by Eve Kasey
A smile lifted the corner of her mouth as she studied the star-studded ring nestled in black velvet. “I’m not worried about that.”
“It’s a damn good ring,” he agreed.
She gave a gentle eyeroll, so like Elle, as she handed the box back to him.
“I get the feeling a lot has changed since I left. Like I might have been the glue holding everyone together. Tate?”
She smiled ruefully. “Maybe you were the glue. But I’ll need a margarita before we get into all that.”
He slung his arm around her shoulder. “I’ll buy, you talk. You can tell me what’s up with Tate, if Vadim has slept with half of OrbitAll by now, and if our little Quinn has finally learned how to relax. I mean, miracles do happen.”
Rosie squeezed his middle. “It’s nice to have you back. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”
Chen had no plans to.
47
Elle cried when Veronica handed her the key to her cottage by the sea.
Her family and Rosie helped her move in. Rosie also helped her spend way too much money on furniture, both indoor and outdoor, in the four weeks it took to close. On moving day, Elle directed the boys on arranging the furniture inside, while Rosie hung all the art and staged all the live plants she insisted would be easy enough for Elle to keep alive. Elle had her doubts.
Rosie couldn’t stay long, just long enough to leave hurried instructions for watering before heading off to meet with a client.
Elle and her dad put together and arranged the patio furniture while Betti unpacked the kitchen and made multiple trips to the store for pantry staples and cleaning supplies.
At the end of the day, Elle was exhausted, sore, and more excited than she could remember feeling.
“I’m done for,” Betti groaned as she stacked the last box of pasta in the pantry. “Who knew one kitchen was so much work? This is why your dad and I are staying in that tiny shack until we die.”
Elle chuckled and grabbed two beers from the fridge, a local craft brew Betti and her dad loved. “Here. Take these and go test out the furniture Dad and I put together.”
“Oh, sure. You want me to be the one sitting on the love seat if it breaks.”
As if Betti’s pixie-like frame could break furniture. Elle, with a fuller frame, had bounced on the loveseat a few times without issue. Betti turned at the sliding door that led to the patio. “This was the right move for you, baby.”
“The house?”
“That, and taking a breather.” She looked at Elle, a sly smile on her lips that she knew from experience meant she had knowledge Elle didn’t. It usually had to do with new beanie babies or surprise visits to her college dorm. She wondered what Betti knew this time. “This house, this home, excuse me, will help you find balance. I think you’ll want to be here. Especially tonight.”
“I think so, too.” It was hers, and Elle had never had a place all her own before. Her soul already felt more settled. She couldn’t wait for her first night in her first home. “Hey, Mom?”
“Yeah?”
Elle cleared her throat. She’d already made one life-altering decision in the last few weeks. She was about to make a second. “I was considering the activity director position at Bayview now that Rhea’s retiring. What do you think about that?”
Betti chuckled. “Oh, baby, I’d love to have you. But I’m afraid the hours and pay won’t be at all what you’re used to.”
“I know.” Elle had expected as much. William Markham, as hard as he’d been to please as a boss, had at least compensated her accordingly. And had given his C-suite stock options in his moneymaking enterprises. She’d be fine with a smaller salary. “Would it be weird working with me?”
“Not at all,” she grinned. “You’re exactly what we need. Come on down sometime this week and fill out an application.”
Elle couldn’t stop her snort. She hadn’t filled out an application since her very first job. “Enjoy your beer and tell Dad to fire up the grill.”
The next time she glanced out the window, she saw Betti relaxing with her feet up, the boys throwing around a football barefoot in her grass, and her dad at the grill with beer in hand. The scene was nearly perfect.
Later that night, Elle wandered her quiet, clean home with a heart as full as her wine glass. She grabbed a blanket from the couch and snuggled up in the huge papasan chair outside with her gaze on the stars. They weren’t as bright or close here as they’d been in Victory, or on the island—or likely the Gobi Desert where Chen spent his nights.
