Li Na could still feel the imprint of his lips long after she shut herself in her room. She paced the floor, pressing her palms against her face as if she could wipe away the heat that lingered there.
It had been a mistake. A moment of weakness. Nothing more.
Yet her heart betrayed her with every uneven beat.
*I set the rules,* she reminded herself. *No intimacy. No love. No strings.*
And still… when he kissed her, she hadn't pulled away.
The following morning, she avoided him at breakfast. The clink of his teacup echoed in the silence, but she kept her eyes fixed on the plate before her, barely touching the food.
"Are you planning to ignore me now?" Yen Rui asked finally, his voice calm, unreadable.
"I'm not ignoring you," she replied stiffly. "I'm protecting myself."
"From me?" he asked, arching a brow.
Her throat tightened. "From what this marriage is turning into."
He leaned back in his chair, studying her as though she were another negotiation. "You call it protection. I call it fear."
The words struck harder than she expected. She stood abruptly, chair scraping against the floor. "This isn't fear. This is clarity. I won't be another woman swallowed by your world of contracts and control."
For a moment, silence stretched between them, heavy and dangerous. Then he rose too, his presence towering but not threatening it was steady, anchored.
"Li Na," he said softly, and for once, his voice lacked the steel edge it always carried. "I didn't marry you to destroy you. I married you because I saw someone who doesn't bow, even when the world tries to crush her. That strength yours is the one thing I can't ignore."
Her lips parted, but no words came. The sincerity in his eyes unsettled her more than his kiss had.
She turned away, whispering, "I don't know if I can survive being close to you."
He stepped back, giving her space. "Then don't decide now. Duty brought us together, but desire… that's what will decide whether we stay."
Her chest heaved as she watched him leave the room, every nerve in her body alive with conflict.
For the first time, Li Na realized the war wasn't between her and Yen Rui. It was inside her but between the vows she had made to herself and the undeniable pull of a man who refused to let her hide behind them.