Gas Leak

Chao Xiang thought it was easy to turn the knobs of the gas stove, but boy, he thought wrong!

Yes, turning the knob was easy!

He already twisted all of them from left to right, but nothing happened.

There was no fire like he thought it would.

He covered his face with a hand as if that would alleviate the warmth flushing his sharp cheekbones.

The ancestors who were watching him right now must either be laughing or disowning him as their descendant.

This level of stupidity from the future CEO of Li Hotels and Resorts International was unforgivable.

If his parents know about this incident, they would shake their heads and click their tongue at him in disappointment.

'No! No! No! I'm not a hopeless case.' Chao Xiang mused as he glowered at the knobs. "I'm not stupid. I'm smarter compared to this escort beside me so it's alright."

His mind was a level way, way higher than this unparalleled beauty, so he guessed they were in perfect balance.

Chao Xiang just had to try twisting all the stove dials again, and then he will be successful.

"Yah. I heard that inner monologue! " The escort said out loud as she tugged at his sleeve, glaring at him.

"Oh." In truth, Chao Xiang didn't notice that he was muttering to himself.

Oh, well.

That wasn't on purpose.

Pressing his lips together, he fought back a smirk.

There wasn't anything to take back if it was the truth.

He willed his facial muscles to relax and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. Did I?"

The escort opened and closed her mouth, but before she could get her words past her throat, she sniffed the air around them.

Chao Xiang also did the….

Wait, why was he copying her every move?

"I smell something." Her elegantly straight nose scrunched up and down as she continued breathing the scent of—

Brows knitting in confusion, the escort's brown eyes searched his for answers. "It smelled like rotten eggs… Master."

Did she have to call him Master in that alluring manner?

Did her shaman role-play shifted into this acting as master-servant?

Chao Xiang as the dominant and she the submissive?

He drowned into the depths of her hypnotic gaze for a few seconds before her words finally sunk in.

'Chao Xiang get your head out of the gutter!' He told himself.

"F*ck." The first thing he did was curse, and his spine went rigid with extreme vigilance around his surroundings the way a statue would after he was animated to life.

Clenching his fist, he glowered at the burner as if it was the bane of his existence, "The gas is leaking."

The escort bent her head at the burner and inhaled.

"Don't." He snapped.

Wrapping a hand on her stomach, Chao Xiang pulled the escort away from the stove so that she wouldn't be sent to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning.

He could imagine the two of them all over the news, and social media for this incident with the headline, 'CFO and Heir of Li Hotels and Resort International Group Brought Girlfriend on ER for Poisoning.'

His father would yell at him for this huge mistake, tarnishing the image of their International Company.

He could envision it in his mind's eye how his father would act as if the backlash from the media between him and this escort would top the scandal between him and his mother almost three decades ago.

The escort wrinkled her nose in disgust and made a short gagging noise that should be for the bedroom and not the kitchen. Damn it!

She covered her nose with a palm. "I don't know what you are talking about but I will not eat rotten eggs."

He changed his mind.

No, the escort was the bane of his existence!

"F*ck. F*ck. F*ck. I don't know which direction should I turn the stove dial." Chao Xiang moved closer to the gas stove while the escort stood behind him. "It didn't indicate anything."

"The arrows." She murmured in a soft voice, her nose close to his dress shirt."You turned it to the right, I think, when it started smelling that weird stuff."

"That's a gas leak." He could feel touch, light as a feather, in his left shoulder blade. "That sulfur scent is dangerous, babe."

"Surfer?"

The escort had the audacity to smell him at such an inopportune time.

It wouldn't be long before she gets addicted to his musk--a special blend of fresh apples, lemon, and mint mixed with vanilla--specifically made for Chao Xiang.

He never thought the luxurious perfume 'Versace' named Eros would attract this strange alien.

"Babe." Chao Xiang looked over their shoulder and her eyes widened when he caught her in the act of sniffing him instead of the gas leak. "This isn't the time to joke around."

The escort stepped aside and pointed at the gas stove. "I saw you follow the direction of the arrows. Why don't you bring it back to how it looked like in the beginning?"

"I'm not sure." Chao Xiang's fingers settled on the dial and turned it back. "There. I twisted it back from the start." He looked at her for confirmation. "You remember it looked like this, right?"

"I don't know." The escort gave her a half-shrug. "You are the one who twisted the knob."

"I'm just asking you for sure." He bit out through gritted teeth as warmth flushed her cheekbones. "It's a hypothetical question you don't need to answer."

"Oh." The escort confirmed. "I think the knobs were like that before you touched it."

"—but the smell of rotten eggs is still there. Perhaps, I need to open all the windows and the balcony as well to get rid of the smell." Chao Xiang said out loud. "The carbon monoxide detector might go off if the scent stays for a long time." He pointed at the gas stove as he regarded her. "Don't touch anything alright?"

Chao Xiang went to every room in his penthouse and opened everything in a hurry.

He couldn't leave the escort unsupervised.

She might set his penthouse on fire if she played with those stove dials for fun after observing him.

He just knew deep in his gut that the escort and him never saw each other eye-to-eye, even if they spoke the same language.

Both of them were aliens to each other, and it can breed misunderstanding.

When Chao Xiang came back to the kitchen, he knew he was half-right.

The escort might have set the penthouse on fire.