Magic Love: Dangerous But Addictive

Whitney Qi glared at the tall man in front of her. "Get out of the way," she spat out with a side smirk.

"He really is busy, Whitney. You can come back later,"

Ethan Ji said with a frown, visibly embarrassed.

"Get out of my way!"

Whitney raised her voice. She had studied music in the past, and she was familiar with the nuances one's tone needed in order to evoke certain reactions.

As if to compete with her, the woman inside the room let out a loud giggle that drifted over to where they stood.

So it was like this then. Whitney cast another disdainful glare at Ethan and pushed him aside. The man fell against the wall, but not before catching a glimpse of her expression from the corner of his eyes. It had to be successful this time!

When she pushed the door into the room, Whitney found a petite woman perched on Marvin Lan's lap. At her entry, the said woman raised her chin and flashed a sultry smile over at Whitney, provoking her. Marvin was holding a cigarette between his fingers on one hand, while his other hand was buried inside the woman's clothes. He ignored Whitney. She strode over until she was before the lascivious couple, and Marvin finally spoke. "Get out."

Whitney pretended not to hear anything, and instead proceeded to inspect the woman's breasts which she appeared to be keen on putting up for display. '34D at least, huh?' Whitney mused to herself. 'Seems inconsistent. She's so small, but her boobs are plump. She's a beauty, anyway, so I suppose that's a good thing. She's exactly Marvin's type.'

"Get out!"

The man repeated, angrily this time, since his words earlier had gone unheeded.

"I'll go out right away. After you unfreeze my card that is." Whitney's gaze drifted over to Marvin and she looked him straight in the eye. "Hurry up," she said impatiently. "Just make the phone call already, and I won't spoil your fun any further."

Marvin's expression changed, and his voice turned colder. "So that's what you barged in here for?"

"Of course. How can I not make a fuss when you've effectively cut off access to all my money?"

"Your money? Let's get something clear here. That money is mine!"

The man's words thundered across the room, and the woman in his arms grinned in smug satisfaction, although she remained silent.

Whitney's lips curved upwards, but her eyes held a wealth of scorn. "Well, are you going to help me or not? It's not like I won't survive without you, you know. There are plenty of other men waiting in line to be with me."

Marvin matched both the edge in her eyes and in her tone. "All right then. Go to those other men and stop bothering me! As you can see, I'm busy here."

"Fine, I'll go right now!" No longer in the mood for a verbal sparring, Whitney turned and walked to the door, her high heels clacking loudly against the floor.

Ethan had been eavesdropping outside the entire time, his anxiety growing by the second. In the end he almost stamped his feet in frustration. Now more than ever, he wished he could somehow beat up that idiot, Trent Li. He never should have listened to that guy's disastrous ideas. Now things were only about to get much worse, and they would all suffer the consequences.

Ethan was neck deep in regrets.

Whitney stormed out of the room and he could only watch helplessly as her figure disappeared down the corridor. Then he slowly edged away from the door, mentally counting until all hell broke loose.

He didn't even get to ten before the inside of the room erupted into chaos. Ethan forgot about slipping away and hurriedly fled from the scene.

Marvin had watched Whitney leave, his scowl turning more menacing with every step she had taken. The woman in his arms seemed to have relished the experience, since she remained in place. As such, she was thrown quite forcefully the moment Whitney was out the door, and she landed a considerable distance from where Marvin was seated. The legendary devil had made an appearance. Paying heed to neither the pain in her body nor her messy clothes, the woman scurried out of Marvin's reach and crawled her way out of the room.

Marvin was livid; veins were bulging at his temples, and a muscle ticked at his haw. He rose to his feet, then grabbed his chair and smashed it over his desk. All sorts of things flew in the air and broke into pieces.

