My Taboo Harem!

Chapter 974: A Polished Alluring Jade

Phei stared at Jade Park as she walked toward them and for one rare inconvenient moment his thoughts failed to arrange themselves into anything useful.

She was... Jade was...

The words refused to coalesce.

That irritation prickled deeper than it should have, because Phei had beheld beauty in abundance. His existence had grown almost indecently saturated with exquisite women — those who illuminated rooms, robbed men of coherent speech, and sent common sense slipping out the nearest exit before it could be consulted.

He knew Maddie’s dazzling arrogance, Sierra’s tender sweetness, Valentina’s mature radiance, Victoria’s sculpted peril, Nastya’s glacial princess charm, Melissa’s refined elegance, and above all, the Goddess’s divine grace — an impossible splendor that felt less born than consecrated by higher powers.

Yet as Jade Park crossed the glowing forecourt of the seashell dealership, her raven hair flowing behind her in a silken cascade and moonlight draping across her features as if honored to be granted the privilege, Phei found himself utterly unable to slot her into any familiar category.

’She transcends mere beauty.’

Beauty was effortless to catalog.

Jade embodied poise; an ethereal, almost otherworldly serenity that made the world seem to soften its edges in deference. She moved with a fluid grace so innate it bordered on the unfair, as though the ground itself conspired to spare her any vulgar strain. Her arms rested lightly at her sides, slender and refined, her steps measured yet effortless, her shoulders relaxed, her chin lifted in quiet sovereignty that held neither arrogance nor deference.

Every gesture flowed into the next with the delicate precision of ink unfurling across the finest silk.

Phei had known two women whose elegance had always left an indelible mark: Melissa, whose refinement was soft, polished, and steeped in old-world luxury, and the Goddess, whose grace transcended the mortal plane into something almost blasphemous to compare.

But now there was Jade.

And Phei had to admit, with a faint shock that both amused and unsettled him, that if the Goddess reigned above all like a hallowed moon, then Jade stood immediately beneath her — before even Melissa — not through overt force or blazing radiance alone but through the sheer quiet perfection of her luminous poise.

She stopped before them and allowed the moment to exist.

As she did, Jade did not rush to speak or shrink beneath his gaze, nor did she resort to cheap flirtation to acknowledge his attention. She simply stood there, her graceful hands resting near her sides as if graciously permitting him to drink his fill, while her own luminous eyes moved over him with the same calm, luminous curiosity.

It was the first time they had ever stood this close and the space between them felt charged with a soft, electric tension and the subtle awareness of two souls realizing that reputation had been a pale, inadequate substitute for presence.

Phei could not even summon a lustful thought at first.

That, somehow, felt like the greater insult.

His mind refused to descend into desire and it forever remained ensnared in pure admiration, cycling through beauty, grace, elegance, poise, beauty, grace, elegance like a mesmerized choir granted only those three lyrics.

Whatever coarser impulse might have tried to rise from the more primal depths of his mind was purified at the threshold by the sheer, serene perfection of her appearance. The result was frankly insulting.

Jade had somehow compelled him to behave mentally:

A rare crime. Possibly unforgivable.

"Phei," Jade greeted finally; offering him a slight elegant bow.

Her voice drifted toward him like a silk caress; it was soft also sweet, and carrying through the crisp night with a gentleness that made the dealership’s lights seem to dim in quiet reverence.

A faint breeze stirred her raven hair, lifting a few dark strands before retreating as if reluctant to disturb their flawless arrangement.

Even the wind displayed impeccable manners in her presence.

Phei found that vaguely offensive on behalf of everyone else who had ever endured foul weather.

He knew he needed to speak.

He also knew he wanted nothing more than to keep looking at her.

Fortunately, a man could manage both if he possessed sufficient shamelessness, and Phei had cultivated that particular resource with magnificent dedication.

"Princess Jade," he said, smiling as he extended his hand. "It is a genuine pleasure to finally meet your elegant and graceful self properly."

Her eyes softened with quiet amusement and she placed her hand in his.

It warm, soft, long and elegantly gentle.

’Almost impossibly so.’

Phei felt the delicate contact far more intensely than he had anticipated. Her hand was refined in his, yet carried an underlying strength, and for a heartbeat he found it strangely difficult to release her.

Jade, to his surprise, seemed to share the reluctance.

Her fingers lingered in his palm with a calmness that extended beyond mere courtesy, and her gaze dipped briefly to their joined hands before returning to his face. His own hand was warm too, beautiful in its strength — gentle against her skin yet promising the kind of power that could both protect and unravel composure.

’Perhaps both,’ Jade thought, and the faintest, most alluring curve touched her lips.

’Both would suit me just fine.’

They released each other a moment later, though neither hurried the motion.

Jade’s eyes then swept over the women surrounding him. Maddie and Sierra stood with familiar mischief already sparkling in their expressions. Victoria observed her with glacial appraising interest. Nastya, the Romano’s eldest, appeared polished enough to slice glass with a single glance. Valentina stood near Phei with mature confidence, a woman Jade had only recently researched as his former trainer and now one of his women.

The other two, Noor and Soraya, were unfamiliar, though their easy proximity to Phei and the group’s effortless awareness told her enough.

’New additions to his ever enlarging family, perhaps.’ With the Young Dragon, even introductions apparently came with expansion packs.

And the newcomers studied her right back. Noor measured Jade with the cool, professional eye of one stunning woman appraising another and privately conceding the point, while Soraya — still wrapped in Phei’s jacket against the night chill — glanced from Jade to Phei and back, feeling the small, familiar tug low in her chest.

She had only hours ago decided to share him, and was now discovering, in vivid real time, exactly how delightfully crowded that decision would become. She did not look threatened, she looked thoughtful though; recalculating the dimensions of the life she had stepped into, and then, with a small private breath, deciding she could more than manage the arithmetic.

Jade looked back at Phei and smiled, her posture graceful enough to transform the glowing forecourt into an impromptu reception hall. "Welcome to my humble business."

Maddie snorted instantly. "Do not act modest, bitch, just because Phei is here."

Before Jade could respond, Maddie reached over and ruffled her hair.

Jade froze.