“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Harper gasped at the sound that rumbled out from him.

“That wasn’t a sound of pain, Lola.” His voice was throaty and made her body tingle in anticipation, while she was sure a blush stained her cheeks.

Warmth radiated off him as she stumbled over in her head how to reply, so she just fell silent. The fairly deep gash was on his shoulder, but she didn’t think it would need stitches. She stood and went to grab a towel from the bathroom so that he didn’t bleed all over the bed. When she came back, he was watching her with hooded eyes. It made her feel like a young girl, which she certainly was not, but she hadn’t been looked at like that in years. As she sat back down behind him, right on the corner of the bed, she tucked the towel into the waistband of his jeans. Her fingers skimmed the dimples just above his butt, and her heart fluttered in her chest. The expanse of tawny skin in front of her was breathtaking. He wasn’t sculpted, but he was definitely muscular. She got up on one knee to better reach the wound. She could feel the muscles flexing under his skin as her hands moved. The black ink of his tattoo that swirled around in all kinds of different shapes on his shoulder fascinated her. She wanted to trace the shapes all the way down his arm to where they ended just below his elbow. Tattoos had always fascinated her, but this one was different. The shapes all seemed to move together in a way that reminded her of nature in its rawest form.

“This might hurt,” she warned.

“I’ll be fine, Lola. Don’t you worry about me.”

She would never admit it, but she was starting to like the way he used her middle name. No one else had ever called her that, and it made it feel special somehow. Sure, her mother had used it when she was angry, but that was really the only time she’d heard it, except for in school occasionally. As she picked up the bottle of saline solution and a few gauze pads, she hesitated. What was she doing? If he was a shifter, who knew what his body needed? She might end up hurting him more, so she said, “I’m going to spray some saline solution into the wound and try to clear it of blood so I can make sure it’s clean before I bandage you up. Okay?”

“Whatever you want,” his voice rasped out as her fingers trailed over the skin, wiping away what she could of the blood.

Harper took a deep breath and squirted some of the solution onto the wound, making sure it was being absorbed by the towel as it ran down his back. When the wound finally looked as clear as it was going to get, she looked at it, pressing ever so gently on either side to make sure there was nothing in there that could cause an infection. After she was satisfied that everything was clean, she opened the box of butterfly bandages and grabbed the tube of disinfecting ointment that would also speed healing. She applied the ointment to the bandage and placed one sticky side on either side of the wound, pulling it closed and keeping the two sides of the gash pressed up against one another.

“Where’s your other cut?” she asked absentmindedly as she wiped up the remaining blood from his back and untucked the towel.

“Here,” he said, lifting an arm.

His voice almost made her jump. She’d been concentrating so hard on making sure she didn’t hurt him and that the wound was clean that she had almost forgotten he was a real live human being, or bear or shifter or whatever. The second stab wound was low on his abdomen, and she moved off the bed onto the floor so she could get a better look at it. As she tucked the towel back into his jeans, she began to repeat the same process. This time, there was something in the wound, though. It was gray and looked almost pebble-like.

Harper looked up at him. “I’m going to have to use the tweezers to get something out before I can bandage you up.”

“Um hum, whatever you need to do, Lola,” he said with that husky voice and hooded eyes.

It was only then that she realized her face was only inches away from his crotch. Her cheeks flamed, and she looked away. God, how could she be so clueless? Trying to ignore her embarrassment, she reached for the tweezers and a disinfecting wipe before she placed the fingers of one hand on either side of the wound, trying to keep it as still as possible. The plastic tweezers had ridges to help grip on the ends, but that wasn’t especially helpful when the surface of whatever it was she was trying to grab was smooth.

Domino grunted as she tried to get the tweezers under one side of the debris.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“Do what you need to do.”

She could feel the sharp edge that had embedded it in his skin, and as she moved the plastic around, she was finally able to get purchase. Slowly, without losing the small grip she had on the thing, she pulled it free of the wound. Blood gushed out behind it, which was to be expected with something like that. The thing fell from the tweezers as soon as it was free from the wound, and she grabbed some gauze pads and pressed them against the freshly bleeding area. As she held it there, she let out a long breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and risked glancing up at Domino.

He was watching her, of course, with those deep brown eyes of his. This time, she didn’t look away, though. She stared right back. Something about cleaning his wounds and having him in her apartment made her feel closer to him, bolder even. When his tongue swept over his lower lip and he bit it, she almost lost her cool. Strike that. She did lose her cool. The reaction was slightly delayed, but then an altogether too familiar feeling of blush creeping up her neck was there, and she looked away.

“I like your blush. It’s cute,” he said quietly, as though he was unsure of crossing a line.

She didn’t look up at him, but she said, “It’s childish, makes me feel like a kid.”

“Trust me, no one is going to mistake you for a kid, Lola.”

