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Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Does This Count as Bullying You?

Lynn Winslow looked at the stool with an amused smile. Ian Sterling watched her nervously.

"What, am I going to run away or something?"

"That’s not what I meant." Ian Sterling explained, biting his lip. "When I can’t see you or hear your voice, I start to panic."

Seeing his somewhat pitiful expression, Lynn Winslow’s heart softened. She stepped forward to hug him again and said softly, "Carry me into the bathroom. I’ll sit on the vanity and wait for you."

Ian Sterling’s eyes lit up. He lifted her like a small child and set her down on the stool beside the vanity.

Lynn Winslow instructed him, "Go get my phone." Ian Sterling nodded, retrieved the phone from her bag, and quickly returned. "You can play on it here," he said in a low voice. "Just don’t go out."

"Aren’t you afraid I’ll secretly take photos and videos of you in the shower?" Lynn Winslow waggled her phone at him, joking, "I could probably sell them to the tabloids for a good price."

"Would you have the heart to?" Unannoyed, Ian Sterling squatted down and sucked on an exposed patch of her fair skin, leaving a red mark. Hearing her let out a long hum of pleasure, he asked in a hoarse voice, "I’m yours and yours alone. Would you really have the heart to let anyone else see me?"

"I couldn’t," Lynn Winslow said, shaking her head and urging him to go wash up.

Ian Sterling took a towel and spread it on the vanity, concerned she might lean on it while playing on her phone. "If you want to lean over, do it here," he instructed. "The countertop is too cold."

"I knoooow," she said, drawing out the word, her tone hinting that she found him a bit too naggy.

Ian Sterling had no choice but to get in the shower. Lynn Winslow glanced up at him a few times, finding the frosted section of the glass door a real nuisance—it blocked the exact part she wanted to see.

He just took a quick shower and washed his hair. By the time Lynn Winslow had reluctantly pulled her gaze away to focus on her phone, he was already walking slowly out of the bathroom with just a bath towel wrapped around his waist.

The bath towel was tied loosely around his hips, showcasing a classic inverted-triangle torso. Water droplets still clung to his lean, strong chest, his abs, and the V-lines of his hips.

Lynn Winslow blinked as she glanced sideways at him. When he stopped beside her, his abs and V-lines were perfectly level with her line of sight. She knew all his little tricks. With a soft scoff, she said, "Doing that on purpose, are we?"

Ian Sterling admitted it with a soft "mhm."

He bent down, and a drop of water from his hair fell onto Lynn Winslow’s face. She reached up to stroke his cheek.

"Let me dry your hair." She stood up, had Ian Sterling sit down, and picked up the nearby blow-dryer to dry his hair.

The WHOOSH of the blow-dryer filled Ian Sterling’s ears. Lynn Winslow suddenly whispered something, but he couldn’t hear it clearly. He looked at her quizzically in the mirror, but she just shook her head. Ian had no choice but to press his lips together and lower his gaze, feeling her fingers massaging the roots of his hair. His heart felt incredibly full and content.

Lynn Winslow sighed inwardly. ’What did I do to make him so insecure? Was it the sudden breakup three years ago? Or was I wrong to tease him so much?’

Once his hair was fluffy and dry, Lynn Winslow turned off the blow-dryer and set it aside. She leaned in from behind to hug him, nuzzling her cheek against his.

"I won’t tease you anymore," Lynn said.

Ian Sterling’s eyes suddenly lit up. His heart was hammering so fast—THUMP, THUMP, THUMP—that he felt his eardrums throbbing. His Adam’s apple bobbed a few times before he managed to say in a hoarse voice, "You said that. You have to swear."

Lynn Winslow laughed at his childish words. She turned to sit in his lap, wrapping one arm around his neck and pinching his cheek with her free hand. "Then does this count as teasing you? How about making you change my shoes? Or having you bring me tea and water? Treating you like a puppy? Does that count as teasing?"

"..." Ian Sterling lowered his gaze, genuinely conflicted for a moment. He then shook his head and said softly, "That doesn’t count."

"Good." Lynn’s lips curved as she gave him a hard kiss. "Because I can’t help it," she said calmly. "I can’t stop treating you like that."

Ian Sterling remained silent. He pressed a hand to the back of her head, pulled her toward him, and kissed her fiercely. His eyes were already turning red, teased to the brink by her words, and he started to bite her again.

Lynn made a soft sound and obediently hugged him, letting him place her on the towel-draped vanity.

As his lips moved to explore more vulnerable territory, a flush spread over Lynn’s entire body. She gripped the edge of the vanity so tightly that her fingertips turned white.

Her brows furrowed and her eyes grew hazy. "When we go home tomorrow," she said, her voice catching, "remember to buy me medicine."

Ian Sterling’s movements paused for a moment. He gave a muffled sound of assent and then resumed.

By the time they made it back to the bedroom, Lynn was draped over his chest, her ragged breathing slowly evening out. Her eyes were half-closed, gazing out beyond the bedroom’s glass curtain wall.

The rain was coming down harder, blurring the glass with thick sheets of water.

"That piano... was it for me?" she asked suddenly. Ian Sterling buried his face in the warmth of her neck and whispered, "Yes."

She had grown up by her grandfather’s side, and he had doted on her as the apple of his eye. For a time, Morelia was wracked by war, and terrified that some harm might befall her in such a violent, chaotic country, her grandfather had kept her confined within the vast Winslow Manor. Out of sheer boredom, she learned to play a wide variety of instruments.

The instrument she learned best was the piano. She met Ian Sterling for the first time after finally persuading her grandfather to let her go to Veridia as an exchange student. A teacher had pushed her to perform at the orientation gala, where she played "Flower Dance." He, thinking it would be boring, had been dragged to the event by a classmate. From that moment on, his gaze never left her.

Lynn Winslow sat up. Her hair fell forward, the thick locks covering most of her upper body.

"Shall I play the piano for you?" After speaking, she stood, pulled on a bathrobe, got out of bed, and walked to Ian Sterling’s side, extending her hand to him.

Ian Sterling took her slender, soft hand, letting her lead him out of the suite and over to the crystal piano.

Lynn Winslow played a few notes at random, then sat on the bench and said to Ian Sterling, "Over these past three years, the song I’ve listened to most is called ’With You.’ I first heard it on a street in Morelia. Some international students were singing it, and I thought it was so beautiful that I found it and started listening to it myself."

She looked at Ian Sterling, her gaze gentle. "I’ve never played it or sung it before, but I want to sing it for you."

Ian Sterling pressed his lips together, his eyelashes trembling as he watched Lynn Winslow’s fingers land on the keys.

"I want to see the most beautiful sights with you,

Watch the longest movies,

Listen to the most moving melodies,

All because of you."

Ian Sterling rested one hand on the piano and pressed the other to his chest. As a bitter sorrow surged through him, tears fell one by one onto the piano. He lowered his head to avoid Lynn Winslow’s gaze and choked out, "Liar... All you do is sweet-talk me. Why didn’t you come look for me these past three years? Why did you come back just to tease me? You’re a liar."

The patter of the rain couldn’t cover the sound of his suppressed sobs. Lynn Winslow watched him, her lips curved in a sad smile as tears spilled from her own eyes and slid down her cheeks, her gaze filled with an overwhelming ache for him.

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