The scent of aromatherapy was delicate and intoxicating, spreading wantonly through the bathroom like a gentle, moist spring breeze stirring up a garden full of spring colors.
A beauty emerged from the bath, her skin as white as jade flushed pink from the steam. Under the bright bathroom lights, her smooth skin gleamed with a subtle sheen. A few rose petals clung to her shoulders, water droplets sliding down past the snowy peaks. Her waist was slender like a drooping willow, and beneath her pert bottom, her long legs were slim, straight, and firm.
Ji Qingtang paused her humming, but perhaps because of the alcohol she’d consumed, her mind was sluggish and hadn’t quite registered what was happening yet.
Shen Jinyu’s prominent Adam’s apple rolled slightly as he gave her a once-over, then his gaze traveled upward to find her face.
Her cheeks were flushed crimson, her slightly pursed lips looked as though they’d been tinted with a light shade of lipstick, and the look she cast his way carried a hint of bewilderment—pure yet alluring, seducing him without even trying.
The moment their eyes met, Ji Qingtang snapped back to reality. Flustered, she snatched the bathrobe hanging nearby and wrapped it around herself.
“You… you pervert! Peeping Tom! Don’t you know how to knock before coming in?”
Shen Jinyu averted his gaze and walked toward the counter, spitting out four words: “Completely unnecessary.”
The implication being—it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her before.
Even if that time had been in dim lighting.
Ji Qingtang watched him casually pick up his wristwatch from the counter, and she wanted nothing more than to charge over, snatch the watch away, and hurl it at his face—that face that pretended to be utterly devoid of desire—from two meters away.
When Shen Jinyu reached the bathroom door, he turned back to glance at her once more.
“What are you looking at?” Ji Qingtang crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up slightly. “If you’re captivated by me, just say so.”
Shen Jinyu let out a chuckle. “Mm, you are quite beautiful.”
Ji Qingtang: “??”
This plastic husband of hers, who couldn’t utter a single nice word in eight hundred years, had finally—against all odds—complimented her for once. But why did it sound so awkward?
…
After Ji Qingtang finished her full skincare routine and walked out of the bathroom, she saw that Shen Jinyu had somehow produced a bottle of vintage red wine and was sitting on the sofa, pretending to savor it.
When he saw her enter the bedroom, Shen Jinyu spoke up. “Care to have another drink with me?”
“Drink with your big head!”
Ji Qingtang shot him a dirty look.
He’d witnessed a beauty with a figure like hers emerging from the bath, and he still had the nerve to sit there savoring wine?
This was the ultimate insult to her charm!!
She pulled open the wardrobe and took out a champagne-colored silk slip nightgown.
On a whim, she stripped off her bathrobe and changed right in front of Shen Jinyu.
As if she were challenging him.
The more he played the role of a detached, ascetic monk, the more she wanted to drag him down from his pedestal, tear off his mask, and gleefully mock him for being nothing but an ordinary mortal.
The tantalizing scene replayed before his eyes. Shen Jinyu’s hand, which had been gently swirling the wine glass, paused. The darkness in his gaze deepened.
Desire rose and fell within him, building up like a force gathering momentum before a breakthrough.
Ji Qingtang lifted the corner of the blanket and climbed into bed, propping herself against the headboard to reply to messages.
[The moment Shen Jinyu returned to the country, she went scurrying off to Jinqing International to receive him.]
[Open your mind—now that he’s back, you get a feast for the eyes again.]
[Say what you will, but this bargain husband of mine really does have a great body.]
[Your tolerance is terrible—drink less, don’t get too carried away.]
She’d just finished replying to Meng Xiao when Shen Jinyu turned off the lights.
Ji Qingtang looked up and blurted out, “Why turn them off so early?”
The moment she asked, she regretted it, terrified that he might spit out just one word: “You.”
Shen Jinyu walked over and met her gaze. “Sleep.”
Ji Qingtang felt inexplicably nervous. She set her phone down, quickly slid under the covers, and turned over to face away from him.
