I groaned as the bright ray of morning beated against my eyelids.
I haphazardly threw my arm across my eyes and rolled into the back of my couch, trying to hide from the obnoxious sunlight. Due to the fact that my couch was much too small for my much larger frame, I was barely able to get any sleep last night with my feet dangling way off the end of the couch. My entire body was definitely aching from this damned couch.
I wondered if the other two had a good night’s sleep.
I hoped they did, especially after all the stress they had gone through yesterday. But, at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if they freaked out from waking up in an unfamiliar environment today.
My mind drifted off, considering several things that I could potentially do to try to help ease their nerves.
Maybe I could make them breakfast…
But I had nothing in my apartment…
Should I hop out to one of the nearby grocery stores and quickly pick up some stuff? But if they accidentally woke up while I was out, it would only make them more stressed out if they woke up in an unfamiliar environment without someone to explain how they had gotten here.
I guess I could…
Amongst all of my thoughts, a soft voice greeted me, “Good morning, Mr. Cordova.”
“Good morning, Ms. Belcalis.” I mindlessly replied on autopilot as my thoughts wandered elsewhere.
When my brain finally registered my words, I stiffened and slowly pulled my arm off of my eyes.
Leaning right over me from behind the couch was the little lady who wouldn’t stop plaguing my mind these past few weeks.
I was mesmerized by her devastatingly bright eyes as she mindlessly leaned closer. My breath hitched as her light hazelnut-colored hair fell in loose rings over me, just barely brushing against the tops of my cheeks.
Unable to handle it any longer, I hastily rolled away from her and off the couch. I winced as a searing pain shot through my neck and reflexively covered my neck.
She rounded the couch in a panic. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you. You’re in pain because of us, right? Because we took your bed, you had to-”
“No, no, it’s quite alright. You needed to more than me, and I gave it to the two of you willingly, so please don’t feel bad.”
She was standing less than a foot away from me. It felt like her eyes were burning a hole into me as they worriedly raked over my body. Her lips were pressed into a thin line as if she wanted to refute my words.
Trying to lighten the mood, I asked, “Is Liam alright?”
She nodded her head silently as she continued to trace her eyes worriedly over my facial features.
“That’s good…” I nervously backed up, unable to handle how fast my heart was beating from such a small action. “Um, I don’t really have any groceries at home, but you must be hungry, so I can probably get breakfast delivered if you like. There a little cafe on-”
“Mr. Cordova… Why are you always so nice to me?”
I paused, taken off guard by the sudden question.
“You don’t treat all your employees like this, right? Everyone on our floor talked about how you were always so distant and cold… but I never felt like that… You were always watching out for me even though I have only caused trouble for you… And you saved me multiple times already…” Her trembling hands were clenched into tight little fists in front of her chest, and yet she still managed to ask the question that she must’ve churned over and over again in her mind.
I anxiously chewed on the inside of my cheek.
How was I supposed to answer that question? I didn’t want to lie to her, but the truth wasn’t exactly…
I nervously rubbed the back of my neck and mumbled, “Because Ms. Belcalis also treats me very nicely… You bring me food every night even though you don’t need to. You notice when I get stressed out and tired, even when I don’t notice it, so I… uh… I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”
Her eyes flickered as if she was trying to study my expression. Her lips parted like she was about to say something in reply, but she was cut off by a loud bang.
My bedroom door swung up, revealing a panicked little figure in the doorway. But, it quickly turned into anger as he stomped over to us. Liam roughly pulled his mother away from me and hissed, “What are you doing dressed in such flimsy clothing in front of him?”
His last word was spat out with such distaste that I couldn’t help mentally wincing. I guess saving him yesterday wasn’t enough for him to let his guard down around me.
“Liam, you shouldn’t be so mean to Mr. Cordova,” she lightly reprimanded.
Despite the soothing pats on his head, he was still silently fuming in anger. His jaw was clenched so tight that I was worried that he might suddenly snap without warning.
But, as she continued to stroke his hair, he slowly started to relax under her touch and finally unhappily mumbled, “Thank you… for helping us yesterday.”
“It’s quite alright, Liam. You don’t need to thank me. It’s only right to help people in trouble.” I leaned down to his height and continued, “If you ever need help again, please feel free to find me again. I won’t ask for anything in return as long as I know you two are safe.”
Ms. Belcalis sputtered, “U-uh, w-we can’t d-do that to M-mr. C-Cord-”
“Okay,” he bluntly cut off his mother. “I’ll take it, but don’t think it means that you can try to get close to Ms. Jane.”
Her eyes immediately rounded at his words as her cheeks turned bright pink. “Um, Mr. C-Cordova w-would never s-see me i-in that…”
Ignoring his mother, Liam continued by giving me an order, “Now give me your first aid kit. I need to fix Ms. Jane.”
I glanced down at his extended hands, wondering how he was going to apply ointments on her with all the bandages wrapped around his little fingers. “It’s alright. I can help her with it instead.”
His eyebrows furrowed. His voice started to rise. “Why would Ms. Jane ever let someone like you-”
A hand suddenly clamped over his mouth. She shot me a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry about Liam. He can be a bit harsh at times, but he really is just a bit… overprotective.” Releasing her hand from his mouth, she kneeled down next to him and pulled him into a tight hug. She whispered softly, “It’s okay, Liam. I don’t mind if Mr. Cordova help me, so please don’t worry. Why don’t you get washed up first while I get my wound treated? Then we could go out for breakfast together, okay?”
