His breath caught in his throat.
Ji-woo looked up, following his distant gaze. A tense silence stretched between them until Seo Tae-joon broke it, licking his lips nervously. Ji-woo simply held her breath, staring at him, waiting.
“Ji-woo,” he finally said. “Were you hurt?”
She didn’t answer. His question had steamrolled the suggestive mood she had so carefully built. He was changing the subject. He even took a step back, putting a careful distance between them.
“Does it hurt here?” he asked. His hand drifted toward her stomach but stopped just short of touching her, remembering how he’d kicked the backpack into her.
“I’m fine,” Ji-woo said, glaring at him with uncharacteristic heat. It had taken all her courage to make her request, and he had brushed it aside completely. She was embarrassed, but more than that, she felt defiant. In a quiet but firm voice, she said, “Don’t get a job.”
Seo Tae-joon scratched his head, completely thrown by her unpredictability. “You don’t want your husband to earn money?”
“You keep getting hurt to save me,” she said, ignoring his question.
A short, disbelieving laugh escaped him. “I think I should be the one telling you not to work,” he said. “I may not be some famous arborist, but I can earn enough to keep us from starving.” He misunderstood the simple fear behind her words, and antsy energy coursed through him. He closed his eyes and laced his hands behind his head. “Ji-woo, don’t make me into an incompetent man,” he murmured, his voice too soft for her to hear.
When he’d composed himself, he opened his eyes and met her gaze. “We need to look ahead,” he told her. “I need a job so we can build a life.”
Ji-woo’s expression faltered. She ducked her head and tugged weakly at his sleeve. “Even if I whine?”
“Whine?”
“What if I said you really, really don’t have to work? If I asked you to just stay home?”
Seo Tae-joon’s eyes narrowed.
“Will you still go, even if I beg you not to?” she pressed. “This is the third thing I’ve ever asked of you. Won’t you grant me this one?”
He stared down at her as her fingers toyed with his sleeve. It reminded him of how she’d been in the beginning, so frightened of him, but something was fundamentally different. The fear was still there, but this time, it wasn’t directed at him. She wasn’t trying to push him away; she was desperate to pull him closer.
In that moment, he knew he was lost. She had started a fire in him that he had no hope of putting out.
“Are you nagging me?” he asked, the words rumbling with a laugh he couldn’t suppress. “You want me to listen to my wife? Is that it?” He leaned in. “Why do you want me home all the time? So you can bang me whenever you want?”
Ji-woo started at the abrupt shift in his tone. “Sorry?”
Seo Tae-joon shrugged. “I could be out hunting wild animals, but you want me to stay home,” he said, his voice a low drawl. “If that’s what you really want, you’re going to have to perform.”
She looked up at him, then asked hesitantly, “How many times?”
“I don’t care about numbers,” he said. “I just want you. Every night.”
Ji-woo blinked. “Seo Tae-joon, there’s a reason people only work five days a week,” she tried to explain reasonably. “You can’t overwork yourself.”
“So you want to lock me up at home, but you won’t even grant me that?” he asked, arching a brow. “That hardly seems fair, Ji-woo.”
She looked away, her gaze darting toward the hospital room door as if searching for an escape.
Seo Tae-joon followed her glance, then walked over and slid the lock into place. The soft click echoed in the quiet room. “Now,” he said, his voice a low warning. “Tell me if you’re hurt.”
The words were the same he’d used to deflect her earlier, but now they carried a potent, different meaning. Her heart began to pound as Seo Tae-joon sat on the edge of the bed and tapped his thigh.
“Come here,” he commanded. He began to shrug out of his hospital gown, revealing a bandage stretched tight over his shoulder. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the hard planes of his abdomen. A blush crept up her neck as she took a hesitant step forward.
The moment she sat on his thigh, his arm snaked around her waist, pulling her roughly against him. She felt the hard ridge of his erection press against her side. “I’ve been like this since you asked me to hold you,” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear.
Ji-woo turned, meeting his dark, knowing eyes. A smirk played on his lips.
“I got turned on the second I saw you in that hospital gown,” he admitted. “It looks too much like your pajamas.” His voice dropped even lower. “I held back because I figured if we had sex in the hospital, you wouldn’t be able to make a proper sound.”
Ji-woo swallowed hard. “You don’t know anything.” With that, she cupped his face in her hands and crashed her lips against his. Seo Tae-joon stiffened in surprise, but as her scent filled his senses, he melted into the kiss.
She bit his lower lip, just as he so often did to her. He flinched at the unfamiliar sensation, a sharp breath hissing through his teeth. His grip on her waist tightened, pulling her impossibly closer. He parted his lips and her tongue swept inside, wild and demanding.
A low moan escaped him as he felt her hot breath against his skin. He kissed her back as if it were the only thing that mattered in the world.
Ji-woo’s back arched as he molded her body to his, a dizzying bliss washing over her.
Seo Tae-joon’s hands slid down to grip her thighs, lifting her and settling her more firmly against his cock. Each time they broke the kiss for air, a wet, sloppy sound filled the room. Eventually, he moved his lips from hers, trailing kisses to her earlobe and sucking gently. A shiver traced its way down her spine as his mouth descended to her neck, his teeth grazing her skin before he bit down.
A soft moan escaped her as a molten heat pooled between her legs. She felt his hand slip under her gown, his fingers brushing against the bare skin of her stomach. Then, suddenly, he froze.
“Where’s your bra?” he growled against her neck.
Ji-woo whined at the loss of contact and pulled back slightly to look at him. “I don’t have any spares…”
“And your underwear?”
She shook her head. She saw Seo Tae-joon inhale sharply before he was tearing the hospital gown from her shoulders. His hands cupped her breasts, and with a guttural groan, he latched onto her nipple. Ji-woo cried out, her head falling back in surrender.