'A bastard?!' Bai Qingyue silently seethed.

His molten eyes turned into a frosty tundra at her barely-conscious words. The heat within him, in contrast, intensified into a burning rage that fused with his lust.

'This insufferable wife must be punished!' he thought.

In a surge of anger, he twisted her nipples and bit her earlobe in reprimand, rubbing his shaft between her cheeks as he did so.

Li Meirong unconsciously squealed and squirmed. The combination of the sudden attack on her ears, the abuse of her peaked nipples, and the hot, probing feeling at her rear caused her eyelashes to flutter.

She began to wake, rousing at the extremely unfamiliar stinging yet pleasurable sensations.

Within a few strokes, Bai Qingyue hissed with pleasure as he spasmed. A thick load of white essence spilled from the tip of his pulsating cock, spreading across Li Meirong's lower back.

Contentment suffused him at his climax. A strange sense of primal satisfaction accompanied it, the likes of which he had never thought he would feel. His rage subsided with his desires fulfilled.

Despite the lassitude that had begun to overtake him, Bai Qingyue noticed his wife's waking, and immediately put her under a sleeping spell. He dreaded to think of the consequences, should she discover herself in such a state.

'She already thinks I am a bastard,' thought Bai Qingyue, and chose not to take the risk. He would need to find a proper time to continue this 'interrogation' later.

He cleaned them both thoroughly in the now-cold bathwater, and rearranged their clothes so that everything was once again properly covered. Satisfied, he rose from the tub, scooping Li Meirong up in his arms as he did so. He surrounded them with his Foxfire to dry their wet skin and clothes, careful not to harm even a single strand of her long black hair.

Once dry, he carried her inside the ramshackle cabin, laying her on the bed and tucking her in. The sight of Li Meirong's plump, flushed cheeks and innocent sleeping visage softened the harshness in his eyes.

Leaning over her, Bai Qingyue pressed his lips against her forehead tenderly, and brushed his fingers through her soft hair. She may not have been fully aware of their activities, but he felt closer to her than ever.

Reluctantly, he transformed back into Snowball, and settled down at her side.

Several hours later, Li Meirong finally, if groggily, awoke.

She let out a mortified cry at the fantasies her perverted mind had conjured. Images of a certain silver-haired man, teasing and touching her, refused to disappear from her dreams. And, to her further mortification, the silken cloth at the juncture of her thighs was soaked with clear evidence of her arousal.

Li Meirong pressed her hands against her face, trying to cover her cheeks and the flush of embarrassment upon them.

She couldn't believe it was happening again! The dreaded Zhu Qingyue had come back to haunt her.

Years ago, after the brothel 'event', the almost hypnotizing image of the man had plagued her thoughts. It took her years and years to forget him! Only now, after having finally convinced herself that she had forged an image of a savior in her most desperate time of need, had she managed to let go. It was the worst of luck that they were now reunited, and her imagination was running wild all over again.

"I can't believe it," groaned Li Meirong, rolling from side to side on the bed. Was she truly such a pervert at heart? She had never had such thoughts before, not about anyone in her previous life!

Yes, he was beautiful. That much she dared admit. He was, in fact, breathtaking to the point of obsession, yet that made her fear him all the more. A person burned once or twice could call it an accident, but any more than that just meant the person was a fool.

Had she not experienced relationships with this type of handsome, arrogant guys before? Had they not betrayed her? Dumped her?

She knew well enough to stay away from Zhu Qingyue, so why? Why did she keep thinking about him?!

The dream had felt so real that her neck was actually sore, and her nipples felt swollen, sensitive.

So deep in her embarrassment as she was, she failed to notice when she bumped against Snowball's small, sleeping form, waking him.

Making a show of rubbing his eyes, Snowball blinked adorably, his big puppy eyes gazing patiently at his 'master'.

Li Meirong sat upright on the bed at the realization she had woken her familiar, rubbing his head and ears affectionately in apology.

"I'm sorry for waking you, Snowball. I had a… nightmare."

"Nightmare?" Snowball cocked his head at her questioningly. "What kind of nightmare?"

Li Meirong was too ashamed to admit to having lustful thoughts about a stranger, albeit one she'd had a one-night-stand with years ago, and so she lied.

"I forgot," she said quickly, instead of telling the truth, and bit at her lower lip in agitation.

Bai Qingyue suppressed a devious little smirk. Her state was obvious to him; even after resting for hours, he could smell her arousal in the air.

Soon, this charade would be over. He fully intended to continue his interrogation, and then finalize their marital status by nightfall. If that did not work, he had another, foolproof, backup plan that even she would not be able to ruin.

Instead of probing further, knowing that she had lied purposefully, Bai Qingyue jumped into her lap and curled up comfortably.

Li Meirong finally noticed her surroundings, and how she was warm, dry, and tucked comfortably under a blanket, and was baffled. There were blank spots in her memory, and she frowned a little.

"How did I get back here? I fainted in the tub, didn't I? Did you dry me?"

'Oops.'