A Graduation Gift

Chapter 229 Help Me Showering

The clock that hung on the wall of the hospital room tickled 7 o' clock, and it was a cold evening. The spring rain kept falling outside while Cassandra was busy with peeling an apple for Rufus. Enticed by the look of the fresh fruits, she added some oranges and bananas, placed them on a plate and handed it to Rufus.

"Can you help me eat these fruits?"

Rufus popped out a request as he lovingly looked at her.

Hesitant at first, Cassandra opened her mouth to refuse but was held silent on second thought. After all, he was a patient and she should take care of him. Carefully, she cut the fruits into smaller pieces with her fruit knife, picked a small piece and lifted it gently to his mouth.

"No, I want you to feed me using your mouth!" Rufus blurted a silly request and refused to take the apple on the toothpick.

With an intimidating expression in his eyes, Rufus smiled a little and looked at Cassandra.

"Alright, I bet you don't want to eat any fruit for now!"

With a heavy hand, Cassandra put the fruit plate on the table and decided not to bear with him again. The more she yearned to him, the eager he was in teasing her.

'What a greedy man you are, Rufus, ' Cassandra cursed silently.

Seeing that she was pissed off, Rufus reached out for her hands to give her a hug. But Cassandra was so annoyed that she didn't want any body contact with him. She struggled with all her might to free herself from Rufus's grasp. When all of a sudden, Rufus let out an alarming gasp, "Ouch! My leg!"

Showing a miserable expression on his face, Rufus knitted his eyebrows and puckered his lips. Cassandra relaxed her body and stopped struggling in his arms. She held her breath because she was so nervous at what might cause the pain in Rufus.

Rufus chuckled silently and heaved a sigh of content. Realizing that he was joking with her, Cassandra stared at him with eyes in a huff. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"Why are you staring at me that way, my little frog?"

Feeling silly like a child, Rufus lifted the corner of his mouth and cracked a charming smile at her. He was trying to calm her down using his charm. But for Cassandra, his efforts were futile and his words still sounded ironic.

"Hmm, to see where you can go, big fly!" Cassandra contradicted immediately.

Still annoyed by his prank, Cassandra kept fixing her stony stare at Rufus, blaming him for his unreasonableness and unusual behavior. She stayed with him almost twenty-four hours a day; because of his injuries, Cassandra couldn't leave him alone and had to do everything he asked her to do.

These past few days, she was always late to work in the morning and left her office early in the afternoon. With her performance, she believed that her image of being an excellent boss had been ruined. Despite all these, she didn't regret a thing, because Rufus was more important than anything else.

"Well, the big fly wants meat…"

Carelessly, Rufus never minded what she said. He gazed at her bare neck and ran his eyes down her chest.

"No way!" Cassandra shouted straightaway.

Her cheeks turned crimson red as she put her hands around her neck hurriedly and glared at him as if her eyesight was burning.

It was ridiculous of him to run his eyes like that when he was still lying on the sickbed because of his broken leg.

Their sweet fight, however, was disturbed when they heard a knock on the door. Cassandra jumped out of his arms in a shock and straightened her clothes promptly.

On the other hand, Rufus just lay comfortably on the bed and didn't move a bit.

"Come in," he shouted towards the door.

Straightening his back, he lifted his head a little to have a clear view of the visitor.

Victor came in with his usual poker face and walked directly to Rufus, not minding Cassandra as if she was invisible.

"Mr. Luo, because of Mr. Tang's incapability, we've missed many projects that were supposed to be in the bag. The worst was that the Dawn Star Group got them all. The entire board of directors was shaken and they're waiting for you to take over, expecting that we can fight back."

Although Victor was emotionless when he was reporting to Rufus, there was an air of disdain in his eyes.

Being a veteran in the business, Rufus was not surprised by this news—he had foreseen it in advance.

"I've reminded them that the Dawn Star Group would make some big movements and that they needed to get ready, but it seems that things are not developing as expected."

Realizing that the worst things he expected did happen to the company, Rufus raised his eyebrow and spoke with an expression of understanding.

All this time, Rufus knew Lionel's ability in terms of running a company—he lacked strategy. The Tang Group was more dead than alive under his management while the Dawn Star Group had grown up bigger and stronger. Arthur needed to establish his own credibility by suppressing the development of the Tang Group. However, Lionel himself had not realized it and didn't take any precautions.

"Do you have any suggestion to the board, Mr. Luo?" Victor asked firmly.

Still stiff and emotionless as he naturally was, Victor looked at Rufus and waited for his instructions.

"Tell them to wait for me. I'll go to the company tomorrow and have a meeting with them..."

