“A long ass time, but I don’t need a doctor. Stop coming closer woman. Just…stay over there.”
Ignoring him completely, she marched over to him and swatted his hand away from the loose wrapping. He sighed the most irritated sound she’d ever heard, but she gave exactly zero figs right now because he definitely looked like he was bleeding out. She unwrapped the stiff binding, mostly dried with his blood. Steeling herself on the last layer, she ghosted Jenner a glance. His chest was heaving as he looked down at her with some unfathomable expression. “You scared of blood, woman?” he asked in a deep, growly timbre.
Too many times to count, she’d relived the memory of her co-worker, Jason, mauled by a black bear and out in the woods where she spent hours staunching his blood flow until help could arrive. “No.” She peeled off the last sticky layer that clung to his skin. He winced but didn’t make a sound. Four long claw marks wrapped from his front around to his back, and what looked like puncture wounds had pierced his skin right under his arm. She shook her head and sighed. “I’m not scared of blood because I’ve seen this before. How did you get away?”
Jenner’s lip lifted at one corner, and his eyes softened just before he looked away. No answer—fantastic. Still a dick then.
“This looks really bad. Why didn’t you get Lennard and the others to help with first aid?”
“Because this is none of their damned business and besides, I heal fast.”
“Stubborn and idiotic. Sa-weet.”
A soft humming sound rumbled in his chest, but when she looked up at him, the sound stopped and his eyes sparked, daring her to ask what the hell that was about. She glared at him and tossed the bloody bandages in the trashcan by the sink. “Would you like me to disinfect it, or are you too stubborn to ask for my help?”
“Can you keep your mouth shut about the injury?”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Sure. If you want to die of infection or sepsis, that’s your own choice.”
Jenner snorted. “This is nothing.”
On closer inspection of his skin, she believed him. Long healed silver scars covered most of his torso, so thin and light, she’d almost missed them. She wanted to ask him badly how he’d survived such injuries, but his eyes had closed down completely, and that ticking in his jaw was back. With a sigh, she yanked the first aid kit off the countertop and pulled it open, then picked and chose what she needed.
She bit a package of fresh bandages open with her teeth and grabbed a dark wash cloth from the bathroom. Carefully and wordlessly, she cleaned the half-dried gore from his body. It wasn’t until she’d cleaned his wounds completely that she noticed the actual body she was working on. Thick with muscle, defined indentations between his pecs, eight-pack abs and those sexy strips of muscle delving into the low slung canvas pants he wore. His stomach flexed with every breath as he watched her. As she picked up the bottle of hydrogen peroxide, Lena swallowed hard and tried to focus on steadying her now shaking hands.
Just before she poured it over his injury, her palm cupped with a washrag underneath to catch any spillage, Jenner grabbed her trembling hand. His nostrils flared. Softly, he said, “You don’t have to do this if you’re scared.”
“I’m not scared,” she lied.
His eyes narrowed slightly as if he didn’t believe her, but he let her hand go.
“This will hurt,” she whispered sympathetically.
Jenner nodded once and held his breath, waiting.
Lena winced right along with him and rushed to clean the wounds so he would hurt as little as possible. And only when he was dressed in fresh bandages did she make her way to the bed and sit heavily on the mattress. Jenner’s eyes followed her as he pulled a clean shirt carefully over his torso. “How did you learn to do that?”
“I told you. I have experience with black bears.”
“You been clawed?”
She shook her head. “One of my friends was when we were out in the field.”
“Did he live?”
She exhaled a shaky breath and swallowed down her nausea, then nodded. Barely, but she wasn’t up for talking about Jason with him.
Jenner stared at her for a long time, hands on his hips and head cocked. His churning eyes said his mind was in a war over something she didn’t understand, and at last, he muttered a curse. “What I said earlier about you being a woman. That’s not it. That’s not the reason I don’t want to take you out there.”
“Then what is it?”
Jenner looked entirely uncomfortable now, shifting his weight from side to side and looking anywhere but her. “You’re on your period.”