4. The handsome scoundrel

The man’s palm was warm, enveloping one of her tender breasts. He didn’t even make another move; the tingling sensation caused by his finger grazing her nipple spread like an exploding firework.

“Mm...” A groan escaped her lips, stirring desire in the night. Lin Xingzi felt a sudden surge of shame, inwardly cursing Jiang Yan as a bastard. She gritted her teeth and struggled fiercely to free the hand he had pinned against the pillow, pushing him away from her chest.

“The sofa is so comfortable; go sleep outside,” her breath was unsteady, her voice soft and sweet at the end, making her tantrum sound more like a playful pout.

Jiang Yan smiled and propped himself up.

As the heat covering her left, Lin Xingzi felt an indescribable sense of loss, but she refused to show any hint of “heartbroken despair at the loss of male beauty” on her face. She pushed away his hand that was inside her clothes and, steadying her voice, told him to get lost.

“It’s not that I don’t want to sleep with you, but there are no condoms at home,” her strength was negligible to Jiang Yan. She put all her effort into playfully resisting him, her long hair spread across the pillow, tangled and disheveled. He reached out to help her, and strands of black hair intertwined around his fingers.

She had worn heavy makeup for the nightclub that afternoon. After removing it, her features lost some of their cold allure, but they were still delicate and clean, soft and dewy. A faint beauty mark on the tip of her nose shimmered charmingly with sweat. Her lips, kissed by him, were rosy and full, with glistening moisture at the corners.

Jiang Yan lowered his head and licked from her chin to the corner of her mouth.

How could he not want her?

After dinner, he started looking for things to do: washing dishes, mopping the floor, making the bed. But it was all a futile attempt to deceive himself. The air in the small room was filled with her post-shower scent. Although they used the same shampoo and shower gel—inexpensive items from the supermarket shelf—her scent was different.

Wearing his clothes, sleeping in his lustful dreams, separated by a door, he felt as if he could hear her breathing.

On this very bed, he had dreamt of her more than once.

On those weary, damp nights, the more physically exhausted he was, the more tormenting it became. Closing his eyes, he would dream of her in her blue and white school uniform as a teenager, maturing in the years he had missed. Every expression and smile was captivating. From across a crowd, her gaze would float over him like he was a stranger, yet in the next moment, she would be lying beneath him, face flushed, moaning, begging him to go faster, to go harder.

Waking up in the morning, his eyes would still be on the yellowed ceiling, his underwear pushed high. The sound of neighbors arguing was more jarring than an alarm clock, and so, as his consciousness returned, he realized the pleasurable, entangled lust was all just a dream.

“Let’s just do it like this, okay?” Jiang Yan kissed her neck heavily, then soothed her by lightly sucking at her lips, his palm stroking her sweaty nape. “I won’t finish inside, Jiangjiang...”

He lived alone, and it was her first time visiting, without telling him in advance. He wouldn’t have condoms, things he didn’t usually need, at home.

“Who do you think I am, to be in heat for you?” Lin Xingzi’s tone was unfriendly, but it was clear she was in a much better mood than before he said he had no condoms.

“You’re my wife.”

“Then am I your favorite wife?”

Jiang Yan readily agreed, “Of course.”

“Heh, you’re so hypocritical,” Lin Xingzi pulled his head, buried in her neck, away by his short hair.

She was almost naked. Jiang Yan’s eyes were filled with raw, intense desire. His breath on her skin was like a feather, hovering between movement and stillness, making her heart tremble.

Men truly are creatures who think with their lower half. No matter how upright and proper they usually are, once in bed, their mouths are full of sweet nothings. After all, even at eighteen, Officer Jiang was a handsome scoundrel from a poor and unfortunate family who evoked pity, so he was naturally adept at sweet-talking women.

She was young and reckless, falling for his looks, and even now, she still couldn’t resist him.