Amy Ai, the Chief Secretary, was right next door. She cowered on her table, trying her best to hold back her fear. She struggled to continue with her work, tapping her keyboard with trembling fingers. She ended up making several mistakes and repeating the task over and over. At the back of her mind, she sighed at the fate of the supplies in the president's office. She would have to go shopping and replenish them again. Now that she thought about it, this seemed to be much too worse, and much too sudden, than any other outburst their boss had displayed in the past. Her feigned composure finally crumpled; it just wasn't worth it. She rushed out of her office and fled just as Ethan had done.

Over at the General Manager's office, Ethan was biting Trent's head off. He scolded the latter quite harshly that Trent turned flush in his face and ears.

"But how come Whitney didn't take the bait and react as expected? She and Marvin had been together for so many years. Regardless of whether they had something real or not, she still should have felt even the tiniest bit of jealousy. Unless, she really... Oh well. I was wrong. Everything is a mistake on my part."

Trent kept muttering under his breath as Ethan sipped his tea with his legs crossed.

"Shame on you!" Ethan landed a kick on the other man, all while holding his teacup high in the air. His drink did not spill a single drop.

Trent managed to dodge, and he quickly put on a huge grin. "You're so awesome, Ethan!" he praised. "You have perfect body coordination and control of your strength!"

Ethan only snorted. "Shut up!" He then turned to Aron Cui. "You have to figure out another way, Aron. If things go on like this, we have no hope of surviving. Marvin has his beast mode on, and I don't dare go near him until it turns off. If anything turns up, you're going to have to report it to him yourself."

"What can I do?" Aron replied as he leaned back and lounged on the bench. "I told you not to act rashly, but you didn't listen to me. Now, you've made things worse. They're bound to solve their own problems anyway, so why should we get involved? The more we try to help, the more chaotic things will get."

"Marvin has been in a bad mood for a whole week! Something has to be done, otherwise there's no telling what might happen next." Ethan took another sip and shook his head.

"I just can't understand it. If Marvin liked Whitney, why can't he ever bring himself to be nice to her? And if he didn't like her, why is he so furious just because she danced with another man? Just what is going on inside that head of his?" Trent stroked his chin, visibly confused.

"Have you never seen any program about wild animals?" Aron interjected with a hint of confidence, his arms crossed over his chest. "No matter what kind of animal it is, once it has become king of the domain, it develops a strong desire for absolute control. If some intruder so much as sneaks in to steal its possessions, the king would attack without a second thought. That's exactly what Marvin is at the moment. Even though he doesn't like Whitney, even if he has already grown tired of her, he would never allow anyone else to get close to her."

"Has he really grown tired of her though?" Ethan chimed, lighting a cigarette. "I don't think so."

"That's true. They've been together for three years; that's the longest Marvin has ever been in a relationship. I don't think it will end like that this time." Trent voiced out his doubts as well.

"There's no way of saying for certain," Aron frowned. "It all comes down to Whitney, really. She's always had someone else in her heart. It's only natural for Marvin to lose his patience; it's been three whole years! Besides, we all know his personality. He isn't the type to give in to others. We should probably leave him alone and focus on Whitney instead. We have to think of a way to persuade her."

"If we had any chance of succeeding, don't you think we already should have? Those two really make a perfect match."

"Well, we certainly won't get anywhere if all we do is discuss. Come on, let's look for Lukas."

"Don't even mention that name! If it weren't for him, we won't be in hot water now."

Ethan was trembling with barely contained rage. "He's well aware of the relationship between Whitney and Marvin, but he still went ahead and got piss-drunk and ruined everything! If Trent and I hadn't dragged him when we did, who knew what would have happened?"

"Which is why he should be the one to undo the mess he had started. Let him make amends for all the trouble he has caused."

"I don't know, Whitney does treat him better than the rest of us, but I doubt she would listen to him."

"He could make up a sob story and appeal to her sympathies. Women are softhearted by nature; he just needs to convince her and then everything would be fine."

"All right, that's it!" Ethan nodded. "Given Lukas' bright character, I'm sure he doesn't want to remain cooped up to death either. He would gladly come with us. Besides, he wouldn't stand a chance against us even if he decides to protest."

