He returned with Farzad a few minutes later. “If you ask the women to confine themselves to the hospital wing and lock the door behind them, I’ll carry these inside and down the stairs for you.”
“This meets with the requirements for modesty,” Farzad said.
“Thank you, Farzad.” Jenna kept her eyes averted so he couldn’t see how amusing she found the situation.
Jenna hurried back inside and locked the student midwives together with Delara and Marie inside the hospital wing, then went and opened the door for Derek. “The coast is clear,brother.”
He picked up the first barrel and followed her to the small kitchen, his body seeming to fill the space. He peered inside the safe room. “It’s not big, is it?”
He maneuvered the barrel through the small opening and onto the landing and then bent down and stepped through. There wasn’t enough room on the landing for him to stand upright, and he had to keep his head bent as he started down the stairs. “I can see why you thought this might be a problem.”
“Don’t break your neck.” She followed him down, carrying one of the boxes of MREs. She couldn’t see her feet this time, so she was extra careful.
Derek set the drum down on its edge and rolled it into a corner, the ceiling barely tall enough for him to stand upright. He lifted the MREs from her arms as if they weighed nothing and set them down on one of the concrete benches. “I can carry those down. You open the boxes and pack the meals in the drums.”
Once again, she caught the scent of his skin, a spicy, masculine smell. She’d become so accustomed to the odor of unwashed bodies that being near him was intoxicating.
Good grief!
He hurried back up the stairs, making four more trips—two for the remaining two drums and two for the rest of the MREs and the water—while she tore off the shrink wrap, opened the boxes, and piled the meals into the barrel. Then she fitted the lids onto the barrels, stepping back as he pounded them firmly into place with the heel of his palm.
“That ought to keep out the mice.”
“I’d like to store some medical supplies down here, too, just in case—first aid supplies, IV fluids, pain meds.” Her headscarf had come loose, and she instinctively reached up to straighten it.
He caught her hand. “Don’t. I want to see your hair.”
Jenna forgot to breathe.
* * *
What the hellare you doing?
This hadn’t been part of Derek’s plan. The words had just come out of his mouth, but for some reason, he wasn’t taking them back.
A part of him tried to convince himself that he was just doing his job, just trying to win Jenna over. But he knew that was bullshit. He trulydidwant to see her hair.
Jenna stood, frozen in place, looking up at him, green eyes wide, her pupils dilated. “I-I probably shouldn’t…”
He took hold of the damned headscarf and pulled it off to reveal thick auburn hair that hung well below her shoulders.
She reached up, ran a hand self-consciously over her hair. “I’ve gotten used to covering up. I don’t spend any time styling it or…”
Her words trailed off when he lifted a handful of silky strands, raised them to his nostrils, and inhaled, the feminine scent sending a dart of arousal to his groin. “You smell like flowers.”
“It’s … uh … my shampoo.”
Had he managed to fluster her?
Good.
“I like it.” He slid his fingers through the thick tresses, grazing her cheek with his palm, his fingers finding her nape.
Her eyes drifted shut, her lips parting on an exhale.
Lust punched through him, sharp and bright.
Reluctantly, he drew his hand away, fighting an irrational impulse to pull her close and kiss the hell out of her. “You’re a beautiful woman, Jenna.”