“Fine.” He turned his head away with a dissatisfied cluck of his tongue as he headed back into the bedroom.
Once he was out of sight, Ms. Belcalis glanced up at me briefly before bashfully diverting her eyes. She mumbled, “You d-don’t have to help me treat my w-wounds. I d-don’t want to burden Mr. C-cordova any-”
Not letting her finish her sentence, I grabbed her hand and gently tugged her over to the kitchen counter, ushering her to sit down on one of the accompanying barstools. “I never thought of you as a burden.”
Her eyes widened as I pulled out the first aid kit and started rummaging for an inflammation-reducing cream. She quickly shook her hands out in front of her. “But it’s n-not something I s-should be making Mr. C-Cordova do. I c-can d-do it b-by-”
“Is it because you don’t feel comfortable with having me touch you?” I paused with the cream in hand before continuing in a softer tone, “If it is, then I won’t-”
“No!” She suddenly exclaimed, catching me off guard. When she noticed my startled expression, she stuttered, “I-I d-don’t hate it when Mr. C-Cordova t-touches m-me. I a-actually f-find it r-relaxing…”
Her voice trailed off at the end. Her cheeks turned several shades darker when she realized what she had said.
Before she could take it back, I held up the tube of cream and asked, “Then, may I have the honor of helping you apply the cream? I promise I’ll try to be as gentle as I can.”
Her hands scrunched up fistfuls of her borrowed shirt that was pooling in her lap, but she eventually nodded in acceptance.
Taking it as my go-sign, I squeezed a dollop of the cream onto my fingertip and carefully spread it out on the giant bruise on her cheek. I let my eyes drift across her features as I gently rubbed it into her cheek.
Her eyelashes fluttered mesmerizingly as her violet orbs studied the object around us, drifting from one item to another but never onto me.
I was so close to her that I could smell her familiar sweet-but-filled-with-warm-spice scent. Only this time, it was mixed in with my own smokey scent. It was so mesmerizing that I couldn’t help feeling the urge to keep her in my clothes forever.
To make it so she would always smell like me.
Hearing a small hitch in her breath, I quickly pulled back before I lost any more control of myself. I was so lost in her scent that my mind had completely drifted off, and I had accidentally applied a little too much pressure on her cheek.
I silently cursed at myself for being too careless as I squeezed out another dollop onto my fingertip. I was supposed to be taking care of her, not having indecent thoughts about her when she was trusting me so much to let me do this for her.
My eyes drifted down her body as I searched for the other bruises. It brought up an unfamiliar feeling inside of me to see her drowning in my clothes that were several sizes too large for her, but that feeling was easily covered by a much stronger emotion, one of pure disgust and fury, as my eyes drifted over her neck.
I hated seeing the trail of swollen black and purple splotches defaming her delicate skin along her neck and even further down underneath the collar of my shirt. How dare that worthless mutt place his lips on what didn’t belong to him? Someone who he should’ve never even been allowed to be within the vicinity of for all of his lifetimes.
“Uh… I-if it’s t-too d-difficult to l-look at, I c-could-”
“No, it’s not that,” I quickly cut in as I cautiously spread the cream across the swollen splotches on her neck. “I just wish that I could’ve gotten there sooner before this could happen to you. I hate the idea that you would have to be constantly reminded of that bastard before the next few weeks until it heals.”
Her pulse was racing under my fingertips as I rubbed the cream into her skin. She nervously chewed on her lower lip. “It’s not y-your fault. Y-you c-couldn’t have known a-and h-he only d-did that to m-me b-because I d-dressed-”
I cut her off with a harsh look. “Don’t you dare say that it’s your fault. No matter how you dress or look, it is never an invitation to be inappropriately touched. Any other respectful gentlemen would agree with me, so I never want to hear you say that again.”
To begin with, her clothes were never even provocative in anyway. That vile man was just coming up with horrors excuses to justify his unacceptable behavior.
She nodded meekly with a ghost of a smile on her lips. “O-okay, Mr. C-Cordova.”
I turned my attention back onto her wounds with a huff. “That man was worth less than trash, so I don’t want you to ever think about him again. I’ll personally make sure you will never have to see him again.”
Not that he was still alive anyway.
She nodded again. “Thank you.”
I hummed in acknowledgment as I let the collar of her shirt bounce back up, covering the treated splotches on her collarbone. As I placed the tube back into the first aid kit, she fidgeted with the collar of her shirt, trying to catch a glance at said splotches before giving up and pulling the shirt up to her chin.
Before I could turn back around, my phone lit up on the counter with a text notification, catching both my and Ms. Belcalis’s eyes.
It was from Joseph.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough, sir. But the photos of you and Ms. Belcalis were already leaked and the media…”
The rest of the message was cut off in the notification banner, but it was more than enough to tell me what I needed to know. And, unluckily, Ms. Belcalis’s curious nature made it so that she saw a snippet of this message before I could hide it, to see enough of it to make her freeze in her seat.
A hushed whisper escaped her lips as a single question.
“Leaked photos?”