When Cherry woke up, she wasn't in the hospital, the smell of hot chocolate alerted her senses making her eyes shine with life. She quickly hoists herself up desperate to find the source of the aroma. The room was dark and cold with the curtains drawn together, Cherry wondered where she was but as she tries to get up her head began to spin.
"Why is it so cold in here, and why does my brain feel heavy?" She mumbles to herself and got back on the bed.
The sound of footsteps caught her attention and the door was opened followed by the lights turning on. Cherry squints hating the harshness of the bright room attacking her weak eyes, she covers her eyes glancing at the person in front of her. He carried a tray of food and one big mug Cherry guessed to be hot chocolate. She noticed the person had frozen nearly dropping the hot chocolate mug. Cherry watched in horror wanting to save that mug of goodness before it slipped to the ground but was stopped by his words.
"You're awake!" Rex exclaims in shock and excitement and sprints up to cuddle her in his arm. "Thank God you are alright, I was really worried." He moves back to lean his forehead on her own breathing out a sigh in relief.
Cherry also closed her eyes inhaling his scent, it felt like it has been years since she last smelt him, and feeling his presence now woke something deep inside of her. 'what is happening to me!' Cherry thought. 'what makes me feel like I needed to be close to him' this new question bothered her diverting the feeling of warmth from her body.
Rex noticed the shivering of her body, he touched her head and neck feeling it cold as ice.
"Are you okay Cherry, your body feels cold." Rex rubbed his palm up and down her back in a comforting way.
"Yy-yyyyeessssss." Her teeth chattered as she spoke.
"Your body is not at the right temperature, are you cold?"  He asks and she nods in reply.
"Is it the air conditioning?" He asked again.
"Mm-uh..." She replies.
"Give me a sec I will go turn it off." Rex gently laid her back and went to turn off the AC. He returned to her side and asked. "Still cold?"
"Y-yyyy-ssss." Her teeth chatter as she talked and he sighs not feeling good about this.
"Don't worry, the room will be warm in no time. Is there any other thing you are feeling?" He asked and she shook her head.
"Can you eat? You haven't really eaten much for some time." Rex went to bring the tray and placed it on his legs.
Cherry was curious, she wanted to understand what he meant and needed to ask him how long she has been asleep but the constant shaking of her body and the chattering of her teeth was unbearable to say a word. Rex showed her the healthy sandwich and hot cup of steaming chocolate he had been making for her the past few weeks hoping that she will eat it one day.
 "Open up." He ordered.
"Noo... not... aaaa..... bab... baby." Cherry tried to tell him and shakily pushed his hand away.
"See... this is why I can't let you feed yourself, and the more reason you need healthy food in your body." Rex explains which only made Cherry groan stubbornly.
"No!"
"Cherry- if you want to get better you need food to restore your lost energy. I am not good with these things very much but please cooperate with me." Rex pleads with her but Cherry hated it, not being able to do anything for herself made her feel weak, hopeless, and intimidated. Accepting help from others means she will have to live a life of dependency and she has tried to avoid that for many years.
Cherry's greatest fear is allowing Rex to take charge of her life, and if that happens love and attraction will build up between them making them inseparable a feeling she dreads. That should have sounded good in her ears but it wasn't, Cherry had sworn never to be in a relationship, especially with the rich folks. She isn't ready to sell her life and freedom to any man at any cost. But Rex was right she needed food in her body to regain all the lost nutrients as she is unable to support a spoon in between her fingers.
"Okay."
Rex fed her slowly like a baby learning how to chew, small food particles stained her lips and some dropped on the sheets, to her surprise he didn't complain or nag only continued feeding her. Rex picked up the food particles from the sheets and disposed of them on the tray but as for the particles on her lips, he wiped them off using his index finger and licked them off his finger slowly and seductively.
Cherry was shocked with her mouth agape, she was slightly attracted to what he did but confused about why he did it. Rex closed his eyes moaning at the sweet taste of chocolate (now his favorite drink) then opened his eyes to find Cherry watching him, her jaw dropped to the ground.
"What?" He innocently asks her furrowing his brows like what he did isn't wrong.
"I thought you hated germs!" She exclaimed still trying to recover from the shock.
"I do hate germs, especially the ones humans carry around, but with you, germs have no place in my heart." He gave her a genuine simile for the first time, with no cockiness or annoying smirks, or mischief behind the smile it was a hundred percent unique and it made her smile too.
"That is a weird compliment if that was even a compliment but this is crazy." She says and gets up on her own. "Wow!" She exclaims in surprise.
"Great improvement, I knew you could recover fast." Rex praised.
"I wasn't sick then, I just needed food." Cherry smiles happily. She cheers in her head glad to be able to control her own body quicker.
"Yeah, but there is still some unsettled food particle right there." He squints his eyes looking at her lips.
"What?" She asked him not quite understanding his theory.
"Here, let me show you." He takes the tray and place it on the nightstand then leaned uncomfortably close to Cherry's face.
"What- what are you doing Mr Angelo?" Cherry freaks out and scoots away from him.
"Nothing, I was just trying to get you clean." He spoke but still stalked closer to her.
"Mr Angelo, you are not going to clean anything, stop whatever you are doing." She warns him. Cherry could have pushed him away but she allows him to get closer.
"Shh... you are going to scare it away, you need to stay still." He whispers.
"Scare what?"
"Hush." He told her and tackles her to the bed.
"Wha! Mr Angelo this is no time to play trap mouse. Get off." Cherry warns him without doing anything to stop him. It is evident she wanted what was coming, she stayed quietly on the bed with her eyes closed, she waited for him to remove the food particle but didn't expect him to lick and suck the side of her lips. Cherry squealed and pushed him off, before Rex got to complete what he started a knock came.
"What!" He snaps feeling annoyed.
"Sorry for interrupting your business, but Maria has been calling you." Ink opens the door and stepped in.
"How long?" Rex asked shielding Cherry from Ink's eye. He didn't want any guy seeing her with his shirt.
"Four weeks now." Ink answered sounding annoyed and Rex scratched his seven days stubble, thinking of ways to handle Maria.
'answer her now and I don't get to spend time with Cherry, don't answer her and hell awaits me. What difference does it make?' Maria would have to wait'
"I will answer her later. Do not answer when she calls, let it send to voice mail." Rex strictly tells Ink and he nods. "You can leave, I will call you if it is necessary."
Ink agrees and left the room closing the door behind him without a glance, he thought Rex was going to make him babysit Cherry... AGAIN!
"What's hap- happening?" Cherry asked.
"You're still shivering? Don't talk just lay down." Rex exclaimed and cuddles her from behind. "I have turned off the air conditioning, why are you still shivering?" He worries.
"I.. don't know." She stutters but embraced his arms.
"Your voice is getting better which is a good sign, let me warm you up." He takes off his shirt and went back into cuddling her. "How about now?" He asked.
"Still a bit cold." She replied.
Rex took some blankets and a duvet and wrap them, he also used his tall built frame to pass more heat to her hoping it worked.
"Better?" He asks
She didn't answer, he assumed she was already sleeping and closed his eyes to sleep. Not quite long, Cherry rocked his friend unintentionally when she was trying to find the right position to lay alerting Rex and something he planned not to use.
{first half of the chapter}