The Rise of the White Lotus

"Ah?" Hearing her remarks and what she was thinking at the moment, his cheeks were slightly blushed as an uncontrollable grin plastered on his lips. "Really? 24/7? Like even when we're together you still think of me?" He asked for a clear validation.

Chuckling, Lexi mildly shook her head sideways as she softly responded. "Mhmm… I do."

"Then," Ethan Lu's hand crept on her side legs and was going to put a sneaky touch that oozes with unending yearning. "How about we…" alas, even before he could finish his perverted sentence, Lexi held onto his sneaky wrist that was already inside her dress and caressing her leg underneath.

"Behave." Lexi marginally widened her eyes as she mildly thrust her chin towards the front passenger seat. She wasn't surprised that the partition was already up because the two single dogs in the front already know what's good for their fragile little heart. Even so, Lexi didn't want to experiment with him in the car knowing her condition.

Unaware of the real reason why she was refusing, Ethan Lu leaned forward, closer to her ear and whispered. "They won't hear. I bought them a good set of earplugs." With that said note, Ethan Lu raised his brows up and down casting her a knowing look.

"Jeez…" Chuckling seeing his inviting look, Lexi guessed that Lyrick Jiang and Jarred Guo must have petitioned for some sort of upgrade inside the car so they could not hear any cheesy lines whenever the two of them were inside the car. After all, Lyrick Jiang was the one who requested the partition to save his virgin eyes from their lovey-dovey moments.

"No." Still, Lexi mercilessly refused with a touch of gentleness. Of course, Ethan Lu frowned. Although they had shared multiple steamy nights together with different positions in different areas of his villa, their favorite exercise was drastically reduced due to their busy schedules. Therefore, one would know his thirst for her.

Seeing his dejected front, Lexi let out a faint sigh as her heart melted knowing he has his needs that were being deprived from him in the past week. "I want to tell you something at home, okay?" Lexi cupped both his cheeks and her gaze traced his dashing yet pouting front.

"Alright…" Meekly nodding in agreement, Ethan Lu let out a heavy exhale before he pulled her into his embrace and gently stroked her head. "Are you tired?" Diverting his focus and his momentary heartbreak away, he deeply asked.

"Mhmm… I closed a good deal with Miss Ning." Sniffing his refreshing scent even though he was surrounded by other people earlier, his smell still lingered on him and overwhelmed the scent from the Lu family. It was that this was already his natural scent that even the redolent fragrance around the scheming core members of the Lu family could not par.

"I've figured. How much of a percent did she get from you? 20?" Fixing their position, he leaned his back against the back seat while Lexi's head rested on his shoulder. His other hand played with her slender, fair hands as he rested the side of his head on her head.

Lexi chuckled upon hearing his assumption as if he knew what type of greedy businesswoman Aubrey Ning was. Mildly shaking her head, she responded. "No, 12 percent." 

When Ethan Lu heard the percentage of how much Lexi was able to lower the deal to and make it work well on her part, his eyes naturally widened as he shifted his gaze to her head. Although he was confident that Lexi would make a good deal especially with that greedy Aubrey Ning, he didn't expect her to be able to lower the share Aubrey Ning could take. 

In his belief, Aubrey Ning would settle for at least 20 percent of Lexi's equity given her situation and her needs. Moreover, Aubrey Ning would lend her helping hand for Lexi's product to enter the market. Therefore, what kind of sorcery had Lexi done to out smart Aubrey Ning?

"Twelve? Like one, two, twelve?" 

"Mhmm… I don't acknowledge all the credit as I had an indirect helping hand from Mr. Shao." Vaguely explaining what happened, Lexi didn't go into the details as she knew he would figure it out within minutes just hearing Benjamin Shao's name and his attendance to their last showcase.

"Benjamin Shao…? I see… interesting." As expected, Ethan Lu only knitted his brows when he heard Benjamin Shao, Aubrey Ning's toughest competitor in the market. To a businessman that was quite close to Aubrey Ning, and having an interest in the growing market of the skincare industry because of Lexi, Ethan Lu heard one or two things about those two. Hence, he found the occurrence in Lexi's showcase that he missed witnessing interesting.

"Is it? Mr. Shao always counters Miss Ning's offer so it got lower and lower. I owe him a lot." 

"Hehe, that's how those two flirt." Letting out a chuckle, Ethan Lu rested his head against her again. "Let's flirt like that sometimes." Perceiving a scene in his head just like how he imagined how Benjamin Shao teased Aubrey Ning, he wanted to fight Lexi as well sometimes in a business setting.

"Flirt? I didn't know—" Surprised by how he worded his sentence, Lexi blinked her eyes numerous times as she raised her head and looked up to him. But, before she could finish her remarks, Ethan Lu interrupted.

"Uh, no my love. They are not a couple but based on the 'intelligence gathering' from Rick, those two have a past relationship and from what I heard— from Rick's keen assumption of course— the reason why Aubrey pursued the same industry as Mr. Shao was out of revenge for leaving her." Nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders as Ethan Lu explained the gossip he had heard from Lyrick Jiang in his free time, he shared it with Lexi so she could get to know her business partner as well.

It was not that Ethan Lu was really interested in those two's love story or whatever bad romance they had. But, since Lexi was entering the same industry, he asked Lyrick Jiang to make his own research into everyone especially the biggest skincare lines so he could add to the research gathering from Lexi's studies. After all, due to his influence and power, he could gather more information than most, even personal stuff.

"I see… I didn't see that coming." Processing the gossip that was romanticized as 'information gathering', Lexi slowly nodded her head in understanding.

"Master, we've arrived." Just then, Lyrick Jiang knocked before he rolled down the partition halfway and announced. God knows how relieved he was not to witness a shocking scene in the back seat as he expected that both his master and goddess would be a little disheveled because of... you know what he was thinking.

"Alright," Nodding, Ethan Lu helped Lexi to properly sit before he went out and opened the other side of the door for her.