”I’m so sorry miss, I don’t know what came over me,” the beleaguered chef asked as he got to his feet unscathed

”It was an accident” she responded, piping up to quell the guilt she heard in his voice

The nurse responded practically by grabbing a mop that was at the far corner of the kitchen and started moping the hot spill.

Yue Yan dropped the tray in her hand with a rattle on the breakfast table and walked to meet her, concern blazing in her eyes. “Are you okay Yan Mei? Did any of that water touch you? I hope I was fast enough” a vulnerability ringing in her voice.

Yan Mei caught her hand and quickly squeezed it to reassure her “you were perfect sis”

”Now you’re going to make me cry” Yue Yan warned, her eyes glittered with barely concealed tears

”Please don’t, if you do, I’ll join you, I’m still a bit shaken and it would take little to set me off” it was a shameless plea

”I’m just happy that you are okay.” At that declaration, Yan Mei pulled her into a hug, an action that surprised her too. Yue Yan remained tense in her embrace for a few seconds before relaxing and putting her hands around her too.

She wasn’t the type to go for physical contact with someone she just met merely a day ago but here she was, pleasantly surprised.

******

Pleading exhaustion from over-excitement, Yue Yan locked herself inside the room after promising to spend the day sleeping. In the safety of her room, she quickly lost the shocked demeanor replacing it with a salacious smirk.

It was almost too easy, it didn’t help that everyone was just full of pity for her, poor her.

The relationship was budding almost without her doing much about it, barely a thing, poor girl was too eager for love, desperate for it and she knew exactly how to twist such a need to her own purposes.

Tripping the chef had been a spur of the moment thing, she had discreetly flicked a hand to send the man flying while pretending all the while to be deep in conversation with that infernal overbearing live-in nurse.

The lot of them had started screaming off their heads and she couldn’t help but enjoy it. The fear, the chaos, the resignation to pain and the desperation to do anything to avert what was currently happening.

In that moment she knew that any of those people there with them would have sold their soul to stop their beloved mistress from being doused by boiling water.

In the ruckus, no one had noticed her wide smile or the speed in which she had lifted up the tray and bashed the water aside. They were blinded by relief, the poor chef scrambling to apologize, the rest of the room trying to comfort Yan Mei.

Poor Yan Mei, dear darling Yan Mei. She had acted out a touchy scene afterwards, receiving a hug in return. Even as her hands encircled the woman, she wondered how easy it was for her to snap her neck and be done with it.

But that would be too easy, too many witnesses, too many loose ends to tie up. But the main problem was that Yan Mei did not deserve easy.

What she deserved was a measured and relentless assault on every area of her life that culminated in a painful and tortured death.

The entire kitchen had breathed a sigh of relief at the averted crisis, no one asked why the chef was boiling a large pot of water that he was only going to pour away.

She had completely counted on Yan Mei coming back to say goodbye, seemed like the type to be caught up in such mundane e pleasantries and see how beautifully that had worked out.

She moved to the mirror, said the spell and watched that light bathed figure still in position, stationary, asleep. This time her smile was mocking, satisfied.

This was just too easy.

******

That night after another episode of intense lovemaking, Yan Mei curled against her husband and told him all about the morning events and how Yue Yan had saved her.

”She’s like a guardian angel of a sort, suddenly there and batting all that water away” Yan Mei narrated the story with no little enthusiasm.

Lei Zhao had tensed as she recounted her encounter but slowly relaxed enough to join in her touch of whimsy “I brought you a fairy godmother” his voice carefully blank.

Without being told, she knew he was seeing the events in his mind’s eye and wondering how he could avoid them in the future. Her dear overprotective man, always on the lookout for her “You have the best luck” she replied, drawing him out of those thoughts

”I think this is all you” he murmured, his hands tightened around her as he hauled her closer, the sheet she had thrown over herself dropping lower until it barely skimmed the swells of her breasts

”I wonder how she would feel about staying,” she asked. Of course, she had a plan, she just wanted to know if he was up for it and if he had one of his own, experience had taught her that her husband always had a plan.

”You would do this for me?” He queried softly, only his tense body told her that her words had been a shock to him

Yan Mei chuckled tiredly “I think this one is for her and if I’m more truthful, for me. I’m growing seriously attached to her”

”She was always like a sister to me” he replied absently and she couldn’t quite stop herself from scoffing.

”A sister you dated” she pointed out, without a hint of censure

”Actually, that’s not the truth.” This time she could hear the smirk in his voice

Yan Mei raised her head and pursed her lips at her husband, one arched eyebrow urged him on his narrative. She knew the truth; Yue Yan had confessed to her feeling absolutely guilty and trying to point out that she was not interested in hurting their marriage.

Yan Mei had warmed to her after the confession, completely surprised by her candor and pleased that she stated she had no negative intentions. She didn’t know how to tell the poor girl that there was no need for it, she was entirely too sure of her husband’s love for her but she appreciated the trust from the both of them. That they told her the truth about something in the past made her accept it even easier.

A

/N: Okay, I know I said that I’m ending the book. Yes I am. The fact that I have introduced a new character doesn’t mean I’m going to be stretching the book. Will end it then release a new book somewhere in May, so please stay tuned!