Easy to fall in love with starlight in the desert, one of his texts had said, months back.
It had been easy to fall in love with him. But she couldn’t dwell on that.
The cabernet her parents had left as a welcome gift was lush and velvety on her tongue. The night air was warm and smelled of jasmine, a smell she’d always associated with home. Contentment bloomed in her belly. She didn’t just need others to be happy. She didn’t just need work. Betti was right: She needed this place and more moments like this one. She needed balance.
“Xīngguāng.”
Elle screamed. Her wine glass dropped from her fingers and shattered on the patio as the man on her mind materialized out of the shadows.
“What? No. Chen, you can’t—” She moved to stand up. Was she hallucinating? She couldn’t be drunk. Possibly asleep? But would she be shaking so badly in her sleep? She’d forgotten how tall Chen was. How handsome. How necessary to her life. Her heart pounded in her ears.
“Don’t move.” His deep, achingly familiar voice sent sparks through her entire body. “There’s glass all over and you’re not wearing shoes. I can see your cute red toes from here.”
She stood anyway. She had to make sure he was real.
“Elle, you crazy woman.”
He was at her side in seconds, sweeping her up into his arms. His smell, the smooth skin of his arms, the dark stubble on his face, his rumbling voice all vied for attention across her senses. Glass crunched under his feet as he carried her into the house. Her heart thundered in her chest as he set her down in her brightly lit dining room.
“What the—what are you doing here? How? Why?" She shook her head to clear all the questions.
He flashed that cocky smile that was tied like string to her belly.
“Speechless in my presence, are we?”
Elle glared at him and pushed her lips out in a pout. Still, she couldn’t stop touching him. As unlikely as his presence was, Chen stood in her dining room. He was very, very real.
He snickered as he ghosted his lips against her neck. She couldn’t see his expression as he answered. She could only feel the words on her skin. In her soul. “Why? Well, Elle, it turns out my real dream is you.”
She blinked tears out of her eyes and leaned into the lips on her neck.
“So, you’re here? Are you staying?”
His dark gaze met hers then and Elle’s tilted world righted itself. “If you’ll let me.”
In seconds, she was on her tiptoes, lips on his, her hands on his chest for balance. His soft growl ripped through her at light speed as his hands moved to grip her hips. Chen was soft and hard and everything she needed. When his tongue swept in her mouth, Elle’s body responded with fire. She pushed into him insistently, tugging at his shirt.
His eyes were dancing and desirous. “Already? We’ve barely said ten words to each other.”
“We’re at least at twenty.” Elle was already panting, breathless with desire from the very real proximity of his very hard body. “Bedroom,” she demanded.
Chen, surprisingly, obeyed without question. He lifted Elle easily, wrapped her legs around his waist, and followed the directions to her room. His hands slid down her bare arms as she found her footing.
“Now what, xīngguāng?”
“You tell me what that means.” She planted a kiss on his jaw, dropping her voice to a whisper. “And then I fuck you until you can’t see straight.”
God, he had the se
xiest groan. The sounds of him sent her lady parts pulsing, especially when she could feel his jaw tense under her lips.
“You gotta earn the translation of your nickname. How about you fuck me first, then we’ll see if I tell you.”
“Don’t make me say it,” she warned.
Chen tipped her chin up. “I flew across the fucking world to hear you say it.”
“Chen Lew, you are the fucking worst.”
She bit his juicy bottom lip, but the move didn’t affect his shit-eating grin. No, the nibble pushed him into hyperdrive. Elle was naked, stripped roughly by Chen, within seconds. She helped him push his shirt to the floor, exposing the lean muscles that she’d memorized. That she’d missed.
Elle attacked the button on his snug jeans while he pried his shoes off. When he was naked, too, she slowed her movements. Chen was here. Here. In San Diego. In her new home. In her arms. She really would need to know how that had happened. Later.
