Chapter 584 - 240: Eve of New Year’s Eve (2)
Chapter 584: Chapter 240: Eve of New Year’s Eve (2)
It brought a faint, tingling numbness.
"Mmm..."
A noncommittal sound escaped his throat, carrying the grogginess of just waking up and a subtle sense of satisfaction.
Li Zhi could feel the heavy weight on her lift slightly.
Then, the young man’s warm breath washed over her again, this time brushing even closer to her neck.
His gaze was almost tangible.
She could feel his eyes fall to the side of her neck.
"Sss..."
A sharp intake of breath, seemingly caught in his throat, came from above her.
It was as if he was letting out a silent gasp at the obvious "evidence" of his crime.
Shen Yuan propped himself up a bit, his eyelids half-lowered. His blurry vision gradually came into focus.
His gaze froze. The pads of his fingers, which had been unconsciously stroking her back, stopped instantly. A thick, sensual tension hung in the air.
The young man’s breath hitched. He forced his gaze away from the mark, letting it travel slowly upward.
Finally, he found himself completely lost in her shy, shimmering eyes.
Reflected clearly in them was his own image, tinged with the languor of just waking up and... a renewed, fiery glint.
The air was instantly filled with an invisible tension.
The morning light, filtering through a gap in the curtains, danced on the young woman’s flushed cheeks.
Shen Yuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He silently suppressed the heat flaring in his eyes, letting it melt into a lazy, tender smile.
His voice, low and husky, fell clearly into Li Zhi’s ears.
"Li Bao... Good morning."
"Good... Good morning, my foot! Do you have any idea what time it is?!"
As soon as the fierce words were out, Li Zhi’s own bluster failed her, and she averted her eyes.
She tried to push him away and sit up, hoping to hide her inappropriately racing heart, but Shen Yuan’s arm was still draped loosely behind her waist like an invisible barrier.
"Hmph. Let go of me! How long are you planning to hold on?!"
She grumbled, but her struggles were weak and carried no real threat.
Shen Yuan didn’t move, merely propping himself up a little to look down at her, the smile on his lips deepening.
His hand continued to unconsciously trace the soft texture of her cashmere sweater over her shoulder blades, a gesture that was part soothing, part greedily possessive.
Suddenly—
"GURGLE..."
A clear, startling, and uncontrollable sound escaped from somewhere around Li Zhi’s stomach, shattering the thick atmosphere in the room.
The air seemed to freeze for a second.
Li Zhi’s body instantly went rigid. Her face, which was already pink, flushed a deep scarlet in an instant, the color spreading all the way to the tips of her ears and down her neck.
She shot Shen Yuan a venomous glare. In a rushed, flustered voice that only made her embarrassment more obvious, she snapped.
"What are you looking at?! I... Is it a crime to be hungry?!"
Her mortification seemed to have found an outlet, instantly igniting all the grievances that had been building up in her heart.
The pretty girl suddenly lifted her head, her accusations firing like a machine gun at the culprit before her:
"This is all your fault! You damned idiot, Selaan!" Li Zhi forcefully poked Shen Yuan’s chest, her fingertip trembling slightly. "Telling me to come over to do homework! You liar! It was all a lie!"
Her breathing was ragged as she recalled the mix of flirtation and fear from a moment ago. "I had just gotten here when you... you bit my neck! And left such a huge hickey!"
"And... and you stole my first kiss!"
"And... and you were messing around! You scared me to death, you know that? You villain! Shen Yuan, you damned pervert!"
Finally, she pointed at her still-rumbling stomach, her voice on the verge of tears. "And now look! We’ve kissed, I’ve been scared out of my mind, and... and you’ve starved me! What kind of boyfriend are you?! You’re a Pervert! A giant asshole!"
Shen Yuan just watched the pretty girl in his arms, her little mouth running a mile a minute as she, red-faced, rattled off a list of grievances from the hickey on her neck to her rumbling stomach, her cheeks puffed out in anger as if everything was his fault.
Her large, glistening eyes were trying their best to look pitiful, her long lashes fluttering, putting on a big show of ’I’ve been terribly wronged’.
Seeing her "the culprit who cries foul first" act, trying so hard to shift all the blame onto him, the amusement in Shen Yuan’s eyes deepened until he finally couldn’t hold it in and let out a low chuckle.
"Tsk,"
The young man shook his head, his long fingers pinching her puffed-out cheek with an affectionate squeeze.
"Oh, Li Bao..."
His voice was tinged with helplessness, yet full of doting understanding. His gaze deliberately flickered between the side of her pale neck and the hickey she had just planted on his, and he drew out his words teasingly.
"Playing the victim now, are we? Weren’t you pretty fierce when you were biting me? The hickey you left is a whole size bigger than mine, and now you’re pretending to be the poor, pitiful one? Hmm?"
As he spoke, Shen Yuan lightly tapped the more vivid "evidence" she had left on his own neck before poking the comparatively fainter mark he had made on hers. The meaning was self-evident.
"Besides..." He leaned closer to her still-flushed, burning ear and lowered his voice, a roguish smirk playing on his lips. "That first kiss... that was our deal for me scoring a 665, wasn’t it? You can’t call that ’stealing,’ can you?"
"And now you’re pinning all the blame on me? Hmm?"
"Hmph! Idiot!!"
Having been so accurately exposed, Li Zhi bristled, her cheeks turning so red they looked like they might bleed. Mortified, she raised a hand to hit him again.
"All you do is remember stupid things like that! Shut up! I’m hungry! Go get me something to eat, now!"
Shen Yuan roared with laughter, easily catching her flailing fist. The amusement in his eyes was overwhelming as he resigned himself with indulgent fondness to his new mission: to go feed his little princess.
"Alright, alright! I’ll go get my precious treasure something to eat right now."