I wanted him.
“What’s this?” he asked, rubbing the birthmark on my chest. He’d seen it before, run his kisses across it many times before, yet he’d never asked before today.
“It’s just a mark. I’ve had it since I was young.”
“It looks like a little bean. A soybean.”
That made me laugh. I let go some of my nervousness. “Maybe it is.”
“You see, Yut Ying? How could I not love you.”
Rain drummed against the roof, the sound like raw rice spilling into a pot. The sea churned underneath us, lapping the sides of our boat. But all I would remember was the sound of my hammering heart pressed against Tommy’s broad chest. The sweet taste of his tongue against mine, the vibrations of his breath against my skin. The drunken heat that we made together.
He slid off my skirt while I fumbled at his belt, and I felt the bare skin of his legs pressed against mine, the taut muscles cording in his arms as he held me. I was tinder, he was the match. I’d never wanted fire more in my entire life.
He mistook the flush on my cheeks for bashfulness, laughed, and threw his shirt over his back. He swept his hands over my body, kissing every crook, every curve, every hollow.
I held my breath as he entered me, pressing my fingers hard into his back as the pain reared sharp inside me. A wash of glittering cold swept across my skin. I exhaled fast.
“Ying,” he whispered. “Are you all—”
“Stop talking,” I said, covering his mouth with mine. I kissed him, taking him down with me. And though the clouds blotted out the stars that evening, never had I seen so many in the sky.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“So, the whore’s decided to come home.”
Sai Ma sat on my bed, her legs crossed. It was after midnight, long past when I usually sneaked back to the house, but I didn’t care. Impervious to her presence, I picked up my brush from the side table. My hair was mussed, and I began brushing it the way she did, one languorous stroke at a time.
If there was anything Sai Ma hated, it was being ignored.
“Where were you?” she demanded.
“I went to the night market. Bought a new pair of stockings. Mine ripped.”
“You devil, you dare lie?” My bed creaked as Sai Ma sprang to her feet. “I know who you were with. Haven’t you done enough to tarnish this family’s reputation?”
“What I’ve done is cook and clean for you the last three years,” I said crisply. “I’ve repaid my debts, and I want my bracelet back.”
“You think you’re so clever, seducing a tycoon’s son.” Sai Ma sneered. “I hope you asked for the checkbeforeyou spread your legs.”
“I want my bracelet back,” I repeated.
She shook her wrist so I could see Mama’s golden band entangled with her tawdry jades and pearls. “I don’t think so. I’ve grown rather fond of it.”
“Then keep it,” I replied, regarding her through my mirror. I made a deliberate pause. “You can buy me a new one for my wedding.”
I savored the shock on Sai Ma’s face, how her cheeks sucked in and her nostrils twitched.
“You stupid girl,” she said then, letting out a laugh. “You really believe that Tommy Yeung will marry you?”
“Baba married you,” I retorted.
“You suppose you’re better than I am? You can’t even read.”
I wouldn’t let any of her petty jibes rile me. “You ought to be relieved,” I said. “The first thing I’m going to do is leave this house. I’ll have my own home on the Peak, my own car and my own maids. You’ll get to be the most beautiful woman in Happy Valley again.”
It was the worst thing I could say to Sai Ma, whose face turned a murderous shade of gray. “Hide all you like behind that pretty face,” she said. “God knows what a demon you are. He’ll make you pay for what you did to Lily.”
