Joanne was staring Brian and letting her imagination run wild, when Brian suddenly opened his eyes. Amid the night-time ambience, that danger and coldness in his long, narrow eyes were far more intense than they usually seemed. Startled, Joanne took a deep breath.

Brian sneered. "If I'd intended to do something to you, do you think you'd still be standing over there?"

"Then... then where would I be?" Joanne asked blankly.

"The bed, of course." Brian's lips curved upwards, forming an evil grin.

Another sound went off in her head. Something had exploded in her skull, causing Joanne's mind to go completely blank. Not because of what Brian had said, but because... because he knew exactly what she was afraid of!

That was just pure evil...

"Pass me the throw pillows on the couch," Brian said all of a sudden.

"Oh."

Obediently, Joanne did as she was told. Brian placed the throw pillows in the middle of the bed. Her eyes sparkled. "Hey! That's a good idea."

"This way I won't have to sleep with my eyes open," Brian said.

What on earth did he mean by that?

In the end, Joanne dragged her feet towards the huge bed, which was now divided into two sections courtesy of the throw pillows, and lay down. She closed her eyes, but sleep did not come.

She and Brian were lying down in the same bed. This was something she had never dared to think about in the past.

Even though she was certain that he would not do anything to her, her heart was still....racing.

Worried that Brian would notice something amiss, Joanne shut her eyes tightly and tried to summon up sleep. In the end, her racing heart lost the battle against fatigue and she fell into deep sleep.

In the dark, Brian opened his eyes.

On the surface, he could maintain a calm and composed facade like before. But now that they were about to spend the night in the same bed, how was it even possible for him to fall asleep?

Angling his head slightly, Brian looked at the person sleeping peacefully beside him. Her long eyelashes had cast a shadow on her eyelids. At that moment, her delicate face seemed completely vulnerable and defenseless. She looked like an innocent child.

All of a sudden, she rolled in her sleep. Her smooth calf was now pressed against his legs. In an instant, his breaths became heavy and labored.

If she kept throwing herself at him like this, this might really turn into a sleepless night for Brian.

He was just about to push Joanne's leg away when suddenly, her entire body rolled towards him. Her slender arms reached for the bolster in the middle of the bed before casually pulling it to her bust.

This Little Monster was much bolder when she was asleep than when she was awake.

Brian grabbed the bolster and threw it to the ground. Joanne made a sound in her sleep, her tiny hands began groping his chest. In the next instant, she grabbed onto his entire arm before forcefully pulling it to herself.

At this point, she looked like a small pet nestling beside him, her lips containing nothing but satisfaction. With her eyes closed, she looked incredibly adorable.

It was as if Brian's heart was suddenly dipped in water. Inch by inch, Brian's heart soften. He moved closer towards her and Joanne responded by shifting her body to lean into his embrace.

So obedient.

He smiled in pleasure, lowered his head and kissed her in the center of her forehead.

Good night, little monster.

...

Brian had always been a creature of habit. At 7am sharp the following day, he stirred and opened his eyes. His eyes immediately sought out Joanne.

She was asleep, still using his arm as a pillow. Her breaths came out in shallow puffs as she slept soundly.

This would have been a beautiful portrayal had it not been for the way her nightgown had slid to her arms during her sleep. Images swamped his vision - the delicate lines of her neck, her beautiful collarbone and the area of exposed skin just below it.

There was an unnatural gleam in his eyes. He grabbed the covers and placed them over Joanne, who then frowned and kicked the covers away. He tried another time, but once again, she kicked the covers away in protest.

"Is she awake? Or was that unintentional?" he thought.

Brian stared at the Little Monster's face. Suddenly, he remembered the feel of her forehead against his lips. Slightly cool, but soft and delicate. The moment the kiss landed, it was as if something had penetrated his heart, filling it up entirely.

His eyes travelled downwards and landed on her lips. "Would her lips taste better?" he wondered.

Plus, that did not seem like a bad way to wake her up.

