Page 54 of Caught Bear Handed

I wanted to tell him how scared I was, but he needed me to be brave right now.It would take everything I had, but I’d take care of him until help arrived.

“Do you want some water?”I asked.

He shook his head.“I want you.”

“Beau.”There were a thousand reasons why that was the absolute worst idea in the world.Not just in the top ten.Top of the freaking charts.But before I had a chance to plead my case, his lips were on mine.

I put my hands on his shoulders with the intention of pushing him away, but the kiss intensified.I justified it, telling myself that if he had the energy to kiss me like this, he had to be okay.

And maybe I needed this kiss more than I wanted to admit.

As Beau’s lips moved against mine, the aches—not just the one in my muscles, the one deep in my soul—melted away.I could pretend he didn’t have that gash on his forehead or he hadn’t been talking pure nonsense for the last mile of our trip.

I could pretend none of this was my fault.That those awful people would never hurt my bear to get what they wanted from me.

His hand slid under my shirt, up my side, and his rough, primal touch made me shiver.This was a man on the edge of a shift, who had to let this energy out in some form.

“I need to get you cleaned up,” I protested as his lips left mine, traveling down to my neck.

He moaned an objection against my skin.

“Beau.”This time, I had the strength to push him away.He blinked, startled, like I’d brought him back from another world.I made the right decision.“The rescue team will be here soon.”

I could only hope that was true.No ETA had been given.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” he said.“I’ll let you do what you want to me, and then you let me do what I want to you.”

The muscles between my legs throbbed at his proposition, begging me to agree.

“Deal.”It took everything I had to pull myself away from his warm, strong body.

Gigi startled when I managed to get off the bed.There was no sunbeam for her to soak in, and I had no idea where Rudolf was.I hoped for her sake we didn’t lose him.

Outside of Beau’s vortex, my muscles stiffened.My wolf was on high alert inside me, but there was only so long I could put off this shift without my human body paying the price.

The washcloth near the sink had seen better days, so I pulled a T-shirt out of my bag, thankful that I hadn’t abandoned all my clothes in that ditch.My possessions were just things, but with so much in my life impermanent, I treasured them.

I let the faucet run for a moment until the water was cool and clean, then dipped the end of the shirt into the stream.

Beau watched me with curiosity and a feral lust that could only be found this deep in the forest.I carefully sat on the edge of the bed.I had to keep control of this situation.As amazing as that kiss had been, the bear wasn’t thinking straight.

He hissed as I pressed the cloth to the wound.It gave me confirmation this was the right move.Once we finally shifted, the laceration would heal, but if this got infected, that complicated things.And they were already messed up enough.

“Shit,” I said under my breath.It was a pretty nasty gash, and there were tiny shards of glittery glass stuck in it.

“Am I dying, doc?”He grinned.It kept fooling me into thinking he was okay, but this wasn’t my Beau.Under normal circumstances, he’d be the quiet calm in the storm, fixing everything that had gone wrong.

“No.Hold still.”My hands shook as I attempted to extract one of the bigger shards.His body jumped as I freed the intrusion from his skin, and I’d reopened the wound.Quickly, I pressed the T-shirt against his forehead to make the bleeding stop.

I wished that Regina played a surgeon onThe Wolf’s Mooninstead of a down-on-her-luck single mom who worked in a diner.They’d trained me how to wait tables, even gave me a few books on motherhood—but saving a life had never been part of her script.

I was torn.The glass could cause an infection, which if it spread too quickly, could cause harm to his body in both forms.But pulling it out wasn’t smooth sailing either.I wasn’t sure if Beau had lost more blood, or had other injuries.

I grabbed his hand and pressed it over the T-shirt.“Hold this in place.”

He did as I asked without any wiseass remarks.Taking the time to decide if that was a good or bad thing seemed like a luxury.Instead, I pushed up his shirt and found a mottled, crescent-shaped bruise peeking out from his chest hair.

“Tell me if it hurts,” I instructed as I applied light pressure.