Femme Fatale: The King's Deadly Temptress

Damien Park was beautiful.

A man who was known as one of the richest men in the world — who was also known as the Resort King and was doing justice to the title given to him. A lot of people look up to him and he was the envy of many too.

He was a man who knew what he wanted and what he didn't. 

In spite of the superficial things that he was known for, Damien was still and only just a man. And right now, this man was hurting.

Katherine stood frozen for a few seconds in front of the man who was supposed to be formidable. She was shocked to see him in a vulnerable state, and all she wanted to do was to hold him tightly.

Thus, she did.

Inching closer, she encircled her delicate arms around his frame and gave a squeeze.

She felt him raise his head, and she met his melancholic stare, but the curling of the corners of his mouth upward looked so tragic, especially when she heard him say, "Have you ever felt so cheated?"

Katherine didn't know what he meant, and she didn't know how to answer him, so she just listened.

"Have you ever felt that all this time… all this time, what you thought was real was actually a lie?" Damien chuckled at the same time that another tear rolled out from his eye.

He released a very long sigh as he looked up to the sky, "I feel like such an idiot."

"You're not…" Katherine placed both of her hands on either side of his face and made him look at her. Staring into his dark, misty eyes, she told him again, "You're not."

"Then why do I feel so undeserving? So worthless… A good-for-nothing piece of–"

He swallowed the rest of his sentence when Katherine pressed her lips to his, shutting his nonsense.

"You are not. Why are you talking like this?" she breathed while their foreheads were pressed together.

After a minute of silence, he spoke in almost a whisper, "I hate my mother." She pulled back and waited for him to continue.

"I hate my family. I hate them." Another sigh came out from his lips, and he looked away. "Ever since she left me when I was a child, I had only one fond memory of her. At least it was the only memory that I have where she was kind towards me. Other times, I could tell that she was only acting but I didn't understand why. I never knew why."

"But because there were times that she was really nice to me, I thought it was okay. She used to make me this... food. And when I told her it was delicious, she kept making them. She would call me to eat and told me she made them only for me." Damien chuckled bitterly. 

"And that was the only good memory that I had of her. So when she left, I started missing the food that she used to make for me. There were maids and chefs in the mansion but none of them were able to create the same taste that I wanted. I wanted her cooking… I missed that taste. So as I grew older, I began to make my own."

"Beef noodle soup?" Katherine asked with a faint voice and she saw him nod.

"I tried to recreate it but I have failed a lot. Eventually, I was able to create my own recipe but even that… it still doesn't come close to how I thought she made them."

By this time, Katherine had an idea of what happened in that restaurant.

"How ironic. The only good memory I had of that woman was a lie."

Damien clenched his jaw. "So, this entire time… I believed that she made that dish — something that I have been longing to taste since she left, only to learn that she didn't even make it herself. What a shame."

"Why would she do that? Why lie? I don't understand." he sniffed.

"That was the only good thing that I remember of her and it's not even real."

He ran a hand on his face again and continued, "I hated that she left. I never liked it there. I never liked anyone there except for my grandmother whom I don't even see that often. And all of the people around me are fake. They don't like me... they like my money. So tell me, Katherine, am I not worthless?"

Katherine felt so much pain in her heart the entire time that she listened to this grown man's uncertainties. "You are not worthless, Damien. And even if everyone around you is fake, you have me. I'm real."

Damien looked at her and saw the truth in her eyes. He felt her arms enveloping him once again and heard her say, "You also have your friends… Markus, Caleb, Jeffrey… they're all there for you. We all are. You're not worthless, Damien. Not to me. You are worth it."

Katherine released a sigh when she finally felt warmth with the return of his embrace. He pulled her towards him and rested his head on her shoulder. They stayed in the same position for a while in silence, ignoring the very few cars that pass on the road.

After listening to what he had to say, she didn't exactly know how she should feel. She broke her man's belief, and she didn't mean to. How could she have known that what she did only shattered the one good thing that he had kept from his past?

"I'm sorry…" she whispered in his ear, making him look up to her.

"For what?" he questioned. "For letting me see the truth?" He saw the sadness in her eyes and he knew that she was feeling awful. "It's not your fault, Katherine. And I'm not mad at you."

She pressed her lips together and nodded. Damien raised his fingers and brushed them on her cheek — it was only then that she noticed she had cried while listening to him. She couldn't help but feel bad – because he was feeling bad.

And now that she thought about it, she was somehow feeling envious about the whole thing. Though it wasn't nice to think about it that way, she had thought in her mind –'Though his childhood memories weren't pretty, at least he had memories. What about me? What do I know about myself?'

Seeing her deep in thought, Damien cupped the side of her face and drew her in, pressing his lips to her soft ones and uttered, "Thank you."

…

Damien drove back to the hotel and dropped Katherine in the lobby. "I need to go somewhere. I will see you when I come back."

She studied his expression but found nothing. She was worried that he might do something drastic; however, she saw that he looked calm despite looking despondent. 

As if he had read her thoughts, he lightly patted her head and reassured her, "Don't worry. I just need to talk to someone."

Nodding, she felt a little bit better. "Be safe," was all that she could say.

She got out of the car and watched him drive away before she turned on her heel and headed to the Royal Penthouse.

…

Park Estate

"Madam, Young Master Damien is back," said the servant to an old woman in her eighties who was sitting in her rocking chair in the gazebo at the back of the mansion.

The old woman looked up to the servant from her eyeglasses and lowered the knitting needles and yarn on her lap. "Hmmm… Tell him to come here."

The servant gave a respectful bow before she left to fetch the old woman's grandson.

When Damien arrived, the old woman didn't look at him and continued to work on her craft until she heard him say, "I don't understand why you keep on knitting when you hate it so much."

The old woman scoffed, "I don't understand why you bothered to come here today when I thought you don't want to ever step foot in this estate unless I call for you. And yes, I hate knitting but I'm not doing this to make stupid scarves. I'm practicing how to use these needles so I can stab you with it when you don't come and see me, you insolent fool."

A gentle smile formed on Damien's face, softening his expression as he walked towards his grandmother to give her a hug. "I miss you, too, Nana."

The whole Park Estate didn't feel like home for Damien even though he grew up there, but Nana would be the only reason why he would come back to this place that he loathed so much.

He heard her grunt before her wrinkly arms reached his back and gave him a pat. "I can smell your misery even though you have that fake smile on your face. Who dared to bully you?"