Their lips touched. Indeed, she felt as tender as he had imagined. He felt a sudden urge to bite her lips, but - since when did he start losing control of himself like that?

He pulled away abruptly. At the same time, Joanne opened her eyes groggily.

Why was Brian so close to her? Was this real or just another fantasy?

She reached out and touched Brian's face. Ah, it felt warm, and it seemed like he was frowning. He looked decidedly annoyed.

"JOANNE!"

Never in Brian's whole life had he been touched in the face like so. His voice came out in a dangerous growl.

Joanne sucked in a deep breath. She was awake in a instant. "B... Brian!"

"Your nightgown," Brian reminded teasingly.

Joanne glanced down at herself. She had a wardrobe malfunction!

"Pervert!"

Brian raised his brows. "Says the one who clung on to me for the whole night, refusing to let go."

Only then did Joanne realize that... she was hugging Brian's arm!

She hurriedly released Brian's arms and slid her hands back into the covers. On second thought, she might as well just hide her whole body under the covers considering how utterly mortified she was.

Brian watched as she withdrew her head into the covers like a tortoise retracting its head into its shell. He suddenly felt that it was not a bad way to start the day at all. A tiny smile formed on his lips. He got up and went to wash up.

Joanne stewed under the covers for a good half-day before she poked her head out. When she emerged, her entire face was red, almost as if someone had painted it with chili oil. Once she was certain that Brian would not be coming out for a little while, she grabbed her clothes and hurried towards the walk-in closet to get changed.

After she got changed, she opened the door of the walk-in closet and stepped out. Brian was just coming out of the bathroom.

But that was not the point. The point was -

He was only wrapped in a bath towel! Oh my!

Joanne was used to seeing this man dress up stylishly, so she knew that he must have a physique comparable to that of an international supermodel. But what she had not expected was that he looked even better than any international supermodel.

Drops of water slid down the lines of his standard six-pack abs, rendering this devilishly attractive man far sexier.

Usually, these so-called muscular, ripped hunks did not interest Joanne at all. In fact, she had found the blocks of protruding muscles rather scary. But on Brian, that was not the case at all. He belonged to the lean and fit category, which was exactly her type.

While she was salivating blatantly, Brian approached her in a calm and composed manner. She took a few steps back. "You, what are you doing?"

Joanne was soon forced back into the walk-in closet. "I'm coming in to change," Brian said calmly. "But what about you? Did you follow me in here to watch?"

Joanne's dark eyes moved in their sockets. A thought occurred to her. "So what if I look?"

Brian's lips curved into a smile. He began removing the towel...

"This guy's for real!" she thought.

In a fit of panic, Joanne scrambled out of the closet.

It was a nerve-wracking morning indeed. A red-faced Joanne sat at the breakfast table, completely unnerved.

Iris had noticed Joanne's strange behavior. "Joanne, are you unwell?" she asked with concern.

Joanne could not bring herself to look Iris in the face. "No, that's not..."

Understanding dawned on Iris. "What feeling unwell?" she thought. "My daughter-in-law is acting shy."

Iris had gone through the whole newlywed stage before, so naturally she would be thinking along those lines. She smiled and began filling up a bowl of porridge for Joanne. "Brian really has no self-control at all. I'll have a talk with him later."

"Self-control? What?" Joanne thought with a blank look.

After a long moment, Joanne noticed the suggestive look on Iris's face and finally understood what her mother-in-law had meant before. Joanne nearly fell of her chair. "No, mom. We, we're not, we didn't, we..."

"I understand." Iris blinked a few times to let Joanne know that no further explanations were required. "I was once young too."

"..." Joanne wanted to cry. Her entire face was as red as an apple.

Brian descended the stairs in a steady pace. He noticed Joanne's lowered head and thought that she looked rather awkward. Iris's smile looked even stranger. "What's wrong," he asked, rolling up his sleeves.

