She nodded this time, sucked down a breath and fisted her right hand in his jacket, gripping it tightly.
Lowe tried to be gentle as he felt his way up to her knee, gauging her reaction. She didn’t tense or cry out. He worked his way lower again and the moment he neared her ankle, she yelped and kicked him with her good leg, catching him hard on the chest and knocking him back.
“Oh my God. I’m sorry.” Her blue eyes widened in horror as he rubbed at his sternum, clearing a muddy boot print from his checked fleece shirt.
“My fault.” He gazed down at her ankle, a frown knitting his eyebrows. “Not sure whether it’s a sprain or worse.”
“It’s a sprain,” she said, her voice a little too bright, as if she was trying to make herself believe that, or she could somehow twist fate to make it be a sprain and not a broken bone.
He removed his shirt and her eyes only widened further.
“What are you doing now?” Her gaze darted over his chest as he reached over behind him, gripped the back of his white T-shirt and pulled it off over his head.
“Field dressing.” He let the T-shirt fall onto his knees and put his shirt back on, was quick to button it and not only because of the cold. The feel of Cameo’s gaze on his bare chest wreaked havoc on him, had him heating to a thousand degrees and his skin feeling too tight. He looked around them and huffed when he realised he had used all the good sturdy wood for the fire. “Binding it will have to do for now. Might help a little.”
He tore his T-shirt into two pieces.
“Wait.” She sat up straighter and leaned forwards, pulled her gloves off and set them aside. “I’ll help. I’m trained in this kind of thing.”
“Trained in it?” He flicked a glance at her, lingered as her eyes locked with his and firelight danced over the right side of her face.
Damn, she really was beautiful.
She nodded. “One of the first things I did when I became a ranger.”
A ranger.
A lot of things about her suddenly made sense, except the fact there were men after her. That suddenly made a lot less sense for some reason. He couldn’t imagine why a park ranger would have armed men chasing after her.
She helped him with the bandage, pretty much took over and did it for him, and stopped just short of admonishing him at one point, which stopped him from pointing out that he didn’t have fancy training in the art of field medicine. It didn’t stop him from feeling a little less confident around her though.
He took over again when she fought a grimace, rolling the leg of her trousers back down and slipping her boot back on for her.
“Let me take a look at that arm.” He jerked his chin towards it and she didn’t fight him, shifted his coat from her shoulders and placed it over her legs, and then unzipped her own one.
Lowe moved around to her left side, kneeled and helped her slip her right arm free of the jacket and then eased it down her left one. He placed it over her legs as another layer of warmth and peered at the buff-coloured sweater she wore, one that was pure wool by the look of it. The little ranger really had come prepared, meaning she had known there was a high chance that escaping those men that were after her would end with her trekking through the woods.
He bet that the pack she had lost had everything she could possibly need to survive in the wild in it.
She tensed and looked away when he fingered the slit in her sweater, one that darted across her upper arm. “Is it bad?”
Lowe peered at the wound. “Just a graze. You got lucky. Bullet barely touched you. I’ll bandage it to keep the dirt out but it should heal nicely.”
The bleak look she gave him said she didn’t feel lucky, and when she looked at him like that, as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders and she was too tired to bear it, he wanted to hold her close.
“I swear, Cameo, I’ll keep you safe. Nothing… or no one… is going to hurt you while I’m with you.”
She swallowed and nodded, her fair eyebrows furrowing as she looked deep into his eyes, reached her right hand up and touched his where it lingered on her left arm. “Thank you, Lowe.”
His gaze fell to her lips and then he forced it down to her arm. He busied himself with binding the wound before she could even think about removing her sweater. It was better she stayed in it, and not only because he didn’t want her getting colder than she already was. Her proximity was driving him crazy again, had him firmly skirting the edge and feeling desperate for some air as his bear side goaded him, trying to make him give in to his impulses.
It wasn’t going to happen.
He had sworn he would keep her safe and not try anything, and he meant to keep that promise.
But her hand lingered on his, the feel of her skin against his too much for him to bear, and for some godsdamned reason he couldn’t bring himself to make her stop, to make her take her hand away.
He stared at the bandage on her arm when he had finished tying it, savoured how good it felt to have her touching him, how right it felt.
“Cameo,” he started.
Lifted his eyes to hers.
Somehow found the strength to shut down the urges running rampant through him.
“You should get some rest.”
Not the words he had wanted to say to her, and not the ones she had wanted to hear judging by how she looked away from him and her cheeks coloured.
He took his hand away from hers, helped her back into her jacket and placed his one over her front to keep her warm. On a long sigh, he twisted and sank onto his backside beside her, coming to rest against the cold wall of the cave.
“I don’t think I can sleep,” she whispered and glanced towards the mouth of the cave.
He had wanted her to be nearest the fire to keep her warm, but now he could see that had been a mistake. She felt vulnerable being the one closest to the mouth of the cave. He stood and moved around her, eased to his ass on her right side, and looked at her.
“Is that better?” His eyes searched hers, some soft part of him hoping it was.
