A/n: One long update to last all you readers till tomorrow or even later today when my inspiration doesn't run dry on me again. Btw, or no for the later chapter? Do let me know in the comments below. ^^ Happy reading. 

 

“What’s that?”

 

“What does it look like?”

 

“It hooks like a set of parallel bars.”

 

“Congratulations,” Skyler told Jiyong. “You just answered the question correctly. As your prize, do you want the zirconium ring, the set of scratchproof cookwear or the weekend getaway in the Maldives?”

 

“You’re a regular comedian,” he stated drily.

 

“It was my sense of comic timing that earned me F’s in citizenship.” Skyler assembled the bars where she wanted them, then stood back and surveyed her handiwork. “There.”

 

“What are they for?”

 

“Well, not for me to perform tricks on for your entertainment.”

 

“Then, what?”

 

“They’re for you to perform tricks for my entertainment.”

 

He looked shocked and frightened. “Isn’t this premature? Why are you bringing them in here now?”

 

“Because it’s time you started practicing walking on them.”

 

“As I said, you’re a regular comedian.”

 

“I wasn’t joking.”

 

“Neither was I,” he snapped. He was eyeing the contraption as though it were possessed of evil powers. “I can’t do it.”

 

“You can try.”

 

“I’ll make a damn fool of myself even trying.”

 

She released a deep groan. “Save it, will ya Dragon?” You say the same thing every time I introduce something new. The pulleys, the wheelchair, the mat table. I’ve heard it all before and it’s getting real old. Come on. Haul your out of the bed and into the chair.”

 

“Into the chair, fine. Even onto the mat table. But don’t expect me to stand on my own two feet. I can’t.”

 

“Dare you.”

 

“What?”

 

Skyler leaned down until her face was level with his. “I dare you, The Great Dragon, to even try.”

 

She watched the irises of his eyes contract around the pupils. He gave her a long measuring stare, then treated the parallel bars to another suspicious appraisal. He wet his lower lips with his tongue.

 

“Okay. I’ll try,” he agreed with uncertainty. “But if I fail,”

 

“You’ll try again.”

 

He wheeled his chair to the end of the bars, looking dubious as to what to do next. Skyler stepped between the bars. She placed a belt around his waist and using that, hoisted him out of the chair. At the same he pulled himself into an upright position with his arms. He supported himself between the bars while Skyler knelt down and splinted his knees with knee cages.

 

As she stood up, she asked, “How hard are you?”

 

“What?!”

 

“Your belly, Dragon, your belly.,” Skyler rolled her eyes heavenwards.

 

“Do you need an abdominal binder?”

 

Jiyong’s eyes glinted with naughty thoughts. “Touch it and see how hard it is.”

 

“Bet you say that to all the girls,” Skyler teased back, responding with a naughty smile of her own.

 

Accepting his unspoken dare, Skyler splaye her hand over his tummy. The muscles beneath his warm, tanned skin jumped reflexively. Standing close, they each felt the jolt of the contact. She pressed the pads of her fingers against him. His stomach muscles drew taut and tight, telling her what she needed to know. The therapist in her was satisfied. But the woman in her was craving more. Regretfully she withdrew her hand.

 

“You’re hard all right,” she said gruffly.

 

“Yeah. The last thing I need is something to make me harder.”

 

They held a stare for several heartbeats. Then Skyler dragged her gaze away.

 

“Let’s begin.”

 

“Show me what to do.”

 

She bullied and coached and cajoled him. He shouted at her. She yelled at him. They cursed each other. But before the session was over, he had managed to shuffled his feet in a semblance of taking steps between the bars.

 

“Great work, Dragon. You’re getting the hang”

 

“Oh, my God!”

 

Ye-seul’s shriek startled Jiyong and caused the muscles in his arms to give way. He would have collapsed to the floor had Skyler not been there to break his fall. Taking all his weight upon herself, she backed him up and gradually lowered him into the wheelchair. Then she whirled around to confront that shrieking .

 

“Get out of her! How dare you interrupt us during a session.”

 

“You can’t order me around, Skyler-shi.”

 

“I damn sure can. Jiyong is my responsibility. While we’re in this room, his attention has to be solely on me and what we’re doing.”

 

“The fact that he’s your responsibility can be remedied,” Ye-seul threatened in a voice that could have chilled the martinis she was so fond of mixing for Jiyong.

