How to Wed an Earl by Ivory Lei

before turning back to face him.
    Lucas stared back at her expectantly, his hand still gripping his arm to staunch the blood.
    “We’ll need a tourniquet for that wound,” she announced, looking around her for something that would be appropriate to use, and grimaced.
    She would have to use her petticoat.
It was the only thing clean and absorbent enough to do the job, and they both knew it. He watched her closely, waiting to see what she would do.
    She didn’t hesitate about her actions; she just turned her back on him and lifted her skirts, tearing strips off her petticoat.
    He could hardly believe
this
was happening. The nymph was out in the woods with him, nursing him back to health. His well-being seemed to be the only thing she was focused on. All thoughts of whatever had brought her out here in the first place had been forgotten.
    How many hours had he fantasized about this? To have those beautiful, healing hands on him? Lucas would gladly shoot his other arm himself. And she’d called him
darling
. Did she even realize that?
    Penelope unbuttoned his waistcoat, and he groaned.
    “Is it aching?”
    Oh, yes, it’s aching.
Only “it” wasn’t his wound. He squirmed, trying to hide his erection. She would surely kill him before this was finished.
    “It’s fine,” he said tightly.
    She tossed his waistcoat on the ground and started working on his shirt. Lucas gritted his teeth and clutched his wound tighter to keep from reaching for her.
    She finished unbuttoning his shirt. “You have to let go of your arm so I can take the shirt off.”
    He obeyed with surprising speed; he even managed to grin. Getting shot was his greatest move yet. He should have known blood was the way to Penelope’s heart.
    • • •
    Penelope couldn’t believe he was acquiescing to her ministrations so readily.
What was he up to now?
She shoved his shirt off his shoulders and tossed it on the ground by his waistcoat. And she very nearly swooned at the sight of his bare chest. She’d never seen such a splendidly male torso. It was an expanse of hard muscle smattered with soft, springy hairs. She licked her suddenly dry lips. She had to keep her mind on her task.
    She examined the wound on his upper left arm. It wasn’t deep, but it needed to be cleaned and dressed. When she touched his wound, the muscles in his arm leapt and he let out a low hiss.
    She stopped immediately. “Am I hurting you?”
    “No,” he rasped. “Go on and tend to me, Penelope.”
    Something in the way he spoke made her look at him sharply. What she saw took her breath away.
    His eyes were blazing, and there was a dark hunger in his features that made him look like a starving beast, ready to devour her whole.
    She cleared her throat and returned to cleaning his wound.
Why did he have to have this effect on her?
It wasn’t fair. She was on the verge of losing her home, and all he had to do was give her one of his hot gazes and she came running.
    It was this obsession with him that got her into this mess in the first place.
    When she was satisfied that his wound was clean, she gently rubbed her healing salve on it, then she wrapped a strip of her torn petticoat around it.
    “How’s that?” she asked.
    He looked at his arm and flexed it. “Excellent. You did a wonderful job.”
    She couldn’t suppress a nervous chuckle. “Well, I can hardly leave you to bleed to death after I stupidly shot you.” She met his midnight gaze, letting him see her sincerity. “I really am sorry for that. I don’t know what came over me. One minute I was desperate to talk to you, but when I saw Colin holding that pistol, all I could think of was to get it away from him.”
    “I will never let anything hurt your little brother,” he said quietly.
    “I know. But we heal people, Lucas. It’s what we do. I suppose that’s why I overreacted to seeing my brother with a weapon that can hurt someone. I’m sorry.”
    She began apologizing again, but he put his index finger on her