Chapter 207 When I Miss You, I Reluctantly Blink
When Caroline saw Leopold in the video, all that had happened to her during the day was smoothed over by his smile and tenderness.
"Are you tired?" She asked.
Leopold must have just gotten back to the hotel. While talking, he unbuttoned his collar with one hand. The collar hung slightly open, revealing his delicate collarbones - that unique beauty made them the sexiest part of a man's upper body aside from his Adam's apple.
"Chatting with them isn't tiring. What's really tiring is those people who insist on dragging out one project forever." Leopold took a bottle of water from the fridge, twisted off the cap, and tilted his head back to gulp down more than half of it.
Hearing his swallowing sounds through the screen, Caroline's auditory nerves inexplicably felt like they'd been brushed by a feather. She shivered involuntarily.
That night, in the dressing room, she had heard the same swallowing sounds.
Leopold's face appeared on screen again. He stared at her suspiciously. "Why is your face red?"
Caroline blinked, flustered. "It's not. Where's it red?"
Leopold flopped onto the sofa and sighed.
Caroline asked, "What's wrong?"
Leopold looked dazed, his mind seemingly drifting a thousand miles away. Propping up his chin and rubbing his lips, he said seriously, "I'm thinking about how I'm supposed to sleep tonight without you."
Caroline smiled with pursed lips, glanced away, then looked back at him in the video. With a playful glance, she said, "How did you sleep before you had me? Let me hear it."
Leopold said shamelessly, "Show me a wolf that's eaten lamb and still wants to eat grass."
Caroline laughed. "What kind of wolf are you?"
Leopold's long, narrow eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at her with teasing amusement. "A wolf that only eats you. As for what exactly I eat, that can only be understood, not spoken."
Caroline got it immediately, which made her face even redder.
Not only did Leopold not let her off, but he took the opportunity to tease her more. "Honey, I think you'll have trouble sleeping tonight too."
"I'm not like you." Caroline's mouth stayed tough. "Without you, I get the whole big bed to myself. You don't know how comfortable it is."
"More comfortable than me holding you?" Leopold raised an eyebrow. Seeing her little mouth open, about to argue back, he said, "Still arguing? Arguing means you feel guilty, and feeling guilty means you miss me and can't sleep. Don't I know you? When you're right, you're too lazy to say anything. When you're wrong, you won't stop talking."
That was actually true.
Caroline accepted it with a half-smile. "You're right about everything, okay?"
"From your tone, you're not convinced?" Leopold was still too hot, so he just took off his shirt and draped it over a nearby chair. When he sat back down, the screen showed his handsome face and his bare upper body.
A handsome man was easy on the eyes, no matter what.
But maintaining one position was pressing on her injury from today, making it hurt. Caroline put down her phone and struggled to turn over, then gritted her teeth to control her expression. When she picked up the phone and pointed it at her face again, she looked relaxed.
"You look so relaxed, the talks must have gone well," Caroline said.
Leopold replied, "The timing today was incredibly tight. Right after we got off the plane, the TV station called and told us to come straight over. We met with the advertising director and the producer. The conversations went well. We've already tentatively agreed to work together. Once the agreement is drafted, we can move forward with signing."
"That really is smooth. But it's smooth because my husband is capable, smart, and clever." Caroline was about to reach out her hand unconsciously, then suddenly remembered her bandaged wrist and pulled it back.
She didn't plan to tell Leopold. He was out of town, busy with important matters. If she told him she was hurt, what could he do besides worry?
He could fully support her work, and she wanted to be a partner who didn't hold him back.
"Suddenly praising me, what are you up to?" Leopold propped his phone on the display stand on the coffee table. With his hands clasped behind his head, he leaned naturally against the backrest. He tilted his chin, his eyelashes lowered slightly, his expression full of mischief. "Tell me, do you miss me?"
Caroline just smiled.
"Don't just smile. Do you miss me or not?"
Caroline said shyly, "A little."
"Just a little?" Leopold raised an eyebrow, unsatisfied with her answer.
"Not just a little. A lot."
"How much?"
Caroline thought for a moment. Her watery eyes looked at him, and thinking of the injury and grievances from today, she suddenly wanted him to hold her while she cried. She said, "Seeing you, I don't want to blink anymore."
Leopold's expression froze for half a second, then he turned his head away. His smile grew deeper and he nodded. "Alright, Caroline."
He faced the camera again, his body suddenly leaning forward, elbows on his knees. His defined abs tightened every muscle line, making her heart skip a beat and stirring desire in Caroline. "You're saying this to me. You think because I'm far away and can't catch you, you can tease me all you want. Just wait till I get home, I'll teach you a lesson."
Who's afraid of a threat from a thousand miles away?
Caroline traced his abs on the screen with her pinky finger. "Two-dimensional really can't compare to three-dimensional."
"What?" Leopold was confused.
"Nothing." Caroline quickly changed the subject. "Where are you staying now?"
Leopold said, "Celestial Waters Hotel in Skyview City. I haven't been here in over half a year anyway, so I'm taking the opportunity to inspect it and see if there are any problems."
"A model worker who never forgets to put work first - keep it up, I believe in you!" Caroline's mouth curved playfully, her smile especially sweet.
Remembering that Caroline was checking for electricity theft today, Leopold asked, "By the way, I haven't asked you yet - did you catch anyone stealing electricity?"
Caroline said, "We did. Didn't expect to catch a major electricity thief on the first day."
Leopold asked, "What's the amount involved?"
Caroline's estimate was rough. "About four hundred thousand dollars a year."
Leopold said, "Stealing four hundred thousand dollars worth of electricity in a year? Impressive."
Caroline said, "It really is a lot. But I've seen more. The year I started working, someone reported that a building materials factory in the village was stealing electricity. Back then, the methods weren't as advanced as now. They stole electricity with just a wire. The person doing it must have been an old electrician with decades of experience. The wire was connected from the meter box and hidden very cleverly. If it hadn't been reported, even our professional electricians wouldn't have found it. Tell me, isn't that skilled? The wire they pulled out was even buried underground. Really, without the report, just relying on the electricians to find it, we would have had to search the entire building materials factory. I remember after that inspection, when we calculated the electricity fees, it came to almost seven hundred thousand dollars."
Leopold said with mock seriousness, "Indeed, business opportunities are everywhere in life."
Caroline scoffed. "Your thinking is scary. That'll land you in jail."
Someone knocked on Leopold's door. He turned to look, then said to Caroline, "Hold on, someone's at the door."
Caroline watched him grab his clothes and put them on. His skin was smooth, but his strong frame and firm muscles didn't make him look feminine. Instead, they added a special fresh quality that men have.
Watching him spread his broad arms to put on clothes in the video, with every movement, every muscle on his body flexed and worked. A well-maintained body is truly tempting, plus that face of his.
Caroline couldn't help but sigh, tonight really would be hard to sleep.
Leopold opened the door to see Lily standing outside. She handed him a document, saying, "The contract draft is ready. Take a look and see if anything needs changing."
Leopold took it. "Got it."
He closed the door and returned to the sofa, sat down and started reviewing the contract, forgetting about his video call with Caroline.
Until he looked up casually and saw that Caroline in the video had actually fallen asleep.
He put down the document, picked up his phone and stared at the screen, his eyes and brows tinged with a smile, the curve of his lips deepening.
Leopold suddenly understood Caroline's words. Indeed, when you miss someone, "you really can't bear to blink."