Kai snorted, turning his head slightly from this venom-spewing woman and moving his chair back to stand. He didn’t like her posture, towering over him like she thought she had the superior standing here. Ling was not done, though.
Ling’s fury rose. Visible to everyone present.
“Enough.” Tian caught hold of Ling by the upper arm and tugged her back, walking her backward a few steps to widen the gap, and she wriggled and pushed at him in impulse. His touch burned her skin and ignited severe electrical sparks, sending her into tingling overdrive, making her angrier.
“Let go of me,” She spat the words in his face, and Tian only tightened the grip. Having this perfumed and pouted crazy woman right up close and personal ignited some deeper energy that ignited his own fury. A rising of heat from within.
Meilei felt powerless to intervene. She had never wanted this confrontation and feared that Ling would lose her job.
“Will you let me go?” Ling slapped his hand so hard it made an echoing thwack noise, losing her full composure and lashing out because she couldn’t stand his burning grip any longer. Being almost bodily pressed to this man was humiliating, affecting her ability to rage or breathe, and Tian yanked her towards him in a warning.
“Will you shut your mouth for one second and listen to what I have to say? You are a fucking nightmare to deal with.” He snapped right back, losing the cool he was famed for, breaking his code of never swearing at an employee and showing a temper that seldom raised its head. Even Kai stopped and stared at him with a raised brow. He never saw Tian shout at anyone, let alone a woman.
Tian was trying to regain his zen, and Kai was being decidedly quiet. Tian had already prewarned him not to interfere with Meilei from now on until the paternity was revealed. Knowing what he had to do, seeing as it’s what they were discussing here before the rude interruption. He had to admit. He hadn’t expected Meilei to show face today. Not given yesterday’s confrontation.
“Sir.” Meilei had the sense to respectfully nod even though Ling was wriggling and pushing at his hands, glaring at him with fury, and he seemed to ignore it calmly. She had the ability to keep Tian’s blood pressure up and his body radiating nuclear heat while up close and personal, but she was a wild one that needed to be leashed. She would be straight back in Kai’s face otherwise, and Tian needed this resolved.
Meilei seemed confused.
“I can go back to the tech department?” Meilei was in shock, and yet she also mistrusted this entire scene. It’s not what she expected coming in here.
“We’re supposed to believe he’s flying a white flag and will now back off? Why? Because he thinks his behavior might ruin his chances of seeing Yue? You think I’m stupid?” Ling charged back in with renewed anger, seeing through the pretend game of nice and firing back up to venom. She turned so she leaned almost right in Tian’s face.
That man made her want to throat-punch him right in his thick neck. Fire meeting ice cold and nearly bared her teeth at him. “I won’t let this drop quite so easily. You think I don’t know that you have to play nice to have the court favor you.”
Tian and her locked eyes in a silent battle, knowing neither would be an easy opponent. It was enough to thicken the atmosphere even further between them.
“On one condition.” Tian is the one who cut in, appraising Ling’s side profile as she sent daggers Kai’s way. Wondering how such a beautiful face belonged to such a shrew.
“Which is?” Ling turned to him fully, meeting him so close they shared air and were physically matched as two confident people who would not back down.
“She will have a renewed contract covering the term left from her previous one.” Tian could not promise what Ling wanted because he knew he wouldn’t want to let her go entirely if Yue were not Kai’s. He still had a score to settle. “Keep personal matters outside, and she will have a quiet and uninterrupted team back where she came from. You too.”
“He knows what he must do… Do we have an agreement?”