After hearing how pathetic Lukas sounded over the phone, Whitney could almost picture out how pitiful the delicate young master of the Qin family probably looked.

When she had first seen him, she had been stunned speechless for a couple of seconds. She remembered admitting that there really were men so feminine they could give true women a run for their money. Lukas had smooth skin and deep, almond eyes, and a dainty silver cross hung from one of his earlobes. His soft hair was long and reached his shoulders. She remembered asking him bluntly, "Are you a woman disguised in men's clothes?"

And she knew that if Marvin hadn't been there, Lukas would surely have taken offense and been angry at her. Instead, he had only given Whitey a cold stare, a silent message that he was being the bigger man for not fighting a woman.

They had somehow gotten along after that, and had developed a close friendship over time. Lukas was thoughtful and sensitive, and poured a lot of attention on things like skin care. Which meant that they had a lot in common. It also helped that Whitney didn't have many friends in the city. Soon she and Lukas began calling each other best friends. There had even been times when she would persuade him to wear a dress and go shopping hand in hand with her. He had always obliged.

Whitney ended the call and heaved a sigh. 'We just had some wine, hugged, and shared a dance. What's the big deal with that?' It was fine if Marvin refused to believe her, but to think that he would even doubt one of his good friends... What a very petty man.

Marvin had an aloof and arrogant nature, and he basked in other people's admiration regardless of whether he was doing right or wrong. It wouldn't be far-fetched to say that he really regarded himself as some sort of emperor. Whitney had been determined not to humor him this time, but Lukas had begged, saying the most ghastly things. He claimed that he was so worried, he could barely eat anything in the past three days. He said he had been threatened that if he so much as set foot inside the company, Marvin's people would beat him up on the spot and break his legs.

Well, she doubted they would have actually broken his legs. Those were probably just empty threats said out of anger. Whitney would usually not let herself be bothered by such trifles. She had, after all, already moved out, and had very little reason to meet with Marvin at all. It was like she had merely gone back to her life in the past.

But, she supposed, the same could not be said for Lukas. He held a far deeper affection for Marvin than she ever had. It was not right of her to let him drown in his dilemma by himself.

Annoyed with how things were turning out, Whitney picked up a pillow and whacked it against the bed repeatedly until feathers were floating all over the room. She finally stopped, and sat for a moment and peered at the feathers slowly swaying in the air in front of her. Then she started to pack up her luggage.

Marvin was driving through the gates of the estate when he spotted a white mini car parked on one side of the garage. In the next second, he stepped hard on the gas, leaving a cloud of dust swirling in his wake. In one fluid maneuver, he put his car to a stop right next to the white vehicle.

As if on cue, the butler, Benson Dong immediately came running down the front steps. "Sir, Miss Whitney is back," he beamed at the master of the house.

"Hmm." Marvin tossed his keys over to the servant and took two long steps before stopping and turning back to the butler. "Did she come back empty-handed?"

"She brought her luggage with her, Sir. I helped her carry them to the bedroom earlier." Benson's face was all lit up. He had been living in an unbearable hell these past few days, and Whitney's return was something of a salvation to all of the staff. Why, even the master's face appeared to have become better after hearing the news.

Whitney was coming down the stairs when Marvin entered the living room, and she gave him a faint smile when she saw him. "You're back."

"Yes." But beneath his lips, a mocking comment was trying to rise to the surface: 'So, did you come running back here because you couldn't find another man?' But he didn't say anything, although he wasn't sure why.

Whitney was mildly surprised, too, that no scathing remark had come. Relief washed over her, and her small smile turned sincere. "Wash your hands and come have dinner."

Marvin nodded, then with a brief glance at her, headed upstairs. Not comprehending what he was up to, she found herself following him.

She regretted it instantly once they entered the room. She knew that look in his eyes.

No... She turned on her heel to flee, only to be pressed against the wall by his body.