A/N: I am extremely thankful to all the readers and reviewers, hodhod2011danger, Shirahane Aikawa, Juliet, Orel Kennedy (are you and Orel havi the same person? If not then I am really sorry for misunderstanding) and leonkennedy89, for encouraging me to write.

Chapter 4

(Kate's POV)

I looked at the time, it was slightly past 8:00 AM, and still Leon wasn't down for breakfast. So, I walked up to his room to ask if everything was okay, thinking maybe his wound hurts or something. I knocked and called out his name, but no response came. I knocked again and pushed open the bedroom door, and stepped into his room. He was still in the bed, sleeping soundly. I contemplated whether I should wake him up or not. He seemed tired so I just decided to let him sleep. After all, he did have the day off.

I moved further in his room, making sure to not make too much noise. I pulled the curtains to his room, making it darker. I moved by his side to pull the blanket on him, since it had slipped off him, and I couldn't fail to notice that he looked really cute and hot, if I may add, whilst sleeping. I snapped at myself for thinking that way about my boss and pulled blanket on him properly. And as I was adjusting his blanket, he grabbed my hand and I barely kept myself from gasping out loud. For a minute I was unsure if I woke him up, but once I was sure that it was just a reflex I released myself from him, and left his room to carry on with my work.

(Leon's POV)

My off day really felt like an off day, when I descended down the stairs after a long well deserved sleep. For a change I didn't really feel that much tired. Claire was right; it was very much convenient to have a housekeeper. I again made a mental note to thank her for helping me out with this. If it wasn't for her suggestion, I wouldn't have put an ad in the newspaper and Kate wouldn't have been working for me now, which would have ended up in me cleaning this place all by myself now.

I walked in the living room, where I found Kate watching TV and Shadow resting at her feet. He hurried to greet me and Kate took notice of my presence as well, "Good Morning!", she wished me, even though it was way over noon now, "Should I get you lunch… umm… breakfast… Brunch?!"
I laughed a bit, "Yeah I am a bit hungry", I told her and she got up and walked to the kitchen, and I followed her. She made me grilled sandwiches and I enjoyed them leisurely.

"How's your shoulder?", Kate asked me with a smile.
"It's fine, I'll be going to get it dressed once I am done with my meal", I informed her.
"Oh yeah, it's better to change the dressings everyday", she said sitting with me to have her lunch too.
"Can you do it for me again?", I asked her, after a while, and her hand stopped in mid air, "I mean it's convenient for me, if you do it and you are a professional too."
"Okay, I'd do it once we're done with lunch", she said taking a bite of her sandwich.
"You'll do it every day right?", I asked her again, just to be sure that she got what I was asking of her.
"Yeah", she said with a smile.

We didn't talk much during the lunch and it wasn't much different from other days, since usually I had my lunches alone. Sometimes John accompanied me to lunch but it was always him talking or joking about different things, and I just listened or commented as I saw it fit. The only thing that was different was that I didn't have to rush to the lunch to get back to work. I was literally enjoying my off day and felt more relaxed than before. I again reminded myself to thank Claire about it.

After we were done with breakfast cum lunch, Kate brought down her professional medical kit from her room and started to change the dressing of my shoulder, "You have a really good hand with this", I told her as she wrapped the bandage.
"Why did you say that", she asked still concentrating on wrapping the bandage.
"Well it's pretty frequent that I get wounded and have to go to hospital for dressing; when the nurses do it, it hurts a bit but it doesn't hurt when you do it", I told her the truth, "Also you concentrate more on my wound than my face or body."
"Is that so?", she said stepping back once she was done.
"Yeah pretty much like it", I told her with a friendly smile, starting to pull on my shirt.

"Your girlfriend must have a hard time with all this", Kate said, once again helping me with it.
"Yeah very", I replied, remembering how possessive and obsessive my girlfriend gets when it concerns other women.
"I don't think she'd have any problems with me?", she more of asked in a slightly doubtful tone.
"Oh you have no idea", I couldn't help but say. As far as I know my girlfriend, she'd have all kind of world issues with Kate.
"Now you are scaring me", she said a bit nervously.
"Don't worry she doesn't come here often", I told her the truth, as she threw away the old dressings.

"Why?", Kate asked me with a look of confusion on her face, "I mean she's your girlfriend, usually couples meet every day."
"Oh we meet every day. The bank, where she works, is close to my workplace so we usually meet over coffee or lunch and if not then I visit her place", I replied as she moved to do the dishes.
"Why doesn't she come see you?", she asked again in a casual tone.
"Shadow doesn't like her", I told her looking at him, "And she doesn't like him either. She wants me to get rid of him but…", I tried to find words to complete the sentence.
"Shadow's more important than her", Kate completed the sentence for me.

"Yeah", I agreed and was surprised at the fact that she understood what I was going to say, "How did you figure it out?"
"You employed me to look after him, people usually give away pets when they cannot look after them any more", she replied in an obvious tone, "You don't have time for yourself but you make time for him, it's more than obvious you really love him."
"Yeah he's my best friend", I told her petting Shadow.
"Now there's something to fall for", Kate said and I looked up at her smiling face. She looked really beautiful whenever she smiled like that.
There was a door bell and Kate started to move to see who it was, "I'll go and see who it is", I said stopping her.
"Okay then", she said and got back to doing dishes.

I walked to the front door crossing the living room as the guest rang the door bell again. I pulled open the door, "Leon!", with that my girlfriend hugged me.
"Lauren?! What brings you here?", I couldn't help but ask her.
"You took the day off so I thought it'll be great if we spend it together", she replied and before I could say anything she kissed me and closed the door behind her, "We have so much time, we could do so much now", she added hooking her arms on my neck being suggestive. Shadow's bark made her divert her attention away from me, "Just keep it away from me", she pulled me between her and Shadow, panicking a little.

