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He clicked his tongue. “I’m sorry, solnishko. I know it’s irritating. Come, we’ll look at it.” He bent down and picked me up, carrying me to the bathroom. He set me down on the counter. I pulled his shirt up far enough that he could peel the bandage off. I flinched. This was always the worst part now. My skin was so sensitive where the adhesive stuck to it. Adrik always looked so apologetic when he took the bandage off.
He inspected my shrinking wound. “It’s much smaller now. Do you want to try to leave the bandage off overnight?”
I nodded. “Yes, please. If no other reason than to give my skin a break from the world’s strongest adhesive.”
He chuckled. “We’ll leave it off then. But tell me if it starts to bother you. I’ll repack it.”
“I’m secretly hoping that nothing will bother me tonight,” I said, putting my hands on his shoulders. I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him closer to me.
“Nothing? Nothing at all?” he asked, a devilish grin on his face.
I ran my hands down his chest and his stomach. “Present company excluded, of course,” I said as I unbuckled his belt. He smiled, his lips immediately finding mine.
I woke the next morning to Adrik’s warm hands on my back. His shirt did not stay on me for very long last night. As long as I could lay across his chest while I slept, I never seemed to get cold. It never seemed to matter how we fell asleep, I inevitably ended up laying across his chest. He never seemed to mind, but I sometimes felt guilty for keeping him basically trapped underneath me.
He felt me begin to stir and his hand ran up to the back of my neck. This was a new spot that he found rather recently. I made the mistake of telling him that it turned me on when he would leave his hand there, partially in my hair, partially on my neck. Of course, that made him want to do it more.
I secretly loved it. I moaned softly, not wanting him to stop. Not wanting to have to wake up yet.
“Good morning, solnishko,” he said. I could hear him smiling without having to look at him.
I rested my chin on his chest, smiling back at him. “You look a little more rested this morning,” he said as he pushed a few curls back from my face.
“I’m guessing that Misha’s brilliant plan worked the entire night. Either that, or Ivan has been awake for hours and will be exhausted when we go downstairs.”
“Nobody came to get you, so let’s hope that the plan worked.” I rolled off him, stretching before I got up. “How does your hip feel this morning after leaving the bandage off overnight?”
I sat up enough that I could look at the almost-gone hole in my hip. It had dried and formed a scab overnight. It also didn’t hurt at all. “I think it’s fine. I want to leave the bandage off today. See what happens.”
He rolled on top of me to get a closer look at it. He kissed my hip, just above the shrinking wound. “It does look better. As long as it doesn’t hurt you again, maybe you can leave the bandage off for a while.”
“One less thing to worry about is fine by me,” I said, grinning at him.
He frowned briefly, then kissed me. He looked at me thoughtfully, his fingers running lightly through my hair. “I promise things will get better soon. You won’t have to worry about anything ever again.”
I smiled at him. “As long as I have you, I can handle anything.” I paused, then added, “Okay, maybe the guys too. They can stick around too.”
Both Ivan and Andrei made considerable progress the rest of the week and during the weekend. Andrei stopped wearing his sling a few days after coming home from the hospital. He said being able to move his arm and shoulder felt better than keeping it still all day long. I would still yell at him for trying to use it too much too soon, but he really was healing remarkably fast.
Ivan was slightly slower, but his wound was also considerably worse. He was still heavily bandaged because of the extensive stitches. Before he left the hospital, they told him to have his bandage changed and the stitches checked over the weekend. Clearly, that was going to be an issue for him.
“I don’t know, Ivan. I can change your bandage, but I’m a little paranoid about checking your stitches. You had so much damage. What if I miss something important?” I asked, trying to figure out if he could handle seeing a doctor one more time.
He laughed. “Says the girl that misses nothing.” I squinted my eyes at him. “You’ll be able to tell if there’s something going on in there that needs to be looked at. If it looks bad, I’ll go to a doctor,” he said, reluctantly. He paused, then added, “As long as you go with me.”
Smiling, I rested my chin on his good shoulder. “I’ll always go with you, Ivan.” He rested his head gently on mine. “Do we have everything we need to wrap you back up again? I don’t think you need to go without a bandage and sling like Bubba quite yet.”
He nodded. “Viktor made sure to pick up everything. He knew there was a very slim chance I would go back to see the doctor, as instructed.”
I grinned. Viktor was like the father of the group. He quietly went about making sure everyone had everything they needed. He oversaw all the security, kept Adrik’s schedule, and was even helping Armando create his own security force. Papa Bear.
Ivan’s stitches looked quite good once I got his bandage removed. “Dr. Williams did a much better job on your arm than I did on your back,” I said, laughing as I inspected his arm.
“Your stitches kept me from having to go to the hospital, so I’d say they were infinitely better as far as I’m concerned,” he said, cutting his eyes at me.
“Squishy logic for the win, ladies and gentlemen.” I sighed. “I think you’re going to live, Super Squish. Everything looks good from what I can tell. I would tell you to let me know if anything starts to hurt, but I don’t think that would do any good.”
“I can feel it when it starts to heal. It itches,” he said.
