Chapter 10: Possessiveness

As Roman lifted the wine glass and took a sip, the cool liquid slid down his throat, only to suddenly choke him.

Cough cough.

Luo Xiya, who had been standing beside him chatting with someone else, immediately noticed.

She patted his back and asked with a smile, “Not used to it?”

“This isn’t juice?”

Roman set the glass down, and a wave of unpleasant memories flooded over him.

“It’s fruit wine. Didn’t you notice the scent?”

He shook his head, unconsciously slipping into recollection.

Before working at the milk tea shop in his previous life, he’d done other jobs.

Because he was too young, most of the work he found was in gray areas, the kind you couldn’t talk about in public, like being a male companion at drinking lounges.

Though the profession was unusual, the market was strong and there was a serious lack of “premium” options.

So whenever a quality candidate appeared, the compensation was very generous.

For someone like him at the time, with good pay, no age requirements, he had naturally accepted it without hesitation.

Then he made a fool of himself on his very first shift.

He still remembered it clearly.

His client had been a woman in her thirties, soft-featured and well-maintained.

She seemed to be visiting a lounge like that for the first time, and her manners were hesitant, awkward.

Not that he had done any better.

The two of them drank and chatted, mostly her talking, him listening.

She had barely started her story, and he’d only had a few drinks, when he blacked out completely and collapsed into her arms.

When he woke up, he found himself in a hotel room.

The moment he realized he was lying on one of those signature big white beds, the haze of alcohol vanished in an instant.

He instinctively reached for his body, his original clothes were gone, replaced by a hotel bathrobe.

Just as panic started to rise in his chest, the woman walked out of the bathroom holding a towel soaked in warm water.

It became very clear he’d overthought everything.

She had obviously realized he was underage and, worried something might happen to him if he stayed at the lounge, had taken him away.

She was a successful woman with a difficult love life, trying to relax at her friends’ suggestion.

Upon realizing he was a minor, she had spent the night simply chatting with him until late.

Roman stared into his wine glass, seeing his reflection in the surface.

If he remembered correctly, the night hadn’t been entirely uneventful.

When the woman was leaving, purse in hand, she kissed him on the forehead.

Emboldened by something unfamiliar, he’d leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

A faint smile touched his lips.

Getting drunk had been a bad experience, but that night remained one of the few memories in over ten years that actually made him feel warm.

“You’re thinking about another woman?”

Luo Xiya’s voice suddenly cut through his thoughts, a chill rising in the air beside him.

She had been watching him the whole time.

At first, she thought he was just hesitating because he wasn’t used to the taste of alcohol, but then she’d sensed something else entirely.

Roman probably didn’t even realize it himself, but when he recalled that memory, his shy gaze, the gentle smile on his lips, it looked incredibly suggestive to anyone watching from the side.

“No,”

Roman replied flatly, naturally unwilling to admit it.

He didn’t even know the woman’s name.

They had never contacted each other again.

What lingered now was only the warmth of that moment.

But the moment he said “no,” Luo Xiya’s expression noticeably darkened.

A sudden force tightened around his wrist, and Roman was yanked, helplessly, toward the direction of the dance floor.

“Excuse us,”

Luo Xiya said to her friend with a flawless smile, then pulled Roman away without waiting for a response.

“…!”

Luo Xiya was clearly using strength.

Pain shot up Roman’s wrist from her grip.

Yet not a trace of it showed on his face.

Having long since learned to endure, he understood all too well how resisting someone he couldn’t defy only made things worse.

Up on the second floor, the band played a light and graceful tune, the instruments weaving together in harmony.

Luo Xiya stormed into the dance floor like a drawn blade, dragging Roman behind her.

She naturally took the lead in their steps, which at least allowed Roman, who knew nothing about dancing, to follow without stepping on her feet.

With an arm wrapped firmly around Roman’s waist, she pressed him close against her.

The occasional spins made Roman feel dizzy and lightheaded.

While dancing, Luo Xiya began speaking to him.

“Do you know who the woman was that competed with me for you that day?”

“I don’t.”

Luo Xiya continued slowly, “Her name is Tania. There’s not much to say about her status, just the daughter of a count. She’s not even in line to inherit anything.”

“But she’s very well-known among the nobility. Do you know why?”

“I don’t,”

Roman replied, his tone sounding uninterested.

Luo Xiya noticed.

She bit her lower lip, then leaned in to whisper beside his ear mid-step, “Because she’s very good at playing. Can you guess what she’s so good at playing with?”

Roman was confused.

With the exception of a few outliers, what noble wasn’t into some form of indulgence or excess?

What was so special about that?

“She’s good at playing with men, especially boys like you.”

Roman let out a faint smile.

He genuinely just thought the comment was a bit ridiculous.

But in Luo Xiya’s eyes, that smile was nothing short of mockery.

“She loves to break men. She puts collars on them, feeds them drugs that create dependency, and strips away their self-worth little by little.”

“In the end, they stop even thinking of themselves as people, reduced to nothing more than lowly beasts.”

“Even if you’re a slave, your body controlled, at least your mind can remain your own. But if you were a slave to Tania, nothing about you would belong to you. Not even your body after death,”

By the end, Luo Xiya was no longer speaking in hypotheticals.

She used “you”, speaking directly to Roman.

“From as far back as I can remember, the thing I’ve hated most is watching something precious shatter right in front of me. There are many children like that in my territory.”

“That day, I’d planned to bid on something else… but I changed my plan when I saw you. I paid nearly a year’s worth of the territory’s harvest to bring you back.”

Several seconds passed before Roman responded in a quiet voice.

“I understand…”

Just then, the music came to an end.

Luo Xiya held onto Roman’s hand as they slowly came to a stop.

She cupped his face in both hands and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Call it petty if you like… But at the very least, I want you to belong only to me, when you’re in front of me.”

The whisper tickled softly at Roman’s ear.

Maybe Luo Xiya had sensed the silent weight in Roman’s heart, and in the end, she couldn’t help but compromise, just a little.

In truth, Roman was more bemused than aggrieved.

After being smothered by possessiveness that bordered on obsession, and then pushed and pulled with threats and promises… honestly, he didn’t dislike the feeling.

Though on paper they were master and subordinate, or more accurately, master and slave, Roman still leaned in close to her ear and gently fed her possessiveness the answer she longed to hear.

“No one owns me but you. And… whenever, wherever, whatever kind of ‘first’ you can think of, I’ll give it to you.”