Take My Breath Away

"I said I changed my mind." Matthew stood up from his chair and walked over to the dumbfounded woman. He raised her delicate chin and said quietly, "Haven't you heard of sleeping your way to the top? I have to keep up with the times!"

"So, you've had sex with someone in your office before?" Erica asked, her eyes wide.

"No." He rubbed her chin with his thumb and said, "But since you seem so keen on the idea, I thought I'd take you up on it. I don't want to let you down!" He was hamming it up deliberately. Hopefully, she'd back down before he had to.

There was no way Erica was going along with this. He wanted to see if she would lose her temper when he talked about being with another woman.

The smile on Erica's face froze. "If you really don't want to, I won't force you."

Why was this man so annoying? She just wanted to test him, and he was failing badly! 'My heart! It hurts!' she cried in her mind.

Without hesitation, Matthew answered, "Don't want to? Of course I want to. Hey, can you get ahold of that chica you were talking about?"

This time, Erica couldn't even fake a smile. She tried to force a smile, and ended up with more of a grimace. "I haven't talked to her in a while. I'm not sure I can get in touch with her!"

"It doesn't matter. How about you tell me her name and I'll ask Owen to find her. As long as she's in the city, I'm sure he can get her here in, say, half an hour?"

All of a sudden, Erica flew into a rage. She attacked his cheek with the fervor of a rabid wolverine. His head rocked, and a red mark appeared on his face, conforming to an angry woman's handprint.

Matthew's face darkened. What did he do in a previous life to deserve this raging banshee? Was she born to plague him?

What was more, he was proficient in Taekwondo and many other martial arts skills. Why did she always manage to slap him?

"Matthew Huo! I swear I'll call your father and tell him about you. If I don't, my name's not Erica Li!"

She wasn't kidding. She took her phone from her pocket and turned the screen on.

But Matthew snatched it away and asked, "Why are you calling him?"

"I'm telling him all about you! I have to! How could you fool around with another woman?" she yelled. She was about to explode with anger.

He tried to reason with her, "But you're the one who suggested it!"

"I-I... So what? But you didn't have to agree with me! What were you thinking? You should have said no! But you didn't, and you..." Her voice was lost to heartache as tears fell like rain. She tried to stop, but it hurt too much.

The more Erica thought about it, the more resentful she felt. She knew it! Matthew didn't love her! She was just trying to test him. To her surprise, he accepted the suggestion. He knew how she felt, and he ignored her feelings.

Her tears came all of a sudden, just like her temper. When Matthew saw her tears, his heart softened. 'And I'm guessing it's all my fault!' he sighed in his mind. He pulled her into his arms. "Why are you crying? Can you talk to me, honey?"

"No way!" She sobbed in his arms. "You know women are emotional wrecks when they're on their period. You don't understand me, but you still manage to piss me off!"

The thought never crossed his mind. He didn't know anything about it. He softened his tone. "It's my fault. I should have tried to know more about this. But instead, I buried myself in my work. I'm sorry."

The more he comforted her, the sadder she became. "I'm your wife. You refused to buy me pads, for Chrissake! You probably hate me, huh? You've been just impossible recently. You must want to divorce me!" After enduring his changing attitudes to her for several days, Erica finally found an outlet and poured out all her emotions. Just vented to him.

Matthew kissed the woman's forehead and said in a gentle voice, "I bought the pads myself. I don't hate you, and I don't want a divorce." She was the one who climbed over the wall and escaped again and again. He was so angry, so he gave her the cold shoulder.

'What? So he went out himself to buy me feminine products?'

"Then what's going on? Why don't you cook for me anymore, or watch movies with me?" She missed those days. She wanted them back, and wasn't sure why Matthew was acting like this.

"It's because you keep trying to escape! Do you know how that feels?" He was angry and distressed. He thought she didn't love him at all.

Erica wiped her tears on his shirt rudely. "You know why I ran away!"

The man looked at his shirt. Her tears left dark streaks on the fabric. But he said nothing.

If it were someone else who had slapped him and stained his suit jacket and shirt, Matthew would have dealt with the person ruthlessly.

But it was Erica, the woman he loved more than life itself.

When he said nothing, she continued, "It's all because of you. What if I died in bed? I want my own room. But you keep telling me no! It's your fault." She burped and looked very unhappy.

Matthew closed his eyes, held her face and conceded again. "Okay, that's my fault too. It's also my fault you climbed over the wall. Next time you do that, I'll catch you so you don't have to jump down."

"Okay!"

That was unexpected. 'Okay? How could she say okay?' He said that just to make her feel better.

Nonetheless, he wasn't in the mood to argue with her. He knew that wouldn't go well. Matthew wiped her tears lovingly and said, "Okay, honey, don't cry."

She took the opportunity to grouse at him. "And don't even talk to me about what I did to Phoebe. That's between me and her!"

"As long as you're happy." He wasn't planning on bringing it up anyway.

Erica turned tears into smiles and hugged him tight, her eyes still red from crying. "You're not that busy for the next two days, right? Good, you can watch a movie with me, cook macaroons for me, peel fruit for me, drink with me, and feed me snacks."

"Rika, you're asking too— Okay! Promise!" The man corrected himself when faced with her tears again.

'Carlos Huo really knows how to make my life hard. He knew I was busy every day, but he found me this wild child who can't be beaten or scolded, ' he thought to himself.

After a while, Erica went back to the villa like usual. Matthew finished his work ahead of time and started cooking for his wife as soon as he got home.

When Sheffield came to visit Matthew's villa with Gwyn, the couple had just finished dinner.

Erica went to open the door. As she touched Gwyn's head, she gently asked the girl in the light blue dress, "Gwyn, you hungry?"

Gwyn let go of Sheffield's hand and replied obediently, "Auntie Erica, I've had dinner. Dad just took me here afterwards!"

Tonight, it was just Sheffield and Gwyn at home. Evelyn was on a business trip, and Godwin was visiting the Tang family, so Sheffield took his daughter out to Evefield Restaurant.

When they got back home, he stopped off at Matthew's villa. Seeing that there were lights on, he decided to pay them a visit.

Sheffield entered the living room while whistling. When he saw the man slaving away in the kitchen, he rubbed his eyes in astonishment. "Oh my God, do my eyes deceive me? Rika, come here!"

Holding Gwyn's hand, Erica came over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Under the cold gaze of Matthew, Sheffield asked dramatically, "Who is that guy washing dishes in the kitchen?"

Erica was amused by him, but at the same time, she felt a little embarrassed. "I'm too clumsy to do the housework, so Matthew did it himself."

"Where's the maid?" Sheffield looked around the first floor and didn't see another soul.

Erica was also helpless about this question. "We don't have maids."

"No maids?" Sheffield exclaimed in mock horror. He ignored the daggers Matthew shot him with his gaze.