 

“I intend to take up that very subject with his physician. Indeed, another physician is a distinct possibility. It seems to me that what you are doing for my Yong-ie at Dr. Choi’s recommendation is causing more harm than good. He is obviously in pain.”

 

Skyler whirled around to see that her patient was wearing an expression of sheer agony.

 

“Dragon?” She dropped to her knees in front of his wheelchair and began massaging his calf muscle. It was contracted into a knot as round and hard as a baseball.

 

Ye-seul moved alongside his chair and blotted his sweating forehead with a monogrammed handkerchief.

 

“Leave him alone now, Skyler-shi. Haven’t you done enough for one morning?”

 

“Me?! I wasn’t the one who came barging in where I wasn’t needed or wanted and caused him to break concentration.”

 

It took several minutes, but eventually Jiyong’s muscle returned to its normal state. His contorted facial features relaxed. But Skyler could tell that the fall had caused him as much embarrassment as pain. It had hurt his pride and bruised his ego. She could easily throttle Ye-seul for undoing in a matter of seconds what it had taken her an hour to work up to. Her dragon’s confidence was shattered. The next time she suggested using the bars, she would have to start from scratch, convincing him of his ability. Damn that !

 

“Kindly leave us,” she said stiffly.

 

“Your time is up.”

 

Skyler consulted the clock on the nightstand. “Can’t you tell the time? We’ve got fifteen more minutes.”

 

“Surely you’re not going to make him stand again.”

 

“No, we’ll go through a series of exercises to relax the muscles.”

 

“Then, I’ll stay and watch.”

 

“You’ll do no such thing. This is between my patient and me. Dragon, you don’t want her here, do you?”

 

Ye-seul laid her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t you think it would be a good idea for me to learn how to do this?”

 

That infuriated Skyler even more.

 

“We’re not talking about pouring tea, Snow White. You don’t learn ‘to do this’ in an afternoon. It takes years of studying and hands-on practice to get certification.”

 

“It can’t be that difficult,” Ye-seul said with a soft, derisive laugh. “I should know how you do it, so that I’ll be able to give Yong-ie therapy myself once we are married.”

 

Skyler’s heart hit the floor. She gaped at Ye-seul, then at Jiyong.

 

“Married?” she wheezed.

 

“You didn’t know?” Ye-seul affectionately ran her fingers through Jiyong’s hair.

 

“Jiyong’s didn’t actually propose to me until yesterday, though he was close to it the last time we were together, which was only days before his accident.”

 

Skyler looked down at him with stark heartache and incredulity. “You asked her to marry you?”

 

“We’re seriously talking about it.”

 

“You actually want to marry her? Why?”

 

“I beg your pardon,” Ye-seul said with affront. “Yong-ie”

 

“Be quiet, Ye-seul,” he interrupted sharply.

 

“I want to hear what Skyler has to say.” He hadn’t taken his eyes off her since Ye-seul’s announcement of their pending marriage. They gazed up at her steadily from beneath his brows but his expression wasn’t malevolent. If anything, he seemed amused, at the very least, curious.

 

“Why don’t you think I should marry Ye-seul? We’ve been close acquaintances for several years.”

 

“A bit more than that, Yong-ie,” Ye-seul interjected. Jiyong shot her a warning glance to keep silent.

 

He turned back to Skyler. “Ye-seul is sympathetic to my present condition. However it turns out, she’s reconciled to living with me.”

 

“What you mean by ‘however it turns out’?”

 

“My being ually dysfunctional.”

 

“Is it really necessary to discuss something so personal with the hired help?” Ye-seul asked with irritation.

 

Jiyong quelled her with another hard look. “I’ll deal with this my own way, Ye-seul-shi. If you can’t keep quiet, leave the room.”

 

She chose to stay but her red lips drew up into a disapproving pout.

 

“Ye-seul is willing to marry me in spite of my inability to sire children,” he calmly told Skyler. “She’s kind. Certainly beautiful. A cultured, congenial woman. Why wouldn’t any man but especially one in my situation, be overjoyed that she consented to marry me?”

 

Skyler hiked her chin up a notch and flung her hair back defiantly. “If you want to make the biggest mistake of your life, it’s no skin off my nose.”

 

Again Ye-seul opened to protest but Jiyong shot her a look of such dire threat that her perfect white teeth clicked shut.

 

“Why do you think that marriage to Ye-seul would be a big mistake?”

 

“Remember, you asked for this,” Skyler cautioned him.

 

“I’ll remember.”

