Pei Zhiwen pressed his thin lips together.
He really wanted to ask, “Why didn’t you bring it up if you didn’t like it?”
He had never considered himself a good guy, but he wasn’t the kind to let his partner suffer just for his own selfish desires.
Racking his memory, Pei Zhiwen clearly remembered that every single time he didn’t use protection, he had asked for Lu Jiayan’s consent.
What on earth gave Lu Jiayan that misconception?
Could it be because he had too many tricks in bed?
Pei Zhiwen suddenly thought of a few things He Yao had said to him before he came to Jiangling. Love is equal and fair. The way your relationship with Lu Jiayan started wasn’t right, and there’s a huge gap in social status and background between you two. In other words, your relationship is unhealthy and pathological. Lu Jiayan might look obedient, but he actually has a clearer head than anyone. Instead of treating you as a romantic partner, I’d say he treats you like a young master on a pedestal.
Lu Jiayan used to like you, but that affection seemed insignificant against your unequal status. He looked like he didn’t care, but it was actually because he never dared to hope for more, nor would he ever delusionally expect it.
So after all these years of living side by side, they still didn’t understand each other at all.
The moment Pei Zhiwen thought about Lu Jiayan leaving him, a wave of inexplicable, violent irritability surged within him. His extreme, obsessive thoughts grew wildly like vines, running rampant in his mind and seizing control of his reason.
Standing by the bed, Lu Jiayan noticed the hard-to-suppress irritability between Pei Zhiwen’s brows.
With a very natural movement, he unbuttoned his pajamas.
Pei Zhiwen raised his eyes and saw Lu Jiayan undoing his buttons. “What are you doing?”
The other man looked completely calm. “Don’t you want to do it?”
“I thought you meant you wanted to.”
No wonder He Yao said he had trained Lu Jiayan into such an understanding and obedient partner. It turned out that the slightest display of emotion on his part could make the other man interpret it entirely differently.
Some of his past actions had indeed carried a punitive intent, but most of them stemmed from deep-seated desire in the heat of the moment, and he had simply assumed they were exceptionally well-matched in that aspect.
They only ever needed a single look to understand each other’s meaning.
He never expected that…
“We’re not doing it,” Pei Zhiwen said coldly.
Looking at Pei Zhiwen’s expression, which was even worse than before, Lu Jiayan momentarily lost all grasp of the young master’s temperament and thoughts.
Weren’t moving in together and bringing an entire suitcase of condoms meant precisely to make sleeping with him more convenient?
Why on earth was he throwing a tantrum when he took the initiative?
The present Pei Zhiwen was even harder to understand than before.
“Go to sleep,” Pei Zhiwen said in a rather rigid tone.
His gaze flicked toward Lu Jiayan’s slightly open pajamas.
His collarbone hollows were exquisite, his skin fair, and his lower abdomen carried a thin layer of lean muscle, looking slender enough to be easily spanned by two hands.
It was enough to make anyone’s mind wander.
He frowned slightly. “Put your clothes on properly.”
Lu Jiayan obediently buttoned his clothes back up.
He had originally been worried about what would happen if Pei Zhiwen wanted to do it and things got out of hand.
After all, he still had to meet a client tomorrow.
The atmosphere between the two of them inexplicably turned extremely strange. They were sharing the exact same space, yet neither of them spoke.
Pei Zhiwen was still playing with the small square box Lu Jiayan had bought at the convenience store yesterday afternoon.
As soon as Lu Jiayan finished buttoning up his shirt, he saw Pei Zhiwen staring in deep thought at the little box and said, “Since this isn’t useful anyway, we might as well just throw it away.”
“Don’t waste it,” Pei Zhiwen raised his head, tightened his grip on the small box, and said meaningfully, “You can use it.”
Lu Jiayan was stunned. “Huh?”
What would a bottom who just lies back and takes it need with a condom?
“You can wear it.”
Lu Jiayan knew that pervert Pei Zhiwen wouldn’t come up with any good ideas. It turned out he simply wanted to keep it around to torment him.
Seeing the micro-crack in Lu Jiayan’s expression, Pei Zhiwen couldn’t suppress the upward curve of his lips as he tossed the small box back into the drawer.
“It’s getting late. Go to sleep early.”
With that, he pulled back the blanket, kicked off his shoes, and rolled over into bed.
The blanket smelled like it had been baked under the sun, likely due to a freshly changed duvet cover. A faint lemon scent, probably from the laundry detergent, lingered, sharing the exact same fragrance as Lu Jiayan.
Inhaling it made both body and mind feel at ease.
Seeing Pei Zhiwen lie straight down on the bed, Lu Jiayan hesitated for a moment before choosing to kick off his shoes and lie down as well.
The glaring white light clicked off, replaced by a warm bedside lamp.
It had been a very long time since the two of them last slept in the same bed together.
The bed was only a meter and a half wide, which felt rather cramped for two adult males lying side by side.
Because he had nowhere to run.
He could intensely feel the undeniable presence right beside him.
Pei Zhiwen called out, “Come closer.”
“Why are you lying so far away from me?”
Lu Jiayan held his breath. Hearing what Pei Zhiwen said, he slowly inched closer to the other man.
The distance between them grew smaller and smaller. The scent of shower gel on the other person lingered at the tip of his nose, and the unique masculine hormones seemed to encircle Lu Jiayan, tangling and binding them together inseparably.
His skin began to tingle with an itch, craving to press close against that cool skin and warm physique.
I really want to be held by Pei Zhiwen.
Such an absurd thought arose in his mind.
Lu Jiayan bit his lower lip, forcing himself to stop letting his mind wander.
The reason he used such harsh, ungraceful methods to sever ties when he escaped from Pei Zhiwen in the first place was precisely to avoid any further emotional entanglement with him.
If he exposed his weaknesses now, wouldn’t he just be handing Pei Zhiwen a weapon on a silver platter?
“What are you thinking about?”
A rush of hot breath suddenly brushed against his ear.
Lu Jiayan instantly stiffened, startled by the sudden voice. Noticing the breathing growing closer and closer, his fingers instinctively clenched tightly into the bedsheets, trying his absolute best to ignore the existence of the person beside him.
“Nothing.”
He wanted to pull away.
Unfortunately, Pei Zhiwen gave him zero opportunity to do so, pressing his chest directly against Lu Jiayan’s arm.