Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 1694

Carrots were her favorite, but they were the very thing Steve despised the most. In the past, the mere smell of carrots was enough to make this man nauseous.

Steve felt a bit uncomfortable under her gaze. He picked up his spoon and stirred his own bowl of plain soup haphazardly, furrowing his brow to mask his true intentions. "Has the housekeeper been bribed by you? I told her to just make some soup, and she actually put carrots in it." He curled his lip in a display of awkward disgust. "It really kills the appetite. Whatever, I will just force it down."

Sylvia said nothing. She lowered her head, picked up her spoon, and silently took a sip. The soup was cooked to a perfectly creamy texture, carrying the fresh fragrance of millet and the sweetness of the carrots. The temperature was just right. With one swallow, the warmth slid down her esophagus into her stomach, instantly soothing the spasmodic cramps caused by the hangover. As she ate in silence, her confusion only grew. Steve had gone through so much trouble to bring her back here and had prepared a breakfast perfectly tailored to her tastes. What exactly was his goal?

On the other side of the dining table, Steve ate his soup absentmindedly, his gaze uncontrollably drifting over to Sylvia. Watching her lower her head to sip the soup, seeing her rosy lips parting and closing as she chewed, catching the glint of moisture clinging to them, Steve's mind suddenly flashed back to that out-of-control kiss from last night. Truth be told, even he found it unbelievable. That was actually the first time in his entire life he had ever kissed a woman. For the longest time, he had poured all his energy into battling his family and expanding his business empire. That intense, high-pressure lifestyle had essentially robbed him of the capacity to date. Over all these years, apart from a brief interest in Abriella, he had never felt anything for any woman. His mind and ambitions were entirely focused on his career, not romance. Even when he occasionally had physical needs, he took care of them himself. Finding women troublesome and overly dramatic, he never touched the socialites buzzing around outside. So, when the alcohol had gone to his head last night and he had kissed Sylvia in a moment of weakness, he had lost control like a young boy tasting forbidden fruit for the first time.

He still remembered how soft and sweet those two lips were, and how intoxicating the feeling of their mingling breaths had been. He barely slept a wink all night, his mind completely consumed by the memory of that alcohol-laced kiss. The wicked fire burning inside him refused to be extinguished, fueled by those uncontrollable, intimate fantasies. In the dead of night, he had taken three cold showers to resolve the issue. Even now, his wrist was still sore. He honestly never knew that kissing a woman he liked could be such a soul-stirring experience.

No wonder. He finally understood why James always looked for every opportunity to pull his wife into his arms and kiss her. In the past, seeing James grab his wife for a kiss made him think the couple was being too excessive with their public displays of affection, forcing their friends to endure their sweetness every day. Now, he suddenly understood James completely. Once you had a taste of something so good, who the hell could resist? Steve's eyes grew darker and darker. His Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably as a fire ignited in the depths of his gaze.

Sylvia had been quietly eating her soup, but she gradually noticed that Steve had gone completely silent. She looked up, only to find the man staring at her intently. His gaze was growing hotter and more burning by the second, surging with an undisguised aggressiveness as his eyes locked onto her lips with a physical weight. Sylvia felt a wave of dangerous energy rushing toward her, making her increasingly uncomfortable. She put down her spoon, put on a cold face, and asked defensively, "What are you thinking about?"

To her shock, Steve, whose brain had already short-circuited from a surge of hormones, stared at her moving red lips and blurted out without a second thought. "I want to kiss you."