Good boy, so honest

What, what, what, what, what?

What on earth was Pei Song'an saying? At what point had this conversation suddenly gotten so steamy??

Shouldn't Pei Song'an have been praising his courage, while he praised Pei Song'an's ruthlessness?

Haha, kiss whose waist?

"You're not kissing my waist, ever!"

Li Shu shot up from the couch, trying to back away, but Pei Song'an still had his wrist and pulled him back. He landed on the couch and bounced twice.

"Don't touch me. Pei Song'an, do you know how scary you are right now? Everywhere you touch feels like it's burning."

Pei Song'an didn't answer, but Li Shu's words made the rhythm of his heartbeat even stranger. He released his wrist, only to press his palm against Li Shu's thigh, squeezing the soft flesh through his trousers and creasing the fabric beneath his hand.

"My body temperature is indeed higher than yours. What you're feeling is grounded in physical reality. Don't let unnecessary emotions spill over."

Li Shu's eyes widened. "What do you mean? You're saying I'm falsely accusing you?"

"No. I should reflect on the fact that our relationship isn't as intimate as I thought."

Pei Song'an sat sideways on the couch. Even after all Li Shu's fussing, he remained composed and dignified, his posture upright.

"You lunged toward me the instant the gun went off without paying any attention to Chen Yannan's safety. My satisfaction and sense of superiority peaked at that moment. That feeling mistakenly led me to believe our relationship had taken another step forward."

"A sharp rise in hormone levels gives me the urge to have skin-to-skin contact with you."

Li Shu's hackles settled a little. "You're pretty good at making excuses for yourself. But that's a problem. You need to fix it."

Pei Song'an changed tack. "When unfamiliar skin presses together, what gets exchanged isn't just scent, but the sweat each person secretes. If this kind of intimacy goes unfulfilled in childhood and the need is suppressed, it will erupt at some point in adulthood."

Li Shu said, "Your parents didn't hug you when you were little? That's rough, man. Not me."

Pei Song'an's throat bobbed. He looked into the other's eyes to confirm it, then smiled. "Your parents love you very much."

Li Shu looked smug. "Of course."

As soon as he said it, Li Shu felt as though he'd let something slip. But Pei Song'an didn't seem to have noticed, and Zheng Linchuan had long since left after giving his report, so he didn't try to cover for it.

"So I can't go around asking everyone I meet to hold hands or hug me. This is my weakness, or you could call it a deficiency from childhood. But you're different. The existence of something in you seems to be there to protect me."

"I'm safe with you."

"Li Shu, you're different from everyone else."

Pei Song'an leaned closer, his well-defined fingers moving lightly and slowly from Li Shu's thigh to his hipbone. He was clever, wrapping his obsessive, extreme desire for control in a genuine, reasonable explanation.

He told no lies, yet also satisfied the urge to investigate sparked by his curiosity.

"You're putting me on a pedestal, but strangely enough, I don't find it that hard to accept right now." Li Shu scratched his head. He saw it clearly and spoke honestly. "But kissing my waist is out. It's too intimate. I really can't accept it."

"Just thinking about lifting my clothes for a man to kiss me gives me goosebumps all over."

Pei Song'an's tone was calm, but taut displeasure and warning were audible beneath it.

"Would Chen Yannan be allowed?"

Li Shu glanced at the bulging veins where Pei Song'an's wrist met his forearm. Sensing the safe distance between them being breached, his heart tightened.

"Why do you keep bringing him up? Do you like him?"

Pei Song'an laughed aloud, as though he'd been driven mad with anger.

He clamped down hard on Li Shu's hipbone and pressed his other hand against his shoulder, pinning him to the couch. The tip of his nose brushed over Li Shu's carotid artery. Only after smelling the familiar, pleasant soap scent on the young man did his expression soften.

"Wait, wait, wait! I'm not mentally prepared!"

Li Shu kicked his legs in fright, but Pei Song'an pinned them with his body, his burning-hot lips pressing against his carotid artery and kissing along it inch by inch.

"Aaah, Pei Song'an! Kiss me if you're going to, but do you have to make noises? Have you no shame?" The tickling at his neck made Li Shu want to push him away, but Pei Song'an quickly caught his wrists and pinned them beside his legs. Then a faint pain came from his collarbone.

Li Shu endured it with his head tilted back, forced to let someone else control his every movement. Lips brushed his ear, and whenever he was caught struggling, he received a bite.

"Does it feel good?"

Those words instantly brought Li Shu back to his senses. Astonished by Pei Song'an's shamelessness, he sucked in a cold breath. "Is this really the time to ask that!!??"

Pei Song'an closed his eyes, letting his scorching breath spill over the skin so close at hand, his tone unhurried and composed.

"Give me a straight answer, and I'll let you go."

Li Shu raised his voice to cover himself. "I'm not telling you!"

Pei Song'an wasn't as accommodating as usual. His precise enunciation sounded bluntly obscene. "Don't feel ashamed. It's only the two of us here. You can say it."

The sense of danger from teeth about to pierce his skin left Li Shu dazed. For a moment, his resistance wavered, letting him abandon his shame.

"It feels... a little good."

"Good boy, so honest." The man's voice was low and hoarse.

The moment he was released, Li Shu scrambled backward in disarray, covering his neck with his hand as his voice shook. "Pei Song'an, did I give you permission to kiss my neck? Isn't kissing my neck intimate too? Isn't skin contact just holding hands and hugging? You're kissing my neck now, so is your next step to # me!?"

His Majesty was most displeased!!!

Feeling emo-

Pei Song'an said, "Why are you unhappy?"

The man's impossible-to-ignore kisses seemed to linger on Li Shu's neck, so intense they left his head swimming. "Didn't you say you'd only touch me?"

"My lips touched your neck. I didn't use my tongue. Theoretically, that's perfectly sound."

"..."

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Forget it." Li Shu's brain was in knots. With no other recourse, he kicked Pei Song'an. "I can't win an argument with you anyway. What a big deal, having such a clever mouth."

Pei Song'an had things to attend to, leaving Li Shu alone in the room. Before long, his phone suddenly vibrated with a message from Cheng Zhen.

"Hey, hey, hey. You dead yet?"

Li Shu tapped the screen listlessly. "1"

Cheng Zhen replied very quickly. "Not dead, huh? Good. You're dead now."

Li Shu: "???"

Cheng Zhen: "When exactly did you and Pei Song'an start hooking up behind my back?"

Cheng Zhen: "When that gun went off and you ran out like a rabbit, did you notice little old me right beside you getting shoved flat on my face by you!???"

Cheng Zhen: "Please, life, be kind to this old man in his twenties. I got a mouthful of grass!"

Li Shu said nothing.

Cheng Zhen: "Playing dead??? Say something!"

Li Shu really had nothing left. After taking two breaths, he decided to give up trying. "Zhen, leaving someone on read is perfectly normal. We're only friends, after all."