me the most fabulous night of my life.”
“I cannot claim credit for—”
“Don’t interrupt, Mr. Gao. Then I ignore you for over a week only to show up in the middle of the night, try to buy you, and now I’m stalking you.” She leaned forward. “Is this the usual path to enlightenment?”
He smiled. “Nothing with you is usual, Miss Williams.”
“So, answer my question—how was your day?”
He shook his head, wondering where to begin. “My mother is spending too much money again, or so my sister said in her e-mail. I am cold in your Illinois November. And my classes are hard. I understand the material, but my English is not fast enough sometimes. Everything takes longer for me.”
“I can’t even imagine trying to study in a foreign language. I nearly failed Spanish in high school.” She shifted to sit cross-legged. She was not aware of how the simple act of opening her legs like that focused his gaze. “So why do it?” she asked. “Aren’t there schools in Hong Kong?”
He nodded, forcing himself to look back to her face. “This university is one of the best in the world for business. When I am finished, I will have my choice of jobs.”
“You aiming for a big industry career?” There was a note of surprise in her voice, but his eyes were held by the curve of her lips, the shift of her mouth. “Nathan?”
He blinked. “I…uh…I aim for a big career.”
She smiled. She had the most perfectly colored lips—soft rose that deepened to red when she grew excited. “I understand that,” she said. “Big career. Big money. That’s what I want, too.” Then she looked about his apartment, her gaze taking in his poor clothing and sparse furnishings. “I just wouldn’t have guessed you as the power-and-fame type.”
He followed her gaze, seeing no privation. He had the luxury of a whole room to himself with no spying eyes, no critical gazes, no demanding students. “I am happy with very little,” he said honestly. “But the temple requires a great deal of money to support it. And I have siblings who want to do as I do—go to school, advance, have a future beyond temple drudgery. If I do not make good, my whole family could starve.”
She frowned, obviously startled. “You’re exaggerating, right? They’re not actually starving, are they?”
He looked down. How did he explain the realities of the Hong Kong poor? “We live on an outlying island. It took an hour and a half for my sister to ferry then bus to school. She would leave at four in the morning so that she could meet other students at the library and tutor them for money. A few years ago, she gave it up as too difficult, but I know she longs for more. My brother, too. They both want more education, more opportunity but there is no money for it.”
She shifted to her knees, and he saw her breasts bounce. Her nipples were already hard, and they drew his gaze. “What about your parents?”
“My mother and her sister run the tigress temple. Like all tigresses, their hearts and minds are devoted to ascension to the immortal realm. They take in students for money, but there are many mouths to feed.”
“How many?”
He shrugged as he settled down beside her. A teacher should not sit this close to the student, but he couldn’t resist. He wanted to be near her. “Twenty students live with us, plus my brother and sister. My aunt.”
“And your father?”
Nathan leaned closer, letting the sweetness of her scent add spice to his thoughts. “I function as father. I am the eldest male. It is my responsibility to see that all are cared for.”
She frowned. “But that’s a couple dozen people. Surely they can work. They can do something.”
He tilted his head, wondering at her surprise. “I am the eldest male,” he answered simply.
And when she still didn’t seem to follow, he pushed to his feet. This closeness to her interfered with his thoughts. He wasn’t thinking before speaking. And now he was trying to explain the realities of a Chinese family to an American woman. She couldn’t possibly understand, and yet he still continued. “It’s a temple. We have a garden for vegetables and some farm animals, but no money for repairs, for texts, for all the things that a large group of people need.”
“That’s a lot of maintenance,” she said. “How old is the building?”
“Three buildings. The temple has stood for more than a hundred years.”
She released a whistle, low in her throat. It was not a sexual sound, and yet his dragon responded as if it were a siren call. “Like I said, a lot of maintenance.” She shook her head. “But you’re only one person. You can’t possibly support them all.”
He shrugged. “I am the eldest male.”
“Yeah, I got that. Isn’t that a little sexist? I mean, to take that all on yourself because—”
“Don’t you care for your brother? Did you hesitate when your parents died?”
She leaned back. “Of course, I took care of him. He’s all I’ve got. But he’s just one person, and we’re barely scraping by. If it weren’t for the insurance money, we’d have lost everything. I still worry that social services is going to show up and take him away.”
He looked at her, guessing at the strength required to keep both her and Joey together. “You must have been very young. Barely eighteen.”
She shrugged. “It didn’t matter. He was my family. I’d do anything for him.”
He remained silent, wondering if she would see that he did nothing more than she did. He was holding his family together. Even from a continent apart, he would see that they survived.
It took her a moment, but in the end, her eyes widened in shock. “You can’t seriously expect to support two dozen people.”
“I can, and I will.” He straightened, showing her a dragon’s determination in every line of his body. “But I must get my education. That is why the temple goes even longer without electricity.”
She studied him, but he could not read her face. Did she understand what he was trying to do? Could she comprehend the drive to succeed—not for himself, but for all who depended on him?
She pushed to her feet. Her motions were smooth and infinitely feminine. Then she touched him—a gentle hand laid on his shoulders. He felt the warmth of her body all the way through to his soul. “I had no idea,” she whispered. “I can’t even imagine. The pressure must be incredible.”
He shook his head. “I have borne the responsibility since my earliest days.”
“I can see that,” she said softly, admiration in her tone. “But isn’t it hard? I mean, desperately, horribly hard? Don’t you long for something more, something beyond the everyday drudgery?”
He should step away from her. The feel of her hand was drugging him. It brought out fantasies that leeched all the blood from his brain. But he could not force himself to break the connection. Instead, he wrapped his hand around hers and brought it to his lips. “It is my dream to support my family,” he said. He wanted to kiss her, but that was one of the most cardinal rules between teacher and student: no kisses, no touching except to demonstrate. And no sexual relations whatsoever.
“Nathan…” she murmured. Her face was flushed, her breath coming in short, quick pants. Her inner tigress was riding her hard. He had to stop this.
He dropped his forehead against hers, allowing himself the connection while keeping his distance from her lips. “What is your dream?” he asked. “What do you yearn for?”
She shuddered. He guessed that the tigress inside her fought the restraint of simple conversation. But she was not a woman to give in to simple lust. “See, that’s the thing, Nathan. Everybody else has dreams, but I…I just want money. We’ve got the basics, but a cushion would make me breathe so much easier.”
Her scent pervaded his mind. It rose from her skin and fogged his senses. “But there are many ways to make money,” he said. “How will you—”
“Stockbroker,” she answered, the word rushed out and breathless. “It’s all about hard work with them. The harder they work, the more they get. And I plan to work very, very hard.”
He had no doubt about that. How sad that her dream and her fortune would never come about. Whether she understood it or not, the tigress in her would override her mundane desires. In time, the quest for immortality would become paramount. She would leave everything she knew to train at the temple. It wasn’t what she wanted. It certainly wasn’t what Nathan wanted for her. But he had seen it happen too many times. Spirit would choose. Her mind and body would have no choice but to follow.
“What about you?” she asked, her voice a low rasp that further fogged his mind. He knew that a relationship between them was doomed to disaster, and yet she called to him on so many levels. Her body was the least of her
