After hours

Chapter Eighteen

When I woke up the following morning I felt like complete crap. Not because of anything to do with Daniel and I. No. I literally felt like crap.

"You're so hot." Daniel muttered into the crook of my neck as we had yet to get out of bed and at this rate we were both going to be late for work.

"Thanks." I replied with a dull tone.

"No. I mean literally." He pulled away from me and pressed his palm to my forehead. "You're burning up."

"Oh." That made more sense. I didn't think I looked decent let alone hot in the morning so his speaking of temperature made much more sense to me.

"How do you feel?"

"Crappy." I admitted.

"This is where I get to show you what a relationship is like." He said gently and sat up.

I watched him silently. "Is this a storm?"

He chuckled. "No, maybe a slight drizzle at worst. Catching a cold isn't really a trial in a relationship."

"It's certainly not a ray of sunshine though." I grumbled and roll onto my stomach.

"But this is the part where I get to make you soup, get you some sprite. Rub your back until you fall asleep and put cool cloths on your head...doesn't that sound just a little bit nice?"

It did. It sounded heavenly actually. "A little I guess." I muttered.

"And then once you fall asleep I can lay next to you and hold you still so you don't get the shivers and wake up. What about that?"

I doubted 'the shivers' would wake me up. But this was quite adorable actually. "That sounds...okay..."

"And then once you get better I'll throw you on top all fours on the floor and ride you until your knees are raw with rug burn. How does that sound?"

I rolled over with laughter. "All kidding aside, some soup sounds nice. But what about work?"

"I'm the boss. I can do whatever I want." He teased. After a few moments he seemed to be thinking intently. Wouldn't it be suspicious if we were both out today?

"You should probably make an appearance." I suggest and he seems relieved.

"I'll stay."

"No. Go."

"Can I at least make you some soup first?" He whines and I smile.

"Chicken and rice." I say just before rolling back over and going to sleep.

~*~*~A few days later~*~*~

I sneezed hard into my tissue, my eighth tissue, within the past half hour.

All three of the clients across from me, and Daniel to my right leaned away from me as far as their seats would allow them.

I sniffed loudly, sucking any snot back up into my nose.

Daniel cleared his throat and continued with the presentation. "As I was saying." He shot me a dirty look. "You can see from our past investments that we've done incredibly well with the hotel business, now we think-"

I sniffed loudly and as the snot didn't seem to follow up quite the way I had intended my nose emitted a horrible snorting sound.

Daniel threw his papers back onto the counter. "Would you just go home already?" He said turning to me.

"I'm fine!" I insisted. I leaned forward to pick the papers back up and the clients from the opposite side of the desk all leaned away.

"We really don't mind." One assured me.

"I'm fine though, really."

"Ryan." Daniel started. "Go home. Call the doctor."

"I'm on antibiotics, you can't catch it." I waved him off and then held the tissue to my nose again to cover a string of sneezes.

"Go home." Everyone said in unison.

I looked around the room. "Well. Fine. I can see when I'm not wanted." I said and stood. I spent longer than necessary shuffling papers around, muttering to myself as I did so, making damn sure that everyone knew my distaste for them and this whole damn business. Finally, I exited the room.

"Ungrateful old men." I said to our assist, Izzy, as I walked past her.

"Are you leaving for the day Ms. Stevens?" Izzy said hopping to her feet and jumping backwards when I came out.

"I'm not contagious! I'm on antibiotics! Gosh." I glared at her and then finally sighed in defeat. I unloaded my papers onto my desk. "Yes, I'm going home for the day." Who was I to turn down a nice afternoon nap anyway?

I felt a hand on my forehead and groggily opened my eyes. "Hi baby." Daniel said sweetly. "I brought you some Sprite and some soup."

"Chicken and rice?" I mumbled.

"Of course." He smiled and replaced his hand with a gentle kiss to my forehead. "You look beautiful."

I laughed and rolled over to make room on the bed for him. He grimaced. "I'm not contagious!" I groaned.

"I know, I know...you're on antibiotics." He laughed and to avoid a fight crawled into bed with me.

"Will you just hold me while I sleep?" I whispered.

"Of course Ryan." I love how often he used my name. As if he had to say it just to believe it. He was with me.

I smiled to myself and snuggled up closer to him. Our bodies felt so right when they were together like this. It was a pleasant reminder that things didn't have to be sexual for us to enjoy each other's company. We could be content to just be together. To take care of each other.

I ran my hands up his chest and caught a glimpse of my ring shining back at me.

I wondered suddenly what sort of soup Victoria liked when she was sick. Who was I kidding, she probably cooked her own homemade soup even when she was sick. I imagined her with a thermometer sticking out of her mouth and a red nose rolling dumplings for her homemade chicken and dumpling stew.

Daniel rubbed his nose off of mine. "What are you making that sour face for?" He said in a teasing voice. When I didn't answer he sat up with a more serious tone he pressed on. "What's wrong baby?"

I sat up as well and hugged my pillow like a child with a teddy. "It's just, it's stupid I-" I sighed and shook my head. "Nothing."

"Tell me." He rubbed my back lightly.

"I just, I want to be in your life." I said with a voice muffled from my pillow.

"You're right, that is stupid. You are my life Ryan."

"I want to see where you live."

He dropped his hands. "Ryan."

"I told you, it's stupid." I muttered and dropped back onto the bed, shoving my face as far into the pillow as I possibly could.

We were silent for a few long moments until he laid down beside me and laid an arm lazily over me. "Okay."

I rolled back over to face him with a questioning look. "Okay?"

"If it makes you happy, okay."

I dove on top of him and kissed him over and over again. "Okay!"

He rolled over to be on top of me and threaded his fingers between mine, pinning me to the bed. He wiped his face off vigorously on the fabric around my breasts, no doubt suspecting that I had infected him with a life threatening virus now.

"How?" I whispered up to him when he lifted his head back up.

"Mm. Just let me figure out all of that. Give me a week to hash out the details?"

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All I'm going to say is you poor readers are in for quite the ride with the next couple chapters...also in two or three chapters we'll have our first of very few chapters written in Daniel's point of view.

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