She nodded and surprised him by resting her head on his arm. Lowe risked it, couldn’t deny the urge that ran through him. He lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders, tucked her against his chest and held her.
Watched over her as she drifted off to sleep.
Keeping his promise to her.
He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
Whoever was after her would have to go through him to get to her.
Even if they brought an army and all the guns in the world.
He would protect her until his last breath.
Chapter 5
Cameo woke slowly, sleep refusing to release its grip on her. She huddled into the warmth of the jacket wrapped around her and her eyes shot wide open when she realised it wasn’t only a jacket draped across her shoulders. Lowe’s arm was too. His hand gently gripped her left shoulder, just above where the bullet had caught her, and the shock that rolled through her only grew more intense as she realised something else.
She had been sleeping with her head against his chest. Her heart drummed discordantly to his as it beat against her right ear, picking up pace as she tried to think of something to say. She wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to curse, hoped she hadn’t drooled on him, or that he wouldn’t make a big deal about the fact she had used him as a pillow.
She wasn’t the sort of woman to fall asleep on a man she knew, let alone someone who was practically a stranger to her. Although, Lowe didn’t feel like a stranger. Some ridiculous part of her felt as if she already knew him better than she did most of the people she had worked with over the years, and she put it down to shock. The trauma of the last few months had done a real number on her, throwing her into a tailspin where it no longer surprised her that she was acting differently to how she normally would.
“Storm cleared up about an hour ago,” Lowe drawled, his deep voice as smooth and sweet as honey to her ears, and holding a rumbling smoky note like whiskey.
H
e had a voice made for the bedroom.
Cameo showed that stray thought the door. Shock. It was the shock talking.
“How long was I asleep?” She dreaded pulling away from Lowe, and not only because he was warm against her, like a portable radiator that was keeping the chill off her hip and side. She really didn’t want to see if she had left a drool patch on his soft, black and green checked shirt.
“I reckon a good nine hours.”
“Nine hours?” She jerked away from him, startlingly awake now as her gaze whipped from him to the world outside.
How could she have slept for nine hours? God only knew how close the other man might be to finding her now. She began to wish the storm hadn’t cleared up, cursed that clear blue sky she glimpsed through the dark green canopy of the forest. The storm had been hiding their tracks, providing them with cover. Now, the man would be able to spot them from a long distance even through a forest as dense as this one.
“You look worried.” And Lowe looked curious, possibly suspicious. “Something I should know about, Cameo?”
She was quick to shake her head. “Nothing. I just… I didn’t think I would sleep an hour, let alone nine.”
She had honestly thought she had been too wired to sleep, too afraid of what might be out there, whether it was an animal or a human. She looked at Lowe, right into those stunning, rich baby blues, and it hit her that she had been too wired and too afraid to sleep, but then he had placed himself between her and any possible danger, and she had felt safe.
Safer than she had felt in a long time.
In too long.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept for more than a few hours, and she had the feeling that if Lowe was with her, she could sleep for a day or more, felt so at ease and safe around him that she could easily catch up on all the sleep she had missed since her brother had been killed.
Cameo glanced at the world beyond the mouth of the cave again, dreading going out there while at the same time feeling a pressing need to get moving.
“I’m sensing you want to get out of here.” Lowe took his arm from around her shoulders and pushed to his feet, and a strange feeling swept over her.
A chilling sort of coldness that made her want to ask him to hold her again.
This wasn’t like her. Capable Cameo, as her work colleagues teasingly called her, didn’t rely on others, trod her own path in this world with confidence and certainty. Capable Cameo had been struggling to keep her head above water the last few months though, had been slowly sinking into despair and had been starting to feel that she was going to have to run for the rest of her life or she would be caught.
Killed.
It had taken its toll on her and had worn her down more than she had noticed. Now that she had taken a moment to rest, had found someone she felt she could trust, someone who looked strong enough to help her, it had all rolled up on her and that strength she had thought she possessed was nowhere to be seen.
Lowe bent forwards and offered his hand to her and she stared at it, knew how bleak she looked as his blond eyebrows furrowed, disappearing beneath his black hat, and he gave her a soft look, one filled with understanding and a touch of concern.
He eased to his haunches before her, resting his elbows on his knees, and sighed. “Tough few days, huh?”
She nodded and tried to push it all down inside her, to bottle it up again, but it was all whirling around her head now, images of Nate swirling together with memories of those men when they had come to threaten her, and when she had pushed the one down the slope. She could still hear the sickening crack as he had hit that tree.
“I don’t know what you’ve been through or what you’re involved in, Cameo, but I do know you can trust me. Whatever is happening… I can help you. You get to set the rules here though. You want to keep it all to yourself, that’s fine. I won’t like it, but I’ll deal. You want to talk to me about it, you can do that too.” Lowe gently placed his hand over hers as she gripped her knees. “You need my help, you’ve got it.”
She stared at him, part of her sure he was an angel, one sent to protect her, because who else would be out here in the middle of nowhere? Who else would offer to help her when he didn’t even know the dangerous mess she was caught up in?
As she looked at him, she felt deep in her soul that her luck had changed yesterday. It really had. Some kind deity of fate had put him in her path, right when it had looked as if things were going to get ugly for her and she had reached the end of the line.
