Hush, My Sweet Darling

Chapter 41: Time to Gloat

Violet lay sprawled on her bed, looking at the ceiling. Her face was flushed, her heart raced in a euphoric state, and her body was still releasing endorphins from that torrid kiss. She touched her lips. His taste still lingered there.

That night, she finally learned what a real kiss should feel like.

She didn't know for how long their tongues had tangled. All she knew was how he'd kept kissing her as though he were a starved man, feasting for the first time in a long while. He'd briefly let her go just a few times to catch her breath before he continued to claim her lips again.

But the ferocity of his desire didn't suffocate her. Quite the contrary, she wanted more. She wanted to give him more of whatever it was he'd been starving for.

When he finally let go of her, his breathing was heavy. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice slightly raspy.

"More than okay..." she whispered. Kai's touch seemed to have awakened a certain craving inside her. The kind that made her eyes glazed with a need she couldn't possibly comprehend. He responded with a laugh. It rang like coarse gauze in her ears—deep and sexy.

His hands cupped her cheeks, holding her steady, stroking her skin gently with his thumb. He took a long look at her—his eyes soft, his smile captivating. Right under the milky glow of the moon, he avowed, "Violet Lee, from now on, let's see and get to know each other seriously."

Her soul then took flight to the seventh heaven and hadn't found its way back to earth since.

***

The next day...

It was Thursday morning, and Kiko had just finished her morning pre-round. She pulled out her phone and typed a message to Violet.

Hey sugar, how was dinner last night? Did you come clean to your parents about your Friday date with Mr. Superintendent Hunk? Hope they weren't too disappointed.

There were still fifteen minutes before the morning briefing. She decided to get herself some coffee from the staff lounge.

The news of Grace being arrested had reached the hospital like a dropped bomb by then. It was the only topic everyone had been talking about lately, and it didn't seem like it would die down soon. Even now, the staff lounge buzzed with the idle talks of that very topic.

Kiko overheard a group of young nurses chatting as she waited for her coffee.

"I heard she's a high-end escort, and her customers are rich old geezers."

"Tsk! And to think that she always acts so decent and reserved around us. Truly, you can't judge a book by its cover..."

"What a two-faced bitch."

"My boyfriend works for the police," another nurse chimed in. "And I heard that's not only it. She got arrested because she was trying to get her friend raped by drugging her."

All the other nurses gasped. Their faces uniformly scrunched up into a disapproving scowl.

"That's just wrong!"

"Yeah! She can whore herself around for all I care, but to do that to a fellow woman, and a friend too at that..."

"Despicable!"

Kiko's lips curled up into a smirk. Grace's reputation seemed to have sunk faster than the Titanic.

Serves her right, she mocked.

She left the staff lounge, proceeding toward the meeting room, where the morning brief was always held. On her way there, she spotted Dr. Gao talking to a familiar person.