The Way to a Man's Heart

Chapter 32

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Tee's POV

The pain medication that I took for my migraine took over after some minutes, and because the side effect of most pain medications is drowsiness, I fell asleep even before Tae came back from his shower.

The rays of the sun were peeping though the narrow slit between my bedroom curtains when I woke up.

I gasped when I realized that Tae was standing beside my bed looking down at me.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his hands placed on either side of his hips, his elbows jutting outward.

"My migraine is gone but I don't feel strong enough to get up and go to work," I replied.

"I would advise against it," he said firmly.

"Do you need assistance to walk over to the bathroom?" he asked.

"Let me try going on my own," I said, sitting up and scooting over to the edge of my bed. "Be prepared to catch me when my knees start to wobble."

Suddenly I found myself being lifted by his strong arms.

"I'm not going to wait for that to happen," he said as he walked towards the bathroom with me in his arms.

He set me down slowly when we got inside my bathroom.

He took my toothbrush and toothpaste tube from their holder and squeezed just enough toothpaste on to the bristles of my toothbrush before handing it over to me.

"Thanks," I said, accepting my toothbrush from him. "I can manage from here on in."

He didn't seem to take the hint because he continued to stand there watching me.

"I would like to brush my teeth without being watched," I said, to drive home the point that I wanted him out of my bathroom.

He turned on his heel without taking a step.

"I won't watch you brush your teeth, but I'm staying right here in case you collapse," he said firmly. "I don't want you falling and banging your head against the corner of your bathroom sink and having to rush you to the ER with a bloody head."

"Jeezuz, Tae," I exclaimed. "It's scary the way your mind can conjure up such a gory image."

 But true enough, after I finished brushing my teeth, my knees started to wobble.

"You don't have the strength to take a proper shower yet," he said, scooping me in his strong sturdy arms once more.

He brought me back to my bed and announced, "Now I will give you a proper bed bath."

"No!" I protested, my heart jumping up to my throat.

"And why not?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I would rather that you did not," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"And why not?" he asked once more, his eyes boring into mine.

I decided to be brave and to come clean.

"Because I'm falling for you, Tae, and I don't want to get hurt," I said my voice hitching on the last word of my sentence.

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly feeling dry as I waited for his reaction.

"Since you have been open and honest with me, I will return the favor," he said, inhaling deeply before continuing to talk. "It's true I am not totally over my ex-boyfriend, but I am starting to fall for you as well. If that wasn't the case I wouldn't be here with you right now."

His revelation made my heart flip over in my chest.

"But still, I'd rather that you didn't give me that bed bath that you're offering," I said firmly. "Thank you anyway."

Then before he could insist, I said, "There's actually a favor that I would like to ask of you."

"Your wish is my command," he said with that smile that hit me solidly in my solar plexus.

"Over on my coffee table in the living room, there is a dark blue binder that contains cuttings of fabrics from my father's factory," I said. "If it's not going to be a big bother for you, I would like for you to bring it over to Pavel this morning and ask him to go over them and choose which fabrics would best go with the men's apparel that he is designing."

I knew that making Tae go over to Pavel's apartment was risky business for me. There was always the chance that he would bump into Dome who was the manager of his father's apartment building where Pavel was.

"Very well," Tae said. "Call me any time that you need me to come back to you."

Then without warning, he bent down and planted a soft kiss on my lips.