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Her eyes welled up. “Yes. That’s exactly it.”
Beast stroked her cheek and tipped her chin gently up to him, so that she would look him in the eye. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll sleep in my clothes too.”
Her eyes became glassy with tears, and she blinked them back. “Maybe there’s some antiseptic cream in the medical kit. We can dress my cuts.”
“Good thinking.” He pulled the small bag out of the pack.
They took a few minutes to slather the cream over every wound on her body. There was a compression bandage in the kit, and Beast used it to bind her knee. Antihistamine cream was next, and they took turns dabbing the insect bites on each other’s bodies.
“We’re a matching pair. Both of us a mess,” Belinda said with a mixture of amusement and tears.
“Couple of days and this will all be gone.”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
She was losing hope; he heard it in her voice. The jungle was taking its toll on her, and the trauma of that morning’s attack was far too fresh.
“Done,” she said, handing the cream to him. “You get into bed first and I’ll climb on top of you.” He moved to do exactly that, and she put a hand on his arm to stop him. “Maybe we could get undressed. It would be more comfortable. But keep our underwear on?”
“We can do that if you want, baby. There’s no pressure either way.”
“Yeah, I want to. Everything rubs at me. It might help me feel better. But…” She looked around. Their surroundings were swallowed in shadow. The flashlight only illuminated the tiny pocket of space they occupied.
“I’ll keep the gun close. We’ll hear anything that comes at us, long before it gets here. You’ll be safe.”
She nodded. “Can you help me to get my clothes off? My knee won’t hold my weight.”
“Anything for you, Hollywood.” He was beginning to think he meant every word of that literally.
He slid the dress over her head and hung it over the line above their bed, under the mosquito net. She’d long ago discarded her bra, and the marks on her breast from where she’d been held and cut were stark on her pale skin.
Beast clenched his jaw and pressed his lips together tightly to stop from saying something about the marks. She didn’t need to hear it. Not now. He crouched in front of her and gently removed her shoes, taking care not to jar her swollen knee or the hip with the knife wound. He hated seeing the damage that had been done to her and couldn’t wait until it had healed and the physical reminders of her attack were gone. Gently, he pressed a kiss to the dressing covering the knife wound.
“I don’t feel it,” Belinda said softly.
“I still hate him for it.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
“Ready?” he said as he stood.
She nodded, and Beast quickly kicked off his shoes and took off his shirt and pants. She eyed his underpants.
“You don’t have to keep them on because I’m keeping mine on,” she said.
“Yeah, baby, I do. I don’t trust those monkeys with low-hanging fruit.”
She seemed surprised when she laughed, and Beast couldn’t help but grin at her.
“Get your ass in bed,” he said gruffly. “We’ve got four hours until daylight, and we need some sleep.”
“You first. I don’t want to be crushed.”
Beast climbed into the hammock, then steadied Belinda as she climbed in beside him. She didn’t hesitate in sprawling on top of him and snuggling close. Her legs straddled him, her arms tucked in at his sides, her breasts flattened against his chest, and she nuzzled against the crook of his neck until she found a spot she liked. Once settled, she let out a contented little sigh that melted his heart.
“Can I sleep on top of you?” she said.
He smiled, noting that she’d asked once she was settled. “You can sleep wherever you like, baby.”
