The Engineer Falls for His Sweet-Scented Maid - Chapter 25: Come Home with Me
Chapter 25: Come Home with Me
As a slow ballroom tune played, Nianhe Su and Yi Lu stood facing each other.
Yi was like a wooden puppet, both hands suspended awkwardly in the air two inches from Nianhe’s waist.
His palms were drenched in sweat, and he stared fixedly at the floor, terrified he might crush one of her cloth shoes beneath his foot.
Nianhe was even more nervous. The two plastic buttons at her neckline strained tightly, tracing breathtaking rises and falls with every breath.
She dared not raise her head. All she did was follow Yi one step to the left, then one to the right.
Outside the club entrance, a 28-inch roadster bicycle braked sharply in the night, tires scraping the ground with a piercing screech.
Huai Shen planted one foot on the ground, left the bicycle against the wall, and strode into the club on his long legs.
He wore a white shirt tonight, without a tie and with the top two buttons open.
At the factory, he was always immaculate in either a work uniform or a Mao suit. The impatience beneath his usual cold severity made him look utterly unlike himself.
Voices thundered through the crowded hall.
At a long table in the corner, Tiejun Li was deep in conversation with Lianhua Li.
He had just reached an amusing story from his army days when he looked up and happened to see Huai enter.
Tiejun froze.
His old comrade despised matchmaking events like this. Even a personal invitation from the factory director could not persuade him to attend. Why had he suddenly appeared tonight?
“Shen!” Tiejun bellowed, raising a hand to wave.
Huai did not hear him at all.
His eyes swept the crowded hall. In less than two seconds, they locked on the pale-yellow figure at the edge of the dance floor.
She was impossible to miss.
That old dress was a disaster on Nianhe. The fabric clung to her narrow waist, only to swell over astonishing fullness above it. Even though she kept her shoulders hunched, the curves threatening to spill free still drew the eyes of the male workers around her again and again.
And a huge man stood directly in front of her.
One of his hands hovered at the side of her waist.
Huai’s jaw tightened. He strode forward, parting the crowd in his path as he headed straight for the dance floor.
Tiejun followed his line of sight to the girl in the pale-yellow dress.
Suddenly, realization struck.
Now he remembered!
No wonder the girl had looked familiar when he entered. She was Nianhe Su, the village girl from Liuhe Village whom Huai had asked him to have an old army comrade in Nan Province investigate.
The two braids in the photograph had become black hair loose over her shoulders, but that fresh, fair face was exactly the same as the one in the file.
Tiejun drew in a sharp breath.
Huai had called in personal connections for this village girl, and now he had actually chased her all the way to a matchmaking dance.
He was not here to inspect the work. Hell, he was here to haul someone home!
When Tiejun fell silent, Lianhua followed his stare and saw a tall, stern man striding toward Nianhe.
“Wait, isn’t that—” Before she could finish, the man had already reached Nianhe’s side.
On the dance floor, Nianhe was counting steps with her head bowed when the air around her abruptly seemed to chill.
A familiar scent of clean soapberry mingled with the cool night breeze and slipped straight into her nose.
Her heart missed a beat. Instinctively, she looked up.
Huai stood beside her.
He was even a little taller than Yi, his stern features particularly sharp beneath the colored lights.
His oppressive gaze swept across her neckline, warped by the strain, then settled coldly on Yi’s hovering hand.
Nianhe retreated half a step in alarm. Her feet tangled, her left catching behind her right, and her body tipped sideways.
Yi hurriedly reached for her arm.
Before he could touch her, another broad, well-defined hand closed around Nianhe’s wrist and yanked her back.
She fell helplessly against a solid chest, colliding with Huai’s white shirt.
Her potent sweetness exploded between them.
Huai’s Adam’s apple rolled, and the hand around her waist tightened.
Through the thin Dacron fabric, he could clearly feel the softness of her waist and the rapid pounding of her heart after the fright.
Yi’s hand stopped in midair. He stared at the man who had appeared from nowhere and frowned.
“Comrade Shen, what are you doing?” Honest as he was, Yi did not shy away from trouble. He stepped forward to shield Nianhe. “This comrade agreed to dance with me. You shouldn’t put your hands on her.”
Huai lifted his gaze to Yi.
“Yi Lu from the foundry?” His tone was even, yet carried the pressure of someone accustomed to command.
Yi blinked. “You know me?”
“Mm. I’m Huai Shen, a technical consultant at the factory.”
Of course Yi knew the name. Everyone in the factory knew Engineer Shen, the rising star whom even the director treated with courtesy. He simply had not expected Huai to know who he was.
Yi also realized that he had spoken too aggressively.
“Engineer Shen.” His manner grew more respectful, but he still refused to back down. “Even a technical consultant can’t drag a female comrade around as he pleases. Comrade Su is shy. You’ll frighten her.”
