A Phoenix Rising - An Untamed Story (Book 1 In Series)

Chapter 29

Wei WuXian ate and drank, smiling happily throughout the dinner. It appeared that the rumors were finally squashed completely. And while Liu would not let him touch her or help her with her food, at least she wasn't cringing away from him or giving him strange looks anymore. It hopefully wouldn't be much longer before she knew that the Yiling Patriarch was indeed just the XianGege she had played with. He looked down at XiaoShu sleeping in his arms and silently thanked his husband for having the foresight to have the child wear his sleeping pants to the banquet.

Sleeping children... brought up a slight problem that he hadn't considered before. Wei WuXian glanced sideways at his spouse who had his own sleeping child. After a restless night spent alone, he was hungry to touch. And be touched. And filled. How did parents handle getting their loving in with children sleeping only a few meters away! And in some households, infants and toddlers slept in the parents' bed! Did they not have sex anymore? That couldn't be correct.... There were plenty of families where the children were only a year apart....

Were they going to be limited to furtive gropings and quick tumbles when the children were out playing or in school? Or was he going to have to be silenced and hidden under the blankets?

He sighed and blew his bangs away, frustrated both physically and emotionally. This banquet will never end! Lan WangJi's mouth twitched. "Bored?" he asked quietly.

"I missed a lot of these when we were younger. I always thought I was missing out on something important."

Lan WangJi held his cup of tea up in respect to the next toast. "The important part is always at the beginning. People are too drunk at the end. Speaking of which... are you sober?"

"Regrettably so," Wei WuXian admitted. "It's rather hard to drink when there's a child laying in your arms." He looked at his husband's lap wistfully. Liu was curled up on the floor with her head pillowed on his thigh leaving his arms free. "You probably could carry all three of us back, but...." His mind wandered back to their sleeping arrangements. "Lan Zhan? Back in Cloud Recesses... how old are children when they move out of their parents' houses and into the student dorms?"

"Most of them move around their twelfth birthdays. Why?"

Wei WuXian tried to look innocent. "I was just thinking about how we were going to get any work done at night now...."

Missed me, did you? Lan Zhan smirked. "Don't worry. There were plenty of nights that I needed A'Yuan to sleep so I could work. There are ways to make children sleep through the night."

"Ahh. Good. I'm not worried," Wei Ying lied. "I was just wondering."

"Of course." Lan Zhan agreed serenely.

"Perhaps you could show me one or two of those tricks tonight?" Wei Ying asked innocently. "Just purely for research purposes, of course."

"Of course," Lan Zhan agreed dryly. "Research is important."

"Of course, testing one's research is also very important," Wei Ying offered helpfully.

Lan Zhan looked straight into Wei Ying's eyes. "I will absolutely help you test out your research. Make sure you have a firm grasp on the subject."

"Learn all the ins and outs," Wei Ying whimpered and moved XiaoShu's bum slightly further into his lap and away from his groin.

"Make sure any moving parts are well lubricated. Exhaust all the possibilities." Lan Zhan, of course, looked as cool and unbothered as he had five minutes ago while Wei Ying was praying that the hot flush he was feeling all over was completely internal. Or could be attributed to the wine.