Unrequited Love

Chapter 19 - Luciana

It had been two hours since the doctor had left and Mikhail had been shifted up to his room. Dimitri hadn't allowed me to go see him citing some unintelligible reasons under his breath. Why did I get the feeling that the man didn't like me? Huffing a breath, I kept sitting on the couch all alone until I heard voices coming from behind me. What sounded like rapid Italian reached my ears. I'd known since I had had a brief stint with the language during college. Unfortunately, things didn't work out between the beautiful European language and I.

"Ah Luciana. You're still here?" Sergio asked, as he and his friend, Luca - from what I'd gathered so far - stopped in front of me.

"Yeah. I've just been uh waiting to see Mikhail."

I scratched my arm as I replied - a nervous tick I had developed over the years due to my social anxiety. The corner of Sergio's lips lifted up as he tilted his head in a thoughtful manner.

"You're good for him, you know?"

He didn't seem to think much of that comment since he turned back to conversing in Italian with Luca, leaving me baffled. What was that supposed to mean?

"Well Luciana, it was nice meeting you but we should get going now."

"It was nice to meet you both too." I smiled at the both of them as they headed towards the door.

"Oh and Luciana?" I turned my head at the sound of Sergio's voice.

"He's awake and alone in his room. In case you wanted to know."

With one last parting smirk, the door slammed shut as my mouth gaped open. Was he just insinuating what I thought he was? The thought of seeing Mikhail again sent a flurry of emotions. He'd probably yell at me for following him or something. I so did not want to deal with that. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't worried and didn't want to check up on him. Following my heart instead of my mind that was screaming at me to turn the other way and head back to my room, I climbed up the stairs and walked through the corridor leading to Mikhail's room.

I knocked on the door softly as I heard a quiet "come in". With clammy hands, I pushed the door wide open as I was yet again greeted by the wonderful sight of a shirtless Mikhail.

"Sergio I told you I'm fine I -

He stopped speaking as he glanced over to see who had entered.

"Luciana." He breathed out from his half sitting stance.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" I smiled as I sat carefully next to him on the bed, making sure to not move too much.

He cleared his throat and blinked once - as if he couldn't actually believe that I was here.

"I-I'm good, thank you. How about you?"

"A little shaken but I'll live."

Mikhail cracked a smile as the lines between his forehead disappeared, making me feel as if I'd done something right.

It was my turn to frown as I realised that he had been about to go and get something.

"Is everything alright? Do you need something?"

"Yeah, it's actually time to change my dressing but the doctor isn't here yet."

"Oh um, I can do that...if you don't mind."

He nodded his head as he lay back down on the bed. Getting up, I pulled open the drawer beside the bed and found a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a set of wipes inside. I grabbed it as I helped Mikhail sit up.

I think I even salivated a bit while doing that. No matter how many more times I'd see him shirtless, I don't think I could ever get over how droolworthy he looked. My eyes glazed as they trailed a path down his perfectly sculpted abs. Now that I was closer, I could see the tattoos and intricate designs that covered his chest and a whole sleeve on his arm. There was a small skull right above his left pec with a couple of words written in Russian. Various symbols and phrases of ink weaved together in one beautiful work of art right down his chest and stopped above his V line. I had a right mind to reach out my hand and trace those lines but I stopped myself in time, before I made a fool of myself.