Nelly fell back onto her rear, her hands firmly planted on the floor. Her mind spun with memories that didn’t belong to her, secret glimpses of skin and domesticity. She could even hear the distant echo of his voice as he shared countless conversations dressed in that soft flannel.
“I don’t care how uncomfortable or cold you are, I amnottouching your jeans,” she announced, red-faced and breathless.
Clark wasn’t bothered. The furrow in his brow hadn’t gone away, but his fists had unclenched, at least.
Keeping her eyes averted from the feast of gorgeous green flesh splayed out before her, Nelly cracked open the first aid kit and rummaged around until she found the portable fracture scanner. It was no healer, but science had come a long way in the past century as it tried to mimic what the most skilled witches could do with their eyes closed.
Her psychic senses were dulled with familiarity. That meant that the more she handled an object, the less she saw of the impressions left on it. Her mind simply filtered out information it had already absorbed. Since she was required to go through the first aid kit every month, she had no trouble touching the scanner or holding it against Clark’s forehead as it checked for head and neck injuries.
She breathed a sigh of relief when it gave a cheerful beep, the screen flashing with a green smiley face to indicate there were no bone fractures in his head or neck.Thank the gods for orc sturdiness, I guess.
Unfortunately there was no scanner for concussions, but that one seemed obvious. If you hit your head hard enough to knock yourself out, you probably also had at least a mild concussion, if that sort of thing even really existed. Head injuries were nothing to take lightly. Nelly knew better than most that brains were delicate things.
Frowning, she set the scanner back into the kit and rummaged around for some disinfectant spray and the thin, rubbery bandages she knew would hold the split skin of his forehead together best.
Ah-ha, gloves!It was sweet relief to slide her fingers into the clear, slightly ill-fitting gloves that came with the kit. They weren’t as good as the ones she normally wore — custom made for her and so thin they were nearly invisible to the naked eye — but they would do the trick.
Her skin crawled at the idea of touching Clark’s flesh without the protection of gloves. His clothing was bad enough, buthim?A lifetime of memories would blast against her barriers. Not only would it be an invasion of his privacy, but, as she knew from painful experience, almost certainly expose her to things she didn’t want to see.
Lips thinning at the reminder, Nelly leaned over Clark’s prone form and delicately probed the wound. It turned out to look worse than it was. The cut was long but shallow, which meant she didn’t have to break out the liquid stitches.
“All right, cowboy. It’s time for the disinfectant.” Holding her breath, she aimed the nozzle at the wound and pressed down.
Clark’s lips pulled back in a grimace, showing off a proud set of lower fangs. She jumped, but somehow managed to keep her aim steady when a big, gloved hand gripped her thigh and squeezed.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she whispered, running the spray down along the length of the wound. “I promise an infection is worse than this. It’ll be over soon.”
How was it that they’d managed to make so many advances in technology, and yet they still couldn’t manage to figure out how to make a disinfectant that didn’t feel like liquid fire?
A deep, rumbling growl built in his chest. The hand tightened around her thigh —My whole thigh? Good gods.It wasn’t enough to bruise, but it was more than enough to intimidate.
She’d always heard that Clark was super easy-going, but anyone could turn out to be a violent patient. Maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad if she were orcish, but she was painfully human. If he so much as clenched his fingers, he could snap her femur like an overcooked chicken bone.
Oh boy.Nelly lifted her finger off the spray’s trigger and shakily set it aside. Her voice trembled a little when she murmured, “Shh, it’s okay, cowboy. It’s just me, the neighbor you hate. I’m trying to help, okay? I know you’re in pain and confused, but I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t hurt me.”
Unfortunately, her soothing appeared to have the opposite effect. Instead of calming down, Clark’s rumbling got louder, more rhythmic, and his hand flexed, the thumb pressing into the soft flesh of her inner thigh.
For a long moment, she weighed the consequences of not properly bandaging his wound. The last thing they both needed was for him to blindly lash out at her because she caused him a twinge of pain. If she stopped now, he might eventually release her, no harm done.
On the other hand, itwasa pretty bad cut. Though she’d disinfected it, there was a good chance it could still become a problem. Seeing as she was pretty sure they’d be stuck together for a few days, the last thing he needed was to develop a dangerous infection on top of a concussion.
Besides, she’d just feel guilty if she didn’t do it.
Swallowing hard, Nelly pushed her damp hair out of her eyes and slowly, cautiously leaned over him once more. “Easy now, cowboy,” she whispered.
Had his grip changed? She swore his hand had crept a little higher up her thigh. It occurred to her then that she really had no idea how she was going to free herself once the task was done. How exactly did one pry off the iron grip of a fully grown orc without the jaws of life, anyway?
Worry about that later.
His growling was so loud, she could only compare it to the rumble of a fancy car engine. She could barely hear her own pounding heartbeat over the noise as she unpeeled the bandage and stuck one side to his skin.
“This is gonna hurt a little,” she warned, “so, um, please don’t freak out?”
Okay, Iknowhis hand moved that time.Nelly watched Clark’s face carefully, looking for any sign that he was truly awake, but she saw nothing. His brows were drawn tight together, almost certainly in discomfort, and his snarl had turned into a pout. There was no awareness at all.
Before she could decide whether that was a good or bad thing, she bit her lip and tugged on the bandage, drawing one side of the wound flush with the other before sticking the other half of the bandage down.
Clark jerked her thigh. Startled, Nelly yelped and braced herself on her palms beside his ears, the damp ends of her hair sliding over her shoulders to brush his cheeks.
