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I opened my mouth to speak, but he held up a hand.
“Not a word. Not one single word.”
“Okay.” I bit the inside of my cheek, holding back another laugh that came out as a snort.
Then I realized he was bleeding, and I immediately sobered.
His arms and the sides of his body, from his armpits to his hips, were red and raw, and my heart twisted seeing him hurt.
“Shit, Cal.” I looked through the boat for a towel or something to dab at his injuries.
He looked down at his torn skin and winced like he hadn’t noticed the cuts until I’d pointed them out, like they hadn’t been causing him pain until he saw the blood mixing with the water running down his skin and pooling on the polished boat deck.
This was the second time since we’d left Seattle that I’d seen Cal bleed, and I hated it.
At least this time, it wasn’t my fault.
Stowed in the compartment under the passenger seat at the rear of the boat was a blue-and-white striped towel nestled in among a few life jackets. It was folded neatly and smelled clean, if faintly mildewy like it had been locked up in there for a while, and I passed it to Cal. His face twisted in pain as he reached out to grab it. The water in the Venetian canals wasn’t known for being the cleanest, and even with our advanced shifter healing, the wounds still needed to be treated to avoid infection. Cal blotted at the worst of them, his jaw clenching.
Scivolo would be impossible to find at this point. We’d have to figure out what had her running today some other way.
“Let’s go back to the hotel.”
Cal nodded and sat gingerly on the bench at the back of the boat as I started the engine. While we’d been pursuing Scivolo and zigzagging through the canals, it had felt like we’d traveled a lot farther from the city center, but by the time I retraced our route until I saw signs for canals with names I recognized and followed them, we were almost back at the hotel. The whole trip had taken only about twenty minutes. Some of Cal’s more superficial cuts and scrapes were already starting to fade, but the deeper gouges were still bleeding.
“I hate to tell you this because it’s going to suck, but you can’t walk into the hotel naked. You’re going to need to put your clothes on.”
“Fuck.” Cal hissed the expletive under his breath but rose from the bench to grab his clothes from where I’d tossed them. His legs were relatively unharmed, his tail the narrowest part of his body in his shifted form, and he slid the jeans on, leaving them unbuttoned and only zipping them up enough to keep them from falling off his hips.
I had to bite my cheek again, this time because he was so goddamn gorgeous with his jeans barely staying up on his hips and droplets of water and blood clinging to his skin that it made my mouth water.
But something was missing.
Wordlessly, I reached into the front pocket of my jeans and pulled out Cal’s gold ring, holding it out to him on my palm. He glanced down at it, then at my face, an emotion in his gaze I couldn’t decipher, before he snatched it from my hand and slid it back onto his finger, watching the way it caught the sunlight.
My heart squeezed in my chest, and my brain screamed at me to throw him down on the boat deck and claim him, to bite him so the world would know Cal Hunter was mine.
But this so wasn’t the time.
Or the place.
And Cal was hurt.
On a deep, cleansing breath, I turned back to the wheel, hands a little shaky, and slowed the boat so I could slide us into the open slip right in front of the hotel.
“If I put this on, I’m going to ruin your shirt.”
I shrugged. “I’ll buy a new one.”
Cal held the dark green fabric out to me. “Will you help me?”
My breath caught in my throat as I shook out the shirt and held it open for him so he could slide his arms into it. Themovement was painful for Cal, judging by the way he gingerly pushed his beautifully muscled arms into the sleeves. He buttoned it enough to cover the fact that his jeans were undone and looked at me.
“Ready?”
“Yep.”
I led the way into the hotel, holding the door open for Cal. His movements were still off, but unless someone knew Cal well, they wouldn’t see the pain he’d locked down as we walked into the lobby.
