He caressed my neck with his finger and placed a light butterfly kiss, his lips so soft on my skin as if kissing a flower.

"Umm...you smell like peach blossoms," his breath hissed against my neck which sent shivers all over my body.

He started to kiss my neck more deeply with rough smooches and lowered the sleeve of my hanfu making my naked shoulder his next target. And so, as per prediction, he kissed my shoulder passionately in one blow and bit hard with an evil smile gleaming in the corners of his mouth.

'You sick pervert!' I wanted to yell at him but thought better of it.

He was no king. He was a maniacal pervert whose head had gone completely insane.

"Stop staring into the void like that. Right now, I want to enjoy you my beauteous fairy. Let me take you somewhere more private," laying his hands intimately on my body, he swept me up onto his arms like a man might carry his bride. 

I couldn't help gasping at how I was lifted off the ground so weightlessly and was cradled in his strong arms gently, like a dainty woman being carried by her eternal lover. It was all too shameful for my manhood. I was abashed to the core with the mortifying pressure the emperor has forced upon me.

"Right! Let's go now shall we?" he asked so intimately.

"Put me down! Please! Put me down!" I yelped.

"No."

His expression didn't change. I tried to struggle out of his arms but it didn't work. Ignoring my constant retorts, he leisurely walked down the hallways. This didn't look good because I could not escape and once again I had become his innocent innocuous prey. Who knew what tricks lay up his sleeve. Still, I didn't stop struggling in his arms with the little hope that he would let me go. And yet, it was an insuperable idea that had no fortune.

He took different turns and silently wandered off with the struggling me, carrying me so easily like he was carrying a bag of rice. After crossing and turning from one hallway to another, he stopped in front of a tall insignificant-looking door. Something told me that this was really worse. Undeniably, a dangerous disaster was awaiting me in the other side of the door and I could sense it in the hazardous atmosphere.

 He pushed the plain door open with his foot and entered without a second thought, closing it behind us and trekking inside the room.

The so-called room we entered was actually a bathing area. It was so quiet, so peaceful and the air smelled like flowers. The inside looked like it was made with gold as everything stood out with a conspicuous tinsel.

The bathing pond was a huge pool with sparkling clear water topped with red and pink rose petals floating ambiently on the lucid water.

But what caused me to shriek out of my stunned conscience wasn't the fact that the emperor brought me here because of some dirty thoughts playing in his brain and it wasn't because of the ravishment of this place which made it look more wondrous than any royal bath house.

Instead, I was completely aghast by seeing that a particular stranger was already using the bath without his majesty's permission. A young man was already bathing in the water with a fog of steam circulating around him.

He was sitting in the water with his arms resting on the ridges of the pond. He had long black hair that fell along his back and long strands of sticky wet hair fell over his slim violet eyes. A tattoo of a black dragon spread over his chest thus covering his fair skin with dark inky patterns. Why such a symbol has been imprinted on his skin was quite strange because it echoed the image of an evil dark lord upon him.

 Despite the fact that he looked like a man of dark power, I couldn't stop staring at his glimmering violet eyes. To my surprise, he too stared back at me with a stoic expression.

His intense stare knocked me off my feet but I didn't stop admiring how his enthralling eyes suited well for his extremely beautiful face. 

 I swallowed, not sure why this evil dark lord was putting his entire concentration on me with his burning eyes.

And I could also see that emperor Meilin didn't like him at all. From the way the emperor was glaring at him with his clenched teeth and eyes that looked as if they were spitting fire, I could say that they were probably arch rivals.

"What are you doing here Liwei!?," he asked in an outraged manner, angry over the meer existence of the stranger in front of him.

"I have no concern in answering your questions Meilin. But what I am concerned about now is the beautiful mortal lying in your arms," the dark lord answered seductively. He winked at me and licked his lips with a lusty etiquette.

Through that simple gesture, I knew that my problems had become much worse.

Did he actually lick his lips or was it just my imagination?

**>> If you enjoyed reading the story, don't forget to hit a like and subscribe!             :)

P.S= Is this actually a love triangle? Did Meilin just meet a new rival? OMG!  ;)