"Take your medicine first." Evelyn took a disposable cup to get him some hot water.
"Okay." When she wasn't looking, Sheffield threw the medicine away and replaced it with vitamin C tablets.
Evelyn didn't give him the cup of water. She took it into the bedroom and said to him, "Come in and lie down."
Sheffield followed her into the bedroom and lay on the bed.
"Where's the medicine?" she asked.
"Here it is." Then he took the pills.
Evelyn had no time to stop him from taking the pills. "Why were you in such a hurry? The water is still too hot!"
However, he managed to down the pills even without chasing them down with water.
Evelyn was on the brink of a meltdown. She went out and poured some cold water into the cup until the water was warm. "Drink this so you can wash the pills down."
"Okay." He obediently drank the entire cup.
Satisfied, Evelyn threw the empty cup into the trash can and made him lie down on the bed. "You should sleep."
"Okay." He closed his eyes as if he was sleepy.
When she turned around to take a shower, he grabbed her hand. "Evelyn, don't go. I'm not feeling well," he said weakly.
"I'm not leaving. I'm going to take a shower." She sat beside the bed and comforted him softly.
"No shower, Evelyn. I want to sleep with you in my arms." He wouldn't let go of her.
Evelyn sighed since he was acting like a spoiled brat. "Okay, I'll just take off my coat."
She pulled her arm from his grip, picked up his coat that he had placed at the foot of the bed, and hung it next to her coat on the rack.
Sheffield moved to make room for her on the bed.
As soon as Evelyn lay in bed, he pulled her into his arms.
She relaxed when he didn't try anything else and just held her in his arms.
"Evelyn, I want to talk to you," he whispered in her ears. To himself, he thought, 'She's on guard, so I need to do something or say something to let her guard down.'
"Aren't you sleepy?"
"I'm not sleepy yet!"
"Okay, then tell me." She listened carefully.
Whenever she was in a conversation, she always acted as the listener but never the talker.
"But I want to listen to you talk. If you tell me a story, maybe I'll fall asleep soon."
Evelyn didn't know what to say. Tell stories? That was hard for her. Since he was sick, she reluctantly compromised. "What do you want to hear?"
"I want to hear your story." He was only interested in her.
Evelyn looked outside the window at the night. She touched his forehead, and luckily, it wasn't burning at all. "I don't have many stories. Before I met you, I had a monotonous life." She studied hard before graduation and worked hard after that. She couldn't let down the people who had believed in her.
"Is there anyone you admire?" he suddenly asked.
After considering this for a while, she answered, "Yes, my mom."
"Why?"
"Because my mother has a husband who loves her very much and three children who love her just the same. On top of that, it's her free and easy-going nature that I just adore. I hope I can be like my mom so that I can do whatever I want at will. For example, whenever she's at home, she just casually lies on the sofa not caring what anyone's thinking of her. She doesn't pay attention to her posture or what others think or say about her. She eats to her heart's content. She's not afraid to run around and scream at the top of her voice if she's happy. She goes on walks with my dad in slippers…" All these were given to her mom by her father. To put it bluntly, Evelyn envied the way her mother was loved by her father.
It didn't matter to her father whether what her mother did was right or wrong because he loved her anyway.
"I want to live like my mother does, carefree and all that, but I can't. As long as I'm not home, I represent the ZL Group and the Huo family. I can't possibly disgrace the company or my family…" She only dared to let herself go a little when she was with Sheffield.
"My father once gave me advice. He told me to relax and to be like my mother. He said I could go on a trip anytime I want, but I could never do it. I just don't feel confident enough. I feel like life is too exhausting sometimes…"
He could sense how tired she was just from her voice. He pulled her into his arms and coaxed, "Evelyn, you don't have to work so hard."
"I don't want to, but I have to." As Carlos' daughter and the regional CEO of ZL Group, she had a lot of responsibilities.
Sheffield kissed her lips and said, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. You should remember that you're a princess and should be loved and taken care of by the people around you."
"Sometimes I feel that way, but I'm always overwhelmed by how tiring my life really is! When I was a child, Grandma and Dad hired several servants to take care of me. Everything was done for me. But I didn't like that kind of life and I was unhappy. Later, I asked my grandmother to dismiss the maids. I began to learn how to do things myself. That's how I realized what I really wanted."
With a smile, Sheffield commented, "It's good to be independent!"
"Yes. Do you feel sleepy now?" Evelyn raised her head and looked at him, his eyes gleaming.
Suddenly, he turned over and pressed her under his body. She could feel his warm breath on her face. "I had a good meal tonight. Now I'm all fired up and I can't sleep. So…"
Evelyn thought to herself, 'So, did I fall into his trap?' "Since you're so excited, I'm leaving."
"Please don't!" With a sly grin on his face, he pulled up the quilt to cover their bodies and said, "It's already late and we're alone. Are you sure you want to waste this opportunity?"
"No, you can't do this. Mmph—" His mouth suddenly covered hers.
'What a bastard! How could he do this to me? How dare he trick me like this!'
The next day, Evelyn didn't have her breakfast until it was almost noon. Tayson called her and picked her up.
To avoid gossip, she asked Sheffield to wait in the room before she left the hotel.
Sheffield didn't mind. He curled up on the sofa with satisfaction, watching her leave with her hand on her waist. She was sore all over.
When Evelyn left the room, she passed by some staff chatting. One of them said, "We didn't have many guests last night, huh? There was only one room that was booked on this floor. The two guests stayed in the Presidential Suite."
"No, no. That wasn't the case. The receptionist said that the guest in Room 1609 booked the whole floor."
