It was intimate and perfect, the two of them wrapped together, the ocean spreading endlessly before them, the yacht cutting through the water with smooth power.
"This is nice," Tang Fei admitted softly, her hands covering his where they rested on her stomach.
"Mmm," he agreed, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder.
As they passed another yacht, Tang Fei heard excited voices carrying over the water.
"Wow! Look at that yacht! It’s gorgeous!"
"Look at that couple there on the deck... so romantic!"
"That woman is so beautiful! And that man... wow..."
Tang Fei felt her cheeks heat, but Huo Ting Cheng only chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest against her back. "See? Even strangers can recognize how beautiful you are."
"Stop," she murmured, embarrassed but pleased.
One of the yacht crew, a young woman in crisp white uniform, approached discreetly. "Master Huo, Mrs. Huo, may I offer you refreshnts?"
"What would you like?" Huo Ting Cheng asked Tang Fei.
"Sothing cold and fruity?" she suggested.
"Two tropical fruit juices, please," Huo Ting Cheng ordered. "And perhaps so fresh fruit as well."
"Of course, sir. Right away."
The crew mber returned monts later with a tray bearing two tall glasses of vibrant juice, mango, passion fruit, and pineapple blended with ice, and a beautiful platter of sliced tropical fruit arranged artfully.
She placed it on the low table beside them and retreated silently.
Huo Ting Cheng reached for one of the glasses and brought it to Tang Fei’s lips. "Here, drink."
"I can hold it myself," she protested.
"I know. But let take care of you."
She relented, parting her lips to let him tip the glass for her. The juice was icy, sweet, and tangy, refreshing after the swim and the sun. So of it escaped the corner of her mouth, and before she could wipe it away, Huo Ting Cheng’s thumb was there, catching the drop.
He brought his thumb to his own mouth, licking away the juice while holding her gaze. "Delicious."
"You’re impossible," she breathed, but her eyes were dark with responding heat.
He smiled, that rare, genuine smile that transford his face, and took a drink from his own glass before offering her another sip from hers.
They fell into a comfortable rhythm, him feeding her pieces of fruit, occasionally stealing kisses that tasted like mango and passion fruit, holding her close as the yacht carried them across the sparkling water.
"Tell sothing," Tang Fei said after a while, her voice was soft and contemplative.
"What do you want to know?"
"When did you first realize you loved ?"
He was quiet for a mont, his arms tightening around her slightly. "The first ti I saw you. You were just a child, maybe seven or eight years old. I was wounded, badly, running from assassins who wanted dead. I collapsed in an alley near your family’s old house."
Tang Fei’s breath caught. This was the original Tang Fei’s mory, not hers, but she desperately wanted to know. "What happened?"
"You found bleeding in that alley. Any normal child would have scread and run away. But not you." His voice held wonder even now, years later. "You looked at with these serious eyes, no fear, just... determination. You said, ’You’ll die if you stay here.’ Then you helped hide."
"I hid you?" she whispered, trying to imagine it.
"In your family’s storage shed, behind old furniture and boxes. When the assassins ca looking, searching door to door, you lied to them. A tiny child, facing down killers, and you didn’t even tremble. You told them you’d seen a wounded man running toward the docks." He pressed his lips to her temple. "They believed you and left. You saved my life."
Tang Fei’s heart clenched. "Then what?"
"You ca back with water, bandages, and food stolen from your kitchen. For three days, you hid while I healed enough to move. You’d sneak out to check on , bringing whatever you could. You talked to the whole ti, about your dreams of traveling the world, your love of the ocean, and how you wanted to help people. You were so fearless, so kind, even to a dangerous stranger."
"I didn’t know you were dangerous," she guessed.
"You knew," he corrected softly. "You saw the weapons, the blood, the coldness in my eyes. But you helped anyway. You said, ’Everyone deserves a chance to live.’ You were eight years old and already wiser than most adults I knew."
"And that made you fall in love with a child?" she asked carefully.
"No," he said firmly. "That made rember your face, your na, your kindness. I swore then that if I survived, if I built my empire, I would find you again and protect you the way you’d protected . The love ca later, when I found you again years later, as a teenager, and I realized that brave little girl had grown into an extraordinary woman. That’s when I knew you were the only one I’d ever want."
Tang Fei felt tears sliding down her cheeks. She had no mory of this, no recollection of saving a wounded stranger, but the emotion in his voice was absolutely real.
"I wish I could rember," she whispered, the words catching in her throat.
"You don’t need to rember saving that day. I rember enough for both of us. And every day since then, I’ve been trying to repay the debt." He also didn’t want her to rember any of that because it cos with other terrible mories.
"There’s no debt," she said firmly, turning in his arms to face him. "If I did that, if the girl I was did that, it was because it was the right thing to do. Not because I expected anything in return."
"I know," he said, cupping her face. "That’s exactly why you’re the only one worthy of everything I have to give. You’ve always been pure in a way I never could be. Light in my darkness."
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