A Vengeful Ex-Wife

Chapter 191 A Guarantor

"This is not someone else's house, we are in Grandpa and Grandma's house. And I bought it for them." Technically, it was also James' house.

His hot breath drifted gently over Maria's ears, tickling her skin. Still, she stuck to her guns. "But they are light sleepers, and you always get carried away and lose control. We're bound to wake them up with all the racket."

"The windows are tightly closed, and they're composed of three layers of hollow glass. This room is practically sound-proof."

Maria shut her mouth then; she didn't have much else to her argument.

Fortunately for her, James really did restrain himself, at least to some extent. Their night activity was shorter than it usually was.

Sometime in the middle of the night, he walked to the bathroom and took a shower. When he returned, he grabbed his phone and settled on a small couch on the other side of the room.

Maria sat up in bed with a flat expression. "Since you dislike me so much, why don't you just give up having sex with me altogether?"

James looked back at her in silence. The thing was that he wasn't used to sleeping with another person in the same bed.

But he read the disappointment in her eyes, and he put his phone away and climbed onto bed.

He had barely settled under the covers when Maria promptly turned her back to him.

James reached out to turn the bedside lamp off and snuggled against her. His hand began to roam over her body in the darkness, only to be shaken off by her with more force than necessary.

That took him aback, and he sighed. Were women always this fickle? He had already lain beside her, why was she still mad?

His hands ventured out for the second time, and she shook them off again.

When he was brushed away the third time, James finally lost his patience. He turned Maria over and lay on top of her, pressing her into the mattress with his body. "What are you making a fuss for?" he asked in a deep voice.

"I'm not making any fuss, I just want to sleep. If you keep touching me, I can't sleep."

Her reasoning was pretty logical, but the bite in her words didn't escape James.

He rolled her over so she was cocooned in his arms again. "Now sleep, I won't move," he said, trying to be patient.

'Yeah, right!' Maria retorted in her mind and rolled her eyes in the dark.

She squirmed in his embrace, and James finally snapped. Without a word, he pinned her under his body once again, with more aggression this time.

His intentions hit Maria then, and she scrambled to stop him. She might let him have his way back in Fairview Villa, but only because there was nobody else in the house besides themselves. If he did whatever he wanted here, however, they would definitely make too much noise.

She knew James probably had no shame about the act, but Maria still wanted to maintain some of her dignity.

She grabbed the waist band of her pajama bottoms at the same moment he started to pull them down her legs. "I'm sorry. Let's go to sleep, okay? You can hold " me.

Her apology appeased James and he lay back beside her with satisfaction.

He slid one arm under her head while the other curved around her waist.

Maria thought she could finally get some much-needed rest.

But she was wrong.

As seconds ticked by, the pure, womanly scent coming from her supple skin wafted over James, and he started to sniff and nip at her soft nape. A fire was burning in his body, demanding to be released.

Every time he tried to take it a notch further, though, Maria would be quick to stop him. "Don't move!"

He would pause for a beat then, before going back to rubbing and pressing her arms and thighs.

Who would have thought that the cold and domineering CEO, James Xi, would turn into a restless and clingy man at night?

Maria regretted. She realized that she was wrong. She would never ask him to stay overnight in the future.

Maria eventually fell asleep, not able to hold on any longer. She had no idea what time James slept though.

When she woke up the next day, she was alone in the room.

She fumbled for her phone and looked at the time. It was almost nine o'clock in the morning.

She knew the elders got up early, probably around four or five in the morning. And yet here she was, some five hours later and barely out of bed.

She spent a moment to curse James for not waking her up earlier, then she hurried to the bathroom to tidy herself up.

She went downstairs in her slippers, expecting the man to have left already. To her surprise, she was greeted by the sight of James chatting with his Augustine in the living room.

His usual cold demeanor was back in place, the total opposite of the needy man who never stopped moving against her last night.

Charlotte was sitting next to them, listening to their conversation with a smile.

When they heard her shuffle at the foot of the stairs, all three pairs of eyes turned to look at her in unison. Maria smiled awkwardly and stepped forward. "I'm sorry, I got up late."

Charlotte cocked her head and gave her a smile. "Don't worry about it, dear. James told us you were too tired from last night. Go ahead and have some breakfast."

Maria immediately glared at James. What the hell was he telling his grandparents?

Why did he phrase the excuse like that? More to the point, why didn't he come up with some other reason?

Her sharp glare just bounced out of him, however, and James ignored her as though nothing was wrong whatsoever.

She had no choice but to nod along in agreement. "All right, Grandpa, Grandma. Please enjoy your chat. I'll join you later."

Before she turned away, she caught Augustine glancing pointedly at her belly. It alarmed Maria, and she unconsciously put a hand over her abdomen and rushed to the dining area.

Was this family planning to actually dig a baby out of her body?

She shook her head vigorously. She wasn't even pregnant yet.

She relaxed only when Tami placed the dishes in front of her, and she directed her thoughts to enjoying her meal.

As the morning grew late, Tami returned James' and Maria's car keys and they stepped out of the villa together.

But Maria hung back when they got to the parking lot. She had learned her lesson. She sat inside her car and waited for James to drive away first.

Only when the Harkim left the yard did she start to slowly back her car.

Maria just drove out of the villa area when James' car was already more than a kilometer away.

When they reached downtown, the two of them went their separate ways.

James went straight to the company while Maria proceeded to the cafe across the street.

After brewing a few cups of coffee at the bar counter, Maria found a seat in a quiet corner and began to work.

Two days ago, she had secretly asked someone to arrange for Daniela to participate in a talent show.

The clueless girl had agreed immediately after the offer had been made. The news made Maria sneer at her screen.

Daniela had really become arrogant over the days. She herself was well aware of her severe lack of talent, both in singing and dancing, and yet she had barely hesitated from jumping to join such a

show.

How did the saying go again?

"Pride goes before the fall."

James had made an appointment for Maria to meet Mr. Wang from YM Group that evening, and he sat next to them, listening as they talked about business.

Mr. Wang was mature and straightforward, but he already had two failed marriages under his belt. Maria obviously couldn't talk to him about family matters.

And when it came to finances and investments, the presence of a big shot like James made discussion on that topic awkward for the other two.

So Maria decided to get right to the point after a brief exchange of pleasantries. "Mr. Wang, I know our company is not qualified. After all, it's nothing more than a start-up company at the moment. But my team and I are really working hard, Mr. Xi can give his guarantee on that. Please be assured, Mr. Wang."

James glanced at her sideways then, wondering just when he had ever agreed to be her guarantor in any way. All he had promised was to be a middleman.

Being a guarantor was a far cry from being a middleman, and both terms upheld entirely different duties.

Ignoring his warning look, Maria continued to coax the other man calmly. "Mr. Xi has promised to arrange a meeting between me and the official called Mr. Soren Li. When that time comes, I will have secured the protection of the government. There would be no other cause for you to worry then, Mr. Wang."

There was an open secret within the financial circle that corporate figures sought out a cooperation with the local government. Both entities benefited from each other, with companies garnering official backing while lining the government's pockets under the table.

And everyone knew who Soren Li was. As this new development in their conversation unfolded, James found himself raising an eyebrow while muttering under his breath, "Maria Song..."

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