Food and sex are human nature

"No," she said softly.

Zuo Tingyue glanced at her, a faint smile surfacing in his eyes.

Xun Yuan rose onto her toes, leaned close to his ear, and whispered a few words.

The amusement in Zuo Tingyue's eyes shattered abruptly, and he swore under his breath.

His hand pressed against her lower back, and he moved to kiss her.

Xun Yuan refused to cooperate. Bracing her hands against his chest, she seized the moment when he exerted himself to give him a vicious tug, throwing him off balance and pulling him into the pool with her.

The water rocked and swayed, spray flying, the ripples taking a long time to settle.

When they emerged from the water, Zuo Tingyue had a hand shielding Xun Yuan's head, an instinctive reaction when the unexpected happened.

If one insisted on asking whether his feelings were genuine, that was hard to explain. He simply did not want her hurt. She was his woman; he had to protect her.

Above the water, their eyes met. Zuo Tingyue's gaze was cold and heavy as he looked at Xun Yuan, his inky-black hair wet and disheveled. His soaked white shirt clung damply to his body, outlining powerful, imposing muscles, displaying the fierce side of his masculinity to the fullest.

The amusement in Xun Yuan's eyes grew more pronounced. She had done it on purpose. Seeing him drenched from head to toe, his masculinity on full display, was enough to make her whistle.

She restrained herself, keeping her lust for his body from showing.

Xun Yuan thought, Food and sex are human nature.

The ancients truly did not deceive me.

Men and women in this mortal world were all the same. Who did not love beautiful things? They were all ordinary mortals. She simply disliked other women appearing at his side. She could understand and accept it, but her dislike was real, too.

"Playing rough?"

Zuo Tingyue's magnetic, husky voice descended over her, his displeasure unmistakable.

Xun Yuan rested her hands around his neck, overlapping them and tapping lightly against his nape as she smiled sweetly. "Helping wash you clean."

Zuo Tingyue's eyes darkened, and a "Fuck" escaped his lips.

After giving her several long looks, Zuo Tingyue gripped the back of her neck and pressed her toward him. He took her earlobe into his mouth and bit it.

Xun Yuan's eyelashes trembled gently, her toes curling uncontrollably beneath the water. Her robe's loose belt slipped free, the fabric gradually peeling away from her body until it barely covered half her snowy-white back.

To an outsider, they would have looked like lovers nestled cheek to cheek, entwined in lingering passion. Caught in the midst of it, Xun Yuan only found it unbearable. A boundless itching sensation surged over her like the tide, wave after wave without end, the torment of being left unsatisfied enough to drive a person mad.

Sweat beaded densely over them, wetting even her eyelashes. The wisps of hair at her temples were damp and sticky, impossible to tell whether with sweat or water, and the air was so thick it seemed to stretch into threads.

Yet neither of them would admit defeat.

Fortunately, no one stumbled upon this romantic encounter.

Xun Yuan dug her nails into her palm and rebuked him. "That's enough."

She wanted to sound fierce, but her voice came out soft and her breathing unsteady. That softness lent even a proper scolding a measure of tenderness.

"How could it be enough?"

Zuo Tingyue's voice was hoarse, a deep, booming bass. Just from his voice, he sounded no less tightly wound.

It still was not enough.

In the end, nothing happened.

Xun Yuan sat on the bed, watching Zuo Tingyue change with his back to her. His waterlogged shirt clung to him, so he simply tore it off. Veins bulged as his arms strained, and buttons scattered across the floor.

His shoulder blades rose and shifted with his movements. Most dazzling of all were the red marks on his back, and Xun Yuan hurriedly looked away.

But those marks lingered in her mind. Fine and narrow, they were unmistakably a woman's handiwork. Yes, she had scratched them into him just now, despite the thin layer of fabric between them.

Those faintly visible red marks were proof of the intensity and restraint between them, more obscure than if something had actually happened, secret and forbidden, impossible to stop once begun.

Sanya's azure sea stretched boundlessly beneath brilliant sunshine.

"Xunxun, why are you so distracted?"

Xun Yuan gazed at the endless sea before her and answered lazily, "Am I?"

"Did you hear anything I just said?"

"What did you say?"

Yun Tang rolled her eyes elegantly and could only repeat herself. "Will the two of us running off overnight make those guys explode with anger?"

Xun Yuan smiled, without the slightest burden on her conscience. "We've already run off. Even if they're angry, they'll have to wait until we get back."

Yun Tang gave her a thumbs-up and took her swim ring into the sea to play.

Xun Yuan sat beneath the beach umbrella, quietly drinking chilled coconut juice. These leisurely days really were lovely.

She had no intention of going into the water, so she had not even changed clothes. She wore a long red halter dress, exposing her fair, tender shoulders and arms, its skirt billowing in the strong sea breeze.

"Miss, may I buy you a drink?"

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice spoke in oddly accented Chinese.

Sipping her coconut juice, Xun Yuan turned toward him a beat late and pointed at her cup.

"I have a drink."

Her lips left the straw as she answered casually.

"I mean champagne, miss."

The newcomer continued speaking in foreign-accented Chinese.

"I don't drink champagne."

Xun Yuan spoke bluntly, shaking the coconut juice in her hand, the ice clinking inside the cup.

"Coconut juice is fine, too. Miss, you're very charming."

Xun Yuan had assumed he would leave after what she said, but he was surprisingly persistent. Or was it a cultural difference, and he could not understand a tactful rejection in Chinese? She raised her eyes to look at him.

He was a blond, blue-eyed foreigner with unnaturally pale skin, reddened slightly by Sanya's strong sun. His body hair was thick, his bare upper body so hairy that she looked away within a second.

"Thank you. I don't find you attractive."

Xun Yuan spoke plainly again. Too languid to want to move, she settled back into her chair after saying it.

The blond, blue-eyed foreigner clearly refused to give up. After freezing for several seconds, he asked, "Are you here alone, miss?"

Xun Yuan was getting annoyed. She was here for a vacation, not to listen to someone drone on.

She pointed casually and said, "No."

The foreign man looked over, shock surfacing in his eyes as his gaze traveled back and forth between Xun Yuan and another man.

Finally, as though he had made up his mind, he walked toward the man.

"Miss, I won't give up easily."

Huh?

Xun Yuan nearly spat out the coconut juice she had just drunk. She turned her head, never having encountered anyone so persistent.

What shocked Xun Yuan even more came next. She looked over as the foreign man approached another man. Of all people, it was Zuo Tingyue. He had appeared on the beach in a black suit, both out of place and towering above the crowd.

For no other reason than that the person accompanying him was the head of the area's tourism development project.

The foreign man noticed none of this and walked straight up to Zuo Tingyue. From the looks of it, he said a few words. Zuo Tingyue cast a glance in her direction, and Xun Yuan withdrew her gaze.

She took a sip of coconut juice, icy cold, to steady her nerves. This had nothing to do with her.

A string of events unfolded, so that by the time Zuo Tingyue appeared before her, Xun Yuan was no longer surprised.

At first, Xun Yuan did not even want to acknowledge him. She held grudges. The incident in the pool was etched deeply in her memory; no one had ever left her in such a sorry state.

Who didn't have a temper?