After the Divorce, I Went Back to My Hometown, Pregnant and Became the Sheriff - Chapter 21

Toys were scattered in a mess across the living room floor, remnants of a play session that hadn’t been tidied up yet. Jiang Xu set Tongtong down and played with him for a short while.

Shen Yucheng stood by the study door. “Come in.” As Jiang Xu walked inside, Shen Yucheng slid the door shut.

The air held a faint fragrance, the lingering scent of burnt incense.

“I apologize to you. I shouldn’t have picked up Tongtong without your consent,” Shen Yucheng spoke first. “But if I hadn’t, I might never have known I had a child.”

“There are many things in this world you don’t know.” Jiang Xu’s response was ice-cold.

“Like the fact that you are actually an Omega?”

Thin sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains, landing on Shen Yucheng’s face. It was likely the final ray of the day, golden and bright, making his eyes appear even bluer. “Yesterday, I passed your apartment on my way from work and saw you and He Xianxing coming back with the child.”

Jiang Xu glanced at him. It was a blatant lie; Shen Yucheng’s route home would never take him past the staff dormitory.

“Why did you lie to me and say you were a Beta?” Shen Yucheng asked.

Jiang Xu leaned against the desk. “I wasn’t lying specifically to you.” As Shen Yucheng lowered his eyes in silence, Jiang Xu added mockingly, “Though, if I had been honest about being an Omega from the start, we probably wouldn’t have reached this point. It would have saved a lot of trouble.”

Shen Yucheng turned his face toward him. “There is no point in discussing other possibilities when faced with reality.”

As dusk fell, the dim light outlined his silhouette, a faint shimmer moving in his narrow eyes.

“Heh, easy for you to say,” a trace of a sneer appeared on Jiang Xu’s lips. “Don’t you hate Omegas the most?”

He reached out and grabbed Shen Yucheng’s loose collar, yanking the man toward him. His voice was provocative. “Or has your orientation changed after a few years away?”

“No, I…” Shen Yucheng’s words died away.

A hot, rich aroma rose in the air like berries ripened in the rainy season, carrying a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Shen Yucheng felt a sharp pang in his stomach. He pursed his lips and instinctively moved to push Jiang Xu away, but his palms stopped with restraint on the man’s level shoulders, applying no force.

“You don’t understand me, Shen Yucheng.” Jiang Xu suppressed his pheromones and let go. “We were never each other’s best choice.”

Shen Yucheng gripped Jiang Xu.

“Let me go.”

“You’re wrong, Jiang Xu.”

Jiang Xu lowered his eyes in confusion, only for Shen Yucheng’s hand to reach out. Fingers clamped onto the back of his neck, forcing him downward without a word. Jiang Xu was pressed into Shen Yucheng’s embrace, struggling and cursing, “Let go!”

“There is no such thing as a ‘best choice’ in this world.”

Shen Yucheng applied pressure with his fingertips. His well-trimmed nails pierced the skin over the gland. A sweet, cloying fragrance that made him feel as if he were suffocating flooded the air. Shen Yucheng felt a sense of unnamable disorder coursing through him.

He closed his fingers, leaving bright red marks on Jiang Xu’s tanned skin, then seized the man’s tensed jaw and leaned in to kiss those slightly parted lips.

Unlike the previous time, this kiss was free of tobacco. Shen Yucheng’s cool cologne slowly enveloped Jiang Xu.

“You still feel desire for me,” Shen Yucheng whispered into his ear. “Don’t you?”

Jiang Xu looked at him, his breathing unsteady. “Isn’t it a bit early for sleep-talking?”

“If a dream is the only place, you’ll admit it.” Shen Yucheng’s thumb rubbed the back of Jiang Xu’s neck as he kissed him again.

The intense, deep kiss sent Jiang Xu into a daze of passion.

Shen Yucheng was right; he did still desire him.

But did desire count as love?

