Take My Breath Away

'Gifford, you should be happy you have such an awesome sister. After all, I'm giving up about a week's sleep for you.' Erica was almost moved to tears by her selfless act. Sometimes, she even amazed herself.

"Deal!" Matthew agreed readily this time.

Erica grinned happily and presented her husband with the apple in her hand. "To prove you don't hate me, take a bite of this!"

Matthew recoiled in disgust. "Not now. I need a shower."

Erica had to get out of the way and began to eat the apple by herself. She felt so bored being alone.

That night, she was looking forward to making love with Matthew. To her surprise, he went straight to the study after his shower and stayed there till midnight.

A few days passed, but he didn't seem interested in touching her.

In A Country

Gifford was minding his own business when he heard Chantel had been kidnapped. Fortunately, he was not busy and had time to deal with it.

He'd gotten a mysterious phone call from a man saying he wanted Chantel to be his mistress. But she told the mystery man she was Gifford's woman, so the man needed permission. The man gave him an address where they could meet.

So, Gifford saw no choice other than to head there.

He was in such a rush, he forgot to think tactically. He was led by his heart, not his head. The address guided him to a villa. He stood in front of the place, lit a cigarette, and began to wonder whether he was walking into a trap.

He had barely taken two puffs of his cigarette before he heard a cry for help. Thick smoke poured from the villa. "Help! Help!"

The voice belonged to none other than Chantel.

The gate he stood at was locked. Gifford decisively stubbed out his cigarette, and looked for a way inside. The wall that the gate was bolted to was made of brick, and he was able to scale it easily.

The smoke grew thicker and thicker, and the cries for help got louder and more frantic.

In moments, he was at the front door. He kicked it open and knew he'd been tricked.

The door was not locked at all. It shouldn't have been that easy to open it!

But it was too late for him to back out of there. Chantel had been hiding behind the door. She rushed over and held him tightly.

At the same time, she sprayed something onto his body.

When he pushed her away, a spray bottle with no logo fell to the floor.

The fragrance was familiar to him. It was the same scent Chantel had on her in the hotel room. It was a chemical that numbed the will even as it increased desire. So she could force herself on him and he would have little choice but to surrender.

He knew what it was, and realized he had no time to waste.

Gifford held his breath, and made for the door. He needed to get out of there. Chantel rushed to the door and closed it, blocking it with her body. He could tell she was nervous. She fidgeted, and her breath came in short gasps. "I'm so sorry!" she said.

Yes, she conspired with Erica to set him up again. She felt sorry, but she had to.

All the color drained from Gifford's face, He wanted to shove Chantel out of the way, but she was too quick. She grabbed hold of him.

"Chantel Ye!" He gritted his teeth! Blue veins stood out on the arm that gripped hers.

"I only have one chance, and I don't want to miss it!" After saying that, Chantel kissed him on the lips.

Gifford's will was strong, but the chemical Matthew had supplied Chantel with was already taking effect. His pants got tighter, and it was getting more difficult to think straight. Finally, he surrendered to the drug and Chantel's soft lips.

At Y City Film Academy

Erica was sitting at a snack bar, working on devouring a sausage. Her phone dinged, and she noticed a WeChat message from Chantel. "Rika, I'm pretty sure this is going to work. I won't know for sure till I take a pregnancy test, though."

"What?" Erica was confused.

After a while, Chantel replied, "Gifford and I did the no-pants dance. Twice. I think that should do it." Chantel was satisfied. As long as she got pregnant, nothing else mattered.

She didn't want to piss Gifford off. If he thought she was biting the hand that fed her, he would start to hate her.

'Oh, now I know what's going on. I didn't think Matthew would be on board with this, but he's okay with it. He even handled it so discreetly I never would have known.

We made a deal—he could sleep with me every night for a week. But why is he giving me the cold shoulder? This is his chance, ' she wondered. To be honest, she wanted to make love to him too.

After sending Chantel the cheering emoji, Erica put away her phone and swallowed the last bite of sausage. Then she talked to the man beside her. "Matthew isn't even talking to me now. Tell me the truth, Hyatt; you think he dumped me?" 'Am I going to be his ex-girlfriend? No, ex-wife!

Dammit! I don't want to lose the guy who loves me!'

Hyatt was confused. "Now hold on. Didn't you say Mr. Huo was a great guy and you wanted to be his wife forever?"

"Yeah, but that seems like a long time ago." Erica started to wonder if Matthew was tired of her after he got what he wanted—sex—and was ready to kick her to the curb.

"Know what I think? I think you're just being a drama queen. He really loves you," Hyatt reassured her. He took another sip of "U Loveit." He did love it, too. For a moment, he felt like the happiest man on earth.

"Enough about me. You still chatting with that gal on the Internet?" Erica asked. She suddenly remembered Hyatt told her that he spent a lot of time talking to a schoolmate of theirs online. She was curious how that was going, and it might help take her mind off Matthew.

Hyatt's expression turned gloomy, and the milk tea he was drinking wasn't as sweet as it usually was. "I think she has a thing for another guy, but I'm not sure." She usually steered the conversation away from things like that. But she didn't have feelings for him, he knew that for certain.

"Why do you say that? Are you guys still talking to each other?"

"Yeah. She borrowed two thousand dollars from me."

Erica stood there, gobsmacked for a moment. "Wait a minute. She borrowed money from you? How well do you know this girl? That's a whole lot of money!"

Holding the cup of milk tea in one hand, Hyatt scratched the back of his head with embarrassment. "Well, we've been talking for a while. She said she wanted to write me an IOU, but I told her she was good."

"What?" Erica rolled her eyes at her friend. "That was dumb. How do you know she'll pay you back?" 'Matthew always says I'm stupid. Hyatt is ten times dumber than I am!'

"Okay. What was I supposed to do? Not lend her the money? But she's a girl," Hyatt stammered, like that explained everything.

The girl cried and said that her parents were mean to her. Now her phone had broken and she didn't have the cash for a new one. He did kind of have a crush on her and wanted to keep chatting with her. So he lent her the money.

"When did you do that? She ever talk about paying you back?" Erica thought the girl might be taking advantage of him.

"Not yet. I haven't asked her for the money. I lent her the money less than a month ago."

Erica pondered this for a bit, and finally came up with a plan. Patting him on the shoulder, she said, "Be a pest. By the time it's two months, ask her about it. If she doesn't get it to you then, ask her again a month later. If she still doesn't have it, leave it to me. I'll track her down!"

Hyatt came from an ordinary family. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a bank manager. They still supported Hyatt, and paid for his college. That didn't leave a whole lot leftover to live on.

"Okay!" Hyatt agreed. That was all she could do for right now, and it seemed to cheer him up.

"Let's go shopping!" She wanted to buy something to make Matthew happy.

'It's nice to have friends. Especially someone like Hyatt. We like doing a lot of the same things. Might as well do them together!'

"Are you going to buy something?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Erica was so clumsy she couldn't cook or make something for Matthew, but she could buy things. Things like couple pajamas, couple water glasses, and so on. She liked spending money on things like that, and Matthew let her. So she wanted to buy something else along those lines.