Hardly before Rufus finished his words, Cassandra interrupted him and strongly objected his decision.

"No, you won't. You can't even walk normally and you need at least a month to recover. You're not going anywhere!"

Looking at the plaster cast on his leg worriedly, she glanced at him unpleasantly and gave him an alarming expression.

"It's okay. I can manage it. Please take it easy and I will be fine."

With a soothing expression, Rufus looked into her eyes as if telling her to relax and then turned to Victor.

"It would be better if Lionel will be there tomorrow as well, and I want him to explain why things have gone out of control these past days," he said seriously.

In return, Victor nodded to him and left the room without any more words. Rufus loosened up on the bed after Victor disappeared from the door and shut off the business from his mind.

"Cassandra, don't you feel I smell awful now?"

he asked coyly and sniffed at his underarm. He couldn't have a bath since he broke his leg in the accident. Although Cassandra wiped him with warm towers every day, it was a torture for him because he was a fanatic for cleanliness.

"No, I don't think so. It's okay with me and I didn't smell anything except for the disinfectant."

Cassandra glimpsed at him and paid no attention to the implication in his words. She was annoyed that he didn't take his own injury to heart.

The way Rufus asked was somewhat reluctant; if only he could manage to walk, he would be clean and fresh all by himself. However, the injury left him with no choice but to depend on Cassandra.

"Cassandra, can you help me to take a shower?"

Intentionally, Rufus pretended not to see the expression on her face and finally spoke out his request. Then with his dark and mysterious eyes, he fixed his stare on her innocently.

Not knowing how to respond, Cassandra blushed as red as a cherry immediately. She had never expected that he would ask her to help him to a shower.

"I need to go to work tomorrow, and it's not polite to let the directors sit in with the smell. Please put some waterproof bandage on my leg and help me to the bathroom,"

With a smile, Rufus instructed Cassandra what she should do, after realizing that his request left her blank and surprised.

After wearing the bandages on his broken leg, Cassandra helped him to the bathroom and turned around to face the door. The next moment, she was curious why he was standing there with one foot and did nothing.

"Why don't you start showering?" she asked.

Confusion covered her face, and she didn't realize that she caught in a trap with nowhere to go.

"Turn around and take off my clothes for me!" Rufus urged.

Childishly, he stretched out his arms, emphasizing that it was something Cassandra was supposed to do. He looked like an emperor waiting for his servants to take care of everything for him.

"Come on! It's your leg that is broken, not your hands! I don't think it is necessary for me to take off your clothes for you!"

Exasperated, Cassandra got a little flustered. There was something wrong about him. She had sensed his oddity and it all started after the accident. He was suddenly clinging to her all the time like a little child and would do some ridiculous things from time to time. She was totally confused by Rufus's behavior.

"I'm injured! And I need your help!" Rufus shouted pathetically.

With all his sanity, he tried hard to hold back his laughter, but the smile in his eyes betrayed him. Rufus was confident that Cassandra would finally give in and agree to do what he asked her to do. He just looked at her readily.

Actually, he was taking advantage of his injury this time. Cassandra said that she wanted a break up the other day, so now he was trying to show his sovereignty over her.

Meanwhile, Cassandra was feeling really awkward, wondering where had gone wrong.

With beads of sweats forming on her forehead, she found that her throat was dry and she could utter no word as she was taking off Rufus's clothes for him. She couldn't stand every movement of him. Especially the way he stared at her, it was as if his eyes could swallow her whole. She was so nervous that her body was tense all over.

Feeling weak in her knees, Cassandra felt that she would collapse in any second.

"Okay, let me show you how to take care of me!" Rufus said drowsily.

However, Cassandra didn't listen to him. She turned on the water, adjusted the temperature and sprayed him with warm water directly.

Having no time to respond, Rufus got his face thoroughly wet, and he had to wipe the water off his face with his hands.

"What are you doing, little woman!" he muttered.

Through the spray of warm water, Rufus was smiling at her, but the expression in his eyes was too far for Cassandra to see through.

"Nothing! And you won't get me wet right now just because I accidentally sprayed water onto your face, right? After all, I've been here with you for the past few days!" she asked in a panic.

Gingerly, she retreated back a step from the shower, wondering what he would do to her.

"Of course not. You're turning my word around, honey. I think I need to appreciate what you did," Rufus replied.

Then he waved to her, instructing her to get closer.

"Come here. How could you take care of me, if you stand miles away from me?"

Still tense all over, Cassandra moved inch by inch towards him. Rufus got a little impatient for her hesitation, without any warning, he reached out his arms and puller her to him.

"Please shower my back for me. I can't reach!" he said in a low voice.