Chapter 27 - Remarkable Restraint (2/2)

“Change clothes? Oh. Yes. Of course.”

Tang Qiu dried her eyes and pushed his wheelchair back to their bedroom. She searched for a fresh pair of clothes for him. When she turned around, she was startled to see that he had already unbuttoned his shirt, lending her a clear view of his bare chest. She stared, stunned, for two whole seconds,

before whirling back round.

Jiang Shaocheng set aside his damp pajamas. “Qiu?”

“Yes? Oh.” Tang Qiu hurriedly thrust the new set of clothes at him.

“Ican’t reach it.” Jiang Shaocheng stretched out his hand in a helpless bid to close the distance between them.

Tang Qiu stepped forward two paces, only to be caught off-guard when Jiang Shaocheng grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap. Her eyes widened in shock.

“Jiang Shaocheng, you…”

“call me ‘dear’.”

She was so close to him that she could feel the warmth radiating from his skin. He had been so frail before. How did he have the strength to pull her towards him? Briefly, she imagined that he could lift her clean off the ground, but that was just absurd.

“Let me up, dear. I must be very heavy.”

Jiang Shaocheng’s lips curved. He slid an arm around her slender waist. “I’m quite content to have you sit on me.”

“You need to put on some clothes,” Tang Qiu urged worriedly. “Or you might catch a cold.”

“Sure. Help me put them on, then.”

Tang Qiu stared at him. Just when she thought he couldn’t get more childish, he did; nothing at all like a thirty-year-old man. But he was ill, so she could only accommodate him, coddling him like she would a child.

Seated on his lap, she helped to dress him. He obediently stretched out his arms, and his masculine musk swept over her; a strong, heady scent. All the while, she could hear the pattern of his breathing, a steady rhythm beside her ear.

She felt herself begin to itch. The sensation enveloped her, like a net, spreading from her ears, to her neck, making her heart race.

“Qiu, your ears are red. And your face is flushed,” he said in a low voice, his lips close enough to brush her ear. “Are you unwell?”

What’s wrong with me? Her head was swimming, and something was stirring in her veins-a strange, foreign excitement she couldn’t quite place.

Maybe I really am ill after all.

“No. I’m fine…”

Jiang Shaocheng thought that he had done a remarkable job restraining himself, until he heard her soft, sweet voice. It was like a tantalizing fruit, dangling before him, but also somehow a plea for comfort.

In that moment, though, with his bare skin pressed against hers, he felt only lust..