The Devil's Favourite Obsession

He disconnected the call. And the moment the line went dead, Cassian laughed.

He laughed from deep in his stomach, his broad shoulders shaking against the headboard, his head tipping back as the sound filled the dark room. He brought the phone down from his ear and shook his head slowly, his grin so wide it pulled at the bite mark Cixi had left on his lower lip days ago.

A pregnancy.

She had walked into the Crown Palace and told his family she was carrying his child. She had fabricated a baby, strapped a fake belly to her body, and convinced the most dangerous family in the city to house her in the palace.

He had not seen that coming. Just like he had not seen the kissing contract coming. Just like he had not seen her biting his lip at the nightclub, coming.

His laughter softened into a low, dark chuckle.

His eyes began to shift. The pitch-black of his irises dissolved, bleeding outward from the pupils like ink dropped into clear water, lightening through shades of deep mahogany until they settled into the palest, warmest brown. A vertical slit was narrowed through each iris and then widened again.

*

Back in the present, inside the car, Cassian listened to Cixi’s explanation.

”It was a good plan, and it worked. I am residing in the palace.” Cixi kept her eyes forward, staring through the windshield at the city traffic. ”But I did not anticipate they would demand a DNA test so soon.” Her fingers picked at a loose thread on her sleeve. ”I was expecting them to wait until after the child was born. That would have given me enough time to stay inside the palace and be your bait.” Cixi used the word bait in a sarcastic tone.

”You truly amuse me.” Cassian studied her profile. ”The way you continuously elevate your position in this relationship is remarkable. I am starting to wonder if you engineered this entire plan to make me marry you.”

Cixi snapped her head toward him, her pale grey eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. ”Well, you will still be enjoying your privilege of sleeping with others. The contract is still in place.” Her chin lifted in defiance. ”And I do not think marrying me sounds terrible. Not that I am asking you to marry me.”

A throaty chuckle rumbled from Cassian’s chest, causing Cixi to observe him more carefully as he laughed at her words. ”I should be charging you a bill for making you laugh.” She didn’t know why she said it, but she did anyway.

”Not a single part of your behaviour toward me looks like you are in love with me,” Cassian mentioned, and that sent Cixi on alert.

”This is how I show my love.” She said it proudly.

Cixi did not blink but stared at him, and for a single, terrifying second, the weight of what she had just said and what he had just responded to crashed into her with the force of a collapsing wall.

Perhaps her hormones truly were out of control. Not from pregnancy. From the bone-deep stress.

”Then why have I never heard those three magical words from you?” Cassian tilted his head, his expression shifting from amusement to something more intentional. He shook his head once in a gesture of theatrical disappointment. ”How am I supposed to believe you love me? Should you not be sending me good morning and good night texts with hearts? Should you not be asking whether I have eaten? Whether I missed you or not?”

Cassian was a brat. A cunning, manipulative, devastatingly intelligent brat who cornered Cixi with words the way a wolf herded sheep into a canyon.

He didn’t leave Cixi any other choice, so she cleared her throat before trying to make this narcissist feel better. ”I— I like you.” She spoke so fast that the words blurred together into a single breathless sound, barely louder than a whisper.

In the passenger seat, Mark kept his gaze fixed firmly on the road ahead. His ears, however, had metaphorically grown three sizes. Every ounce of his attention was focused on the back of the car while his eyes remained obediently forward. Years of serving Cassian had trained him in the art of hearing everything while appearing to hear nothing.

”Like?” Cassian repeated the word as though she had handed him a counterfeit coin and he was turning it over in his fingers, examining its worthlessness. ”You like me and not love me?!”

Cixi’s eyes darted away from him for barely a second before something reckless surged through her chest. She turned back, lifted her hand, and placed her open palm flat against Cassian’s chest. ”I do not want to overwhelm you with the word love. Did you not say you do not love? So that is me respecting your words right now.”

Cixi could feel his heart beating beneath her fingers, through the fabric of his shirt. It was steady, slow, and controlled—unlike her own heart, which was hammering wildly enough to crack her sternum, while his beat as though he were sitting alone in an empty room reading a book.

Cassian lowered his chin, and his dark eyes dropped to the small hand resting against his chest. Her slender fingers pressed into the fabric just above his heart. He studied it with an expression that carried no mockery, only bemusement. Then he lifted his chin and met her grey eyes.

The air between them seemed to thin until breathing felt like swallowing glass.

Cixi pulled her hand away and curled it into her palm as though she were trying to trap the feeling of his heartbeat inside her fist before it faded away. She turned her face back toward the window and stared at the passing city lights, her chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths.

”If you are going to keep reaching for me like that, you might as well sit closer.” He lifted his hand and patted the empty seat between them. His dark eyes held hers with patience. ”You do not have to stay all the way over there. And if you prefer, you can even sit in my lap.” His voice dropped into that low, devastating tone that made Cixi’s spine stiffen. ”You do not need to ask permission from me anymore. I can at least do this much for my fiancee who is pregnant with my child.”