The Mafia's Rose Married The CEO

Feng Xuan had spent the rest of the day baking with Wang Yimin in her house. They talked about what happened the past few days and about the future plans of Gretel's. While the cupcakes were in the oven, Feng Xuan had started to write a paper as Wang Yimin had offered to wash the dishes.

Feng Xuan's head had been drifting off her paper and by the time Wang Yimin had finished, she had only been able to write a single paragraph. Oh, Qing Chen was right. She was clearly losing focus on her studies. But it was not because of her business. It was because of their relationship.

"What happened to you?" Wang Yimin laughed and took her laptop away. She read what her cousin had been able to write. After graduating with a business degree herself, Wang Yimin finished a whole page after just a couple of minutes. "What's going on?" she asked Feng Xuan again.

Her face was cradled in her hand as she twirled the cake stand in front of her. "Nothing much."

Wang Yimin looked at her worryingly. "Is this about Qing Chen?"

"Yes," she almost answered. But what came out of her mouth was "No."

She was honestly shy to talk to Wang Yimin about the problem that was bothering her. She had always came running to her dear cousin for every possible problem. Feng Xuan honestly just wanted to be a fully-realized person like her. 

"Is this because of what you said at the kitchen a few days ago? About you falling in love with Qing Chen?"

Feng Xuan smiled, recalling that moment when her heart didn't really leap off her c.h.e.s.t but just felt a sudden calm and warmth in it. "I think so," she answered. "But I'm not having doubts about that. I just don't want to get confused with my own feelings."

It was another problem that Feng Xuan was thinking about, not really this. But she knew Wang Yimin would not stop pressing her until she said something. "I just don't think I have the courage to admit it. He should go first."

Wang Yimin rolled her eyes. "Men," she sighed. "About going first, honey, sometimes they get too oblivious with what's happening in their surroundings that it may take a while before you can get that confession out of them."

"What did you do with Zhou Shan?"

Wang Yimin gave another roll of her eyes. "Zhou Shan was not really a romantic type. It was me who actually said it first. That I love him. And I could still remember the way he sighed in relief and said, 'I love you too'." Wang Yimin wiggled her eyebrows at her cousin. "He said he was so scared because it might make me uncomfortable if he were to say it that early in our relationship."

"How long did it take again?"

"A year."

Feng Xuan pursed her lips. Maybe she had tripped in love quite too fast. It only had been four months.

"Seriously, Xuan. You have nothing to be scared of. Your husband had been really great and sweet around you. He might not love you yet but he's definitely on the way there."

After the cupcakes were out of the oven and Wang Yimin said good bye as she had to be home by dinner to her husband, Feng Xuan was still thinking about the problem. She was making minor edits in the paper that her cousin had written her when Qing Chen got home.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she called. A moment later, her husband appeared and sat down next to her, pressing a kiss on her cheek.

"How was your day?" he asked, taking a bite off an apple. 

"It went great," she smiled. "How was yours?"

Qing Chen grinned at her. He really had that glow on his face going. "It's great, too."

"Did you buy something for your face?" she reached and touched the smooth surface of his skin. "It looks really healthy."

"That's because I have an amazing wife," he crunched some more. "I'll set the table."

After their queries about one another's day over dinner, they washed up and were in the bedroom. 

"Qing Chen," she called his attention once she was already under the covers. "I have something to talk to you about."

He twisted in his position and fixed their pillows. "Okay."

She reached for his hand and traced the blue veins under his skin. "It's actually something about our… physical boundaries."

"Okay. What about it?"

"The thing is," she bit her lip. "I think I want to break all the walls down."

Qing Chen's hand tightened on hers and she shut her eyes, waiting for a blow that did not come. "Come back when you have erased the words 'i think'."

Feng Xuan pouted. "Why won't you believe me when I say I want it?"

"Because you unconsciously don't want it yet." Qing Chen put an arm around her and tilted her face. "Are you feeling pressured over it? You know you don't have to."

Feng Xuan swallowed. "Another thing about it…"

"What?"

"Are we only going to do it when we're finally in love with each other?"

Qing Chen chuckled and pressed a kiss on her lips. "As I have told you before, you're the only who gets to decide on that."

"Why am I the only who gets to decide? You shou—"

"I want it," he said, kissing her cheek tenderly. "But I only want it if you want it. We'll get there in time, Feng Xuan. No need to rush."

Feng Xuan felt her heart swelled. Why was she thinking that she wanted it? It was because of this feeling, of this feeling of more than just d.e.s.i.r.e and want whenever his lips pressed to hers. Of wanting more, and more, and just more from him. The unmountable need to get close to him to the point that there would be no space between them.

It was this, the fire burning under her skin, her muscles aching to hold onto him, of her mouth that did not want to separate from his. But was this want enough to finally give everything of her? She did not want this feeling to be the one that would rule over her first time. She wanted love at the top of it.

But all her thoughts got cancelled out when Qing Chen started kissing her slow like they have all the time in the world.

But they might actually not.

Because at some part of the world, The Fox and The Badger had been called by The Zookeeper.