Could he really protect her from the destiny she felt awaited her?
She had seen enough movies to know what would happen if Karl got his hands on her, had seen what they had done to her brother. Torture. They would torture her to make her talk, even though she didn’t know anything and she certainly didn’t have their money. They wouldn’t care.
“Hey now.” Lowe lifted his hand and brushed his knuckles across her face, startling her.
She blinked and looked at him, shock rolling through her as she felt the cold kiss of tears on her cheeks.
Just great. Now she was crying in front of him. She didn’t want to imagine what he was probably thinking as he cleared her tears away, his touch gentle and concern warming his blue eyes. She hated the thought he might be thinking she was weak, another woman who couldn’t handle herself, who resorted to breaking down in tears when the going got tough. She wasn’t. She lifted her hand, knocking his away as she scrubbed at her face. She was strong. Capable Cameo.
He looked as if he wanted to say something. One half of her imagined it would be something along the lines of telling her that she was allowed to cry because she had been through a lot, and the other half of her imagined it would be some well-intentioned speech about how crying didn’t make her weak and that she was strong.
She didn’t want to hear either of those things, so she gripped the rough rock wall of the cave and hauled herself onto her feet, grimacing only a little as she dared to put the tiniest amount of weight on her left leg. Pain swept up it in response and she decided against attempting to walk on it.
She was beginning to fear the worst now—it was fractured.
Cameo removed Lowe’s black jacket from her shoulders and held it out to him. He looked as if he didn’t want to take it, might insist she kept wearing it like a blanket, but then he grabbed it and slipped his arms into it, and zipped it up.
Standing before him like this, she realised just how tall he was. He had a good nine inches on her, maybe more, had to stand at least six-six. He wasn’t a slim six-six either. He was a big six-six. Made her feel tiny in comparison. She had met a few men who lived in the wilderness, preferring to keep to themselves and lead a simple life out in the woods, but none of them had been as built as Lowe was. He looked as if he could haul logs without any machinery, could easily fell a tree and drag it to wherever he needed it.
“You hungry?” There was an awkward edge to his eyes as he said that and it dawned on her that it was because she was staring at him. He patted his stomach. “You must be hungry, because I’m ravenous.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the cave mouth, lingered looking in that direction. Avoiding her as she continued staring at him, couldn’t quite convince herself to stop. Yesterday, she hadn’t noticed just how big he was, although she had noticed how handsome he was. She had put that down to shock at the time, but in the cold light of day, he was still as gorgeous as she had thought him when her brain had been addled by pain and fear.
He cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t be more than half a day to my cabin. Think you can make it that far?”
Did he mean walking or without food? The thought of trekking half a day wasn’t appealing either way. She was hungry, as ravenous as he was, her stomach constantly growling at her for food, and her leg was aching again. She wasn’t sure she could hop for half a day, not when hunger was draining what precious strength she had.
Lowe stepped out into the open and she followed him, the though
t of trying to walk becoming even less appealing as she saw just how much snow had made it through the forest canopy and settled on the ground.
He cast her a look, one that told her he wanted to say something but he thought she wouldn’t like it, and scrubbed his nape, teasing short blond hairs that stuck out from beneath his hat.
“Cameo… I get that… Well, I just think… I know…” He huffed. “I’m going to be blunt. I get you want to walk, but you’re going to find it hard going in these conditions with your injury, and I’m really damned hungry and I want to get back to the cabin and get you warmed up before your condition gets worse… so I’m going to carry you, and you can be mad at me all you want about it, but it isn’t going to change the fact you’re getting carried.”
Before she could even form a protest, he stooped and scooped her up into his arms as if she weighed nothing. Damsel in distress wasn’t her scene, but the way Lowe’s arms tensed against her back and beneath her knees, how gently he held her despite how firm his muscles were against her, and the way it brought their faces close together, felt too good for her to even want to complain and be mad at him.
He stared at her, his lips parting slightly, his gaze holding hers.
After a long silence that felt too comfortable, he muttered something beneath his breath, something she felt sure had been a comment about how she felt pressed against him, and shook his head, as if trying to rouse himself.
Or shake an urge away.
Cameo’s gaze fell to his mouth as he started walking and she shook her own head, dislodging the sudden urge that came over her, the tempting thought of kissing him. He might be holding her like a damsel, treating her like a princess, but that didn’t mean she had to go all soft over him and start thinking about things like kissing him as if he was some white knight who deserved a token of gratitude from her.
She tucked her hands in her lap, unsure what to do with them, and tried to keep her eyes off him as he walked. As he carried her. It was fine at first, and he was making far quicker progress than they would have had she been trying to walk, but a feeling slowly crept up on her as they left the cave behind and followed the slope downwards into the heart of the valley. She felt awkward, ashamed, like a burden. She had been trained in how to deal with the mountains and she had been so confident in her skills, and part of her felt that this whole affair had only proven how wrong she had been about that, even when the rest knew that even the most experienced ranger wouldn’t have been able to deal with what had happened to her.
Rescued by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Page 5