After contemplating a bit, Damien decided to take it slow as to not overwhelm her with information.
He squeezed the steering wheel with his hand briefly before a friendly smile appeared on his face and chose the safest words to say. "We have met each other several times."
"So you know me five years ago?" Katherine became excited to know about her past. It was something that has been troubling her all these years. "How did we know each other?"
"We met at a party one time about seven years ago." Damien had a small smile when he recalled.
"We have known each other for that long? But… I mean… How… What was our relations.h.i.+p?"
The moment that Katherine asked that, a fleeting devilish smile formed on his face, making her brows scrunch up in curiosity. Indeed, what their relations.h.i.+p was, even Damien didn"t know how to answer her. "Let"s just say you seem to know me more than I know you."
"I know you more? How is that possible? How would I know someone of your caliber?" Katherine didn"t see the possibility of them ever being in the same crowd. After all, she only knows about her current life.
"Oh, honey… you have no idea. I don"t even know how you know all those other things." Damien chuckled to himself. "You were quite a feisty woman."
"I was?" Katherine raised her brows, "Did I do something?"
"Yeah." Nodding slightly, Damien parked the car at the parking lot of a fas.h.i.+on district. "You seduced me," he said before getting out of the car.
Katherine"s eyes grew wide as she watched him walk around to the other side of the car to open her door. She was still agape when he offered his hand to her. How could she seduce him? Was she even capable?
"Let"s go. We don"t have all day." Damien urged, taking her hand and pulling her out of the car.
"But I still have so many questions!" Unconsciously, she allowed him to hold her wrist and drag her to a clothing store while she was still staring at him with a perplexed look. "Can I ask you-"
"No, you may not. We"re on the clock, Ms. Miller. We have to be quick. You can ask more after work hours." Damien immediately stopped her. "Besides, that"s all you need to know for now."
Thinking about what he just told her, Katherine imagined herself to be a feisty, seductive woman but she shuddered. "I don"t believe you. I don"t even know how to seduce people."
Hearing her answer, Damien could only chuckle and shake his head.
Inside a luxury clothing shop
Katherine had no idea that Damien was very knowledgeable about fas.h.i.+on. No wonder why this man always looked as if he came straight out of a fas.h.i.+on magazine. Even in that morning where he looked laid back in a suit, he still looked great. How does he do that?
"Mr. Park, we"re honored to have you here today. How can we help you?" The smiling saleslady immediately greeted them as soon as they entered.
Katherine stood on the sidelines as she watched Damien talk to the now very attentive saleslady. From time to time, they would glance at her way, but she paid no mind.
"Thank you," Damien said to the lady as he walked to the nearest rack and briefly scanned the clothes on it. It took him only a few seconds before he pulled out a cla.s.sy and elegant black pencil dress.
"Here, try this," He said as he handed the hanger to Katherine.
Puzzled, Katherine did not receive the dress right away and questioned, "Why?"
A smile appeared on his face as he inched closer, pulling her hand and placing the hanger on it. "Because you"re my secretary and you should always look presentable especially when you"re with me and we"re also meeting prospect business partners later." He casually placed his hands on her shoulders, turned her around and led her towards the dressing room.
An hour later.
Wearing the cla.s.sy and elegant black dress out of the store, Katherine still could not believe that she agreed for Damien to buy her clothes. It wasn"t as if she had a choice because no matter what she said, the evil man did not listen to her cries of "no".
Walking towards the Jaguar, Katherine"s brows were furrowed as she and Damien carried paper bags in each hand, filled with different styles of clothes. She didn"t even have the chance to reject more than half of them because Damien had ordered them while she was changing inside the dressing room.
She couldn"t act against him because he was still her boss and the people around them paid close attention to him. Left with no choice, Katherine could only clench her jaw and curse at him in her mind whilst she gave him a bright smile.
They had just gotten inside the car when Damien received a call from Markus. After talking on the phone for about two minutes, he finally started the car and hit the road.
She was quiet all this time. Her head was filled with ill sentiments about her overbearing boss. She liked free stuff but all those clothes were probably worth more than her yearly salary. For her, accepting all of them meant that she now owed him a lot. It made her forehead crease. She didn"t notice that she let out a small sigh when her thoughts brought her back to when he said that she seduced him.
"As if I would do something like that! Did you think you are a G.o.d or something? At most, you"re only a King! And only a Queen would succeed seducing the King! Tch. Wait, why am I even thinking about this?"
The changes in her expression did not go unnoticed by Damien. He found her cute when her brows scrunched. Looking back on the road, he asked her, "Did you bring your work tablet?"
After being bitter for awhile, Katherine decided to brush it off and answered her boss. "Yes," she said as she took out the tablet from her bag.
"Good, we"re heading towards a new resort and we need to prepare for its opening in a month."
"What do I need to do?" Katherine unlocked the tablet and waited for instructions.
"Note down everything that you had noticed on Mr. Wu"s hotel: What you liked and disliked, what you hated, or what you would"ve wanted from that hotel."
She turned and looked at him, curious why she had to do that. "Do you plan to buy Mr. Wu"s hotel?"
"What? G.o.d, no! I wouldn"t buy it even if he paid me to. That hotel is going down soon. He"s already losing money and it"s just a matter of time when it closes."
"Then why?"
"I"ll tell you later, we"re almost there. Draft as many as you can," he instructed before speeding up.
Fifteen minutes later, the car pulled up into a parking lot. Katherine had also just finished writing notes on what she could remember from their visit yesterday.
Just like earlier, Damien helped her out of the car. Walking towards the entrance, there were many people that came to receive them. She instantly became conscious when she noticed the strange looks and whispers that they gave her.
"Is there something wrong with my face? Or my clothes? Why are they looking at me like that?" She voiced her thoughts. She touched her face and hair before she smoothed out her clothes, wondering why they were staring at her.
Damien, who was walking beside her couldn"t help but chuckle. "Nothing"s wrong. They"re looking at you because you"re beautiful," he said with a teasing smile before walking ahead that left her blus.h.i.+ng like a red tomato.
He had affected her in a lot of ways since early morning and it was not even noon yet. She got fl.u.s.tered back at the office because she thought he was going to kill her after finding out she slept in the office secretly.
Next, she learned that he had known about her but refused to tell her everything. Why was he keeping them from her?
And lastly, he practically forced her to accept all the expensive clothes that he had bought for her. How much more does she have to bear with this ridiculously hot yet annoying boss?
Shrugging, Katherine raised her chin and walked faster, walking past Damien like she owned the resort.