Zoya’s P.O.V
For a couple of long moments, I merely sat there, letting myself feel the weight of my mom's words, letting the gravity of each cut sink in.
It was not long before it was time for me to go back in. I had become so sleepy that I could hardly keep my head up, and I caught myself nodding off so many times that I lost count and decided that I had to go back inside and sleep.
It must have been pretty late at night, or rather, early in the morning, because my mind was all but blank at this point. After all, there was a limit to how much suffering a person could take before their mind just stopped working.
I went to check on the man once before going to bed. I checked his temperature and observed that it was slowly going back to normal. In fact, his fever had significantly reduced. What's more was that his wounds were also getting better. To be honest, I found it strange that he was healing so quickly — only an hour after getting medication, and for these wounds that were brutal and severe — but I was a caretaker, a healer, a doctor, and who was I to complain about a patient's swift road to recovery?
I did not think much about this odd phenomenon, and instead let myself feel relieved. If he was already getting better, that meant that I had not lost my skills as a doctor, even if my mother kept telling me I was a failure. It meant that, when it all comes down to it, I had healing skills to rely on, and it was something that I loved doing as well.
For the first time in since the shitshow of events yesterday, I let myself smile genuinely, one that wasn't forced out of courtesy or emotional turmoil. At least I still had that, because it meant that I still had myself.
And speaking of first times… I watched the sleeping man's face closely and realized for the first time just how gorgeous he looked.
All of a sudden, there was this weird fluttering in my heart that I had never felt before, no even with Ravi. It was an odd sensation, one that I was not at all familiar with nor used to. However, at the same time, it felt… right, as if this was a feeling that I had long since been searching for, but it was only now that I found it.
If the spark of destiny was not a myth, then it was certainly what I felt like in that moment.
Then I noticed with a start that the man was reacting to me as well. The closer I drew my face in, the more I closed the distance between us, the more he twitched and reacted to my presence. It almost seemed like he was trying to… sniff me, to take in my scent, if that made sense. I was starting to worry that I was so severely touch-starved that I was reading way too much into the instincts of an unconscious man, but when I leaned in, his hand suddenly shot out, grabbing me by the nape.
He took me by surprise, and if the sudden skin contact was not enough, he pulled me in and before I knew what was happening…his lips were on mine, in a searing kiss that had me frozen on the spot.
His lips were rough, as he had just been in an attack (or accident), but the kiss tasted oh so sweet, like the ripest fruit in the bunch, an explosive mint candy that sent bursts of thrill throughout my body. He moved his mouth like an expert, as though he were a man on a mission, an explorer with only one goal in his mind. His grip on the back of my neck tightened, and he pulled me closer, like he wanted more of me, and only for himself.
In the few moments that he had me wrapped around his finger, I was frozen in shock but somewhat giddily delight. The kiss was electrifying and unreal, quite unlike anything I ever felt.
And, dangerously, I wanted more of it. But it ended too soon for my liking, as the man's hand on my nape grew slack, and his arm went limp by his side again, unconscious.
I blinked, trying to process what had just happened. I was simply admiring him, and then… he kissed me. He kissed me! But that was while he was asleep, which meant…
I gasped as it dawned on me like a bolt of lightning striking a metal rod. He must have been having a dream and had simply mistaken me for someone else in the haze of his fever. Whoever it was that he saw, he must have felt so strongly about them, because if the way he kissed me was anything to go by, he had been so raw and full of passion, so tender and possessive at the same time.
For some unknown reason, I felt a part of me crack, like I had just witnessed a terrible scene, like I had just been cheated on, which was strange, because I did not know this man, and I had just been cheated on, but it did not feel like this.
A fresh wave of pain made its presence known in the front porch of my heart, announcing its arrival like it was the good news I had been waiting for all along, even though it was far from it. I did not like feeling this way: hurt and embarrassed.
I quickly got up and ran to my room, my face flushing red even though no one else had bore witness to what had just transpired between me and the sleeping man. My pride had taken a hit, and albeit no one else knew that, I still wanted to get the hell away from him.
But even with that said and insisted, when I got to the door of my room, I hesitated by the threshold. He might need me some time as the night droned on. He might wake up suddenly, disoriented, and would need for a helping hand and a kind heart to explain to him what had happened to him in the time that he had been unconscious. Or perhaps his fever would get to an all time high, and I would have to take him to the clinic.
On the other hand, he did just kiss me suddenly without my consent, and that had happened while he was asleep. Who knew what he would do to me when he was awake, or what else he would do to me in his sleep.
I did not want to take my chances with a stranger, even more so with a man that looked like he could topple me over with a single push, or carry the entirety of my body weight with only one hand.
Turning toward my bed, I locked the door behind me, vowing to myself that in the same manner, I would lock away all the insecurities that I acquired in the span of a phone call. If I were to reinvent myself in this new environment and start a new life, I had to shed my old skin and grow a new one.