"Nothing!" Joanne answered quickly. Deftly, she began filling a bowl of porridge for Brian. "Let's have breakfast!"

Iris smiled wordlessly, sipping her porridge. To her, the morning was incomparably great.

Joanne was too mortified to stay in the house for long. She bid farewell to Iris after breakfast, claiming that Brian had something he needed to take care of.

A long while after they had left Orchid Gardens, the redness on Joanne's face slowly subsided. "Brian, about this morning... I can explain," she stammered.

Not bothering to wait for Brian's response, she went on, "I have poor sleeping habits. So rolling over to your side of the bed is normal. It wasn't intentional. I didn't even know I'd do it until it happened. Please don't think too much about it, and please don't take it to heart. Just think of it as a one-time accident. I mean, hey, you must've had some accidents before, right? Surely you can understand?"

Him? He was in control of everything pretty much his entire life. There were only two accidents, and both had happened fourteen years ago. The first was his father death and the other...

"I get it," he answered in a tone which said that he disagreed.

"Oh well. Only three simple words from him? What's with that attitude?" Joanne thought. His response had made her lengthy explanation felt... redundant.

Brian really did have stuff to take care of, so he dropped off Joanne at the house and left. In the backyard, Joanne called Freya and told her that Brian had already dealt with the doxxing attempts. Unless there was some unfortunate accident, none of her personal details would be exposed.

"Oh, I already know," Freya said excitedly. "Look, I've got only one word for your hubby. Badass! Just yesterday morning, there was this user who claimed to be in possession of your personal details, but will only release them if the thread reached a certain number of replies. But last night, that user account was deleted. After that, everyone on the forum was discussing whether you had done something to that user. How naive! As if you would do something on your own."

Joanne knew Freya all too well. "Freya, did you say something on the internet?" she asked.

"I heard from brother Chris that Brian had intervened in the matter. So I told those idiots," Freya said smugly. "And then guess what? Now the thread was so quiet that it was as if a ghost had started it."

Joanne pinched the bridge of her nose. "Freya, you're a graduate of a prestigious school, for God's sake. Are you really planning to do nothing besides spending all your time lurking on the Internet while living off your parents?"

"Well, I'm not happy about living off my parents too. But here's the saddest part. I could fucking live off them forever, and they'll still have plenty left!" Freya said. "Plus, I still haven't won your brother's heart yet. Winning your brother's heart is the most important job of my life!"

During their first year of high school, Freya had come up to Joanne and tempted her with a bottle of yogurt. "Let's be good friends!"

Freya had a hidden agenda-Chris.

The first meeting between Freya and Chris was fortuitous. The moment she laid eyes on him, she felt as though her body had been electrified. However, Chris had been so cold and unapproachable that she had failed to get closer to him.

Afterwards, she found out that he had a younger sister who was attending the same school as her. So she decided to try getting closer to Chris through Joanne. At first, she did not reveal her intentions to Joanne. But since Freya kept subtly and blatantly asking Joanne for news regarding Chris, it did not take long for Joanne to figure it out.

Joanne knew she should have stayed away from Freya. But Joanne liked Freya, who was happy-go-lucky and a little bit silly at times, more than those young chicks who constantly hung around her brother. Unknowingly, they became besties and at some point. Joanne had even contributed to Freya's efforts in winning Chris's heart.

Naturally, Chris never reciprocated any of Freya's advances. Joanne had expected Freya to give up after a short while. But it seemed that Freya's feelings had persisted until now.

How many years had passed already? Even Joanne, whose Math grades were definitely something to be proud of, needed a while to work that number out.

"Almost ten years! Even longer than Adel's 'Million Years Ago'," Freya said resolutely. "I will keep going. Chris will not fall into the hands of other women! He's mine!"

Joanne smiled. "I don't want other women as my sister-in-law either."

Whoever said that things would be smooth sailing for sincere and genuine people? Someone as carefree as Freya had loyally faithful to her feelings for ten years. Would her wish finally come true?