Connor returned carrying a tin bucket full of water. “It looks clean, but I’m not taking any chances.”
He took a filter out of his backpack, and Shanti helped him run the water through it and pour it into their water bottles, then treated each with a Steripen to kill anything the filter missed. “You did well today. I know you weren’t ready for this, but you didn’t give up, and you didn’t complain.”
Sitting close to him like that, she could smell the salt and sweat of his skin—an appealing masculine smell. “You saved my life.”
“You might well have saved mine.” He stood. “I’m going for more water.”
“For washing?”
“I need to clean this damned graze on my head.”
Connor sat stilland tried not to swear while Shanti cleaned his wound with sterilized water and antiseptic, her hands in sterile gloves. “Don’t worry about hurting me. It’s going to hurt no matter what. The important thing is to make sure it’s clean.”
“If this had been even a millimeter more to the left…”
“Don’t think about what didn’t happen.” Connor watched her face as she worked, her concern warming him. Most of his relationships with women had been about sex and nothing more. It felt good to have a womancareabout him.
She’s your client, and this isn’t a relationship.
Right.
He gritted his teeth against the burn of the antiseptic. He had already looked at it with the signal mirror from the jungle survival kit. “You’ll need to suture it.”
Her eyes went wide. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“I’ll talk you through it.”
He got out the suture kit, handed her the instructions, and explained how it worked. “Just do your best. It doesn’t have to be pretty. The main thing is to close the skin to prevent infection.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“There’s no way around that, princess.”
She seemed to steel herself, a look of hard determination coming over her face as she took hold of his skin with the forceps and ran the needle through it.
Connor sucked in a breath.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’re doing what needs to be done. I appreciate that.”
She ran the needle through to the skin on the other side, pulled the skin tight, then knotted the thread several times before snipping it. “That’s one.”
“Good work.”
As injuries went, this wasn’t the worst wound he’d received or the most painful. Sitting close to Shanti like this, having her take care of him, almost made it worthwhile.
You’re an idiot.
God, she was beautiful—beautiful, smart, brave. He’d worked with hundreds of Cobra clients over the past few years, and few of them could have handled what happened today the way she had.
The fact that she’d been willing to kill to save his life…
It didn’t matter to him that she probably wouldn’t have been able to do it. The fact that she’d resolved to try moved him.
“Two,” she said. “Why do you call me that?”
“Call you what?” Endorphins and pheromones were making it hard to think.