 

“Okay,” Skyler said, taking a deep breath. “She’s not acting in your best interest. She’s babying you, mothering you, pampering and petting you.”

 

“What’s wrong with that?”

 

“Everything.”

 

“You don’t think husbands should be pampered?”

 

“Not husbands in your condition and certainly not at this stage in your treatment. Once you’re back to normal, you can be waited on hand and foot, and I’ll give a green light to any woman dumb enough to do that for a man. But right now, you should be driven and bullied and prodded”

 

“In other words, she should treat me the same way you do.”

 

“Exactly! What she’s doing is fine if you’re content to lie around and sip the martinis she brings you and eat your meals from her hand. If that’s the quality of life you want, then far be it from me to argue with your decision. If you want to watch your nice hard belly turn to fat and the muscles in your legs shrivel to mush and your arms become flabby from disuse, not to mention your chin and chest, then fine. Go to the altar with her and say, ‘I do.’

 

“But if you want to be the Kwon Jiyong, the fearless Dragon I known you to be, if you want to walk and jog and ski and climb mountains, which is what you told me you wanted, then you’d better set her straight or ditch her altogether.”

 

“Yong-ie!”

 

Skyler disregarded Ye-seul’s exclamation of outrage and drove her point home.

 

“Before you make up your mind, though, consider this. When the ski season rolls around and all her buddies are jetting off to Saint-Moritz or even Pyeongchang, where do you think that’ll leave you? Huh? I’ll tell you. Alone. Abandoned. Because she’ll go to Saint Moritz.”

 

“And you’ll urge her to go because you’ll feel guilty because she’s sacrificed so much for you. You’ll be left cooped up in some stuffy bedroom with an even stuffier servant, who will despise and deride you for your weakness and take his sweet time in answering the tinkling little bell on your nightstand.”

 

“While your gorgeous wife is out taking on the slopes and probably a few ski instructors, because by now the newness of her noble gesture will have worn off and she’ll be thinking that she made a bad deal.”

 

“You’ll be lying helpless and useless. You’ll be torturing yourself, wondering who she’s with and what she’s doing. You’ll be remembering with bitterness the days you picked up ski bunnies and took them home to snuggle. You’ll be lamenting the days when you controlled a globe-spanning corporation and left people breathless in your energetic wake.”

 

“Eventually she’ll leave you more frequently to go sailing or grouse shooting or to meet a lover and then the day will come when it’s just not chic to be married to a paraplegic anymore and she’ll divorce you and probably take off with a few of your millions, which she’ll feel she earned for giving you her time and trouble.”

 

“Of all these, I won’t stand here and”

 

“You’re free to leave anytime, Ye-seul,” Jiyong said blandly.

 

“What? I wouldn’t think of leaving you alone with the . She’s obviously unbalanced.”

 

“I’m no such thing,” Skyler shot back. “And as for being alone with him, I was here for weeks before you showed up.”

 

Snow White’s cheeks turned a deep, rosy pink, “What does she mean by that, Yong-ie?”

 

“Use your imagination, Ye-seul,” Jiyong stated.

 

“You actually engaged in… in…”

 

“ual dalliance. Can’t bring yourself to say it?” Skyler taunted. “He kissed me. More than once.”

 

“Not only kissed, but enjoyed,” Jiyong added softly with a chuckle. “Very much.”

 

Ye-seul was rendered speechless by the impetus behind his whispered words. So was Skyler. She locked stares with Jiyong and it was several moments before she could continue. “Which bring us around to the subject of .”

 

“It does?” He smiled that grin, that endearing, beautiful, goofy grin that give his face a boyish aspect.

 

“That’s what this is really all about, isn’t it?” Skyler asked rhetorically, as though they were alone. “You’re afraid that if you don’t grab the first woman who is sympathetic to your condition, you might miss out on women altogether.”

 

“Dragon,” she said earnestly, “if I thought she was sincere, I’d pin a medal of self-sacrifice on her myself. But if I were you, I’d examine why she conceded the point of not having children so quickly.”

 

Both ignored Ye-seul’s gasp. Skyler plunged on.

 

“Did you ever think that she might be relieved? Maybe she’s glad she won’t have a husband who’ll demand that she dutifully sire an offspring. I doubt she would want to sacrifice her figure or her time on a child. She just doesn’t seem cut out to -feed and change diapers. And while a nanny can do one, she sure as hell can’t do the other.”

