After My Rebirth, My Husband Pampers Me Everyday!

Chapter 170: FEELS NICE, WHEN YOU DO THAT

Guiying looked at him for a moment, at the open arms and the loosened tie and the exhaustion sitting underneath the smile, and found no reason to refuse.

He moved closer and let himself fall gently into Liuxian’s embrace, and Liuxian’s arms came around him and held him with the particular steadiness of someone who had been waiting for exactly this since before dawn.

The warmth of his pheromones settled over Guiying immediately, clean and deep, the same scent from the shirt he had picked up off the chair that morning, and something in his chest that had been slightly unsettled since he woke up to an empty bed released without his permission.

"Your pheromones truly are something," Liuxian said quietly, against his shoulder. "My mind goes quiet the moment I’m near you."

Liuxian’s hand moved once across his back.

"And that story," Liuxian said, lifting his head, his arms still around him.

"As much as I love it, if I were to interpret it, I would say I am the darkness, not you." He was quiet for a moment. "I fear that if I showed you my dark side you would hate me. I cannot hurt you, but if someone were to hurt you I would show no mercy. Hell would let loose."

His chin came to rest against Guiying’s hair. "So much has happened in your life, and yet despite everything tightening around you, you remained yourself. Gentle. Caring. If it were me, those who caused me harm would be dead already."

His voice dropped. "So do not ever think of yourself as darkness. Do not ever think you were unwelcome. Even if you were the devil himself, I would get on my knees and welcome you with open arms. You are my life. My light. You came and you changed the way I see everything, never backing down, never bending when you believed you were right."

He exhaled slowly. "You were never dark. It was the people around you who put that darkness there."

Guiying stayed very still in his arms.

"Every day I discover something new about you," Liuxian continued quietly. "What you are capable of when given the space to grow. Today a painting. Tomorrow, something else entirely." The hand on his back stilled. "I cannot wait to see it all."

Guiying laughed, soft and a little undone, and pressed his face briefly into Liuxian’s shoulder.

"Your mouth is filled with sugar," he said.

"Then kiss me." Liuxian pulled back just enough to look at him, tipping Guiying back against the sofa cushions, his eyes dropping to his mouth. "You didn’t give me my morning kisses. I’ve been starving all day."

Guiying looked up at him and the expression on Liuxian’s face made his ears go warm immediately.

"We can’t do that here," he said, leaning back. "Have you no decency? We’re in the living room."

Liuxian laughed, low and unhurried, his eyes not moving from Guiying’s face. "Very well." He reached for him. "I can’t let anyone see that expression on you anyway. It’s mine."

Before Guiying could respond Liuxian had pulled him up off the sofa and Guiying’s legs wrapped around his waist on instinct, his hands going to Liuxian’s shoulders to steady himself, and Liuxian’s arms came around him and held him there with the comfortable ease of someone who had decided this was exactly where things belonged and saw no reason to revisit the decision.

Liuxian wouldn’t say it out loud but he liked this position enormously. The way Guiying’s weight settled against him, the way he fitted so perfectly into the space his arms made, the way he could see every line of him from here, the curve of his jaw, the column of his throat, the way the living room light caught his blonde hair.

His eyes dropped.

He laughed.

"Your nipples are hard."

The colour that flooded Guiying’s face went from his cheeks to the tips of his ears in approximately one second.

Of course they were. His husband was standing here looking like that and saying things like that and it was frankly impossible to be expected to regulate a normal physical response under these conditions, and the worst part was that he had absolutely no desire to regulate it, and if he wasn’t in the middle of rebuilding his entire life from the ground up he would happily —

He pushed the thought down firmly.

"Stop teasing me," Guiying said, his voice coming out considerably less composed than he intended. "My nipples getting hard is entirely your fault."

"Mm." Liuxian tilted his head, his eyes still there, his expression carrying that particular quality of someone turning a thought over with great care. "If I suck them hard enough, do you think milk will come out?"

Guiying’s mouth dropped open.

"You are disgusting," he said, his face completely on fire. "You are a disgusting man and I cannot believe I married you."

"You married me very willingly," Liuxian said pleasantly.

"A mistake I think about daily."

Liuxian laughed, low and warm, and before Guiying could say anything else his hands moved to the top button of his shirt, popping it open with a soft sound. He took his time, savouring each one — second button, third, fourth — his eyes following the path his hands were making, and Guiying felt the words dissolve somewhere between his chest and his mouth and disappear entirely.

"You’re so warm," Liuxian murmured, almost to himself, as he worked the last few buttons free. The shirt fell open, hanging off Guiying’s shoulders, and Liuxian’s fingertips brushed lightly over the exposed collarbones, then down the centre of his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart beneath them.

Guiying’s hands slid up from Liuxian’s hips to his lower back, pulling him closer almost without deciding to. "Feels nice," he admitted quietly. "When you do that."

Liuxian cupped his face with both hands, thumbs stroking gently over his heated cheeks. He tilted his head up until their eyes met properly in the soft lamplight. Guiying’s gaze was open, the careful composure he carried everywhere completely gone, and it did something to Liuxian’s chest that had no clean name.

"Look at me," Liuxian said quietly. "Only me. Right here."

He leaned in slowly and their lips met in a soft grounding kiss, slow and deep, no rush at all. He kissed him the way he had wanted to since before dawn, lips moving gently, coaxing rather than demanding. Guiying made a small sound into it, his hands clutching at Liuxian’s back as though afraid something might interrupt them again.

But gradually, kiss by kiss, Guiying started to melt.

Liuxian tilted his head, deepening the kiss, letting their tongues slide together in lazy unhurried strokes. He could feel the tension draining from Guiying’s shoulders, the way his grip loosened just a fraction before tightening again in a different way, less guarded, more wanting.