Page 51 of Maddest Temptation

“We need to stop the bleeding,” I said again, this time he nodded understanding what I just said. “I don’t know what to do, Cassio,” I confessed, every ounce of the fear I was feeling apparent in my tone.

“No doctors. No Vitelli,” he said again. He sounded awfully worried, and so I nodded, even if I didn’t agree with it.

“Then show me what to do,” I whispered.

14

FRANCESCA

Cassio began removing his shirt, and I helped pull the wet fabric from his freezing skin. Once discarded on the floor, I looked back at him and tried not to freak out. I bit my tongue as hard as I could to keep me from crying. His entire abdomen was coated with blood and to make matters even worse, a large bruise was starting to form on his ribs and on his hip bone.

“It’s not mine,” he repeated for the fifth time since I helped him to the bathroom.

Even with him carrying most of his weight, it took us a long time to reach my room. Cassio grunted all of the way here which gave me cause to think the wound on his abdomen wasn’t the only thing wrong with him. When we finally arrived, it took me another few minutes to shove him inside my bathroom. He wanted to lie down on my bed, but I strongly refused him.

“Well, I have to clean it either way,” I snapped, I couldn’t help myself, I was scared.

I stepped back trying to look at his wound, assessing what the hell I was supposed to do. Thankfully, it wasn’t large, but I didn’t know if it was deep. Dread filled me when I realized I would need to touch it. Before I could move, Cassio pressed his fingers against it, and groaned loudly.

“What are you doing!” I swatted his hand away.

“It’s not that deep. Do you have band-aids?”

“Band-aids, Cassio? You want me to give you band-aids?” I asked, unbelieving.

“Adhesive tape works, too.”

I ran my hands across my face. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered so only I could hear.

Having no clue what to do, I began searching through my mini first aid kit and took out all of the things I thought could be useful. Cassio was now shivering beside me which added to my growing list of worries.

I didn’t stop to think anymore, I just set myself to work. I took the cotton swabs and the antiseptic–hopefully, Grey’s taught me something– then I set them aside again, remembering I needed to clean my hands. The act was hard since he was taking almost all the space in the bathroom. Once I was done, I dried them quickly on the towel and picked up the swab again. Swallowing hard, I pressed it against his wound. Cassio let out a hiss, and I looked back at him.

“Sorry,” I apologized but there was nothing I could do.

I focused on the process of cleaning it as best as I could, and eventually, he stopped hissing. Once I judged it to be clean enough, I sprayed the antiseptic, earning a new hiss. From there, I took the largest band-aid I found and placed it over his wound, then opened another one and did the same.

Cassio was still covered in blood, I needed to clean him up, so I moved toward my shower stall and turned on the faucet and left it there so it could warm up. Once I turned back to him, I noticed he was looking at me, his face was blank as if he were miles away and not here.

“Cassio, you need to warm up,” I spoke softly reaching for him. The only indication that he heard me was a slight nod. He didn’t move as I had expected him to. “You need to remove your clothes.” I pointed out.

Cassio didn’t move, so without any hesitation, I began removing his clothes. With his shirt gone, it only left his pants and shoes. Face blazing, I knelt on the floor and began unbuckling his belt and then unzipped his jeans.

Thank God Cassio was somewhere deep in his head, lost in his thoughts. I wouldn’t be able to do all this if he were one hundred percent conscious. There was a lot to look at which made it really hard not to do so.Despite his situation and the wound on his abdomen, Cassio was beautiful. Toned abs, strong arms, and powerful thighs, all of them defined like he had been made of stone instead of flesh and bone.

When the time came to remove his boxers, I froze but he needed to shower, and I needed to clean his clothes, so he had something to wear. Closing my eyes, I reached for his boxers and pulled them down. I had seen Paolo naked before, it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Cassio was a manly man. Thankfully he said nothing as I took his briefs and set them together with the dirty clothes.

The mirror was beginning to fog, and I could see the small puffs of steam coming from the shower. I quickly tested the water so that he wouldn’t scald his skin. Sliding my arm underneath his good side, I helped him into the shower. Most of the water hit me first but I didn’t care. Once I was done helping him in, I stepped back out, already sodden. He closed his eyes once the first jets of hot water fell over him. I looked at his band-aids and they were still firmly attached to his skin.

I glanced at his clothes and then at him, unsure whether or not it was a sane idea. “Cassio, I need to wash your clothes, I’ll be right back, okay?”

Cassio nodded, just like he had been doing all this time, but he didn’t talk. I waited a few more minutes just to make sure he wasn’t going to collapse inside the bathroom. I closed the glass door and picked up his clothes from the floor. Quickly, I left the bathroom, leaving the bathroom door open was a good idea, I needed to hear him if something happened.

I ran from my room and into the laundry area, shoved his clothes in the washing machine, and threw washing powder inside.

“Fuck!” I cursed when the machine didn’t turn on quickly enough. By the time it did, my nerves were already eating me up.

“Cassio,” I called, once I reached my room once more.

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