Page 5 of Tempting Jupiter
“Do. It.” He ground the words out between clenched teeth.
“Oh-kay. But if you die, it won’t be my fault.” She stopped and twisted to wrap her hands around his left forearm.
She ducked under it and then brought it close to his torso. His nostrils flared as he got a better whiff of her. Beneath that chemical tinge that masked her scent, there was none of the stench he associated with humans. Her subtle female essence coiled in his lungs, soft and tempting.
“You’re human,” he accused. Her scent shouldn’t stroke his senses.
She leaned over him again. “Yeah, you got a problem with that?”
“Yes.” He flexed his hand and his claws flicked out.
Her startled gaze darted to his and she studied him through her lashes. She swallowed as if her words had lodged in her throat then sat back on her heels. “Well.” A false note of teasing lilted through her voice. “I suggest you wait until after I’m done patching you up before you kill me.”
He dipped his chin in agreement. “That was my plan.” He strained to better see the jagged tear in his chest, then hooked one claw into the edge of the wound. He ignored her indrawn breath and pulled the flesh toward the opposite side.
“Alright then.” Her tongue slipped out, depositing a line of moisture across her pink lips. “Will you be able to get your… claw out if I apply the sealer across it?”
“You’ll have to help, but yes.”
She nodded, but it wasn’t directed at him. Her eyes were on his injury. “Okay. That’ll work.” Her hands shook as she pressed the tube of sealer to his injury, but he didn’t think it was his threat or the gore of her task that disconcerted her. She didn’t seem to know much about Dogs and he suspected it was the disadvantage of being in unfamiliar territory that had her rattled.
“I can’t feel my right arm.” It worried him. He’d thought before, it might have been an after-effect of the sedative.
“Trust me, it’s still there.”
“I know that.”
“Thought you couldn’t feel it.”
“I can’t, but my eyes are working well enough.”
“Glad to hear it and thrilled to hear you’re a glass-half-full kind of guy. A little optimism never hurts in a challenging situation.” Head still bowed over his abdomen, she continued to work. “I haven’t had a chance yet to patch up the injury on your shoulder, but it doesn’t look too bad.”
“Not being able to use my hand is serious.” He kept still, not wanting to slow down her work.
She huffed. “Yeah, well, you won’t be able to use anything if you’re dead.”
“True,” he muttered.
A laugh bubbled out of her. “Careful. If you start acting all reasonable, I might get soft and fuzzy over you. The ability to be reasonable is rare in your gender. It puts you ahead of ninety percent of the men I’ve met.”
He knew she was making a joke, but even imagining a bonding between them shook him. It wasn’t that human women had never chosen him for pleasure, but they had always treated him as a thing, a curiosity. “You were surprised by my claws?”
“Yeah, I’ve been a little preoccupied with keeping you from bleeding to death. I hadn’t really looked at your hands.”
If she didn’t know Dogs, she couldn’t be working for Roma. “Who are you?”
“I’m the human trying to get your bleeding stopped. If you’ve forgotten that already, maybe I should check for a head injury.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” he said through a tight jaw. “But it tells me little.”
She blew out a breath and rested her hands on his abdomen as she straightened. “Done. Since you’re awake and making such delightful conversation, I guess the blood-doubler I gave you is working.” Her mouth curved in a grin that plumped her cheeks and stretched her soft lips tight.
The weight of her hands, a casual touch rather than a task-oriented one, made his stomach twist.
“You can call me Fee,” she said.
“What kind of name is that?” Fee meant payment in his mind.
