No. That was not what mature, adult women thought when taking care of an injured male. That response was more in line with pubescent males who hid the girlie mags they stole from their dads under their mattresses. She was above such thoughts.
She grabbed a towel and laid it across his pelvis. Eyes on his face, she reached under the towel to lay her hands at his waist, his skin as warm as a human as it was as a gargoyle. She inched fabric down, slow and gentle in deference to wounds both known and yet undiscovered.
The whole process to remove Terak’s pants took less than a minute, and at the end of it she was breathing as heavily as she did after running a 5K.
She cleared her throat, embarrassment warring with the crazy, inappropriate thoughts that had somehow become embedded in her brain this last week. She was taking care of him, and that was why she was running her hands over his legs. There were a few scrapes and bruises, but his legs were fine. Well, not fine like that. No, wait, they were…
She rapped her forehead a few times. This was ridiculous when she was even a stuttering fool within her own brain.
A little more washing, a few more bandages, and a patched-up, human-looking gargoyle was now in her bed. “When you wake up, we are having a serious talk. Like about gargoyle emergency contacts, and this whole turning human thing.”
If he was awake he wasn’t admitting to it. His eyes stayed closed and his breathing stayed even.
Her warrior.
Without her bidding a smile curled in the corner of her mouth. Yeah, he was. He had been amazing, ferocious and unstoppable. He took on those orcs without hesitation, all to protect her.
She leaned back against the wall and slid down until her butt hit the floor. She could still see him from this angle, that human face displaying no signs of distress.
What did she have to do now? Car was taken care of, and the list of questions she was going to be asking Olivia tomorrow could be made later. Olivia knew people. When had she started knowing people, people who could fix a car filled with orc parts and not blink?
Later. Much, much later.
Blood. Maybe cleaning up any blood trail would be a good idea, yes?
Thirty minutes later, any signs she had hauled a bleeding guy around were taken care of, thankfully without any neighbors catching her in the middle of clean-up duty. The sheets and towels would need to be trashed, but other than that no worries.
Terak was still resting when she went to check on him. His breathing was easier and his color better than it had been when she left.
Pulling one of the bandages away from his chest she looked, then looked again, doing a double-take. “Oh holy hell.”
He said no hospital and it wasn’t him being a stubborn male. He was healing on his own. What had been a good-sized gash was now half the depth and width it had been when she had cleaned it.
It wasn’t that she had misjudged the severity of his wounds at the park. It was that they had already begun to heal in the time that it took to get to the apartment.
Huh. So gargoyles could shift into human form, and they healed in no time flat. Handy gifts, those.
Larissa kneeled down beside him and smoothed his hair back from his forehead. The human hair was finer than the coarse gargoyle strands, but it was the same deep black. No fever, just warm, perfect skin. “Do you think next time you can share the important info that will keep me from worrying before you faint?” No answer, but his breaths were deep and regular without a hint of pain in them. She sighed. “You’re lucky you saved my life today, or you’d be in for a serious talking to.”
As she stood, splotches of red on her once blue T-shirt caught her eye. Oh, ew. Blood and sweat and dirt and who knew what else were all down the front of her clothing. And her hair was still damp with sweat. And her legs had stuff streaked on them that she didn’t even want to identify.
Terak was still sleeping comfortably. A quick shower wouldn’t hurt.
The hot water pounded her from above, working into sore muscles in a painfully pleasurable way. She had entered academia and not followed her dad and brothers into law enforcement for a reason. She was not cut out for all this physical stuff.
After tossing on some comfy pajamas and giving her hair a quick towel dry, she went back to the bedroom, where Terak had flipped over and was now on his stomach, his face at the edge of the bed and his arm hanging over the side of the mattress.
He had been so frightening and alien that first night, a monster who had grabbed her against her will. Now here he was, undeniably human, and there was such a strong physical resemblance between man and gargoyle that it seemed ridiculous she’d ever thought gargoyles were scary-looking.
Larissa smoothed the blankets over him since he was in danger of losing the towel with his maneuverings. Would he be embarrassed waking up without his pants? An embarrassed Terak – now that expression would be worth checking out.