Page 24 of Fixation

She studied his upper chest. “I think you may have torn one of your stitches while exerting to rise up. I’ll need to take a look.” She raised her eyes to his. “May I?”

At his nod, she adjusted the position of his bed so he was mostly upright. Donning a fresh pair of gloves, she approached him. She moved his hand away from his shoulder, made him lean forward and helped him take off the shirt.

It was the first time in a very long time that she was fully alone with Vedant. The last whole week, his brothers had been around, but they’d left earlier in the day, and now everythingfelt awkward between them. Not that it had been any different before, she reminded herself.

She inhaled, and a whiff of detergent and fabric softener hit her nose. Since Vedant had been dressing in this basic hospital attire of cotton shirts and pants, he always smelled of freshly laundered fabric. She wondered what his real scent was. Did he smell hot and sexy or fresh and sporty?

Fuck, what was she thinking? It didn’t matter whatsoever. It was none of her business. She wasn’t interested in him. And this behaviour was the reason she’d avoided being alone with him for so long.

She went to work unwrapping the bandage across his chest. She flicked a glance at his face and found his eyes tightly shut and his lips compressed.

“Mr. Oshnov,” she said gently. “Look at me, please.”

Opening his eyes, he looked at her.

“How much does it hurt, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Ten,” Vedant muttered.

She checked the clock on the wall. It was a little after midnight. “I just gave you a painkiller shot a little while ago. You must have pulled hard to get up, and that’s why it’s hurting so much. The pain will subside in a few minutes,” she told him. “I need you to breathe, okay? Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.”

He did as she told him to as she carefully cut through the blood-soaked gauze and cotton pad. Her eyes fell on the tattoo on his right arm. It was an anchor. Strange, she hadn’t noticed it until now.

“What does your tattoo mean?” she asked as a way of distracting him from his pain. It was not like she was curious about him. Nope. Not at all.

He looked at her. “It means loyalty, stability, and strength. But for us, it is a sign to remain grounded.”

“Grounded, how?”

He spread a hand out. “That we didn’t have all this at one time, and now that we do, we need to appreciate it every single day of our lives and remain grounded through it all.”

“Us?” She met his eyes for a brief moment. “Do you mean all three of you have this tattoo?”

“Yes, we got inked together. I have it on my arm, Armaan has it on his back, and Mihir has it on his chest.”

His words took her by surprise. They showed a different side of him, one that was grateful and thankful. That he believed he was blessed to have got what he had. She looked up and found his eyes already on her. His gaze was hot and intense as he studied her. It made her blood sizzle. It made her lose a breath. Chiding herself, she focused on the task at hand. Still, she could feel his eyes burning into her.

“Your glasses,” his eyes roamed her face. “You’re not wearing them.”

Shit, she must have removed them before she’d fallen asleep. Her lips pursed. No wonder he’d been staring at her so intently.

“Can you see without your glasses?” he asked.

“Yes.” Her gaze flicked to him briefly before returning to her task.

“Then why wear them?”

She remained silent, cleaning his wound, studying the stitches she’d given him.

“I didn’t know you’d taken over the night shift,” he said.

“I haven’t, but Stefan was doing too many nights, so the three of us ladies decided to give him a small break. Tonight was my turn to stay with you. I must have dozed off earlier.”

She patted his chest dry with a fresh cotton swab. “I have some good news and some not so good news.” Seeing the panic flash on his face she quickly said, “There’s no need to worry about anything, okay?”

“There are so many worst-case scenarios that filled my head instantly.” He gulped. “Tell me the not so good news first,pozhaluysta. Please.”

“I’m afraid you tore into the last stitch in your effort to get off the bed. Hence the bleeding. The good news, though, is that all the stitches have mostly healed. The bleeding from this torn one has also stopped.”

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