Being pampered by the CEO during pregnancy

2

Lu Chenzhou's breath still brushed against her ear, moist and hot. Shen Wei's heart pounded, her mind a jumble of chaotic fragments—in three years of marriage, he had never looked at her properly, they even slept in separate rooms, and now she was pregnant, and he was telling her, "Let's have another one?"

Had he gone mad?

"You…" Her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping her throat, "You don't care?"

Lu Chenzhou finally straightened up, looking down at her. His silhouette, backlit by the study's wall lamp, was edged with gold, his expression hidden in the shadows, but his eyes shone with a light she had never seen before—not anger, not cynicism, but an almost obsessive certainty.

"When I asked you a question," he began, slowly withdrawing his hand from the wall, his fingertips gliding across her shoulder, sending a shiver down her spine, "you had your eyes closed."

Shen Wei froze.

"What are you waiting for? To make me lose my temper?" Lu Chenzhou took a half step back, looking down at her condescendingly. "Shen Wei, you are my lawfully wedded wife. This child in your belly, regardless of whose it is, is a Lu family child."

Shen Wei's nails dug into her palms. She looked up at him, her lips trembling slightly: "Lu Chenzhou, be reasonable. The child isn't yours, you…you want me to have another one, but you won't even touch me. Who do you want me to have a child with?"

She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. Too direct, almost humiliating. But what was the point of hiding anything now?

Lu Chenzhou stared at her for three seconds. Then he smiled.

The smile was faint, just a slight curve at the corner of his mouth, yet it instantly eased the chill in the study. He reached out, his thumb brushing against her lower lip, the touch light, as if touching something fragile.

"Shen Wei, you have no idea how long I've endured this."

He turned and walked to his desk, picked up the cigarette case, took out a cigarette, but didn't light it, just toyed with it between his fingers. With his back to her, his voice was deep and slow: "Three years ago, when your grandfather forced you into my life, I did hate you. I hate being told what to do, especially being pressured with favors."

Shen Wei listened silently, her heart aching with each beat. She knew these words even without him saying them; three years of emotional abuse were enough.

"But after you married into this family," he suddenly turned, his gaze falling on her face with an almost scrutinizing seriousness, "you never argued with me, never made a single request. No matter how many rumors circulated about me outside, you didn't even call."

Shen Wei lowered her eyes: "Why would I call? You don't like me."

"Yes," Lu Chenzhou tossed his cigarette back onto the table and strode towards her, "I don't like you. But the way you've sat quietly in this house for three years makes me feel…" He stopped in front of her, raising his hand to brush her hair loose over her shoulder, "makes me feel like you were always meant to be here."

Shen Wei's heart skipped a beat.

"That night at the party," Lu Chenzhou's voice was low, almost squeezed out between clenched teeth, "you were terribly drunk, and I carried you back to your room. You threw up all over me, clinging to my neck and calling my name."

Shen Wei looked up at him sharply.

"Who do you think it is?" Lu Chenzhou's lips curled into a smile, the smirk finally reaching his eyes, tinged with a mischievous glint. "Xu Mo? Your senior? Shen Wei, my men were guarding your door; he didn't even step inside."

Shen Wei's mind went blank. Her face burned, her lips trembling several times before she could utter, "Then... why the next day..."

"Why were you even colder to me?" Lu Chenzhou interrupted her, reaching out to pinch her earlobe, the gesture unusually intimate. "Because when you woke up the next morning, you looked at me like I was a ghost. You were afraid of me. Shen Wei, why should I be afraid of you? I want you to want to stay here."

He released her earlobe after saying this, taking two steps back, resuming his aloof and aloof demeanor, only a faint blush tinged at the base of his ears.

"The child is mine. Stop guessing." He glanced at his watch. "I'll go with you to your prenatal checkup tomorrow. You'll sleep in the master bedroom from now on."

Shen Wei stood there, feeling like a puppet whose pause button had been pressed. It only took five minutes to go from hell to heaven; she was completely stunned. The child was his. He was the one that night. He had ignored her for three years, just because she avoided him the next morning?

"Lu Chenzhou," she called after him.

He stopped and turned his head.

"You…" Shen Wei bit her lip, her eyes reddening, "Since you know the child is yours, you just asked me 'whose child is it?' Were you deliberately trying to scare me?"

Lu Chenzhou turned to the side, leaning against the doorframe, his shirt collar slightly open, a lazy smile in his eyes and brows: "If I don't scare you a little, how will you reveal your true feelings?"

Shen Wei angrily grabbed a nearby cushion and threw it at him. He turned his head to avoid it, and the cushion hit the door, sliding softly to the floor. He bent down to pick it up, dusted it off, and then walked back to put it back in her arms.

"Quite a temper," he said, looking down at her, his nose almost touching hers. "Shen Wei, after three years, you've finally let your guard down with me."