Shen Jinyu pulled back the blanket and lay down beside her.
A few seconds later, her waist was firmly encircled by the man behind her.
Shen Jinyu kissed the nape of her neck as he spoke, “You’ve teased me too much. Even if I wanted to hold back later, it wouldn’t be within my control anymore.”
He had always possessed strong self-restraint, but today he had clearly been provoked and stirred by her watching male models dance and by the sight of her emerging from her bath.
Ji Qingtang’s fingertips trembled. His warm breath sent a shiver across the skin of her neck.
The strange sensation at her waist was equally impossible to ignore.
She knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with just one round.
Perhaps because the number of times they’d done this could be counted on two hands—and the last time had been over three months ago, right before Shen Jinyu left the country—Ji Qingtang hadn’t yet adjusted to such intimate gestures before Shen Jinyu flipped her over and sealed her lips with his.
The two of them had barely ever kissed—even fewer times than they’d slept together.
When the man above her kissed her, Ji Qingtang even forgot to close her eyes.
“Qingtang…”
Shen Jinyu’s voice was low and hoarse, laced with breathlessness, sounding in her ear—exceptionally seductive.
He rarely called her name, and even when he did, it was always her full name.
Hearing this “Qingtang,” Ji Qingtang let out a dazed “huh.”
Shen Jinyu took the opportunity to plunder freely between her lips and teeth.
A faint scent of alcohol spread, and only then did Ji Qingtang realize that the few brief lip-to-lip touches they’d shared before didn’t count as kissing at all.
She didn’t know how long passed before she felt dizzy, as if she’d fallen into the clouds, and only then did Shen Jinyu finally let her go.
The bedside lamp on his side hadn’t been turned off. In the dim yellow light, he saw her gasping for air—a pitiful yet utterly captivating sight.
His fingertip brushed across her glistening, moist lips, and he let out a sudden soft chuckle.
Hearing that chuckle, Ji Qingtang assumed he was mocking her for not knowing how to breathe properly. Unwilling to be outdone, she raised her hand to loop around his neck and gave a firm peck to his Adam’s apple.
What was he showing off for? Did he think he was the only one who knew tricks?
However, Shen Jinyu took her action as an initiation, which only further ignited the desire deep within him. He lowered his head for another deep kiss.
Her strap had already slipped off. Shen Jinyu reached down to pull it further, kissing from her lips down to her neck.
Then he continued kissing downward, leaving a trail of ambiguous marks.
Ji Qingtang could barely withstand it. She pushed at his head. “You… what’s the rush?”
Her tone was meant to be reproachful, but her voice came out so soft that it inexplicably sounded like coaxing.
Shen Jinyu glanced up at her, then lay back on the bed, grabbing her wrist and pulling her onto him.
Ji Qingtang somehow ended up half-lying on top of him, her cheek pressed against his chest. Then a low, husky voice came from above her head.
“Isn’t this what you love—competing with me?”
He wore an air of detached observation. “Your turn. I’ll give you room to show off.”
It took Ji Qingtang a beat to react.
She felt provoked.
Relying on instinct and her talent for learning on the spot, she pushed herself up to straddle him, then bent down and planted a flurry of messy kisses.
Soon, Shen Jinyu regretted provoking her.
Her completely unmethodical actions were testing his patience, torturing him relentlessly.
Before long, he closed his eyes, grabbed her waist, and switched their positions.
“You win.” Shen Jinyu lowered his head, nibbling on her earlobe, breathing heavily as he whispered, “I concede.”
Hearing this, Ji Qingtang regained a bit of clarity amidst her daze, and even her trembling voice couldn’t hide her smugness. “Mortal… mortal fool, loser.”
But her triumph didn’t last long before she yielded to the man who had been starved for over three months.
After the final round, Ji Qingtang felt as if her bones had been scattered apart.
She struggled to open her eyes and weakly demanded, “Did you find yourself a foreign woman during those three months abroad?”
Shen Jinyu tied the knot, casting her a deep glance. “What nonsense are you talking about?”