thing that would be enough was being naked with him, under him, having him inside her where she ached with emptiness.
Her hand was wet. And sticky.
The discordant sensation took a while to sink into her consciousness, to register as being not right. He finally lifted his head and she caught her breath, staring up at him. Absently she rubbed her thumb against her forefinger. He was bending his head down for more when her brows drew together in a puzzled frown and she said, “Wait.”
He went still, sensing that something had fractured her attention. He cocked his head, listening, alert for an unusual sound. The dog lay panting contentedly under the table, though, not showing any sign of alarm. Ben looked back to her. “What? Did you hear something?”
“No.” She withdrew her arms from around him, stared in puzzlement at the red stain on her hand. “What is that?”
He glanced at her hand and his expression cleared. “Blood. Mine, to be specific. Nothing serious, just a little cut, but it must have started bleeding again.”
Her mouth fell open. “You’re kidding.”
“About what?”
“It’s started bleeding again, but it’s nothing serious? Turn around, let me see.”
He got that impassive look, the one that said he wasn’t going along with whatever other people wanted him to do. Sela got that, understood that he didn’t want to be fussed over, but . . . but she was shaky inside after what had just passed between them and she needed something else to focus on, and checking on his wound was that something.
“You kissed me,” she said fiercely. “That gives me rights, and sorry if you don’t like it. Now turn around.”
The impassive look morphed into something close to amusement. “A kiss gives you rights?”
“That one did.” She’d never been kissed like that before, but on a cellular level she knew that something was happening between her and Ben that went beyond anything she’d imagined. She’d never been so pushy before, either, but she’d had twenty-four very rough hours and she seemed to be making a habit of doing things she’d never done before. Knowing she was so far out of her comfort zone, and was still functioning, made her both giddy and terrified. What the heck, she might as well keep going. “Pull your shirt off and—” She made a circle with her finger. Then she waited, barely breathing, to see what he did.
Chapter Fifteen
Those black eyebrows went up, but he began unbuttoning his shirt. With every button that was opened she saw more and more of his chest, his stomach, and she went breathless again. A diamond of hair centered his chest, then more lightly spread across his muscled pectorals and in a narrow line down the ridges of his abdomen. She wanted to put her hands on him, stroke him, but his eyes were still a bit feral with arousal and she knew if she did the cut on his back wouldn’t get taken care of.
He tossed the flannel shirt across the back of a chair, and turned so she could examine his back. She caught a soft breath. At least he’d put a gauze pad over the wound, though it had bled through. The pad was small, about three by three inches; discolored skin surrounded it. The cut itself might be small, but the impact hadn’t been. She reached up and gently tugged at the pad, but though the edges were free the center of it was stuck.
“What happened?” She continued lifting the edges of the gauze, leaning close in an effort to see the actual wound.
“I was cutting firewood and a tree kicked out, knocked me down. It isn’t much, nothing that even needs a stitch.”
“But it’s still bleeding.”
“I can’t reach it to put clotting powder on it.”
“Well, the gauze is soaked through, and it’s stuck to the wound. I need to soak it off with warm water. Where are your first-aid supplies?” Yes, she agreed with him that the wound obviously wasn’t serious, or he wouldn’t be moving as easily as he was, but his shoulder still needed to be properly bandaged.
“The bathroom,” he replied, after a long pause that told her he was teetering on the edge of telling her to back off, that kiss notwithstanding. Sela began working up her determination, because damned if she was going to leave here without first taking care of him.
“Lead the way,” she said, and held her breath.
For a few seconds he didn’t move, then she could see him mentally tell himself