She licked his peaked brown nipples. Her own tightened against his chest as she did so. His hand moved to her bum and squeezed. She could feel his heart beating frenetically under her lips as she continued to kiss across his sculpted chest. She let her fingers trail up and down the thick shaft pressed against her stomach as she kissed his throat. When their heated gazes collided, stars were born from the explosions inside Elle’s body.
The following moments were flashes and fragments of light in darkness. Elle on her back on the bed. Chen inside her deep and hard. Whispered words. Nipples teased by tongues. Her lips crushed to his. Her clit aching, aching, then rejoicing. Elle screamed as Chen did the same.
He collapsed beside her and pulled her body into his. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, their legs tangled together. Elle ran her hand over the outline of his warm form as he recovered still inside her.
“I have more questions than I know what to do with,” she told him.
“Allow me to try and save your breath for more orgasms,” he replied, his mouth on her hair. “I quit the space program. I’m getting guardianship of Xiaoming. My parents are moving north without us. Betti and Rosie conspired against you. Tate hooked me up with an immigration attorney. That about covers the basics, right?”
Elle listened, fascinated, hardly able to comprehend how Chen’s path had been able to merge with hers again. But who was she to question the lengths people went for each other? That had always been her modus operandi, too. “You forgot one. What does xīngguāng mean?”
Chen kissed her forehead and she heard him smile. “Starlight. You brighten everything you touch, Elle. I want you to guide the rest of my life with that light.”
Starlight and forever. Like what she saw reflected in his eyes. She smiled as butterflies lifted off in her belly.
“I love the nickname. And I love that idea.” She traced the outline of his jaw with a finger. Their chests touched as they breathed in unison. Elle thought it was the most beautiful moment she’d ever been part of. “I wanted to propose, you know.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I know. Betti told me.” He leaned forward to capture her mouth as his hand palmed her breast. Electricity shot through her as his tongue and fingers teased her at once. “You just can’t get enough of me.”
She didn’t have time to roll her eyes before his tongue had dropped to her nipple and she was on her back again at his insistence. Moments later, his tongue and fingers had meandered down her stomach and into soft, wet heat. Several panting, greedy, loud moments later, Elle came undone.
“I can’t get enough of you, either,” he whispered against the shell of her ear after they were snuggled up again. Chen turned her around to face him and rearranged a throw blanket from the foot of her bed around them both. She felt him continuing to rummage but couldn’t fathom what he was doing. A warm hand landed on her hip. “I didn’t think I could love anything as much as I loved being in space. I didn’t think I’d be allowed to love you as much as I do. I didn’t even hope to really call you mine. Turns out, I like being wrong.”
He found her hand with his and kissed her fingertips one by one. Elle’s eyes fluttered closed as his lips connected with her skin. Then popped open wide when she felt a cool metal band slide down her ring finger. “Chen?”
“I hope this is magical enough for you, xīngguāng. I’ve already talked to my parents and yours. I think the customary next step is to ask you, Elle Shirley, if you’ll marry me.”
She could only stare. Earlier today, and every day since he’d left, Elle had been sure she’d have to move through a life that was a little dimmer without Chen. Had the universe really made this happen for them? Had he?
“You didn’t think I’d show up on the first night in your new house without a gift, did you?”
Hot tears slid down her cheeks as the thought of a real future with him sank in. He kissed them away. “I’m the gift, if you didn’t know,” he whispered, teasing. Always teasing. “The ring is okay, but I’m the real prize.”
She shoved him lightly and brought her hand closer to inspect the ring he’d given her. In keeping with their history, the symbol of love was untraditional. The oval-shaped stone looked to be an opal, navy blue with spots of sparkling silver. An analogy of the night sky. The band was diamonds. The ring, and the man who had promised her forever, were perfect.
Chen’s intense dark eyes met hers. “What do you say, Elle? You and me?”
She smiled. “Always.”
