The Perfect Machine: Kingdom Of Glass (GxG

33. You smell like flowers

Something shaking in the bed causes me to wake up. The warmth in my hand is twitching. It's Harlow. She is sitting in the chair next to the bed, but she is trembling in her sleep.

"Harlow?" I call her name and try to shake her by the arm to wake her, but it causes her to start screaming and clutching her arm. I jump out of bed and bend down next to her. I touch her clammy cheek to make her look at me.

"What's wrong?" I say and feel my heart speed up. Before I know it, the door opens and the lights turn on. Arthur holds a gun in his hand, pointing in our direction.

"Don't," I state, feeling my heart thumping so quick with dismay.

"She is in pain," I cry out, turning back to Harlow, who is twisting and groaning in agony. Arthur comes closer to inspect Harlow.

"Let's get her into the bed," He says, and I get her legs as he lifts her upper body. We lay her cautiously onto the bed and watch as she is clutching her arm.

"She is getting worse," He says and surges out of the room. I venture into the edge of the bed to comfort her by stroking her cheek. She is burning up.

Arthur returns with something in his grasp.

"It's a cream. It will numb the pain," He says as he starts ripping off Harlow's shirt.

"She has a fever," I let him know.

"Okay. Take this and smear it over her arm or anything black for that matter. I will find some painkillers that will deal with the fever,"

I snatch the case of cream out of his hand. Harlow clutches onto her arm as she gazes right onto the ceiling with short breaths.

"Hey," I say softly as I stroke her cheek.

"It's alright," I can sense that she is starting to calm down a little as her eyes are on me. I start putting the cream over her hand. All the veins reaching up to her chest and neck is all black now. Worry digs into my heart. I reach up to her upper arm, feeling the strained muscles underneath her skin.

"I'm sorry. It took time to find the painkillers," Arthur sounds exhausted as he comes close to the bed with a container of water and a couple of pills in his grasp. I continue putting cream on Harlow's body while Arthur helps her with the painkillers.

Arthur pulls Harlow on the other arm to lie her sideways so I can spread the cream on her back.

"I think I got it now," I smile at him and he nods as he leaves the bedroom. I keep placing the cream onto her warm skin. It's not so much on her back, only on her shoulder blade, but still.

Harlow has calmed way down now. The cream must be working very well along with the painkillers. I knew there was something wrong with her. She was just too stubborn to tell me, or maybe to worry me.

Despite that, I have laid cream everywhere on her veins. I actually can't make myself stop. It's just the softness of her skin underneath my hand feels so right, so good. I don't hear Harlow complaining, so I keep doing it. She is just so beautiful that it's hard not to want to touch her.

A minute later, Harlow turns her head to face me. I think she realized that I was done a while ago. My face turns red. I get out of bed to avoid her glance. Harlow lays on her back again and closes her eyes.

I stare at her thin waist, admiring her belly muscles and how firm her arms and shoulders look. She has the body of a goddess and her heart is really in the right place. I check her temperature on her forehead lightly and I meet a pair of black eyes staring at me.

"Are you okay?" I ask as I sit down on the bed next to her.

"Yes,"

"You are really warm," I reveal as her cheeks are pink as though she has had an awful burn from the sun. I open the window to get some natural air into the room and to check whether it can chill her off. She gives me a small smile as I lay down in bed next to her.

"You smell like flowers," Harlow says out of the blue.

"What?" I say, confused, not sure if I heard right.

"You smell like flowers," She tells me again as her eyes are a bit shiny.

"I think you are on some powerful painkillers," I tell Harlow.

"Hum?" She says, and I can tell she is struggling with her eyes as she rubs them more than usual with her hand.

"Try to sleep, okay?" I smile at her, but she keeps staring at me.

"I can't move my arm," She laughs a bit, which makes a small chuckle escape my mouth, but I try to contain it. I don't think I have ever used the word adorable to describe Harlow, but at this very moment, she is just that.

"Try to sleep," I tell her again.

"Close your eyes," I move my hand up to her cheek to caress her and not long after, her eyes close. If only I could kiss her. Oh, how bad I want to do that. How bad I want to feel her touch on my skin. I swallow hard as it pains me how much I want her.