Colton glanced down at Nicole. After recovering from her sickness, her complexion looked much better and was not as pallid as the previous night. The culprit that had kicked him, her white and tender feet, were still exposed outside the quilt.
Along with the kick earlier, it seemed that she had almost recovered her strength.
“It’s fine as long as you’re alright,” Colton said graciously.
Nicole felt guilty when she saw how big-hearted Colton was. She pushed the blanket away and got out of bed, wanting to walk to Colton and apologize properly to him.
However, unexpectedly, the effects of the medicine last night coupled with the overnight fever made her weak. Even though she could stand up, she was still not strong enough to walk.
As she stepped forward with one foot, she had no strength in her legs. As a result, her knees gave out, causing her to lose balance and fall forward.
With his fast reflexes, Colton managed to grab Nicole, but he couldn’t stop his body from falling. Nicole also habitually reached forward and grabbed Colton’s sleeve.
Because of this fall, Nicole opened her mouth in horror, and her teeth just happened to bump into Colton’s chin.
Colton originally thought that he could support Nicole’s weight, but he never expected the two of them would make a beeline for the floor. Accompanied by the tingling sensation on his chin, Colton’s already injured butt once again hit the ground, this time with a heavy object pressing down on his body. Subsequently, he grunted in pain. Though it was still early in the morning, he had received two heavy blows in succession, and Colton felt his mind turn hazy.
Nicole clearly felt her teeth knocking on his chin as well. Despite that, she hurriedly reached out and tried to prop herself up. In her hurry, her arm weakened, and she collapsed again on the spot where she had just smashed her teeth onto.
Fortunately, Nicole had already closed her mouth this time, and her lips landed on his chin.
However, Colton could still feel a tingling pain. After all, he had just suffered from a heavy blow that directly caused him to bleed from his chin. Even if it was her lips that pressed down on his chin this time, it still hurt.
Afraid that something else would happen, Nicole simply rolled to the side before slowly getting up.
Colton had also gotten up, but he looked a little worse for wear. His handsome face looked dark and glum, and most importantly, there was blood seeping from his chin.
The silence in the room grew thick with embarrassment.
Nicole toughened up and carefully glanced up, saying a little tearfully, “I’m sorry, President Gardner, I… I didn’t mean to…” Although her words were sincere, she had no confidence at all. She didn’t expect her legs to give out on her. In hindsight, it felt like she was taking advantage of him.
Colton stretched out his hand and touched his chin. He looked at the blood stains on his fingertips, and then glanced at Nicole’s guilty expression. At the sight of it, he couldn’t get angry even if he wanted to. Then, he mustered a small smile and said calmly in a hoarse voice, “It’s alright.”
Saying that, Colton turned around and paused before continuing, “I’m going downstairs first. Miss Anderson, please come down once you’re done washing up.”
“Okay.” Nicole nodded with her back toward him. Once Colton left the room, she covered her face and flopped onto the bed. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my entire life! When she thought of the scene earlier, she yearned for a hole to open up in the floor so she could bury herself in it. That was so awkward!
Nicole sat at the head of the bed, unable to recover for a long time. Her face flushed instantly whenever she recalled what had happened. How embarrassing!
She loitered in her room for a long time, but still had to leave in the end.
When she left the room, she was still wearing loose pajamas, making her look like a child that had stolen an adult’s clothes. However, she couldn’t find the clothes she had worn yesterday, so she had no choice but to come out like this.
Downstairs, Annie had already prepared the food, and Colton was sitting at the dining table, eating slowly.
Taking small steps, Nicole walked down and snuck a peek at Colton. She was grateful to Colton from the bottom of her heart for yesterday’s incident. After all, if it weren’t for him, she would have lost her dignity.
As she took her seat, Annie immediately brought her some porridge with a smiling face. “Miss, you had a fever last night, and you probably don’t have much appetite in the morning. Please have some porridge.”
Nicole nodded and thanked her politely, “All right, thank you.” She really didn’t have much of an appetite at the moment, and her mouth felt bland because of the fever.