 

“-feeding isn’t essential,” he reminded her quietly.

 

“To me, it would be.”

 

“Would it?”

 

Deep down inside, Skyler quivered.

 

“That’s not the issue. You’re getting me off the track.”

 

She began again.

 

“I don’t think you’ll have a single problem in your marital bed, either for recreational or procreational purposes. To any woman who truly loves you, it won’t matter either way. But I know it matters to you. So if you’re that worried about it not working, I’d rather you try it out on me before taking a chance that it won’t and marry Snow White here.”

 

A stunned silence followed. None was more stunned than Skyler herself. She heard her own words but she couldn’t believe that she’d spoken them. It had been an impulsive statement. Though now that she had time to review it, she realized that it was true and conveyed her deepest feelings.

 

She didn’t mind what Ye-seul thought about her speaking her heart but she did mind what Jiyong thought. She couldn’t bear looking into his eyes. They revealed nothing except the intensity of his reaction. But the reaction itself remained a mystery.

 

Turning on her bare heel, she left the room.

 

Several silent seconds ticked by before Ye-seul daintily cleared and spoke.

 

“Can you believe that a hired person would have the gall to speak so candidly about what is absolutely none of her business? I’ll see that she’s packed and out of the house by nightfall.”

 

Jiyong caught her arm as she brushed past his chair. She glanced down, surprised by the strength of his grip.

 

“Skyler won’t be packing, but you will.”

 

Her cheeks paled.

 

“You can’t be serious, Yong-ie. Surely you didn’t put stock in anything that deranged woman said? You’re more intelligent than that.”

 

“I’m very intelligent. That’s why I keep tabs on every acquaintance, friend, enemy.” He paused before adding, “And lover.”

 

He released her arm and leaned back in his wheelchair.

 

“Sky didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know,” Jiyong smiled thoughtfully, as if momentarily distracted. “Not about you anyway.”

 

When his attention focused back on Ye-seul, his expression turned serious again.

 

“I know about the creditors beating down your door,”

 

“Yong-ie, how crass of you to mention finances.”

 

“I wouldn’t if finances weren’t the reason you’re here,” he pressed on before she could offer a lame denial. “We had some good times, Ye-seul.”

 

“Some good .”

 

He made an offhanded gesture. “It was so easily attainable it lost its value before we ever got in bed.”

 

“You”

 

He shrugged off her scathing insult.

 

“I was never close to marrying you. Not by a long shot. I knew from the moment we met why you pursued me so relentlessly.”

 

“I fell instantly in love,” she cried.

 

“With my stock portfolio.”

 

“That’s not true. I care for you deeply. I came here too”

 

“To do exactly as Sky guessed. You wanted to smother me with your tender loving care until I married you out of gratitude. And it would have been a bargain for both of us. I would have a wife who tolerated my incapacities. You would have a husband with the means to buy you out of your tight situation.”

 

“Only you miscalculated one thing,” he continued, “I won’t settle for being nursed the rest of my life. I’ve always done things for myself. I refuse to let this setback be anything but temporary. I might have run my corporation from a wheelchair but I’ll never become bedridden invalid content to let my brain die while my loving wife takes advantage of me.”

 

“You seemed to enjoy being an invalid the last couple of days,” she remarked coldly.

 

“You caught me on an off day,” he said with chargin. “I was sulking because Sky had spurned me. Besides, I wanted to see how far you would go. I had hoped I was wrong about you. It’s a cliché but I gave you enough rope and you hanged yourself.”

 

“I was being put through a silly test, is that it?”

 

“No, actually Skyler was. She passed her test with flying colors. You flunked.”

 

Ye-seul’s lips curled with contempt.

 

“Speaking of clichés, your attraction to this foulmouthed tart is laughable and pathetic. Any man in your condition would fancy himself in love with his physical therapist.”

 

“That’s almost verbatim what she said. But I don’t think either of you is right.”

“And you pride yourself on your intellect,” she sneered. “Don’t you see that she’s the only woman available to you?”

 

 

“You’ve been available, Ye-seul,” he reminded her softly. “I didn’t want you, did I?”

 

“.”

 

Jiyong looked taken aback. “And you accused Skyler of being foulmouthed?”

 

“She dresses like a !”

 

“You were the one willing to sell herself.”

 

“I can’t believe that you seriously want her.”

 

“Oh, I want her alright,” Jiyong said with a slow grin spreading across his face.

 

“And I intend to take her up on her offer.”