"Shadow, relax", I said as he growled angrily at Lauren.
"Put it out in the backyard or something", she said from behind me, scared of Shadow and that made him growl and bark at her.
"Shadow, go in the kitchen", I commanded him but he didn't heed it, "Now", and with a final angry bark he trotted back in the kitchen.
"Thank God!", she sighed in relief stepping in front of me, "Where were we?", she added throwing her arms around my neck.

I couldn't help but smile at her, the thing I liked about her most was her straightforwardness about such matters. She bit her lower lip seductively and raised herself on her toes to kiss me. We kissed each other passionately and I wrapped my arms around her delicate body, feeling all those curves that were just right and perfect as they can be.

"Shadow!", we heard Kate's voice from the kitchen and it made Lauren break the kiss.
"Is someone here?", she asked looking in the direction, "Is that Claire here?"
"Yes, I mean No", I replied as she hurried towards the kitchen, "I mean we have company but it's not Claire."

I followed Lauren back to the kitchen, where Kate was cleaning the mess Shadow made by toppling over his food bowl, "Who the hell is she?", Lauren almost yelled that it startled Kate, "Are you cheating on me Leon S. Kennedy?", she asked in a hurt voice and before I could answer she continued, "That explains why you took so much time to reply to my text. You have another woman besides me."

"I am not cheating on you", I told her, pretty much used to this happening all over again but it annoyed me a little, "It's was because I was sleep…"
"Well this here is the proof that you are", she pointed at Kate, cutting me in between.
"She's my…", I began.
"Don't give me the same old excuse of she's your friend", Lauren said pulling up a dramatic face.
I sighed trying to calm myself down, and before I could say anything, "I am the caretaker, I do odd jobs around the house", Kate said and Lauren gave her a murderous glare and then she looked at me.
"It's the truth", I told her peacefully.
"Since when did you have a caretaker?", Lauren asked me confused and still not believing that Kate just worked for me.
"For 3 months now", I replied doing the math in my head.

(Kate's POV)

I looked at beautiful woman in front of me as she stared at Leon intensely, as if trying to mentally communicate with him. She was really a divine beauty with fair skin, strawberry blond hair, emerald green eyes, tall stature and a supermodel figure. Not only she looked like a supermodel but she carried herself like one as well, her clothes and accessories all seemed very pricey. She really complimented Leon and they looked good together.

My gaze drifted to Leon, who wore his usual plain expression and didn't show any sign of panic or stress, as his girlfriend tried to look for any signs of infidelity. I was more worried about their relationship than him at this point in time. She abruptly turned her head to look at me with a same intensity and I pretended that I was looking at her all the time and trying to seem normal, even though my heart was beating really fast. God! Her stare was so murderous I could feel the chill. There was no doubt that she was very possessive about Leon.

"Okay, I believe you", the woman said moving to Leon's side, "You really gave me a scare back there. I was very close to being heartbroken", she told him swinging her arm around his arm and tugged hard on it.
Leon grabbed his wounded shoulder and almost winced in pain, "Sorry about that", he said, his voice was almost toneless but I was sure he must be in pain.
"So how about we go out?", she asked him with a bright smile.
"Yeah", he replied and briefly looked at me. I wanted to ask if he was okay but I dared not, not it front of his girlfriend. Shadow started barking angrily at his girlfriend, "Stay with Kate", Leon ordered him.

"Kate?", his girlfriend said with a line of distress on her face.
"The caretaker, Kate's her name", he informed her.
"Oh…", she looked from him to me and her gaze didn't feel right, it was almost demeaning, "I am Lauren Pryze", she introduced herself.
"Nice to meet you", I said courteously and she forced a smile.
"Shall we get going?", she asked Leon with a more genuine smile, and he gave her nod.

Lauren gave me one last scornful look with a plastic smile and almost dragged away Leon with her, telling him about all the places she'd like to go with him. I sighed in relief, I never thought that the air would get this tense when I'd meet Leon's girlfriend. But I guess any woman would react this way if she came to know that her boyfriend was living with another woman, may it be his housekeeper. I bent down to clean up the mess thinking that it could be worse but it ended on a good note.

I felt a presence and heard a feminine voice, "Hey you!", I looked back to spot Lauren standing at the kitchen door. Shadow growled at her angrily but didn't make any move, "Are you listening?", she asked me in a sharp tone, snapping her fingers to grab my attention.

"Yes", I replied standing up, paying complete attention to her.
"Well after you clean this mess, make sure to change the beddings of Leon's room because I'll be staying over the night", she said with an air of importance.
"Alright", I gave her a nod of acknowledgement.
"Learn to show some respect, you're working for my boyfriend", she said with a sense of pride.
"Excuse me?!", I couldn't help but say. I didn't know what I said was disrespectful.
"Apologize!", she demanded of me.

"I am sorry", I apologized not wanting to argue with her. Lauren let out a laugh and turned her back on me. Shadow barked at her angrily, "I can see why you don't like her", I couldn't help but say, again getting down to clean the mess, "But there's no point taking your anger out on me", I talked to him and he whined in response as if apologizing, "Well it's fine!", I said patting his head once.

I was hoping that I could get along with Leon's girlfriend but I don't think that's an option now. She didn't seem the kind of person, who's easily impressed and I didn't really make a very good first impression either. I was pretty much sure that she already hates me, and I possibly can't do anything to change that perception of her about me. The only thing I could do was just stay out of her way. I really didn't want to rush my judgments but, purely in my opinion, she seemed a little arrogant.

A/N: Thanks for giving your time to this story, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and forgive me for any grammatical mistakes or typos that might have caused an inconvenience. I would be grateful if you share your views about the chapter. See you all next week!