Then, she lowered her head and ate, neither of them saying a word. A while later, she secretly glanced up at Colton. Although there wasn’t much expression on his face as he lowered his head and ate his meal stiffly, whenever he looked up, she could see the imprint on his chin.
Nicole was about to say something until she saw the injury on Colton’s face.
Then, she chose to quietly lower her head as she gobbled up her food.
After picking up the courage to look at the man again to say something, she was stopped by Annie, who had abruptly entered the room.
“Miss Anderson,” she started. “I have washed and dried your clothes. They are now in your room upstairs.”
“Alright. Thank you,” Nicole quickly nodded and said her thanks.
With a smile on her face, Annie replied, “You are welcome.”
Right when she was about to head upstairs, Colton suddenly called out to her from behind. “Come down after you’ve changed into your working attire. We’ll go to work together.”
Nicole only gave a simple ‘Okay’ as she nodded in response. At the same time, she couldn’t help but take a peek at Colton’s face. Seeing that he didn’t seem to be in a particularly bad mood, she let out a sigh of relief before hurrying upstairs.
She didn’t take much time to change into something else. They soon got into Colton’s vehicle and finally set off for the company.
Both of them did not speak a word to each other throughout their journey on the road. Nicole was the first one to break the silence when she gingerly brandished a Band-Aid she had procured from Annie on her way out.
“Would you like a piece of Band-Aid, President Gardner?” she asked.
The obvious scar on his chin was way too conspicuous to be left out in the open for people to see.
Then, he lowered his gaze to look at the Band-Aid in Nicole’s hand, and with raised brows, he humorously asked in return, “You think this Band-Aid on me can hide this scar from everyone?”
An embarrassed Nicole rubbed her nose and grumbled, “It can at least cover a part of it.”
Colton only turned and started to walk away instead of answering her.
Upon being ignored, Nicole’s gaze started to shift between the man’s retreating figure and the Band-Aid in her hand. Is he mad…
It wasn’t like she couldn’t understand his anger. After all, he was hurt consecutively 3 times because of her…
The ends of her hair were starting to stand when she recalled how she had kicked Colton out of the bed that morning, but she soon brought herself out of her reverie with a shake of her head. Then, she immediately started making her way to her office.
As soon as she pushed the door open, she was greeted by the sight of a petite young girl seated in her office. With her little back toward Nicole, she had her head tilted downward as she swiped the screen of her phone. Besides that, the sound of her phone was set on speaker at a loud volume without consideration of the surroundings.
Nicole stayed calm despite that. She then took small steps toward the girl and lightly knocked on the surface of the table to get the girl’s attention. “May I ask who you are?”
The girl’s head whipped around to look at the source of the voice as she began to blatantly stare at Nicole. Her eyebrows began to wiggle mischievously as a smile appeared on her face. At that moment, Nicole couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the young girl was.
Now that her interest was piqued, the young girl kept her phone away before staring into Nicole’s eyes. “I saw Colton carrying you home last night,” she hummed.
It was a simple sentence, yet one could easily tell that there were tons of hidden messages underlying it.
“Could you be Wendy?” Nicole asked with uncertainty after raking her brain.
Wendy was caught by surprise upon hearing her name coming out of Nicole’s lips. She immediately hopped out of the chair and cheered, “You know who I am?”
“Yup,” Nicole replied with a nod of the head. Then, she walked over to the sofa at the side and sat down as she said in a relaxed manner, “President Gardner has mentioned you before. He wanted me to design a gown for you.”
“Really?! Will you really do it, Miss Lisa?” An excited Wendy cheered again when she heard that.
Nicole nodded again in response. “Yes. I’m familiar with it as I used to specialize in haute couture.”
It had been something that Colton asked of Nicole some time ago, and she had accepted the offer as well.
Wendy was so ecstatic after hearing Nicole’s words that she completely forgot about what she had wanted to say next.
She would definitely be the prettiest of them all during the dinner if she wore a custom-designed gown by Lisa!
Her grin was still plastered on her face when she waddled in front of Nicole. “Can I request something?” she asked.
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