings..." she began. As she had never fallen in love before, she wasn't a hundred percent sure if what she had for him was romantic love, just yet.

"We can work it out slowly," he said. "I will be able to make you fall for me, only if you give me the chance to." He didn't want to tell her yet that he was falling for her slowly, or that he was jealous, but in actuality she had already figured out the jealousy part. She smiled, and nodded.

"I'll take care of the rest," he then said after that. "We can consider it as a continuation of the marriage contract of the mortal love you wanted, or you can choose to have it a purely contractual contract separate from our earlier contract. What do you think?"

She thought of how disturbing he tended to be, and all their moments together, and all of a sudden, she recalled one of their conversations in their office. It was the time following their messy little squabbles, when she was just starting to pretend to be his girlfriend.

She had said, "You just made a mess in the kitchen and bathroom, Mr. Dong Yang!"

"Ahem, what do you plan to do about it?"

"Mr Dong, you really need a wife!"

"Oh, who shall it be? The cook, the cleaning lady, or the receptionist?" He watched as the a tinge of jealousy was written on her eyes. "Or, should it be, you? Since you know me so well."

"I don't know you that well, Mr. Cold...I mean, Mr. Dong." She rushed off, clutching her reddened cheeks.

And now, it had became their reality, and she welcomed it with open hands and an open heart. It was peculiar how one debt she owed him for rescuing her life randomly had made her indebted to him for life.

Perhaps, this was what the mortal writers called 'a twist of fate'. And her fate, unknown to her, was already being intertwined with that of the Cold God.