BXBX NOVEL Chapter 147: Short-break temptation
Under her loving care, however, I couldn't care less about the pain… Especially when she really had the knack for the massage!
Despite coming in to work with hardly any sleep, under the tender kneading of her hands, Claire forced most of my tensed-up muscles to relax. And unless I was looking too deep into it, she used slightly extensive force… just to keep me awake, now that my body was gradually shutting down into a more relaxed state.
The room with the window overlooking the main factory floor was pretty bare, with just some cheap paint on the walls and wooden floors. There was hardly any furniture inside, with merely a coffee stand and a simple stool filling up the room's interior.
And yet, right now, this was all we needed to spend some quality time with each other.
"Heavens, you are tense all over," Claire complained, sounding more worried than dissatisfied. "I…" Claire cut her voice, as if suddenly uncomfortable with what she initially wanted to say.
"I'm sorry it turned out like this," she muttered, relaxing the pressure of her hands, only to slide her arms on my shoulders as she leaned down and hugged me from behind. "I know it's just bad luck rather than anyone's fault, but still, I'm really sorry."
I raised my hand and placed it down on the arms she locked on my chest as she rested her chin down on my left shoulder, pressing her cheek against mine while looking down with a deep, suppressed grief on her face.
"Don't be like that," I protested, holding one hand on her arms while using the other to lightly flick her nose. "I'm more than happy and personally invested in making all of this happen. You don't need to apologize for something I'm responsible for!"
I smiled at the girl.
And in all honesty?
Seeing her worry over details that… small? Seeing her all moody because of such a simple issue just…
'Ugh…'
I let go of Claire's arms to clutch down on my heart, all the while she made things even worse by noticing and then cutely looking down, just to track what I was doing and solve whatever was behind that adorably curious face of her!
'Just how can she be so damn adorable?!' I wailed in my heart, clutching down on it out of fear it would just jump out of my chest in its energetic dance.
With this insane, homey vibe of a graceful, newlywed housewife of hers, Claire's usual face was enough to get me all bothered. And now, I was privy to all sorts of looks she was giving me as her tender care mixed with just the casual, everyday small talk.
"And damn, let me tell you this," I let go of my heart only to reach a bit higher and place my hand down on Claire's forearms locking on my chest. I then turned my head a bit, just enough to have an easier time looking up at my girl's face. "I've never once had a single regret."
Claire's face froze up a little, and her eyes widened just enough to show movement. Then, her cheeks started to cover in blush… but one strangely of a much deeper color and one that reached all the way to the bottom of her huge, light-brown eyes.
From up close, the freckles of her long, slightly curvy heir only served to add another artistic layer of beauty to the picture, adding to the already existing mix of Claire's both adorable and maturely feminine face traits.
Then again, by sticking up so close to me, Claire was inevetably working against what she was trying to achieve. This mere massage, while serving to help my muscles relax, ultimately caused a part of me to start tensing up instead!
An instance Claire clearly noticed, given how she could pretty much feel it through our spirituality at this point, and that's assuming she didn't notice it the normal way in the first place.
"You know, there's actually one thing I wanted to bring up before we get the parts and thus get to work."
"Hmm?" I raised my eyes at this blatant attempt at changing the topic, curious what made her react in this way.
"Last night, when I woke up a bit earlier than you did, I just happened to open your channel and look through your playlists," Claire whispered while gently tucking her head in to reach closer with her lips to my ear.
"Hmm?" Taken aback and still slightly confused by the change of the topic, I couldn't really…
'Wait, my playlists…?' My eyes twitched as I thought through all the possible meanings of this word in the context of what Claire brought up.
And a moment later,
'Oh shit,' my eyes twitched again, right as a gentle gust of air blew into my air.
"Fuuu…" letting go of my chest and pulling back, Claire cupped her hands over my air before gently blowing into it.
"You see…" she then whispered into her hands and thus my ear, intentionally dragging her words just to make her voice slightly more intimate. "It caught my eye so I took a slightly better look and would you know what I found?"
The moment Claire relaxed her hands and took them away from my ear, she pushed them over to the other side of my head, holding it as she pressed then leaned over my ear, doing nothing but breathing from up close.
And then, with her lips brushing against the lobe of my ear,
"You've watched quite a lot of…" Once again, Claire intentionally dragged her voice a bit, "rather intense ASMR videos, didn't you?" She asked… only for our attention to move to a group of workers that had just stepped onto the factory's main floor, each of them carrying a huge, clearly heavy box.
"I did indeed…" I sighed, looking back at the times when I used those to abate my loneliness and general mental exhaustion. "But it looks like we will have to leave it for… AH!"