The Tao Of Sex by Jade Lee Page A

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