Take My Breath Away

'Crying, making a scene and threatening to kill herself...This woman goes nuts when she's drunk, ' Matthew sighed inwardly.

He stood under the tree, hands in his pockets. He warned Erica coldly, "Fine. If you die, you won't be Mrs. Huo anymore. So go ahead—I'll grab Phoebe and we'll be married in no time!"

That was one reason why he hadn't done anything about Phoebe. The mere mention of her name could irritate Erica.

Erica lowered her head and glared at him. Her big eyes were full of anger. He knew this was going to happen. "You asshole!" she growled. "You want to make someone else your Mrs. Huo? In your dreams!"

Matthew was patient, his tone even. Now things were going his way. "Then get down from there. That way, you'll still be my wife."

"Get down? What do you think I am? A monkey?"

Matthew replied decisively, "No. Let me guess—you're stuck!"

Erica roared, "If you don't believe me, you'll have to come up here yourself. I can't get down from here!" She felt quite dizzy! She could see three Matthews waiting for her by the tree.

The man's lips twitched. He took two steps forward and stretched out his arms. "Just great," he said in a frustrated tone. "Jump! I'll catch you."

Erica was just too dizzy at this point. So she decided to unwrap one arm from around the tree. She hung by her other arm briefly, then scrunched her eyes tightly and dropped, confident Matthew could catch her.

It went worse than either of them intended. Matthew did catch her in his arms, but was knocked to the ground by the impact. She landed on top of him, and the man grunted, wincing in pain.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw the giggling woman. She was laying on top of him, hugging the poor man. "A little warning, next time?" he said between gritted teeth. "You almost crushed me." Last time she tried this, she jumped from the stone wall on the riverbank. It was about a meter up, and he caught her easily. She was easily twice that high when she climbed the tree.

As stubborn as ever, Erica said, "You said you were going to catch me, so I trusted you!"

Matthew didn't know what to say in return. How could he not catch her? If she slipped through his arms, or he didn't get to her in time, she'd be hurt. And that was something his heart could not bear.

The bodyguards held back their laughter and helped the two up. Matthew carried the woman in his arms and strode into the villa.

He set her down once they got inside. In an angry tone, he ordered her, "Walk by yourself!"

The girl's mouth pouted and she stole a glance at him, shivering. "What the hell? Why are you yelling at me? You are definitely not Matthew Huo. My Matthew wouldn't be so mean to me. Tell me who you are!"

To emphasize her point, she grabbed the man's collar, and her eyes were wide in that creepy way that Matthew loathed. They looked like they were going to pop out of her head.

"Erica—"

"You're not Erica. I am. Tell me! Who the hell are you?" She raised her fist and shook it at him.

Matthew didn't take her threat seriously. He buried his anger. It wouldn't do to explode at the girl. "Sounds like you need to know who's boss," he said indifferently.

"Who's boss? God, you are so arrogant! Go to hell—"

Whump! Her fist landed right on his nose, sending stars of pain into his vision for a few moments.

She wasn't that strong, but after the pain had cleared some, warm liquid flowed from his nose.

Silently, Matthew touched the liquid. It was really blood...

He cast a cold glance at the drunken woman. He didn't scream at her, to his credit. Instead, he growled, "Enough!"

"Why you—" Erica didn't know how big a mistake she had made. She was thoroughly pissed off now. She raised her fist again and brought it down on his shoulder. "Now I know you're a ghost. Get out of his body now! I want my Matthew back! I'm going to keep hitting you till you leave his body! Get out!"

Matthew knew she was out of control. But he didn't want to hurt her, so he just stood there and took it. Her fists rained down on his body.

He kicked off his dirty slippers and trudged to the living room to find a tissue to wipe his bloody nose.

Unexpectedly, she caught up with him and punched him in the back. It landed with a hollow thud. "Go away, spirit! Give my handsome husband back! Damn it! Go to hell!"

Matthew found a tissue and wiped his nose, but it didn't do much good. As soon as he thought he was done, a rivulet of fresh blood made its way out of his nostril and onto his upper lip.

And the little woman next to him wasn't slowing down. Fist after fist hit him. He was getting annoyed.

The man sneered, "You're full of energy tonight!" This was getting ridiculous. If he didn't teach her a lesson tonight, he didn't have any right to say he was her husband!

"Yeah I am. I'm gonna keep pounding you till you give Matthew back!" Erica was tired. She sounded out of breath.

Matthew decided to go wash his nose. He grabbed her wrists, and warned in a deep voice, "Behave yourself!"

"Let go of me! Damn you, ghost! Let go!"

"Your wish is my command." He smiled and released his grip. But he extended his arm and put one of his hands on her head. She could swing all she wanted, but she was too far away from him.

Inside the bathroom, Matthew turned on the tap and looked at himself in the mirror. He used to doubt that his wife was that dangerous. But she had some tricks up her sleeve. How else could she hit him so precisely to cause his nose to bleed like that?

At this moment, the troublemaker leaned against the door of the bathroom, craning her neck from time to time to catch a glimpse of the man washing his face.

A few minutes later, Matthew threw the tissue into the trash can and walked out of the bathroom.

When he was at the door, he bumped into Erica.

Truth be told, he did it on purpose.

Because Erica was bent down, hands on her knees, her head bumped right into his tough abdominal muscles. Her nose went numb. She covered it and yelped in pain.

"Don't do that. It hurts." Matthew smirked. At least her nose wasn't bleeding. But she still held it and groaned.

What about him? She hit him square on the nose and caused it to bleed. 'Forget it. I don't want to talk about it anymore. It's so embarrassing!'

Erica had blown through half of a bottle of wine and had some snacks on top of that. She'd left an awful mess. The trash can was full.

Matthew was surprised at her taste in wine. It wasn't bad at all. She didn't drink wine a whole lot, but this time she picked the most expensive bottle in his cellar.

He'd never let her know how much the bottle was worth. She didn't like to spend money frivolously, and he knew she'd be astonished at the price.

Erica filled an empty glass with red wine and handed it to Matthew. She leaned over him and lifted the glass to his lips. "Have a drink on me, Matthew. Come on, kiss me and show them how much you love me!"

"Them? Who's them?"

"Them! They're watching us!"

"Who's watching us?" Matthew was confused.

Erica looked around and made her voice sound mysterious, talking in a stage whisper. "We can't see them, but they can see us..." Then she lowered her voice, "You scared?"

Matthew was speechless. Who was the coward here? He held her waist tightly and continued, "You're wrong. I can see them."

"What? What do you see?" Her hand trembled, and the red wine spilled out of the glass, spilling on the back of her hand and splattering on his white shirt.

His shirt was already stained with blood and mud, and he was fighting his neat freak tendencies. Now there was red wine on it... "Let's head upstairs!" He had the overwhelming urge to change clothes.

"No! Tell me, what do you see?" She was extremely curious.

Matthew sighed heavily. Erica was trying to annoy him. And she was so good at it. He lowered his head and bit the woman's red lips. Heedless of her pain, he whispered, "I saw the black and white messengers from hell pass by our house, and a lot of female ghosts followed them. And a fierce ghost, its face green, razor-sharp fangs lining its mouth, floated in the air, searching for someone. I can also see baby ghosts crying out for Mommy..."