There was a nagging feeling in Damien"s heart that wouldn"t go away even after knowing that she was already safe. As he watched over her for hours, he did not dare let go of her hand - it was as though he was afraid that if he did, she would disappear.
He held her hand with both of his and hoped that she would wake up very soon. He closed his eyes but he wasn"t sleeping at all.
A few minutes later, Katherine fluttered her eyes open and she took her time to adjust to the lights on the ceiling. She vaguely remembered that she was brought to the hospital earlier. She turned her head to the side when she felt her hand become numb and what she saw beside her touched her heart.
Damien had the back of her hand pressed on the side of his face. Feeling so much better, Katherine remembered how worried he was earlier and she felt bad that he stayed there and waited for her to wake up. Slowly, she moved her finger from the same hand that he was holding and lightly brushed it on his face, touching his brow and temple.
In an instant, Damien met her eyes. "Hey… how are you feeling?" He straightened up but he still did not let go of her hand.
Katherine nodded, "I"m sorry you had to-"
"No, it"s not your fault. It"s mine… I should have been more careful in giving you the medicine."
Shaking her head, Katherine moved to sit up on the bed and Damien a.s.sisted her by placing a pillow on her back. "You couldn"t have known. It"s not your fault," she rea.s.sured.
Just in time, the doctor arrived for a routine check-up. After a.s.sessing how she was feeling, Katherine had to ask, "I don"t understand… I have taken ibuprofen before as a pain reliever but nothing happened to me. This is the first time I had an allergic reaction. So… why?"
The doctor nodded and responded, "There are patients who are allergic to this medicine. And it is actually not unusual to suddenly develop a reaction to ibuprofen even after years of taking it. Your facial and throat swelling are only two signs of an allergic reaction but anaphylaxis can be sudden, it can get worse quickly and can even be deadly if not treated right away."
Hearing the doctor"s words, Damien felt more awful and Katherine noticed his distress. After a few more doctor"s advice, Katherine asked if she could be discharged because she didn"t want to stay in the hospital anymore; she hated it. It had been several hours since she was brought there, so the doctor allowed her to go home as long as they closely monitor her condition just in case there will be a reoccurrence.
Twenty minutes later, they were already in the car and were on their way home. However, Katherine was still feeling groggy so she fell asleep in the car. She woke up an hour later and realized that she was already on Damien"s bed.
The door opened and in came Damien with a tray in his hand. "Good, you"re awake. I was going to wake you up. You haven"t eaten yet and you need to take your medicine."
Katherine slowly sat up and immediately felt embarra.s.sed that he had to do all these things for her. "You didn"t have to. I could have just gotten downstairs and eaten at the table."
Placing the bed tray on the side, Damien stood by the bed and scolded her. "You"re my responsibility. Also, you"re staying under my roof. So I will take care of you whether you like it or not." His voice was stern with no room for negotiations.
Hearing what he said, Katherine somehow felt that it was a bit strange… Shouldn"t it be her taking care of him since she was his secretary? And when was she his responsibility? Also… why was he scolding her?
Nevertheless, Katherine did not argue and could only nod her head in agreement.
"Good." Feeling satisfied, Damien placed the tray on the bed and started feeding her.
"I- I can feed myself…"
He glared at her and clicked his tongue, making her flinch and gulp. Damien was determined to pamper this woman because he was feeling guilty. Of course, it was also because he really wanted to.
Without a choice, Katherine let him feed her.
It was already midnight when she finished her meal and she wanted to stretch her body. She got out of the bed about to stretch her arms and legs like a feline but when Damien came back to the room and saw her standing, he raised a brow at her. "Get back to bed," he ordered.
"But I already slept a lot and I want to finish the work that I wasn"t able to finish this afternoon."
"You don"t have to worry about that. It has already been delegated to someone else." And that someone goes by the name Markus Lee.
"Well… what about the other preparations for the resort"s opening next week? I need to work on that too." Katherine needed to do something or this guilt of not being able to work will eat her up.
"You don"t have to worry about that for now. What I want you to do is to get back to bed and rest. That"s an order."
"But I don"t want to sleep." Wanting to protest, she bit her lip and knitted her brows. Unbeknownst to her, Damien only found her cute.
A smile threatened to form on his face but he raised his chin up and nonchalantly said, "Then you can watch me while I work." He placed a laptop on the table next to her bed and started working.
"You"re going to work here?" she questioned but seeing her boss had already camped on the armchair and did not pay attention to her, she swallowed back her words.
"Why is he exactly here? What am I going to do now? This is so awkward." She hesitantly got back to bed, sat up and played with her phone. But she only spent a few minutes on it until she became drowsy again because of the medicine that she took after eating.
Katherine decided to succ.u.mb to her dozy mood, so she set her phone aside and laid back down quietly, not wanting to disturb her hard-working boss. She laid on her side to face Damien and watched him as he busily browsed through some doc.u.ments, admiring how gorgeous he was even while he was working.
Her eyes slowly became heavy and not long after, she fell asleep, lulled by the rhythmic sound of Damien"s fingers as they danced on the keyboard.
His eyes darted towards her and saw that she was only half covered by the blanket. He walked up to the bed and sat next to her with his back on the headboard. The image of her gasping for air while they were on their way to the hospital flashed in his mind and he had to squeeze his eyes shut to get rid of it. He could not imagine what would have happened if he was a minute late.
Damien vowed to himself that he was going to take even better care of her so that such a thing won"t happen again. He fixed the blanket on her and was about to get up when all of a sudden, Katherine"s arm just flung across his thighs and pulled him closer towards her.
She was so used to hugging a pillow whenever she sleeps, so habitually, she grabbed what she could find nearby and hugged it. Only this time, it was Damien"s thighs.
Who would have thought that a day like this would come when Katherine would hug someone"s big thighs?
Only in this case, it"s King Damien"s golden thighs… and Katherine was literally hugging them.
Dazed by what she had done, Damien didn"t know what to do at first so he froze on the spot. He tried to lift her wrist gently without waking her up but Katherine only tightened her embrace and furrowed her brows when she thought that someone was taking her pillow away from her.
After contemplating, Damien sighed and gently slid down until he was lying next to her, thinking that he could probably roll to the side if Katherine s.h.i.+fts her position.
But to his surprise, Katherine pulled him even closer and nuzzled her face on his chest — she even smiled when she inhaled his tasty scent which already became her favorite. Why wouldn"t she? Her pillow smelled like Damien!
It wasn"t that he disliked what she was doing, if anything, he loved it! However, how could he be comfortable when his soldier down there started to grow?
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Damien was about to lose his mind. "You"re a dangerous woman, Katherine."