Chapter 86 Love And War
"Don't break up with me!"
Xue Ning stood in stunned silence after his pleading words.
"Okay…" she said slowly, drawing out the word. Xue Ning tilted her head to the right, giving him a look of abject disbelief.
"First of all, we can't exactly break up because we are not really dating," She stated. Jingwei looked relieved at first, but then her words really sunk in and he deflated like a balloon, sulking.
"We could be married. I could arrange it," He muttered petulantly under his breath.
"And secondly," Xue Ning said in a louder voice, ignoring his grouchy mumbling. "I highly doubt someone who has lived with an entire bevy of servants at his beck and call can clean up after themselves. Rich kids are all the same."
"I'm different!" He protested. "I'll prove it!"
"How?"
"I'll do all the house chores for a week!"
"Only a week?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Pathetic."
"Two weeks! Then we'll split the chores." Jingwei negotiated.
"Deal!" Xue Ning said, holding up her palm for him to shake. Jingwei paused; the fact that it was the same palm that he licked did not escape both their notice.
"Why? Too grossed out by my hand that had your saliva on it?" Xue Ning asked challengingly, when Jingwei eyed her outstretched hand without moving. "I told you it was disgusting to lick - "
Then Jingwei grabbed her hand and delivered a kiss on the top of her hand, before turning her hand over to give another kiss to her palm, all while shooting her sultry bedroom eyes.
"You were saying?" Jingwei asked, his lips barely leaving her skin.
"You - you!" Xue Ning snatched her hand away as though her hand got burned. She then smeared the remnants of his kiss back on his T-shirt, as though wiping her hands on a dishrag.
However, she still felt her skin tingling where his lips touched. It was causing her heart to race and her cheeks to heat up. She knew that saliva was supposed to be slightly acidic to break down food, but was the strange tingling sensation a normal effect?
Could she possibly be allergic?
She cursed herself internally; why didn't she pay more attention in biology classes?
No matter what, she had to wash it off. She stalked off to the toilet, and of course Jingwei followed behind her like a mischievous puppy.
"Xue Ning! Are you upset?" Jingwei asked anxiously. Perhaps he pushed too much, too fast. "I'm sorry!"
"I'm fine! I'm just washing your dried spit off because it's gross." She emphasised the last word over the sound of running water. She eagerly used the luxury soap on her hands, relishing in the refreshing scent of lavender.
"It's not!" Jingwei protested with laughter at the way Xue Ning was discreetly sniffing her hands. It was good to know that they shared a favourite hand soap scent.
"It is!" Xue Ning argued. "If you don't think it's gross, then do you mean that you go around licking the hands of women like a puppy?"
"Only the ones I really love." Jingwei replied easily, with a roguish wink.
Xue Ning responded by splashing tap water from the faucet straight at him. Was it childish of her? Yes. But bad dogs get sprayed with water.
Jingwei didn't even bother to dodge it, he merely stuck out a cheeky tongue even as his face and shirt grew wetter with the sudden spray.
The wet shirt clung more tightly to his muscles. Xue Ning didn't want to look, but she had eyes, and they were… there.
Jingwei smirked to himself as he noticed. Now, it was time for him to begin the first step of his marriage-and seduction-plan. He had to show Xue Ning what he could have to offer her, other than his money (which is more his father's, and Xue Ning didn't even like his father).
He purposely lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe his wet face slowly, despite the fact that the bathroom was stocked full of soft, fluffy and dry towels that he could use. Cleaning his face was just secondary, the most important thing was to give Xue Ning another view of his abs, glistening with water.
And what a view it was.
While Jingwei was dripping water on the floor, Xue Ning found her mouth to be suddenly very dry as she watched the subtle flex of his muscles, not knowing that Jingwei purposely sucked in his stomach to improve their definition further.
Jingwei, even with his face covered by his shirt, could sense Xue Ning's interested eyes, and he internally cheered.
Step 1 is a success!
His marriage-and seduction-plan had roughly a thousand steps and a lot more tactics, but all these tactics could be found in one of the following four strategies.
1. Get Xue Ning to find him hot and seduce her into sleeping with him willingly
2. Show her such a good time in bed she never wants to leave him for someone else
3. Shower her with love, care, attention and money so she'll want to stay
4. Lastly, do household chores to make himself seem like great husband material!
His father had tried to make him memorise Sun Tze's Art of War with very limited success. However one quote stuck with him:
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Of course, his father would probably blow his top if he knew that Jingwei was applying these words of wisdom to woo and seduce his bodyguard not-wife, a woman he didn't approve of, but that didn't matter.
Knowledge was always meant to be applied!
Once Jingwei succeeded, his father would have no choice but to accept it!
With these strategies and multiple tactics, he will walk towards victory one small step at a time!
"Use a towel," Xue Ning managed to croak out as she shoved a dry towel in his face. Jingwei pretended not to notice Xue Ning staring at him after he wiped his face dry.
If he pointed it out, she might just become too self-conscious in future. He had to reel her in slowly, like a fish nibbling on bait.
He was usually too impatient for fishing, but for her, he would learn patience.
Meanwhile, Xue Ning was clueless to all the machinations bouncing around in Sun Jingwei's crafty head. Her own mind was frantically trying to reboot after seeing so much unexpected skin, along with the deep indent of his muscles.
Great job Li Xue Ning, her brain screamed hysterically as they helpfully replayed that scene for her, along with all the previous times she saw his muscles.
All the previous times she touched those muscles.
Well done! She despaired. You've suckered yourself.