And he did.
Not just with the harness. With all of it. For the first time in what felt like forever, I felt a support I could actually lean into.
“Let’s take a look at your leg.”
Then, he peeled off his overshirt.
Underneath was a snug black tee, damp at the chest and clinging to every cut of muscle. His nipples poked through like they’d RSVP’d early. Was this man trying to kill me with competence and pecs?
Show pony.
Why did I complain? I was probably the one who encouraged him.
But then he did something I didn’t expect.
He turned his overshirt into a makeshift harness.
One sleeve was looped around the tree stump I’d been clutching for dear life, while the other was tied around his belt. It wasn’t for climbing, not really. It wouldn’t hold a fall. But it didn’t have to. It just had to give him enough counterbalance to stay put while tending to my leg.
I stared at the setup, impressed.
He angled himself downhill from me, his boots firm in the slope, one knee anchoring him as he reached carefully for my leg. Then, his fingers skimmed the skin around the wound, searching and assessing.
I hissed in air. The contact stung like hell. “What is it? Is it bad?”
He cleared the mud around my calf. “I’m gonna roll your pants a bit higher, okay?”
They’d already ridden up from the slide. “Just do what you have to do.”
“There’s a log jammed into the ground,” he said, his voice calm but clipped. “One of the branches caught you. It’s not huge, but it’s sharp enough. It pierced your calf.”
I winced. “So, bad?”
“You’re lucky.” His eyes didn’t leave my leg. “It didn’t hit your bone or an artery.”
All of a sudden, thunder cracked overhead. A deep, rolling sound.
I looked up. The clouds had thickened, the kind of gray that made the sky feel closer.
Lulu barked from somewhere uphill.
Dom unzipped the small pouch clipped to his belt, one of the few things he’d brought down with him. From it, he pulled a roll of gauze, a travel-sized antiseptic, a folded bandage, and a multi-tool that snapped open with a clean flick.
He padded gauze around the entry point. My world narrowed to the pain in my leg and the man trying to fix it.
“I need to cut it down,” he said. “But I won’t be pulling because it’d tear more tissue. I’ll leave what’s inside and secure the rest.”
I gave a quick nod. “Do it.”
He braced the branch and set the blade under my calf. “I’ll do it quickly.”
The first tug of the saw vibrated through me, then a brutal jolt ripped a reaction out of my leg.
Dom’s hand clamped above the wound. “Almost there, Autumn.”
I ground my teeth. “Dom…”
“You’re doing good. Stay with me.”
