Xue Ning's brain short-circuited. Never before did she think that she would have ended up in this situation! She was never the school belle with hordes of guys beating down her door. Oh, she had beatings alright, just of the more violent kind.
Xue Ning definitely knows she didn't look like a stunning actress starring in a romantic comedy, so why was Sun Jingwei, a man handsome enough to put all male leads to shame, still staring at her?
Sun Jingwei keeps looking like he wants to kiss - no, like he wants to devour her whole, but he doesn't make any further moments. The ball is in her court, but her heart is already beating like she ran a marathon, and in the midst of it all, her unwanted insecurities reared their ugly heads.
Xue Ning had zero actual kissing experience. If she kissed him, she wouldn't be able to compete with his many ex-girlfriends and he would just know.
He'd find her lacking and make fun of her and she would have to injure him permanently to deal with the embarrassment.
Eventually their light-hearted and supportive relationship becomes strained and awkward and then she'll have to move to another city just to avoid seeing his face plastered on every social media.
Either that, or they'd really like kissing but then nothing more could come out of it, because he's the son of a billionaire and she's just his bodyguard. They end up kissing, possibly going further, and then she ends up pregnant with his child and his father gives him a cheque for 100 million yuan to leave his son.
Her brain then helpfully brings up another point - wouldn't this be against workplace fraternisation rules, even if they weren't technically in the workplace? What was the protocol if one ended up sleeping with their boss?
Even if (and that was a very huge 'if') everything went swimmingly well in the beginning, Xue Ning knew deep down the differences between them would lead to an eventual breakup.
Sun Jingwei could go 'it's been fun, but I think we aren't that well-suited for each other, sorry' and Xue Ning would have to live with heartbreak while everyone blamed her for daring to trust someone like him with her heart.
There doesn't seem to be a future where they are both happy when together.
"I can hear you thinking, you know that right?" Jingwei says, brushing her cheek softly as he stares at her. His heated gaze has simmered into something more gentle, more amused. He moves away slightly from her, just to give her more breathing room.
"I can see your brain lagging like Internet Explorer on an old computer," he even adds the screeching sound of a dial-up Internet.
"You…" She narrows her eyes, all thoughts forgotten, and grabs at his shirt collar. The ice packs drop on the floor with a loud thump, but both of them ignore it. "Are you making fun of me?"
"What?" Jingwei asks, pretending to be offended. "How on earth did you come to that conclusion? Just because you're scared of kissing me doesn't mean you can say anything you want!"
"Who's scared of kissing you?" Xue Ning retorts. She still had her bad habit of never letting an argument go, no matter how nonsensical it was.
"You, obviously." Jingwei says smugly, with a touch of understanding. "I get it, I'm so handsome, you might feel very scared when kissing someone like me. You may also worry about my fangirls assassinating you after they find out."
"Who will feel scared and worried about kissing you?!" Xue Ning splutters loudly, shoving him away. Jingwei stumbles in surprise, nearly falling - but Xue Ning reaches out instinctively to steady him. "Careful! Don't fall!"
Jingwei could have righted himself almost immediately, but he didn't.
Instead he pretends to stumble further, purposely tugging at Xue Ning's hands so she ends up falling into his arms. They land on the floor with a loud thud. Jingwei's tailbone aches, but Xue Ning's warm body is straddling his, as she nestled into his arms, because she tried to stop him from falling.
Because she cares about him.
Jingwei can't stop the smile from spreading across his face. If his family saw it, they'd think he was drunk, or doped on drugs, but he isn't, he's merely so very happy.
Because Xue Ning cares about him.
Suddenly his world seems to burst into vibrant colour, nevermind that they were inside an ambulance that was predominantly decorated in shades of white.
"Aww, you do like me!" Jingwei beams at her from where they were still tangled together on the cold floor of the ambulance. He wraps his arms around her waist and squeezes, using this rare chance to bury his face in her neck.
