Clean

Mia doesn't know how long she stood under the shower. The more she is standing there, the cleaner she began to feel. The stench of death left her nostrils after their blood is washed off her body. She didn't bother to strip. She is feeling clean. But suddenly the shower is turned off and her bliss is ruined. 

She glared at the man who interrupted her.

"What do you want?" She snapped at him.

Reed is looking at her strangely. 

"I came to save you again princess. If you stand under that cold shower a little while longer, you will freeze to death. Your lips already turned blue and you look pale" he pointed out the fact that she didn't realize until then.

She came out of her head which is still stuck in that basement and realized that she is indeed shivering. She is a doctor whose work is to save people. But the fact that she had to kill four people with those same hands is not something she could still come to terms with. She pulled a towel from the rack nearby and wrapped it around herself. She moved past Reed and walked into the bedroom and began to rummage the closet to find something to wear, completely ignoring him. 

She found a pair of jeans and a turtle neck sweater. She began to fiddle with the zipper of her gown, which got struck. She felt a warm hand behind her back, and the zipper came down a second later. Goose bumps are left behind on her skin where his warm knuckles touched her spine. He left after that, which she is thankful for. She stripped from her wet clothes and quickly got dressed.

On the other hand, Reed is disturbed. He saw how lost and venerable she looked while standing under that cold spray. Despite her brave act, he can see that she is breaking inside. She had to kill for the first time in that basement, and what's worst is that she had to look at the dead bodies for two days. Any sane person would be traumatized by that experience. She is just being stubborn and is trying not to break in front of him.

She came and sat opposite him, and began to look blankly at the rain outside.

Reed summoned the hostess.

"Can I get you, anything Boss?" She asked in a flirty tone.

"Miss Vitiello will drink some mildly spiced soup" he instructed.

"I don't need anything" Mia interrupted.

Reed ignored Mia. 

"Go and get it" he instructed the hostess. It's his word against Mia's. Surely everyone will listen to him.

The hostess looked at Mia with a forced smile before leaving.

Mia glared at him but otherwise remained quiet.

Reed began to look over the files he was reading before Mia came.

Within five minutes, the hostess came back with the soup. She placed it in front of Mia, who refused to even touch it.

Reed sighed and closed the file with an impatient huff.

"It's either you drink it or I will make you drink it" he threatened her, which she ignored.

Matteo is confused. His boss pretends as if he doesn't care about Miss Vitiello, but makes it a point to involve in everything when she is concerned. He knows Mia is not going to obey and his boss is going to get angry. So he slipped away from there before his boss could take his anger on him.

Mia doesn't want to eat or drink anything. The stench of the dead bodies is back, suffocating her. Just the thought of eating or drinking anything with that smell still fresh in her mind is making her gag.

"I am not hungry" she lied.

She is hungry, but she cannot stomach anything. The stench in her nose is making her feel repulsed to eat anything. She wanted to forget about it, but she couldn't.

Reed closed the file he was reading and sighed heavily. He knows she must be hungry. It's been two days since she was taken, and it didn't look like they fed her anything at all. Any person would be hungry if they didn't eat for two days. He can understand why she doesn't want to eat. The basement is filled with the smell of those dead bodies whom she had to kill. It's not easy to stay in a place with dead bodies, especially for Mia.

Mia is pampered and Mr. Luca Vitiello has shielded from the worst of what they do. She knows the basics and that is it. She was sent to a boarding school to keep her away from the violence. But now she had to face the worst. He is not judging her third time. He is actually surprised that she is not crying like he thought she would. Even though she is breaking inside, she is trying to be brave and is pretending that she is unaffected.

Reed shouldn't care if she eats or not. He is taking her to the island and her family would make sure that she is well-fed. It's not his concern to think about every single detail about Mia. Nero asked him to find his sister and he did. That should end there. So he is not understanding why he is so bothered that she is starving.

'Damn this woman. She will always make me do things that i normally wouldn't do for anyone ' he thought to himself.

He shifted his seat and sat beside her. He pulled the soup bowl towards him and scooped a spoonful of soup before taking the content inside his mouth. He caught her cheeks with his palm roughly and turned her to face him. He leaned in and kissed her, feeding her the soup with his mouth.

Mia is too shocked by what he did. His minty breath and woodsy scent tingled her nostrils, for a minute she forgot that godforsaken basement and basked in his scent before realization settled in. She understood that he is feeding her because she refused to eat it herself. She wanted to spit it out, but his warning glare stopped her. Moreover, she is really hungry. Thus he began to feed her and she ate it grudgingly. After he is done, he simply moved back to his seat as if he is not bothered by her lips and her taste.

'This is a mistake ' he thought when he still couldn't forget how soft her lips were and her mouthwatering taste. 

He never kissed her in the two years he came to know her. But today he kissed her more than twenty times, which is messing with his head. She is off limits, but that never stopped him from taunting and tormenting her.

He looked at the woman who is the cause of his misery and who is currently sleeping. Her sleep is disturbed, and she is looking scared.

'I am going to regret this ' he thought to himself, but still changed his seat again and sat beside her. She immediately leaned into him and gradually relaxed.

"Reed" she murmured sleepily.