Take My Breath Away

"She's messed with Dad more times than I can count. Later, when she grew a bit older, she started doing the same to me. Every time I took her out of her playpen to play with her, she'd put her foot in my mouth. If you ask me how I got so strong and tall, I can tell you my secret—it's because I ate my sister's toejam," Gifford said.

"Hahaha." The crowd burst into laughter.

Matthew, on the other hand, wasn't laughing. He showed no emotion at all, as if pretending not to hear Gifford talking about his new bride.

"When Rika got older, Mom began to lose control over her youngest daughter. She'd argue about the smallest things, and was able to find the loophole in anything you said. She should have studied to be a lawyer. Of course, people usually couldn't do anything but give in, because she was really cute when she was like that. My dad was the only one in our family who could somehow intimidate Rika. Fortunately, Dad had retired from the military and had time to pull on the leash. Ever since I can remember, my sister spent all her time running all over creation, while my father spent all his chasing after her. By the way, Matthew, you need to hear this. Rika was probably a rabbit in her previous life, because she runs really fast now. You better get good at running whenever you have time. She likes to run off when she makes a mistake, rather than owning up to it."

Matthew remained silent, while the guests burst into laughter again.

Gifford seriously waved his hand to them and said, "I'm not kidding. My father was a good runner even before she was born. With Rika around, he learned to run even faster. Once, he chased after a thief who rode a scooter downtown. The thief couldn't go flat out without running into cars, but he was still fast. But my dad managed to catch up with it. So, you can imagine how fast my sister runs!"

On that day, Gifford told Matthew a lot of things about Erica, and at the end he emphasized, "Don't tell Rika that I told you this. She doesn't get mad, she gets even."

"Okay," Matthew replied curtly.

Gifford didn't know if Matthew was listening or not. That poker face didn't tell him anything about what was going on in Matthew's mind.

At Pearl Villa District

A mysterious figure made his way to the third floor bedroom and pushed it open, silently. There was only one person inside the room, standing in front of the windowsill, talking on the phone. Her voice was sad. "I know I said I'd marry you, but everything's changed. I have a kid now. I married someone else, too, and he's not even the baby's father. So, I'm sorry. Hyatt, I can't marry you!"

Anyone who listened to Erica would think she was a loose woman.

She fell in love with one guy, but she had a child with another guy, and then she married a completely different guy.

It sounded like Erica was a playa.

Wearing a pair of slippers, Matthew quietly walked across the soft carpet and came to the clothes stand. He hung up his suit jacket.

Erica, intent on her phone call, suddenly saw a figure out of the corner of her eye. She was so scared that she almost dropped the phone. She looked at the figure and realized that it was Matthew. She put a hand to her mouth and stifled her scream.

Then she lowered her voice and said to the person on the other end of the phone, "Well, talk with you next time. I need a shower. Sweet dreams." Erica quickly hung up and rushed to the bathroom, phone in hand.

Closing the door, she leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, trying to calm down.

She listened carefully for any noise in the bedroom. If Matthew was still there, he was so quiet she had no idea what he was doing.

After her heart stopped threatening to pound out of her chest, Erica took a deep breath and sighed in relief. She went to the mirror, found the makeup remover and pressed the top of the bottle a few times. Then she casually applied the makeup remover and started to clean her face.

She started thinking about the situation she was in. Just like that, she married a guy who was about five years older than her. She still felt everything was so unreal.

If her family weren't rich and her parents didn't care about money at all, she might get the niggling suspicion her parents sold her to Matthew for a few extra bucks.

The truth was, Wesley didn't keep any of the gifts or bride price the Huo family gave them. He had given everything to Erica. Moreover, her parents also prepared a large dowry. A 30 million dowry dollar was nothing to sneeze at, not to mention the other dowry he had bought, all of which were valuable.

The wedding was amazing. Grand and romantic. So romantic, in fact, that Erica, who had no feelings for Matthew, had a tinge of happiness in her heart during the wedding ceremony.

Especially when Matthew took her hand during the wedding. She was holding hands with her father, but he offered her hand to Matthew, and he took it. It was so comforting, her small hand in Matthew's large one. Her heart skipped a beat during the ceremony because of it.

She felt a bit dreadful, because her heart would race when Matthew held her hand, her legs felt weak when he kissed her, and she didn't dare to look straight into his eyes because they would soon spend their wedding night together.

Erica was lost in thought, so she was startled when she suddenly opened her eyes and saw a man in the mirror. "Ah!" she screamed.

Her scream made the man in the mirror frown and look at her.

"Matthew... Huo... Are you a human or a ghost?" Why did she hear nothing when he walked in? He didn't make any noise when he entered the bedroom either.

Was it because the doors in his house were so well made, or because she was too focused on her thoughts?

With knitted eyebrows, Matthew didn't answer her question but said, "Go ahead and wash your face."

'What does he think I'm doing? Mowing the lawn?'

Erica turned on the tap, drenched her hands with the makeup remover, and watched the man behind her in the mirror.

It was not her first time in the same room with a man, but it was her first time to stay with another man as a bride. She was a little nervous, and her nervousness increased when she saw Matthew starting to take off his clothes.

She was astounded to see him take off his tailored white shirt, exposing his well-muscled chest.

'Wow, he looks like a stick boy with his clothes on, but his body is all corded muscle underneath his clothes. He's much hotter than my idol—Aaron Gao!' she marveled silently.

"Enjoying the view?" The man's cold voice interrupted the stunned woman.

'Enjoying...the view?' Erica immediately regained her composure and said with a red face, "I wasn't looking at you. Stop being so narcissistic!" She bowed her head and washed her face immediately.

'Wait, something wrong...' She squeezed the facial cleanser while asking, "What are you doing here, anyway? I'm trying to wash my face."

"You're washing your face and I'm going to take a shower. That's why I'm here," he said in a somewhat mocking tone.

'Take a shower now?' She felt like her head was about to explode. Before she applied the cleanser to her face, she turned around and looked at the man. "Why shower now? I'm still using the room. Can't you wait till I finish?"

His lips curled into a sarcastic smile. "You came back much earlier than I did. Why didn't you do what you needed to then, before I came back? Why do it now? It's not like anyone was stopping you? What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Or did you wait to take a bath with me?"

Before Erica could answer, Matthew took a look at the large bathtub and said, "I think it's big enough for the two of us. But you should probably shower before a soak in the tub..."

"Wait! I think you got me wrong. I don't want to bathe with you. Uncle Carlos and Aunt Debbie dropped in a while ago. They just left five minutes before you came back. I didn't have time to wash my face and bathe. Get it?" Erica tried to calm herself down.