There he was with that nickname again, making her stomach squirm and her body react in ways she’d thought she had lost forever. Ignoring the comment, she grabbed another piece of gauze bandage and some cloth tape. Once the gauze was in place, she taped the sides down and sat back.

“You’re going to have to be careful with that one,” she said, gesturing to his abdomen. For the first time, she looked at the rest of it. There was no six pack, not even the hint of it, but there was also no doubt about the muscle that resided just behind the skin. His flat, firm stomach was on full display as he leaned over to look at her handiwork. “You’ll need someone to help you with the butterfly bandages on your shoulder if you want to get them off without ripping the wound open again.”

“I think I’ll come back to Nurse Lola, if that’s all right with you? I haven’t had someone pay so much attention to a wound in a long time.”

She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet, willing herself not to flush at the compliment. “Sure, if you want.” She took a step backward, and her foot landed on one of Daisy’s squeaky toys. Her heart broke for a moment that they still hadn’t found her. What if that weird guy who’d stabbed Domino had her?

As though he’d read her thoughts, he reached out and took her hand gently in his. “Hey, we’ll find her, don’t worry. Bears have a very good sense of smell.”

“Really? Is that how you were tracking her?”

He nodded.

“So, you’re not an eagle scout, after all?”

“No, ma’am. But I can pretend if you want,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively.

“That’s a weird fantasy you’ve got there, Nic.” She grinned at him and realized that she genuinely enjoyed talking to him, and the hand holding didn’t hurt, either.

He laughed at her, and the sound made her toes curl. Her toes should not be curling. She had barely been fit to be out in public a few days ago, and now she was flirting with this guy she’d only just met. Was she flirting, though? She glanced down at their still-connected hands. This was definitely flirting to her. She wasn’t sure where to take the conversation, and her flirtation skills were pitiful to begin with, so after years of neglect, she felt even more awkward, so she said, “So, uh, we should get back out there and keep looking for Daisy, if you’re up for it.”

“It’s absolutely pouring outside. I really don’t think it’s worth searching for her in this since she wouldn’t come if we called. She’s probably tucked herself away somewhere out of the rain.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize—” She broke off without finishing her thought. She hadn’t realized it was still raining, even though now that he’d mentioned it, she could hear it pounding against the tiny window in the kitchen area. Her body and mind both hummed with anticipation and desire, two things she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“I can go if you want and meet up with you later,” he said, wincing as he stood.

“Whatever works for you.” She didn’t know what to say. Hell, she didn’t even know if she wanted him to stay. That was a lie. She knew.

“Okay, I guess I’ll head out, then.” He withdrew his hand from hers, and she immediately felt the loss like a cool wind blowing over her skin.

The apartment was so tiny that he grabbed his shirt, pulling it on as he moved, and was at her front door in just a few strides, and she was still standing there, trying to make her mind and her mouth cooperate. “Do me a favor”—she paused and took a breath as he clasped the door handle—“don’t go.”

He turned toward her. “You want me to stay?”

She nodded.

“Tell me, Lola. Tell me you want me here,” he said, walking to the middle of the room, standing between the couch and her poor excuse for a coffee table.

Her heart hammered in her chest, and suddenly she was moving and talking. “I want you . . .”

By the time she’d finished those three words, she was in front of him, her hands touching his face as they brought it down toward her own. There was a fraction of a moment before they connected when the world seemed to narrow into a single shining point, a breathless vacuum, that was just the two of them. It felt like everything was watching and waiting for them to take the plunge.

When her lips connected with his, it wasn’t that tender first kiss they showed in movies where each was unsure of the other. No, this was lips devouring each other as their bodies pressed up against one another as if they couldn’t get close enough. His hands wrapped around her and pinned her to him in a way that, when combined with the passion behind the kiss, stole her breath. He was claiming her, marking her for all time as his. Whether it was just a kiss or whether it was more, she knew she would always remember kissing Domino in her living room. They separated so they could each draw breath, and Harper’s chest was heaving.

“Sorry, I—” she started, not that she really knew what she was apologizing for, but he cut her off with another kiss. This one was slower, more luxurious, as his hands skimmed over her body, their heat practically scorching her skin.

Their clothing was still wet from being out in the rain, and it let her feel every flat plane of his body as her hands took on a life of their own. Her mouth opened as she drew in another gasp of breath, and he took the opportunity, sliding his tongue in and allowing it to tangle with hers. Bolts of heat and lightning pulsed through her body as they stood there, clutching each other while their mouths moved in a rhythm that was so primal, it was beyond thought.

His mouth pulled away from hers and began to kiss a trail from her collarbone all the way up to her ear before nibbling on the lobe. He traced the path back down before biting on her neck. Small needy sounds that she had no control over were coming from her as his mouth, teeth, and tongue moved over her sensitive skin. An appreciative rumbling noise came from him as her head fell back, exposing more of her neck and chest to him.