Outside the duty chamber, all was still. Inside the room, the sound of quickened breathing was growing heavier.

Qin Yao sat perched on the edge of the table in Lin Xiao’s arms, her clothing already largely undone. Midday sunlight poured through the window paper and fell upon the pert, fair, softly rounded curves of her chest, a beauty that made the mind reel.

Lin Xiao had already lost all self-restraint. He held her waist firmly, leaned in and took the rosy tip of one breast between his lips, indulging in a deep, lingering caress, while his other hand cupped the full softness of the other side and kneaded it firmly.

The moment he touched her, Qin Yao forgot to breathe. It was as though water could ripple from her eyes. She bit down hard on her lip, not daring to let the faintest sound slip free.

He moved between the soft warmth of her chest, his breath burning and ragged, nearly consuming her.

Her body shuddered uncontrollably. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders and, instinctively, arched toward him, wanting to press herself even closer.

Their heartbeats tangled together in clear counterpoint. Lin Xiao’s body was growing hotter by the moment. Qin Yao felt his hardness pressing against her softness through the fabric of his trousers, urgent with barely contained wanting. She let out a soft, breathless sound, squirming with embarrassment — but he gave her not the slightest chance to retreat. He lifted his head from her chest and captured her lips again with pressing urgency, listening to the trembling sound of her breathing near his ear. His hand slid to her waist and, with familiar ease, undid the silken cord and drew down her skirt.

He was still fully dressed. Yet Qin Yao was bare of every thread of clothing. She tucked her head shyly into the curve of his neck and refused to look up. The heat of their bodies then meeting the cool air of the room drew a shiver of fine trembling across her skin.

“Are you cold?” Lin Xiao asked, his breathing unsteady as he undid his outer robe.

Qin Yao nodded in a daze of arousal, clinging to Lin Xiao as someone drowning clings to a floating timber, panting quietly, overwhelmed, unable to tell whether it was cold or heat she felt.

Lin Xiao held her waist securely with one hand. With the other, he pulled off his outer robe and draped it over her shoulders, wrapping it fully around her bare back.

The view before him, however, remained entirely undimmed.

He supported her legs and drew her a little closer to the table’s edge. He undid his own trousers and removed the last barrier between them. He kissed Qin Yao, held himself in hand, and eased slowly toward her honeyed warmth.

She was already ready for him, yet she was still so delicately tender. When he entered, the movement was unhurried, and the fullness stretched inside her to the point of exquisite pain. She drew in a sharp breath and instinctively shrank back. “It hurts—”

Lin Xiao had no choice but to pause, suppressing the surge of desire in his lower body. He folded her in his arms and kissed her, slow and attentive, covering her with gentle caresses until he felt the rigidity drain out of her body. Then he began again, easing into a slow, measured rhythm.

The two of them were well past the early awkwardness of their first times together. He was deliberate in controlling his pace, and pleasure quickly overtook the pain.

Lin Xiao kept his gaze fixed on Qin Yao’s face, unblinking — her expression blooming like a lotus — and saw the ripples of arousal slowly flooding into her eyes. He quickly lowered his head and kissed her deeply, sealing away those sounds that made one’s heart tremble. Yet the rhythm below began to gradually shift toward something more forceful.

“My darling A’Yao — does it still hurt?” he asked in a low, rough voice.

Qin Yao’s body felt as though it had melted into weightless feathers. He had unwound her so thoroughly that she had lost all coherent thought. She could not tell whether she was in heaven or somewhere else entirely. She bit hard on her lip and shook her head blindly. Lin Xiao was overcome with tenderness at the sight and kissed her again and again. The sound of their union had taken on a fine, wet resonance. He glanced down at where they joined, and saw that it was already glistening all around — each time he withdrew from her body, he drew away a gleam of shining moisture.

A low laugh escaped him. He held her firmly, helping her take the weight of his force. Her softness enclosed his seeking and gripped his every thrust. The pleasure he felt was building steadily toward its peak.

Qin Yao trembled in the circle of his strong arms, their joining so fervent and deep that the last taut string in her mind was near to breaking.

Yet Lin Xiao bit down hard on his will, holding back the soul-dissolving wave of pleasure. When the searing urge in his lower body had ebbed the smallest fraction, he exhaled in heavy, rough breaths and drew her off the table, settling her standing with her back toward him.

