Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 28
03. The Effect of Skinship
“Your Highness?”
“You’re laughing, Rienna. I’m sick to death right now and you’re laughing?”
“Are you sick? Where are you going?”
His hips jerked. I tried to examine his body right away, but his hand held me back.
“You tell me. Does your back hurt? Why did you sleep here?”
“My back doesn’t hurt.”
“Then where does it hurt?”
“My heart.”
“What?”
“My heart hurts.”
Psychiatric treatment was not my specialty. I have no talent for counseling.
“Why are you sick?”
But I asked anyway, and Helios smiled faintly. It was a smile like a painting smeared with water. It was pretty, but bitter, and it made my heart sink.
“I’m sorry your heart hurts,” I said, “that you’re in pain.”
“Same here.”
Helios’s low voice echoed in my ears. The sound sent shivers down my spine.
“It hurts when you’re in pain, too,” he said.
I didn’t expect him to say that. At best, I thought I would hear that it was uncomfortable and difficult when I was sick.
Helios’s smile grew brighter as I glanced away, unsure of how to respond to him.
“And I’m even more upset that I’m the reason for it.”
Ah, he found out.
He grabbed my hand as I reflexively pulled up the covers.
“Rienna, I’m going to heal you this time. Just like you did for me.”
The mixture of gratitude, responsibility, and guilt he felt for me washed over me like a great wave. Just as mixing different colors can make them muddy, the emotions I felt from him were cloudy and heavy.
It was almost too much to take in.
“I’m the attending physician,” I said. “You’re the employer.”
The joke that was meant to be light came out with a slight tremor. At least it was an effort to lighten the mood, and Helios relaxed his shoulders and smiled.
“Are our positions the problem?”
“That too, but…”
The problem was there was no foreseeable treatment. He’d be imprinting with the heroine, not me.
“Then I’ll change your title.”
“How?”
“Marry me, Rienna.”
I could almost hear my own face cracking. I hadn’t expected to hear my first proposal—or multiple proposals, for that matter—as soon as I woke up at dawn, not even having enough time to blink away my drowsiness, and having never been in a relationship.
The words spilled out of my mouth unfiltered. “Your Highness, are you crazy?”
***
Helios excused himself, saying that he would look up the material on imprinting. As soon as he left, I collapsed and fell asleep. It wasn’t until late afternoon that Jamie woke me up.
“You’re crazy,” she said in an unimpressed voice.
When I woke up and told her about the morning’s happenings.
“His Majesty is obviously very surprised,” I said. “And his brain is clouded with guilt. Perhaps we should give him some spicy soup to energize his mind.”
I mumbled as I leaned against the head of the bed, feeling better after a good night’s sleep with Helios at my side. Jamie removed the tray from my lap and checked me carefully.
“I’m going to open the door, do you mind?”
“I opened the door, are you cold?”
“Tell me if the wind is cold. Is there anything else you need? If the blanket is heavy, would you like to change it to a lighter one?”
Jamie’s meticulous care was touching. I leaned my head against the wall comfortably and smiled brightly.
“Jamie, you’re good. Did you learn that from me?”
“What?”
“Nursing.”
Jamie was silent for a moment as she considered the implications of my words, then she spoke with some hesitation.
“I was just doing what I was asked.”
“Huh?”
“Your Highness ordered me to do it.”
Jamie pulled a thick wad of paper from her bosom and held it out. The neat handwriting that read ‘Rules for Nursing Rienna’ caught my eye.
Rule 1. Check Rienna’s temperature, complexion, and mood from time to time and record them.
Rule 2. Ask Rienna’s permission before doing anything.
There were over a hundred rules that he wrote down. The notebook, with its detailed notes on care and instructions for maintaining a comfortable environment, could be considered a caregiver’s bible.
And it felt familiar somehow.
These are the things I did for him.
They were attentive, but not overbearing.
He remembered all this?
It was touching that he wrote the instructions for me, but I was more impressed by the fact that he remembered all my efforts. It made me feel like I’d been helpful enough for him to remember.
I was tickled, like there were butterflies in my stomach.
