Chapter 8 Kassandra's caring side

Gabriel's POV

I was surprised when she was still beside me. Both of her hands were holding mine, and she seemed to be very worried about my situation. I recall running into her at the front door. Her eyes were red as tears fell.

She is trembling while checking on my wounds. I'm already dizzy from the loss of blood, but I adore that expression. I saw that clearly. When she starts attending to me, that's when I realize how lucky I am to have her.

No one had cried for my sake except for my loyal men and Nanny Meryl. I remember when Kayla saw me with just a stab in my abdomen and a cut in my arms. She laughs at me and shows no empathy.

She enjoys what I look like and even curses me to death. She never sheds tears or shows a worried expression, even if it's a fake one. But Kassandra is different from all the ladies I have in my life.

She cried for me and got scared when she saw that I was covered in blood. I never expected that she would do such a thing for me.

"I never thought of that. All I knew was that Mom had died along with those roses, which had been sent anonymously. The vase was used to hit me by my father and stepmother. Dad always threw a vase in front of me and made sure that the debris would cut my lower leg. As for my stepmother, she always uses the vase to hit my face. I just learned lately that she did that to deform my face out of my stepsister's envy of my beauty."

"There was one time when dad got upset because I told him that his beloved wife and stepdaughter tried to push me in a lake while we were in a boat. Of course, they deny it. I told him how unjust he is and how he treats me as if I were his stepdaughter. He gets mad and tells me I'm just a spoiled brat. He grabs the new vase in the fireplace and hits me with it. My head starts to bleed and puff! I passed out and was hospitalized for three days."

She is just laughing and acting tough as she tells me the things she went through. Is that the reason her eyes were lonely? She stood up and turned her back. I grab her hand, and she looks back. I want her to stay beside me. I need her here with me.

"Stay here. If you need anything, just use the intercom. Don't leave me," I remark. She walks back and suddenly kisses my cheek. What was that for? Why is my heart pounding so hard?

"I'll get us some food to eat. I haven't eaten anything yet. I am still guarded, remember? There's no way I can escape here."

I drag her down and end up sitting on the bed. I hugged her and nestled into her belly. She smells nice, like a baby, and a bit sweet as well. I didn't let her go, and she stayed like this.

She starts brushing my hair and doesn't say anything. It is soothing, actually. She let me hold her like that for minutes until she asked for food from the intercom. Markus and Nanny Meryl came in holding single trays in their hands. She pulled the chair over and helped me get up and lean on the headboard.

"How is Oscar's family?" I ask. Markus looks at her.

"It's okay. I'm technically your boss's woman. I have no plans of betraying him," she simply replied.

She grabs the apple and cuts it into pieces. I saw Nanny Meryl leave silently. Kassandra raised my hand and tried to feed him a slice of apple. Markus seems embarrassed, or maybe he is not used to seeing the woman I forced to stay nursing me like this.

"Eat, you need that to recover. I don't want you to die. At least stay with me for decades or until you want me to. Come on."

I take a bite, and I know she noticed that I purposefully touch her finger with my lips. She doesn't mind, and I realize that she is starting to accept the new life that she has with me.

"They are okay now, boss. The couple was indebted because you saved their child. They are now safe in the condo building for our men. The enemy will almost certainly not enter that location and attempt to destroy it. I'm just glad we saved them on time," he says.

"Make sure to warn that group. They forgot their place."

"Yes, boss. Don't worry. I'll go ahead. I will take care of everything until you recuperate properly," he says.

I nodded. He bows his head and leaves us. I look at her. She is deboning the fish and placing the plate in front of me. We start eating, and she always checks to see if I ate everything on my plate.

She's scarier than my mother when it comes to teaching me not to be picky about what I eat. When we finished eating, she left the tray behind the door because I told her to stay here. If she disobeyed me, I'd punish her, but she seems to follow my instructions.

What a good girl! She checks my wounds and suggests that she'll change the bandage and clean them as well. I look at her in confusion. I never thought she had such medical skills.

"I'm a premed student. No one knows, not even my father. I hid that from them and made sure that they didn't know about the second career that I chose. But since they kicked me out, I was forced to stop this semester. I want to be a general surgeon, actually. But here I am, being kidnapped by a mafia boss and forced to become his sex slave. What a twist in life, right?" she remark.

I know she is being sarcastic, and I understand her for being one. I don't harbor any hard feelings for her, actually. There's a part of me that wants to spoil her rotten and then pulp her out until she runs out of blood. But honestly, I like seeing her struggle as a human being.

"Then continue that damn study. I wonder how good-looking you are in a white coat," I remark. Her eyebrows furrowed. Why? Is it because I said something funny that she has such a funny expression on her face? Come on, I'm not that bad a person, like she thought I was.

"In return? What do you want from me for that, huh?" she asks.

I scoff. Maybe I need to threaten her. She really saw me as a rascal, as she imagined a mafia boss could be. I sighed.

"Kiss me, hug me, and have sex with me. Are you okay with that all?" I ask. She suddenly laughs and flicks my forehead. This woman! I don't understand what she is thinking! I just answered the way she wanted, and now she's laughing at me?

"Don't laugh at me. I'm not a clown. Just clean my wounds, or even kill me if that's what you want," I roared.

She leaned over and suddenly kissed me. My eyes widened. That is rather quick, but I saw how flustered she is. What the hell is she thinking?! She is like ice and fire. I didn't know how I should handle her. My goodness!

She begins to clean my wounds. She even blew it off whenever she used alcohol. It stings, but it fades away every time she does that. She changes my bandages with care and makes sure that she's gentle with me.

She takes her seat again and looks at me with a serious expression. I'm just waiting for her to tell me what she had in mind. But I didn't wait another 30 minutes for another.

She just opened a book and read it in front of my face. I just let her be and decided to rest and recover as soon as possible. When I wake up, she is not beside me.

I decided to get off the bed and leave the room. My wounds are killing me. I look around to find her. I hope she didn't use this chance to flee. I was about to open the front door when someone spoke.

"Why did you get up? You should've waited for me in your room. You shouldn't force yourself to walk around!" she yells.

I turn around. I took a step and hugged her. I was ready to send my men to search for her if she ran away. I'm glad that she is just here inside my mansion. I released her a bit. She held my face and tiptoed. This time, she kissed me torridly.

"I know you will search every corner of this city just to find me. I can't run away from your closeness. It's pointless to remain under your watch. I don't have anything to lose anyway. No one will help me if I ask for their help. If I went beyond what your eyes can see. I am just around the corner from this mansion. Get it?" she says.

I put my hands on her shoulder and looked at her intently. I have to know her final answer, her true decision.

"Can you tell me what you think about the proposal? These actions of yours, what is the meaning of this?" I asked.