48
Three Months Later
They landed at night, when the city was lit with rainbow hues—a bright, chromatic beacon from a black sky. But even the lights of Guangzhou couldn’t compare to the glow of his future wife.
Chen smiled as Elle exclaimed about the beauty of the city on the Didi ride to their hotel. He relished seeing his hometown through her wide eyes. “It’s so colorful. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is so much more. Rosie would love these buildings.”
He picked up her hand to kiss it. “What do you want to do first?”
She shot him a look. “Eat. Duh.”
“You and your Chinese stomach,” he teased. Chen couldn’t wait to introduce her to his favorite places all over the city. They’d become regulars at the dumpling place in San Diego she’d taken him to so many months ago. GZ had been his first home, the place that initially shaped him. Every subsequent place he’d lived had continued to mold him, but none so much as the last. San Diego was now his true home and, in about a week, it would be Xiaoming’s, too. They were finally allowed to bring her home.
Her apartment at Bayview was ready, fully furnished and decorated in movie posters and beanie babies, courtesy of Elle. His fiancée had embraced the idea of their three-person family with such joy that Chen would have married her a dozen times over if he could.
“Guangzhou has every type of food in the world. What do you feel like?” he asked her.
“Xiaolongbao.”
He chuckled at how easily the word rolled off her tongue. She’d been diligently using a language app in anticipation of meeting his family. That meeting was happening tomorrow. Tonight, he was treating her to a night on the town.
They checked into the hotel, a swanky riverfront high-rise, where Chen fucked Elle in the shower. Her slick skin and tight, wet heat drove all lingering nerves about the next day from his mind. In the steam and in the moment, there was only the connection of their bodies. He only felt; Chen couldn’t even think as the ecstasy of Elle claimed his being. She screamed and clenched around him, pulling him sky-high with the strength and sounds of her.
Later, with dry, wavy hair, and the sultry eye makeup that had first drawn him in, Elle donned a slinky red dress that filled most of his mind with the perfection underneath. In all black himself, Chen kissed both of her bare shoulders.
“Mmm.” She leaned into his mouth before turning to face him. “I can’t wait for tonight, leng zai.”
Handsome. He brought her left hand to his lips. He would never tire of seeing his r
ing on her finger, or hearing her attempt to master endearments in Cantonese.
“Which part? The food, dancing, or more sex?”
“All of the above. And maybe not even in that order.”
Chen’s gut seized as her deep, lusty eyes traveled up and down his frame. He thanked his lucky stars every fucking day that he was allowed to call Elle his.
They hit up a night market first, wandering through loud groups of people also grabbing cheap street food before a long night of dancing. Elle’s dark eyes never stopped roaming. She tried her Cantonese at a stall that sold sizzling wontons. Chen picked up har gow in little cups that kept the grease and broth away from their clothes. She tried fish balls and fried tofu, and of course, bao.
“The flavors here are crazy,” she moaned. “GZ is incredible.”
Looking around, he tried to see the market through her eyes. She’d grown up in Ocean Beach, a laidback oceanside enclave. Then she’d moved to a tropical island and on to Victory, a desert town with population nothing. It was late, past their San Diego bedtime, but here in Guangzhou they were surrounded by people and noise and heat and neon, inhaling hot, fragrant food while navigating crowded streets. The city for him had become representative of a future in which he had little say. Now, freer, and seeing it through Elle’s eyes, the place tugged at his heart. He could see why she loved it.
He treated her to lo po beng for dessert. “Wifey cake for my future wifey,” he whispered, popping a piece of the small, flat pastry into her mouth and following it up with a quick kiss. “I’m so glad you wanted to come with me to get Xiaoming.”
Elle wiped cake crumbs off her lips as she shot love through him with just a look. “I wouldn’t miss this.”
Outside the door of his family’s apartment the next day, Chen watched Elle straighten her shoulders, bounce on her toes, and take a deep breath.
“Try to relax, xīngguāng.”
“How?” she hissed. “Your family is mine now. This matters.”