He tightened his arms around Shen Yucheng’s neck, capturing that familiar yet strange, soft tongue. “Desire always has a day where it cools down,” he said in a trembling voice between kisses.

“Doesn’t love?” Shen Yucheng stopped the kiss. He pressed a thumb stained with a trace of blood into Jiang Xu’s mouth. “Nothing stays the same forever. You taunt me now for hating Omegas; I don’t deny it was the truth. But we are husband and wife. At least for now, on a legal level, we still are. We have an obligation to accept each other. I will fulfill my duty and change the fact that I hate Omegas.”

Shen Yucheng’s cold fingers pressed against Jiang Xu’s tongue. “Jiang Xu,” his voice was slow, entirely detached from the intensity of his actions. “Though we have been apart for five years, we are still partners by law. You are entangled with He Xianxing. That is an affair. Do you realize that?”

A mocking laugh bubbled in Jiang Xu’s throat. “You’re too full of yourself, Shen Yucheng.” His words were muffled by the intrusion. Ignoring Jiang Xu’s attempts to push him away, Shen Yucheng curved his fingers upward. Jiang Xu dry-heaved several times, his vision blurring with rising moisture.

“Rather than self-important, I think my patience is what’s most commendable.”

Shen Yucheng’s fingers came away wet, seemingly retaining the sensation from a moment ago. He looked at the gasping Jiang Xu, at the deeply furrowed brows, and at the flickering tongue within those tortured, reddened lips.

Jiang Xu turned his face away, placing a hand over his eyes to avoid Shen Yucheng’s gaze.

Shen Yucheng leaned down to kiss his palm. Everywhere his breath touched felt hot and itchy. Jiang Xu moved his hand and asked an irrelevant question: “Do you wear cologne even at home?”

Shen Yucheng used both hands to lift him and place him on the desk. “I only put it on before you arrived.”

“Ha… is this a seduction, Shen Yucheng?”

“If it suits your fancy, then certainly.”

During the exchange, Shen Yucheng’s hand pressed forward. Jiang Xu’s eyes were half-open. It was getting dark in the study, making the man’s hand look startlingly white.

“Are you going to do it?” Jiang Xu asked.

“Isn’t it a bit late to ask that?” Shen Yucheng moved his palm.

“If you’re going to do it, stop wasting words.”

Shen Yucheng lowered his head without a word. The sound of Jiang Xu’s gasps above him grew hurried as Shen Yucheng applied a light, grinding pressure with his teeth.

“Don’t stall,” Jiang Xu urged in a low voice, his legs bent and feet planted on the edge of the desk. “Tongtong hasn’t had dinner yet.”

“Are you in a rush?” Shen Yucheng pulled away a layer of fabric and leaned down to kiss a damp corner of Jiang Xu’s eye.

“Forget it if you don’t want to…”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to.” Shen Yucheng reached out.

Jiang Xu panted heavily, unable to endure the sensation. Likely overcome by the moment, his pheromones drifted uncontrollably through the air.

Shen Yucheng knit his brows and lightly bit the side of Jiang Xu’s neck. The skin was sweaty and slightly salty, a stark contrast to the cloying sweetness emanating from the gland at the back.

“Why is there so much moisture?” He kissed Jiang Xu’s ear. “Jiang Xu, you’re like this, so what right do you have to divorce me?” As he spoke, he noticed the documents beneath Jiang Xu. He reached out with one hand to pull them away.

He was about to check if they were stained when he saw the dazed, handsome face of the man on the desk. For a moment, he couldn’t bear to look away and carelessly tossed the documents onto the floor.

“Hurry up,” Jiang Xu called out.

But Shen Yucheng continued to ignore his demands. A surge of irritation flared in Jiang Xu. He kicked out, hitting Shen Yucheng’s shoulder, his voice a mix of curses and gasps: “Shen Yucheng! Are you impotent?!”

Shen Yucheng gave a low, quiet laugh. “It appears I am not.”

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