Once Upon A One Night Stand

He swallowed hard and moved his eyes away before he lost control.

Shu Tian could feel his hot breath on her neck as he whispered in her ear with deep emotions in his eyes, "Don't tell me you think I was only being kind when I looked after you during the past three years." Shu Tian blushed crimson and said in a breathy voice, "I think you were simply helping me."

"I was helping you," the man agreed. For the first time, he allowed his eyes to be colored with palpable possessiveness.

He paused and added, "But that's not all."

Shu Tian was completely lost for words and didn't know where she should look. They were so close that all she could see was the man's perfect face.

He still had a brush cut as he did three years ago. It was a normal haircut but he looked wild and irrepressible with it.

Shu Tian was always aware of his extraordinariness. He had this natural grace that made all the women in the upper-crust circle pine away for him.

He was wealthy, powerful, and also good-looking. No woman would not fall for him. It was just that Shu Tian had met him in such an abnormal way that she forgot the reality.

It didn't make sense that a man like him had devoted so much to her in the past three years just because he was kind.

"I'm a businessman and I'm always calculating what's the best for me. I did that three years ago and I'm still doing it now," he said with a sly smile, "I make quick money sometimes but I also see the bigger picture. It's been more than three years, Shu Tian. You know how I've been treating you. I don't want any return from you but you can't have feelings for any man but me."

He'd never expressed his emotions so frankly. Shu Tian's mind was reeling. She'd been vaguely knowing that she was a bit different to him but when faced with his plain confession, she was at a loss. Now that he put everything on the table, he must be prepared for what would happen next. He was like a patient predator who approached the lamb meticulously and swallow it whole when it was off guard. He bent his arms more on either side of the woman to envelope her in his mint-scented smell and asked, "Do you hear me?"

He pressed her to reply.

Shu Tian felt a bit winded and her heartbeat went all haywire. "Meng Shichuan, please don't do this..."

Her eyelashes fluttered uneasily. "I... I never have feelings above gratitude for you..."

"Really?" He asked with a playful smile, "But you need to give it try before you know for sure, don't you?"

"But I..."

Shu Tian was about to refute when the man suddenly dipped his head and kissed her. He'd just come from outside and his lips were still cool. It was a featherlight kiss on the corner of her lips. He didn't go further and was intently observing her reaction.

Shu Tian was caught unawares and her mind went all blank with a boom. She was frozen and before she reacted, the man drew away from her.

"Do you feel disgusted when I kiss you?"

Shu Tian clenched her fists. His voice rang in her head.

Disgusted?

Maybe she was not. She was just angry that he kissed her out of the blue. She didn't feel disgusted, which unsettled her more.

Why did she feel this way?

Had the three years made them this intimate?

Meng Shichuan dissected her expression with amusement. She looked like a startled little deer with those watery eyes tinged with fluster, nervousness, confusion, and fear.

The man's smile broadened. "See? Don't arbitrarily define your feelings for me. Humans are complicated. Love is not an open-shut case. People don't see their hearts clearly sometimes."

Seeing that she kept her head down, Meng Shichuan tilted her chin up and forced her to look at him. "You don't have to be afraid. I won't force you to make any choice. I just want you to give me a chance to take care of you and Shu Xiao. Accept me. Don't push me away. Just let the chips fall where they may."

The man stood tall and straight like a tree. "Even not for yourself, you should think for Shu Xiao. He needs someone to make him feel safe when he grows up."

Shu Tian calmed down because of the mention of Shu Xiao.

Shu Xiao was already three years old, still a boy but old enough to start thinking. He would go to the kindergarten in the middle of the year and Shu Tian was worried that he might want the company of his father when he saw all the kids in the kindergartens have fathers.

She thought he would. Shu Xiao would stare at kids who had their parents by their sides in the amusement park.

She could give him everything she had but could never play the role of father for him.

It was an undeniable fact that Shu Xiao liked Meng Shichuan very much. It was partly because Meng Shichuan was good to him. Most importantly, he admired him as an adult and powerful man. It had nothing to do with age. It was an instinct.

"You know exactly what Shu Xiao needs, so stop pushing me away and think about it, okay?"

He hadn't expected anything from her at the very beginning and just had an inkling that this woman was special to him although he couldn't name what made her special.

Three years had passed and his feelings for her only got intensified. As she grew more and more glamorous as a mature woman, he felt it harder and harder to resist his desire for her.

"Meng Shichuan, I can't reciprocate your feelings, so don't be so good to me," Shu Tian said wistfully with a frown.

Any other woman would seize the opportunity immediately but Shu Tian couldn't do that. She didn't hate to grow close with him but it was not out of love. She had to suppress whatever subtle feelings she felt for him.

"I'm a divorced woman with a kid. You can find someone better."

The man furrowed his brows due to her self-deprecating words. "I've never cared about what others think of me in my whole life. I know what I want. You shouldn't be bothered by that either. Just treat me as a man."

Shu Tian leveled a stare at the man's fiercely stunning face. It was beyond her wildest imagination that the man who had pointed a gun at her three years ago would profess his love to her one day. What was more unimaginable was that she found herself lost in the current situation.

Meng Shichuan fought back his agitation and stepped back to make her feel at ease. "I won't push you. Take your time to consider my words. I'll wait for you no matter how long it takes."