Chapter 7: The Rival Always Wants to Taste Him Again [7]

Chapter 7: The Rival Can't Stop Wanting Another Taste of Him "7"

"What? You're that into my hands?"

Shi Mo snorted with a laugh, pulling his hand back as he spoke.

"Didn't know you had a thing for hands."

His words snapped Ye Qi back to reality, pulling him out of that heated memory as his ears tinged pink.

Ye Qi said, dead serious: "I just wanted to check if your hands were clean. That Lin Ran must've lost his mind today."

"He just touched you—what if he's got something and gives it to you?"

Ye Qi said this nonsense with such a straight face that it was almost convincing.

Shi Mo raised an eyebrow, his tone lazy: "By that logic, he hugged me too. Should I go take a shower then? And you'll personally supervise my shower?"

Ye Qi cleared his throat: "I wouldn't say no to that."

Shi Mo: "..."

Shi Mo: "Well, he touched you too, so why don't we go shower together?"

Ye Qi's eyes brightened as he tried to play it cool: "Since you're inviting me, your place or mine?"

"Ye Qi, give you an inch and you take a mile, huh? So good at pushing your luck—why don't you go play monkey at the city zoo?"

Shi Mo reached out and patted Ye Qi's face, his eyes full of mockery. The gesture, combined with his look, was almost degrading.

But in reality, he was just pulling back 447, who had been about to grab Ye Qi's hair.

447 returned to the top of Shi Mo's head in a huff, doing a little roll before speaking with great dissatisfaction:

"Xiao Momo, what's up with this male lead?! He wants to shower with you—he's just trying to take advantage of you!"

Shi Mo didn't respond to 447. Instead, he snatched the contract from Ye Qi's hands, looking down to flip through it.

"You're giving up a lot. You won't make much money this way."

With that, Shi Mo tossed the contract back into Ye Qi's arms and turned to leave. Ye Qi, however, didn't care at all, tucking the contract away and following right behind him.

"I said it's compensation for you. If it's too little, it wouldn't really count, would it?"

"Oh, right. I remember you really like roses. I own a rose estate. How about coming to check it out with me later? If you like it, I could give it to you."

Ye Qi felt a bit tense asking this.

Shi Mo paused mid-step, tilting his head to look at him with a faint, cold smile:

"What, is this also part of Young Master Ye's compensation? Do you think I need some little estate?"

Ye Qi's heart tightened at his words, and he quickly explained:

"That's not what I meant. I just... just thought you might like it."

"And what I said before about a marriage alliance—I was serious. You can consider it. It's good for both our families."

Shi Mo looked at Ye Qi in silence, but that single look was enough to make him lose all his nerve.

Meeting Shi Mo's calm, indifferent gaze, Ye Qi felt as though all his little tricks had been seen through.

His hand clenched at his side, and he silently followed Shi Mo onto the elevator.

Ye Qi couldn't quite say when he had started feeling this way about Shi Mo.

He and Shi Mo had never seen eye to eye since childhood. He didn't hate Shi Mo the way he hated Lin Ran, who was always following him around, but he definitely didn't like him either.

They only pretended to get along for business reasons.

Privately, aside from the times Shi Mo came to mess with him, they barely crossed paths.

But when had it started?

He began noticing Shi Mo, began realizing Shi Mo wasn't what he'd thought he was.

It was probably around three years ago. Shi Mo was still the same as before—enjoying watching him get embarrassed, occasionally scheming against him, and pulling little tricks.

But he just couldn't bring himself to hate him.

Shi Mo wasn't the type to smile naturally.

But from then on, he always seemed to have a slight smile on his lips, and his beautiful eyes were always warm, making it impossible to resent him.

Even the people in their circle who used to have no good opinion of Shi Mo later said more than once that he wasn't actually that bad.

Some even confessed to Shi Mo in secret, but they were all rejected.

At first, Ye Qi just stopped being so resistant to Shi Mo.

When he heard about those rejections, he'd pretend not to care, but his mood would always lift a little.

It wasn't until later, when he went to see Shi Mo and found him just out of the shower, stepping barefoot onto the carpet.

Wearing only a loosely wrapped bathrobe, his fair skin, elegant collarbones, the hint of abs barely visible beneath the robe, and those long, beautiful legs...

He'd long forgotten what he'd gone there for that day, and how he'd left. All he could remember was how alluring that small beauty mark at the corner of Shi Mo's eye was.

More precisely, there wasn't a single part of the man that wasn't captivating.

After that visit, he started having dreams—and every single one of them featured Shi Mo.

It was from that point on that he suddenly realized he'd developed romantic feelings for Shi Mo.

But clearly, dreams were just dreams.

The Shi Mo in his dreams—whether crying pitifully beneath him or smiling alluringly—

The Shi Mo in reality would only take every opportunity to mock him and set traps for him.

Even now that they'd been intimate and had a deep, thorough connection.

Even though he wanted to use this opportunity to break down the barrier between them, it still didn't work.

And even the marks he'd left on him were all gone.

Ye Qi let out a sigh, his gaze lingering with a dark intensity on the back of Shi Mo's neck.

He had bitten and chewed at that soft flesh repeatedly, yet now it was clean—not a single trace left.

And after doing *that*, you'd usually feel a bit off, but Shi Mo showed no signs of discomfort at all—in fact, he seemed even more wired than Ye Qi.

If Shi Mo hadn't gone along with it, Ye Qi would have suspected that wild dream was just his own illusion.

Ye Qi pressed his lips into a tight line, sinking into deep self-doubt.

Was his technique really that bad? Was he just not good enough?

Those two thoughts suddenly popped into his head.

Like two sharp arrows, they pierced the tiny, petrified figure kneeling in his heart.

Ye Qi could've sworn he heard his heart shatter.

Ye Qi didn't stop until Shi Mo did.

Shi Mo led Ye Qi straight up to the top floor, took him to his private lounge, and signed the contract.

"Alright, you're free to go."

Ye Qi looked at the signature on the contract and, at the dismissive tone in his voice, instinctively asked, "You're really not going to go see it?"

Shi Mo didn't even try to hide it—he opened his closet right in front of Ye Qi and grabbed a fresh set of clothes.

"No need. I touched something dirty, so I need to scrub myself clean."

"And about that estate—if you really want to give it to me, don't just pay lip service. Transfer it directly to my name. It's not like I'd refuse."

Shi Mo said this while heading toward the bathroom. Seeing that Ye Qi hadn't moved, he let out a chuckle:

"What? You're really planning to stay and shower with me?"

Ye Qi's ears turned red, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes:

"Can I? I don't mind wearing your clothes either."

447: [???]

447 stared in disbelief, flying right up to Ye Qi's face and shouting:

[Wait! You're getting the meal *and* the doggy bag?!]