The Devil's Favourite Obsession-Chapter 49: A night to remember - 5

"W-we didn’t see your faces," Marion stammered blindly, keeping her head firmly bowed towards the tiled floor. "So we will leave now."

The three of them kept their gazes fixed on the floor as they rose to their feet, silently praying they could simply turn the handle and leave this terrifying room alive.

Cixi promptly turned to face the green door and wrapped her trembling hand around the brass knob.

That was when a low, authoritative voice echoed from the shadows.

"Not so fast." The voice was deep and terrifyingly calm. "First, I absolutely hate interruptions. And second... I haven’t given you permission to leave."

Cixi’s eyes instantly widened, sending a violent shockwave straight through her core. She slowly turned away from the door and lifted her gaze past the kneeling hostage to look directly at the man in charge.

A wave of disbelief surged through her as she took in the figure before her, her heart racing with the shock of recognition. The person sitting there was someone she had never expected to see again, leaving her both stunned and breathless.

Was she looking at the man in charge? A flawless doppelgänger? Or was she actually staring at Cassian himself?

The man sat elegantly on a lavish leather couch at the centre of the room, holding a lit cigarette lazily between his fingers. He brought it to his lips and took a long, slow drag while his dark, penetrating gaze moved first over Lily, then Marion, and finally settled squarely on Cixi.

Lily and Marion were caught somewhere between pure, paralysing fear and undeniable admiration at being in the presence of an incredibly handsome mobster. Cixi, on the other hand, could only stare at him in utter disbelief.

Cixi took a hesitant step away from the door, then softly rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, helplessly wondering whether this was just a wild hallucination brought on by alcohol. When she started moving forward again, her friends panicked.

"Cixi!" Lily whisper-hissed frantically, grabbing the hem of her skirt. "Cixi, stop! He might be a heartthrob, but he is not the one!"

Cixi could not hear them. Her entire universe had narrowed drastically to the man sitting on the couch. The man who looked exactly like Cassian.

He did not move a single muscle. He simply watched Cixi’s careful, breathless steps across the room towards him as she walked straight past the trembling hostage kneeling on the floor, listening only to the sharp click of her heels against the ground.

A large man who had been pacing barefoot over scattered shards of broken glass stepped aside at once.

Every lackey in the room stopped what he was doing and watched the tiny woman continue forward to confront their terrifying boss. The men standing behind the couch instantly rested their hands on their holstered guns, fully prepared to shoot her dead the second she tried anything foolish. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Cixi stopped right in front of him, staring down at his face with simmering fury.

He simply leaned back against the cushions, looking up at her with the same unreadable intensity.

Slowly, Cixi lifted her shaking hand to confirm whether he was really there, to confirm whether he was flesh and bone or merely a cruel ghost haunting her guilt-ridden mind.

Then, without the slightest warning, her hand swung hard.

Smack.

A violent slap landed squarely across the boss’s face.

Behind her, Lily and Marion threw their hands over their mouths, utterly flabbergasted. They stood frozen in shock, unable even to breathe.

The armed men surrounding the couch were caught entirely off guard. Of all the things they had prepared for that night, witnessing their lethal boss being slapped across the face by an erratic young woman was not one of them.

"You couldn’t contact me even once?!" Cixi’s chest heaved violently with anger. Her fingers dug so tightly into her clutch purse that her knuckles turned stark white. "Do you know how long I have been looking for you? ... For your body?!"

Her face hardened into stone.

Cassian slowly reached up, his thumb lightly brushing the cheek Cixi had just struck. He drew another drag from his cigarette before tossing it to the ground. "Has the trick to get my attention changed now?" he muttered coldly under his breath.

"You!" Cixi yelled furiously, jabbing an accusatory finger directly at his face.

In a flash of blinding speed, Cassian’s hand shot up and caught her pointing finger. He did not merely grab it—he yanked her forward with violent force, effortlessly pulling her into his grip.

Cixi gasped as she lost her balance completely and crashed onto the leather couch right beneath him.

Cassian surged upwards at once, dominating her entirely as he pinned her wrists with one hand. He kept one heavy boot planted firmly on the floor so that Cixi’s left foot brushed against his while her leg remained bent on the couch. With his other leg pressing forcefully against her left thigh, he parted her legs and pinned her body against the cushions, preventing her from writhing free.

The intensely sensual press of his massive body set her skin on fire at once, trapping her effortlessly beneath him.

"How dare you slap me?" he asked in a dangerously low timbre, staring deeply into Cixi’s enraged light-grey eyes. Inhaling deeply, she caught the scent of the cigar smoke on his breath.

"And how dare you not let me know you were still alive?!" Cixi shot back stubbornly, refusing to submit to his overwhelming presence.

Their faces were only fractions of an inch apart. Their rapid breathing mingled in the taut, feverish air. Their lips hovered so dangerously close that the heavily armed lackeys standing around the room genuinely could not tell whether their boss was threatening the girl or whether something intensely passionate was unfolding before their eyes.

Lily and Marion had desperately wanted Cixi to meet someone and move on from her lonely life, but getting pinned beneath the mafia boss in such an intimate way had absolutely not been part of the plan.

With terrified hostages nearby and armed men surrounding the room, how the hell did Cixi not see the danger?

Was the alcohol speaking for her?

Or did she actually know this gorgeous, frightening man?

Marion cleared her throat nervously, fearing for her friend’s life. "S-Sir, she is drunk. She doesn’t have a single clue what she is doing. Please forgive her."

Cassian did not even turn his head. He merely cast a dark sidelong glance at Marion before locking his intense gaze straight back onto Cixi.

"If you cannot handle your drink, then why drink at all?" he asked, looking at her as though he could not decide whether she was reckless or simply determined to destroy herself. His stare lingered on her flushed face for a moment before he added, "Do you want to court death?"

Cixi should have turned her gaze away as heat crept into her cheeks, but instead she met his dark eyes head-on.

"Death? I thought you wanted to imprison me for being a bad girl!" she screamed right back at him. Even though something about her own words sounded strange to her ears, she pushed on anyway. "Why did you not tell me you were alive?! Like a complete fool, I kept looking for you, Mr. Cassian Crown!"

She writhed against his solid, unyielding chest. "Get off me! Get off me!"

She threw all her remaining strength into trying to shove him violently away, but his massive body did not budge even an inch.

"Do I even know you?" Cassian’s next question stole the breath straight from her lungs.

Her frantic struggle ceased at once.

She stared at him in bewilderment, unable to believe what she had just heard.

’After taking my very first kiss from me, is he seriously asking whether he knows me?’ Her scattered mind spun wildly out of control. ’Is he pretending not to remember, or does he truly want to get rid of me?’

At that moment, she stopped fighting him entirely. Instead, her eyes slowly dropped to his lips.

The very same lips that had kissed her so passionately, so deeply and seductively, right before completely ruining her peace of mind.

Before anyone in the room realised what was happening, Cixi closed the tiny distance between them and crushed her lips firmly against his.

By the green door, Marion and Lily’s hands, which had barely moved away from their faces, flew straight back over their open mouths.

The armed men standing guard around the room looked away, unsure whether they should leave.

Cixi pressed her lips against his furiously, but before she could sink into the kiss, she bit down on his lower lip so hard she nearly drew blood. Then she jerked herself back, panting heavily as she recreated the small gap between them on the couch.

Cassian truely looked at Cixi as though something about her had shifted in his eyes and caught his attention in a way it had not before.

Slowly, he lifted his hand and dragged his thumb across his lower lip, grazing the exact place where she had bitten him only moments before, finding the warmth of blood lingering there.