The moment Lin Xiao withdrew, Qin Yao felt a hollow ache where he had been. She drifted in a daze for an instant, opening eyes still drenched with desire, reaching out to find Lin Xiao — but Lin Xiao had already lifted the loose outer robe draped around her, parted her pale thighs from behind, and driven himself in again through the slick warmth in one smooth, forceful motion.

Another storm of collision swept through her. Qin Yao’s moans were broken apart by the force of each impact. She gasped enormous, drowning breaths, barely managing to keep herself from crying out.

“Do you like it?” Lin Xiao pressed down on her hips to help her take him better, and breathed against her ear.

Qin Yao was nearly insensible. Every last shred of strength had left her body and she was held up entirely by Lin Xiao’s hand braced against her lower abdomen. Every deep thrust made her heart shudder uncontrollably. She could not bear it. She let out low, tearful cries and reached blindly backward, wanting to face him, wanting to hold onto him. “Lin Xiao… Lin Xiao…”

Lin Xiao gave a low, indistinct murmur and turned her face toward him, answering her with a deep, fervent kiss. Qin Yao felt herself reduced to a wisp of duckweed on the water, swept up on a great wave by his relentless advance and then brought crashing down, rising and falling in endless surges until her very soul was scattered and adrift.

Lin Xiao buried his face against the nape of her neck, breathing in low, muffled urgency. Her soft warmth was like a small mouth that could bite and hold — tight and gripping around him, clinging to his every thrust, bringing him a pleasure so exquisite he wanted to cry out. That pleasure kept climbing and climbing, until at last it crested, and he let out a low groan, releasing a fierce, prolonged surge deep into the innermost reach of her flowering warmth.

A long while afterward, his breathing gradually eased. He slowly withdrew from her body.

Her consciousness was still trembling and adrift somewhere above, unable to find its way back. Every limb and bone had been wrung of all its strength. She collapsed softly against his chest.

Lin Xiao wrapped his outer robe tightly around her and carried her back to the bed. Her mind and body were utterly spent — all she wanted was to sink into the covers and sleep. But she felt something warm and wet trailing down the inside of her thigh.

All trace of drowsiness vanished at once. She remembered she was still in Lin Xiao’s duty chamber and forced open her heavy eyelids, asking him in a softened voice, “What am I supposed to do in this state — how do I get back?”

The bedding beneath her was in disarray, and there was not even a washroom in the duty chamber.

Only now that she opened her eyes did she notice that aside from the outer robe, Lin Xiao had all his other clothing on perfectly. Were it not for the lingering traces of indulgence still visible on his face, carved as though from jade, no one could have guessed what he had been doing a moment before.

By contrast, she had not a stitch of clothing on.

She pouted in dissatisfaction and made to push herself upright — but the moment she moved her leg, more warmth flooded from her, soaking into the bedding beneath her and leaving behind a spreading dampness. She lay back down immediately, not daring to move again.

“Would you please think of something.” She saw Lin Xiao by the bedside adjusting his outer robe, then walking unhurriedly to the table and bending over a cup of tea, and called out to him in a coaxing, aggrieved voice.

This moment of passion had come so suddenly and without any preparation whatsoever — and once the indulgence was over, there was always the matter of tidying up the aftermath.

Lin Xiao turned with the tea bowl in hand and held it to her lips, letting her drink a few sips. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and said in a husky voice, “Wait a moment.”

He turned and went, and came back before long with a folded stack of clean white undergarments, still carrying the fresh, clean scent of laundering — clearly a spare set he kept for changing.

Watching Lin Xiao part her thighs and take up one of the undergarments to wipe away the sticky residue, Qin Yao was startled and tried to stop him. “But these are your undergarments.”

Lin Xiao gave a small smile. “There’s nothing else clean here, and with it full daylight there’s no way to have water brought in. This will have to do.”

Qin Yao bit her lip, glanced around the plainly visible and simply furnished duty chamber, saw that there was truly no other option, and let go, allowing him to attend to her.

When Lin Xiao escorted her out of the palace, there was still a sticky, cooling sensation between her legs, and it made walking distinctly uncomfortable.

As she stepped into the carriage, Lin Xiao leaned close to her ear and said with a smile in his voice, “When you get back, have them prepare hot water, and give yourself a proper wash.”

Qin Yao shot him a reproachful look, then reminded him, face flushed, “You must remember to bring that undergarment out of the palace.”

Lin Xiao smiled. “I know.”

He added, “When I come home tomorrow, I’ll love you properly.” He held her waist and helped her up into the carriage.