Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #2)(5)

“I was told you are the best.”

Jenner came to a halt right in front of her. Damn, he was tall. She had to arch her neck all the way back just to meet his glare.

“Flattery won’t get me to take you out there. This is my hard no.”

“Why? I have experience. I’ve been shooting black bears for the past year.”

“Black bears? Woman, those are f*cking kittens compared to brown bears. Tell whoever sent you here that you’re sorry to disappoint them, but you want to live. Go back to wherever you come from, live a long happy life taking pictures of pygmy donkeys and armadillos or whatever it is you need to photograph to get by, and enjoy the rest of your days not in the stomach of a f*cking grizzly.”

“Jenner,” Lennard said in a steely voice. “This is Lena Rhodes.”

“I still don’t care who she is, old man. She isn’t hunting grizzlies with a camera. I’m not doing it. I’m really not. Especially not when she’s…”

“Finish it. Especially not when I’m what? A novice? A woman?”

Jenner clenched his teeth so hard a muscle jumped in his jaw. “Yeah, the last one.” He turned on his heel and disappeared down the hallway.

She stood there, entirely stunned and completely infuriated at the ridiculous man. What was he complaining about? She wasn’t some inexperienced photographer. She’d been shooting wildlife her entire five-year career, slowly working her way up until she was ready for this opportunity. Pygmy donkeys and armadillos. She wanted to choke him and slap him and kick him in his family jewels all at once.

She stomped after him, hands clenched at her sides lest she get an even bigger and less controllable urge for violence.

“I wouldn’t,” Dalton warned.

But hang it all, the magazine had paid an astronomical amount of money to get her in this position for grizzly money shots, and the guide she’d chosen was out on the excuse that she was a woman? Hell no.

There were several bedrooms down this hallway, and one of them was hers, so she took a chance and shoved the door with the number two painted onto it.

She’d guessed right because Jenner stood near a sink on the other side of the room, completely shirtless and peeling off a crimson-soaked bandage that wrapped around his torso. He turned around so fast, she could’ve sworn he blurred, and now his eyes were blazing a strange blue-brown color she’d never seen before.

“What happened?” she asked in shock, stumbling forward a step.

“Nothing,” he rushed out, holding the loose end of the bandage he’d been removing.

She shut the door behind her, but he put a hand out. “No, don’t come in.”

“How long does it take to get a doctor out here?”

“A long ass time, but I don’t need a doctor. Stop coming closer woman. Just…stay over there.”

Ignoring him completely, she marched over to him and swatted his hand away from the loose wrapping. He sighed the most irritated sound she’d ever heard, but she gave exactly zero figs right now because he definitely looked like he was bleeding out. She unwrapped the stiff binding, mostly dried with his blood. Steeling herself on the last layer, she ghosted Jenner a glance. His chest was heaving as he looked down at her with some unfathomable expression. “You scared of blood, woman?” he asked in a deep, growly timbre.

Too many times to count, she’d relived the memory of her co-worker, Jason, mauled by a black bear and out in the woods where she spent hours staunching his blood flow until help could arrive. “No.” She peeled off the last sticky layer that clung to his skin. He winced but didn’t make a sound. Four long claw marks wrapped from his front around to his back, and what looked like puncture wounds had pierced his skin right under his arm. She shook her head and sighed. “I’m not scared of blood because I’ve seen this before. How did you get away?”

Jenner’s lip lifted at one corner, and his eyes softened just before he looked away. No answer—fantastic. Still a dick then.

“This looks really bad. Why didn’t you get Lennard and the others to help with first aid?”

“Because this is none of their damned business and besides, I heal fast.”

“Stubborn and idiotic. Sa-weet.”

A soft humming sound rumbled in his chest, but when she looked up at him, the sound stopped and his eyes sparked, daring her to ask what the hell that was about. She glared at him and tossed the bloody bandages in the trashcan by the sink. “Would you like me to disinfect it, or are you too stubborn to ask for my help?”

“Can you keep your mouth shut about the injury?”

Lena rolled her eyes. “Sure. If you want to die of infection or sepsis, that’s your own choice.”

Jenner snorted. “This is nothing.”

On closer inspection of his skin, she believed him. Long healed silver scars covered most of his torso, so thin and light, she’d almost missed them. She wanted to ask him badly how he’d survived such injuries, but his eyes had closed down completely, and that ticking in his jaw was back. With a sigh, she yanked the first aid kit off the countertop and pulled it open, then picked and chose what she needed.

She bit a package of fresh bandages open with her teeth and grabbed a dark wash cloth from the bathroom. Carefully and wordlessly, she cleaned the half-dried gore from his body. It wasn’t until she’d cleaned his wounds completely that she noticed the actual body she was working on. Thick with muscle, defined indentations between his pecs, eight-pack abs and those sexy strips of muscle delving into the low slung canvas pants he wore. His stomach flexed with every breath as he watched her. As she picked up the bottle of hydrogen peroxide, Lena swallowed hard and tried to focus on steadying her now shaking hands.