Xue Ning mainly smelt of spilled soup, but underneath it all there was the smell of fabric softener and fresh towels. He took a deeper breath, breathing in her unique scent.
Xue Ning turns and smacks him gently. "Well, someone has to," she grumbles, voice muffled by his shirt.
She is determinedly not looking at his face, but being surrounded by Sun Jingwei's scent wasn't making things any easier. He smells like sandalwood, and she is strangely reminded of a refreshing summer breeze.
Luckily, with the way he is hugging her, he shouldn't be able to see her boiling red face. Even her ears feel hot. It was as though her face was the one that got doused by hot soup instead of the rest of her.
Is this what an allergic reaction felt like?
Unknown to her, Jingwei actually could see the blush travel from her face to her neck, and further down.
Oh, what would he give to find out how far that delightful blush of hers went. Hopefully, in the near future, when Jingwei has successfully convinced her to be his girlfriend he could finally find out and cause more of such full-body blushes to occur.
"I'm glad it's you that likes me though, not someone else." Jingwei says seriously, tilting Xue Ning's head so that she can look into his eyes. "I don't want anyone else to like me. I just need you to like me."
"You - you - why - how - " If Xue Ning's brain was lagging before, it straight up short-circuited now. She stares at him, eyes wide in confusion, denial, hope.
"Relax… relax… you don't have to reply yet," Jingwei says, rubbing her back gently. "I just had to tell you before I exploded with feelings."
"Exploded with feelings," Xue Ning repeats, like she cannot believe her ears. "Are you referring to lust?"
"What? That's not true! Don't doubt the purity of my affections! I have very pure feelings for you!" Jingwei protests.
"Don't bullshit me, I can feel that bulge in your pants, Sun Jingwei," Xue Ning says with narrowed eyes. "Purity of my affections? More like the perverseness of your erection!"
She even rolls her hips to prove her point, but that had the unintended effect of brushing their lower halves against each other.
Three things happen at once.
Firstly, Xue Ning lets out a surprised whimper at the new sensations. Sun Jingwei's sizable bulge was harder than she expected, and his warmth, even through layers of cloth, was something she could feel through the thin layer of her panties. She grabs at his shirt in surprise, fingers digging into the soft fabric.
Secondly, Jingwei had let out a loud moan that echoed in the silence of the ambulance, staring at her, his eyes dark with hungry lust. His hands automatically drifted to her hips, where his suit jacket had ridden up once again, wanting to hold her, wanting her to continue.
His eager hands touched the soft fabric of her underwear and traced her soft skin, marvelling at the heat from her. The friction of their lower bodies was exquisite torture, and he wanted more.
Thirdly, and perhaps the most unfortunate for the both of them, was the knock on the ambulance door. Before they could even understand what was happening, it opened to reveal a paramedic that hastily averted his eyes from this amorous couple.
A paramedic with bad timing was awkward enough, but that wasn't the biggest issue.
The issue was the new person beside the poor paramedic. It wasn't Xiao Hui, Officer Tang, or his young assistant Lin Rui. It wasn't even Zhou Yu, the woman that almost became his fiancee.
Standing there with an impassive look was Sun Jingwei's older brother, Sun Tianwei.
Jingwei would rather see almost anyone else! God, it was so awkward. Jingwei felt his boner deflate almost immediately.
There was nothing like seeing a family member to effectively kill whatever sensual mood that enveloped him and Xue Ning.The only thing that could have possibly made it a million times more awkward would be seeing his dear father beside him. Not that he was ashamed of Xue Ning, but there were things one simply did not need to know about their close family members.
If he had caught his father in a similar position, he would have bleached out his eyes than to witness it again! If he still remembered that sort of scene, Jingwei would willingly fling himself through the turbines of an airplane.
"Hi Ge," Jingwei says weakly, willing a hole to open up in the ambulance and just swallow him and Xue Ning together. "Fancy meeting you here."