Chapter 241 - Tryst 3

For a spontaneous date like this one and especially with Katherine, Damien could safely say it topped off all the dates that he had been in the past. They had just gotten started but he couldn't be more pleased to spend time with her… even if it was a Monday night.

With this beautiful woman next to him, he couldn't wait to unravel what else about her would surprise him. 

"So, Damien… What usually happens on dates?" Katherine brought him out of his trance and he drank his wine to buy some time.

"You know… One is supposed to get to know the other better during dates. But I've always found it boring especially when they keep talking nonstop about the same stuff."

"Hmmm… Why? Were all your dates in the past groupies?" she teased.

"Ha Ha." His sarcastic laugh made her snicker. "You'd actually be surprised at how many gold-diggers there are pretending to be someone they're not roaming around in this world. It's kinda hard to find people who actually like you for you and not how deep your pocket is."

"Ooh… You've had it hard, Mr. Moneybags?"

"My family is old money. But after I became independent and went my own way, I never really thought I'd make it this big. But the more money I make, the more fake people I meet. All they really care about is themselves."

"That's… Hmmm…" Katherine didn't know what to say to that, so she went on another direction, "Don't tell me you don't enjoy the women throwing themselves at you?"

Damien shook his head and took a sip of his wine. "I'm not gonna lie, I did enjoy it at first. But it got pretty old really fast. I just want to meet someone normal."

When she saw him looking at her, she softly chuckled, "Oh, believe me, Damien… I'm far from normal."

"You're right, you're not…"

What he said stung her a bit. She really wasn't like any normal women out there. But what was normal?

"My bad. I chose the wrong term. I meant to say, I wanted to meet someone like you," he added.

"Someone like me, huh? And what exactly am I, Damien?" Katherine's interest was piqued. She turned to him, crossing her arms in front of her, careful not to spill the wine.

"Hmmm… I can't seem to find the right term to describe you. One positive word just isn't enough…" A playful smirk formed on his face and Katherine scoffed at his smoothness.

"You're so good at this. If I was any other woman, I'd probably be eating your hand right now, huh?" 

Without saying anything, he just shrugged and drank his wine. Katherine mimicked him, hers was already more than half empty and her body was feeling hot. The booze had already kicked in by the time she started her second glass. But drinking with Damien was just so much fun… and the wine seemed to be sweeter the more she drank it.

"Let's try something else. How about you tell me what your dreams are?" he started.

"Dreams huh…" she muttered. She probably had some when she was younger but that changed ever since that night. Now she wanted nothing more than to get justice for her parents' deaths. But she couldn't tell him this. So what was she supposed to tell him?

Seeing that she was again in deep thought, Damien wondered what got her thinking so much tonight. In order to break the silence, he cleared his throat and said, "Okay, I'll go first. I actually have a few but one of which is to have at least one hotel or resort in every country."

"Wow. That's… that's huge…" 

"Well, it's a dream. The sky's the limit. I may or may not be able to accomplish that in this lifetime but still… It's free to dream." He shrugged.

It's free to dream... 

His words were too simple and Katherine may have heard this a few times before but it was the only time that got her thinking so deeply. Should she start dreaming too? That would be ridiculous, ain't it?

People like her couldn't dream like Damien. One of her feet was tied up in a chain to Shadow's dark walls. Just thinking about having a dream was absurd.

But she did have one…

"Kitten…"

His call made her look back at him and that's when she saw him holding his palm out to her. She looked at his hand and then back to his face, raising a brow in question. "Yes?"

"You've been awfully distracted tonight… Is everything okay?" he asked.

Katherine felt so guilty. Why was she thinking so much? Sighing, her shoulders slumped and she formed a small smile. "I'm so sorry… I'm such a bad date huh?"

"Don't worry about it." He grabbed her wine glass and placed it on the table. "You can make up for it though…" he said as he extended his hand out to her again.

"What? How?"

"I remember the last time you said that you like dancing. So… Dance with me, Kitten. And I'll forgive you."

Katherine couldn't help but giggle upon watching him. This man… he never failed to make her laugh. Just the way he tries to always entertain her made her heart grow fonder.

"But there's no music! We'll look silly," she said.

"Oh for Christ's sake. If you'd just shut up, be quiet for one second and listen, you can actually hear the music from the bar inside." He nodded to the direction of the glass door.

His harshness only made Katherine laugh but she did shut up and her ears perked up to listen to the faint music in the background. Her eyes shifted to look at him when she realized that the song that had just started was one of the songs she liked –'Counting Stars', in the version of Hannah Trigwell. It was the perfect mellow version of the upbeat original.

And she thought it was just the perfect song right now.

Seeing Damien's hand waggle at her, she curled the corners of her mouth up, shrugged off the coat on her and set it aside. She then placed her hand in his and moved closer as she said, "It'll be a pleasure to dance with you, Damien."

And with that, Damien gladly pulled her closer, their hands joining and were raised just below their shoulder level while he placed his other hand on the small of her back, making them look extra intimate while dancing to the faint sound of music. 

"I figured out the word that best describes you…" he whispered to her ear.

"What is it?"

Leaning closer so that his lips were just a hair's breadth away, he told her the word, "Katherine."