Seeing the expression on Katherine"s face, Caleb thought that Damien would probably punch him for making his woman blush too much. He found his best friend had actually fallen for a woman like Katherine who was unlike the women that he dated in the past. Who could have known?
"You"re too cute, Ms. Miller." He shook his head, "It"s okay… I know what you mean. You two have just started your relations.h.i.+p, right?" She nodded. "I"ve heard that you two met before, and if Damien still wants to stay with you after all these years, that"s something. And it"s the first time that I"ve seen him take care of someone like he does with you."
"Wasn"t he with Lexi then?"
"Lexi is a different thing. They were together but Damien didn"t love her. It was more like… an obligation for him to be with Lexi because of their family"s pressure. She wasn"t all bad, you know? I mean… at least she wasn"t while we were growing up. She"s spoiled but she was okay and all of us took care of her. She was close to Damien because she felt bad that he didn"t have a mother."
"I shouldn"t be telling you about his past… Whatever you want to know about him, it should come from him, right? So… Can you keep this a secret?"
Katherine nodded. She appreciated that Caleb told him a little about Damien. "Thanks for telling me."
"What I really wanted to say… is that, the road from here on out will be troublesome. Damien has a lot of enemies that we know and we don"t know about. My best friend is a capable man, Katherine, but even formidable men like him have a weakness. And you are his."
"If manipulative people know about this, they could use it against him. You will be facing problems from the people who want him to go down and even from people he would least expect. For years that he"s been on top, his rivals couldn"t find anything that they could use against him.
"Though, I"m sure that he will do everything he can to protect you. I"m not scaring you, I"m telling you this so you can be prepared. I like you for him, and I want you guys to work. I just hope that you"re strong enough."
After hearing all of those from Caleb, Katherine felt both thankful and worried. She was only an ordinary person, what can someone like her do for someone like Damien?
The entire afternoon, Katherine waited for Damien"s message but she hadn"t heard from him since the night before. She had wanted to contact him first but she was afraid that she was only going to disturb him so she ended up not doing anything and just waited.
It was eight in the evening when Katherine entered her penthouse and instead of feeling relaxed that she was now home, the huge place just felt empty. Tossing her bag aside, she went to have a long bath, thinking that it might ease her worries away but even after doing so, she was still restless.
Staring at the full-length mirror, she stared at her own reflection while the conversation that she had with Caleb earlier that day played in her mind.
Was it really so difficult to be with him?
Shaking off the thoughts in her head, she put on some clothes and grabbed a coat from the hanger before she left the penthouse — she was too lonely to stay in that place alone for so long.
It was a few minutes past eleven when Damien landed on the tarmac. He was supposed to extend another day overseas but he chose to cram everything that day just so that he could go back home even if it was late in the evening which made him extremely busy the whole day.
In the backseat of his car, he closed his eyes as he tried to suppress a headache creeping up. "Where is she?" he asked.
"After dinner, she went back up to the penthouse, Boss," Felix answered. Since Markus flew with Damien, he was the one who picked them up from the airport.
"How is she?"
Felix reported what happened that day while Damien listened quietly. As soon as they arrived in the hotel, instead of going home to his own place, he went straight up to the Royal Penthouse.
Checking the time in his watch, he thought that it was already late. Not wanting to disturb Katherine, he entered the penthouse using his own keycard.
When he entered the place, it was dark and quiet. "She must already be asleep," he thought as he headed towards her bedroom. However, when he walked inside, the bed was empty and she was nowhere to be found.
"Katherine?" he called as he checked the entire penthouse.
With his brows furrowed, he whipped out his phone and called her number. Her phone rang but she didn"t answer even after a few tries.
"Where the h.e.l.l are you?" he breathed out as he started to feel frustrated and worried.
Damien took out his phone again and called Felix. "Didn"t you say that she"s in the penthouse? She isn"t here. I need you to look for her right now."
He ended the call and sat on the sofa for a good fifteen minutes before he left the Royal Penthouse and headed to his own house. He badly needed sleep but because Katherine was missing, it seemed like he wasn"t going to have any that night.
Arriving at his own house, he grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen before he went upstairs to his bedroom. His entire body ached from all the work and traveling he had done the whole day that he felt he could collapse anytime.
Opening the door to his room, he froze on the spot and his cell phone rang in his pocket. "h.e.l.lo?" he answered softly.
"Boss, Ms. Katherine… She"s-"
"Yeah… It"s okay, I know where she is. I found her."
The line went dead and Damien took steps forward as his eyes were fixated on something in front of him. It was as though his exhaustion was sucked out of his body when he saw the most amazing discovery before him - Lying on his bed was none other than Katherine.
He loomed over the bed as he watched her peacefully sleeping while hugging a pillow just like she always did.
He was so worried when he realized that she wasn"t in the penthouse when it was already late at night. How could he have known that she was in his bed all along?
"Silly, you should have told me," he muttered. To h.e.l.l with changing, he wanted to hold her right away.
Taking off his coat, he slipped in the bed and under the covers, removing the pillow that she was hugging and pulling her towards him. He tried his best to be as careful as he could in order not to wake her up but Katherine"s eyes slowly opened just as he was settled.
"Damien?"
"Sorry, I woke you up." She pushed herself up and sat on the bed, looking at him as if she was making sure that he was really there. "How long have you been here?" he asked.
A tinge of red tainted her cheeks. He wouldn"t think that she was being a creep, right? He just found her in his bed while he wasn"t there. That"s just creepy. She wanted to scold herself for falling asleep.
"Sorry… I"ve been alone in the penthouse since you left and… I haven"t heard from you since last night. I just thought I"d swing by and… maybe if I saw your things… I don"t know why I was here… I saw your bed… and it was inviting… I… I… I didn"t realize that I had fallen asleep."
He chuckled. "You know, it"s okay to say that you miss me."
Katherine scoffed, "Tch. I don"t."
"Really? Because I swear I could smell my perfume the moment that I entered the bedroom. You aren"t some kind of a perv that likes to bathe in my scent, are you?"
"What?! Are you saying that I"m a pervert?" Her face was all red and her eyes darted to the side where she found his perfume a couple of hours ago.
Seeing her reaction, Damien"s grin grew wide. He sat up on the bed and tilted his head to catch her gaze. "I don"t know, Katherine, are you? Because I don"t mind if you are."
"Stop being ridiculous! I was just curious, okay? I sprayed it only once!" She refused to look at him and it only made him burst out laughing.
"G.o.d, you"re too adorable." Cupping her chin with his fingers, he made her look at him. "I miss you too, you know?"
"Instead of hugging some pillow, why don"t you hug the real thing instead?" Opening his arms wide, he added, "I smell and look better. What"s more, I even hug back and give some kisses."
Katherine narrowed her eyes at him before a smile broke on her face. "Bully," she muttered before she pounced into his embrace.
"Oof." The two of them fell back on the bed chuckling.
"I"m glad you"re back," she nuzzled on his chest while he tightened his arms around her.
"Mhmm… I"m home."
Tipping her chin up, he placed a soft kiss on her lips and he heard her say, "Yeah… Welcome home, Damien."