Still trapped in Huai’s arm, Nianhe panicked when Yi defended her. She hurriedly pressed a hand to Huai’s chest, whispering, “Engineer Shen, why are you here? Please… let go of me first.”
The shock had made her breasts begin to swell faintly, and the sweetness surrounding her grew stronger. If she remained pressed against him, the others were certain to smell it.
Huai did not release her. Instead, he drew her more securely to his side.
Looking at Yi, he said coldly, “She isn’t a worker at your factory. She’s the maid my family hired to care for a child. The baby has been crying badly, my elder brother and his wife aren’t home, and my mother sent me to bring her back.”
The excuse was seamless and entirely reasonable.
Once Yi heard that her employer had come for her because the baby needed care, his temper vanished.
He scratched his head and looked reluctantly at Nianhe. “Comrade Su, you should go take care of things, then. I… I enjoyed meeting you tonight.”
Nianhe struggled free of Huai’s arm and hurriedly smoothed her wrinkled skirt. Her face was as red as a boiled shrimp when she lowered her head to Yi. “Thank you, Brother Lu. I need to go.”
Then she turned to look for Lianhua.
Tiejun had already pulled Lianhua aside. She did not dare risk Huai’s temper by coming closer and could only wave from a distance, signaling urgently for Nianhe to leave with him.
“Let’s go.” Huai did not spare Yi another glance before turning toward the exit.
Hugging her old canvas bag, Nianhe followed close behind like a young wife who had done something wrong.
Only when the night breeze touched her outside the club did she finally feel able to breathe.
Huai went to the wall and pulled out his roadster with one hand.
He mounted it, one long leg braced on the ground, and looked back at Nianhe, who was still standing on the steps.
“Get on.”
Nianhe looked at the rear rack and hesitated.
It was late at night, and she was wearing such a tight dress. If she sat behind him, their bodies would be terribly close.
Worse, if anyone in the compound saw them, there was no telling what Huizhen and Liping would think of her.
“Engineer Shen, I… I can walk back on my own.” Both hands clutched the strap of her bag. “It isn’t far from here to the compound.”
Huai’s face darkened.
She had not been afraid when she danced with that hulking Yi fellow inside. Now that Huai offered her a short ride, she suddenly remembered the need to avoid suspicion?
“Ping’an is throwing a tantrum at home. You intend to walk?” He supplied a reason she could not refuse.
The moment Nianhe heard that Ping’an was crying, anxiety swept aside all her concerns. She hurried down the steps.
Turning sideways, she carefully perched on the bicycle’s rear rack.
Her dress was so tight that she had to keep her legs pressed together. Both hands gripped the iron bar beneath the seat.
“Hold steady,” Huai said quietly. He pushed off, and the bicycle glided smoothly away.
Few people were on the streets at night. The shadows of the plane trees on either side slid steadily behind them.
Huai was not riding quickly, but the breeze still carried Nianhe’s sweet fragrance forward little by little.
He kept his back straight, both hands on the handlebars.
That cloying scent seemed alive, burrowing relentlessly into his nose.
The image returned to him of Nianhe in that yellow dress, standing beside Yi.
“Why are you dressed like that tonight?” Huai asked suddenly, his voice partly scattered by the wind.
Nianhe hunched her neck against the breeze and answered honestly from the rear rack. “Sister-in-law Wang gave it to me. She said I couldn’t wear my old jackets to the mixer and disgrace the Shen family, so she lent me this dress she no longer fits into.”
Huai gave a cold laugh.
Liping’s intentions could not have been clearer to him.
“Don’t wear it again. It’s too tight. It doesn’t fit you.”
Heat rushed into Nianhe’s face. She nodded at once. “I know. I’ll change as soon as we get back.”
She did not want to wear it either. The dress squeezed her painfully.
His mind on the way she had shielded her chest with both hands, Huai failed to notice a shallow pothole ahead.
The front wheel struck it, and the bicycle lurched violently.
“Ah!” Nianhe cried out. Losing her balance, she pitched forward.
Instinctively, she wrapped both arms around Huai’s waist.
Her cheek landed directly against his broad, solid back.
Her lush softness pressed without restraint against his spine.
Huai’s hands clenched around the handlebars. The bicycle swerved in an S across the road before he finally managed to steady it.
The soft pressure on his back was torturously distinct through the two thin layers of their clothes.
And her sweetness had suddenly intensified.
Terrified, Nianhe hurriedly let go and shrank backward.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” Her voice held the edge of tears.
Huai said nothing, but his breathing had grown abnormally heavy.
He slowed the bicycle and stopped at the mouth of an alley one street from the Municipal Party Committee Compound.
Bracing one foot against the ground, he turned to look at the woman on the rear rack.
In the alley’s faint lamplight, he could clearly see that the neckline of her pale-yellow dress was stretched nearly to splitting.
“You…” Huai’s voice was hoarse.
