Loving You - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

I awake and I can feel a terrible pain in my right arm. It's throbbing like crazy and burning. And when I try to move it excruciating pain shoots through me. I cry out and my eyes shoot open. I'm looking at a room that isn't mine nor Damien's, nor the penthouse. The room I'm in was still luxurious so I knew I still had to be with Damien. The bed was massive and there was a fireplace going. And when I looked out the window my mouth dropped open. There was a white blanket covering everything. It was snowing! 

I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to gawk at the snow. Or at least that's what I had in mind. As soon as my feet touched the ground I collapsed in agony. I look at the source of my pain and see that my arm has been wrapped in white gauze but is tinted pink. What the hell happened? Then everything came rushing back to me. The people, the gunfire, Damien, I was shot in the shoulder and after that everything goes black!

The door to the bedroom opens and in walks Damien looking handsome as ever. He's carrying a mug of something warm, the steam is wafting from the top of the cup. His crystal blue gaze goes into shock when he finds the bed empty. He frantically looks around until he spots me on the floor next to the bed.

"Nevaeh!" He sets down the mug on the desk and rushes over to me. "What are you doing out of bed?" His eyes are full of concern as he carries me bridal style back to the bed. "You shouldn't be moving at all with your injuries. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up but I wasn't expecting you to be awake for another day."

I stare at him in shock. Why was he being so nice? There was pure fear in his eyes for my wellbeing. "How long was I unconscious?"

"4 days."

"What?!"

"You lost a lot of blood, and then your body went into shock so the combination was too much on you."

I groan out loud from the pounding in my head.

"What exactly happened?"

He hesitates for a moment before answering. "Some men just attacked us is all."

I'm quiet while contemplating his answer. First of all Damien never tells me anything usually when I ask he's all like "A little too bold angel." But he told me immediately so he either was having a change of heart or was lying to me.

I look around the room. "Where are we?"

He smiles at that. "One of my safe houses."

One of his safe houses. Which insinuated that he had more. The rich bastard. He gets up from the bed and walks over to the door and asks me if I want some hot chocolate. Once he leaves he comes back with some hot chocolate, setting it down on the desk.

I take a sip of it and close my eyes in delight, savoring the warmth. Once I open my eyes I see that he's looking at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

"What?" I ask.

He laughs lightly "Nothing, just I shower you with the most expensive things I can find. And your eyes only light up when you receive the smallest things that couldn't even compare to what I give you. Your call to your brother, that old dingy store, and something as simple as hot chocolate. I don't understand it."

I take another sip of my hot chocolate studying him closely. He's looking at me with no malice in his eyes, just pure joy and curiosity.

"Damien?"

He looks at me. "Hm?"

I take a deep breath before asking my question. "What happened to you? You can be so cruel at times, but then you can be so nice at times, and I just don't get it. You try and be so cruel on the outside but you're so kind to me sometimes."

He shifts on the bed and looks at me, all joking gone from his face. "Nevaeh. Don't underestimate me. And don't let your naivety blind you of who I truly am." He looks at his watch and turns back to me. "It's Wednesday. You should call your brother." And with that he gets up from the bed and leaves the room.

Mark and I chat for our usually hour. He asks me how I'm doing and I inquire about him. Once our hour is up I sit back and look at the screen. Just thinking about how my life took a total turn to the left in the past few months. I would have never thought in a million years I would be the victim of a kidnapping. But at least mine wasn't going too terribly. He cared about me on some sick level and that made staying with him mildly tolerable.

There was a light rap on the door frame, I jump a little startled not realizing that Damien had been sitting there. He has his arms crossed and is leaning in the doorframe.

"Do you want to get out of this room? I can take you to the living room and put on a movie or something if you want." His eyes look genuinely concerned and soft. I nod my head lightly and he walks over to me, picking me up from the bed.

I cry out in pain as the jostle from picking me up knocks my arm. When I look at Damien he looks really upset. I can see the muscle in his jaw.

"I'm sorry." I mumble out loud. He looks at me in surprise then his face turns back to anger.

"Nevaeh. You have nothing to be sorry for. This is all my fault. I grew careless and cocky and wasn't watching over you the way I was supposed to."

I look away and feel a slight sense of happiness. Damien was apologizing to me. AND taking the blame! I couldn't help the tiny smile that broke out across my face.'

"Why are you smiling."

"I don't know, you're apologizing to me. It's just nice to hear you know?"

He studies me for a moment then looks away, wiping all emotion from his face. Once we reach the living room it's just as cozy as the bedroom. And there is a giant windowed double door leading to a balcony overlooking the snowy plains. It was all in all breathtaking.

Damien sat me down on the couch and got the fireplace going, the warmth filling the whole room. He then walks over to the TV and turns on Lilo and Stitch. I smile at his memory. I told him how much I loved everything Disney and he remembered. He walks into the kitchen leaving me alone with the movie, and my thoughts to keep me company

We sat at dinner that night and Damien didn't really speak to me.

"Damien?"

"Hm?" He doesn't look up from his plate.

"How long will it take for me to heal?"

He thinks about it for a moment. "A few weeks. Luckily the bullet didn't penetrate any main arteries and went straight through muscle without hitting your bone."

He says all this like he knows what he's talking about and the thought sends a shudder down my spine. Damien had obviously dealt with these kinds of injuries before. I'm pretty confident he was the one that inflicted them 9 times out of 10.This act or whatever Damien was doing was only that. An act. He can be cruel and he'd shown me that more than once. I decide to just keep my mouth shut and focus on swallowing my soup.

It was delicious. I look at Damien who now seems to be focused on his laptop. I don't know if I should interrupt his work but I'm dying of boredom and the silence is killing me.

"Damien?"

"Hm?" He doesn't look up from his laptop

"Can we go outside?" He finally looks up from his laptop and studies me intently.

"Once your arm gets better we will angel, I promise." He smiles at me sadly and goes back to his laptop typing away at his keys. I take my bowl of soup and head back into the living room, watching movies for the rest of the afternoon.

*****