Page 65 of The Scholar's Improper Wife

His thumb pressed into the soft fur right where it met her skin, circling once, twice—

“Ngh—!”

The noise escaped her before she could bite it back. Her fingers clawed at his shoulders, nails digging into the fabric of his robe. She should push him away. Sheshould. But her body had other thoughts, melting against him, her hips shifting restlessly in his lap.

Just a dream, she told herself.Just a dream, just a dream.

Her tail—her tail—twitched, brushing against his thigh. His breath hitched.

It was just a dream.

She could wake up anytime.

Yun-si exhaled, slow and shaky. And leaned in to Ting-zhi tentatively.

This time, when their lips met, his hands didn’t stay still. One continued to trace languorous paths down her tail, eliciting delirious moans that she didn’t recognize as her own. The other slid down, lower and lower...

She yelped, breaking the kiss. “That’s—!”

“Verysensitive,” he agreed, voice rough. His fingers didn’t move, just rested there, right at the curve where her thigh met her—oh.

She should’ve been furious. She wasstillangry at him. She should’ve slapped him. Should’ve woken up.

Instead, she arched into his touch, her tail—her ridiculous, traitorous tail—curling around him.

“Just a dream,” she whispered.

His lips curved against her skin. “Mmm. So we can do anything.”

The promise in his voice made her breath catch.

Then his fingersmoved.

He traced the sensitive mountains and valleys where her chrysanthemum cave was. And the pleasure that shot through her was so sharp her toes curled and she let out another breathy moan.

Ting-zhi’s breath was ragged against her ear. “Si-er,” he murmured, his voice rough, “you’redripping.”

She didn’t understand what he meant. Not at first.

But then his palm pressed her gently there, where the heat between her legs had grown thick and aching, and she felt the dampness. Her face burned.

His fingers never left her tail, stroking downwards in slow, maddening drags, each one sending another wave of that impossible pleasure spiraling through her. Her tail twitched in his grip, the fur standing on end, and when his thumb pressed down again, she made that soundagain—higher this time, needier.

“I am yours.” He murmured against her fox ears. “And you are mine.” Each soft kiss he pressed there sent a bolt of lightning down her spine.

Yun-si’s vision blurred. She could feel the way her body had gone pliant against his, her chest rising and falling too fast, her skin too hot. His other hand was still on her, his fingers flexing,almostwhere she needed them—

“Zhi-zhi—” His name broke from her on a whine, her voice thin and trembling.

His control was slipping—she could hear it in the way his breaths came in rough gasps, could feel it in the way his hips lifted fractionally against hers, as if he couldn’t help himself.

His lips crashed back onto hers, hungry now, his teeth catching her lower lip before his tongue swept in, deep and claiming. She moaned into his mouth, her hands fisting in hisrobes, and when his fingers finally—finally—slid higher, into the damp heat between her thighs, sheshattered.

A broken cry tore from her throat, her back bowing as pleasure ripped through her, sharp and bright as a blade. Her tail lashed in his grip, her ears flat against her skull, and Ting-zhi groaned against her neck, his own body trembling beneath hers.

In the midst of shuddering between realms, a sharpcracksplit the air.

And everything dissolved abruptly.