Page 100 of Blade's Battle
“You’ll think better, clearer after you’ve taken a break.”
Less than a week ago, Anna had a setback in solving Tess’s shifting problem and it had Anna overly stressed, so much so that she was eating less and less each day.
All this research—trying to solve both his issue and Tess’s—was too much for one person, but Anna merely waved off his concerns and told him she’d be fine. Except she wasn’t. The dark circles under her eyes proved she wasn’t sleeping well, despite her claims otherwise. Even on the warmer days, she seemed perpetually cold and less energetic. Yet every time he confronted her about her health, she brushed him off, saying once she was done, she’d catch up on some sleep and be as good as new.
“Tess won’t blame you if you can’t figure this out, Anna. Nor will I. I’m fine with losing my shifter abilities. Tess has already proven a shifter is more than his or her abilities. As long as I have you, I’ll be happy. Being a scout was a job, Angel. There is plenty of work to be done in a pack. I’ll find my place.”
“I won’t fail her or you.”
Too.She didn’t say the word aloud, but she said it clearly with her eyes, her body language. She thought she was failing them as she felt she had failed Kurt. Nothing he could say would convince her otherwise. He hoped, for both Tess and Anna, this latest test worked. He wanted to take her home, blood-bond her in front of his pack—their pack—and make it official. Mostly, he wanted her to rest.
“Enough already,” he said, lifting her up. Papers fell from her lap and floated back down to the mess on the floor.
“I wasn’t done,” she protested.
“You are for now. If you’re good, eat a proper lunch, and take some time to relax, I’ll let you return to the dungeon later.”
“It’s not a dungeon. Dungeons are found in castles,” she said, smiling as she hooked her hands around his neck.
“A dungeon is an underground prison. And you’ll do as I say or you’re not returning.” Blade set her on her feet at the bottom rung of the ladder. He patted her ass. “Start climbing.”
Her smile lifted into a grin. “Does this make you my dungeon master or the hero who’s rescuing me?”
He held back his own smile. “Both. Get moving.”
She climbed the ladder. He hadn’t planned on taking a long hard peek up her dress, but she made it impossible for him not to as she sashayed her bottom exceedingly slowly. His cock was rock hard and throbbing. Oh, she was wicked!
The second they were topside, she started shivering, putting his ideas of how to ‘teach her to behave’ on hold. The air was cool, but not cold. If they were still here come October, he’d have to send someone to town to buy her some winter clothes. She slid her arms into her jacket, and he pulled her into a tight embrace.
“You’re better than any fire,” she said as she slipped her hands under his shirt.
Her hands were like ice again—more often than not lately. “Maybe we should get a space heater down there for you.”
“The temperature’s a constant seventy-three degrees in the bunker. Optimal lab conditions. It’s fine. I’m fine. As long as I have you, all is good.”
But it wasn’t. She spent too many hours cooped up down there. Even when he dropped in to say hello, she’d been hard to distract these past few weeks. Nearly a month of round-the-clock work in a windowless lab without company wasn’t good for her. Blade grabbed Anna by the hand and headed away from their usual picnic spot along the banks of the nearby river.
“Where are we going?” she asked as she hiked alongside him. The hill was rather steep in this section so he took hold of her hand.
“Someplace private, for a little R and R.” She began panting sooner than he expected. His Angel definitely needed time away from her lab. “Not much farther.”
“I’m on my lunch break. No more than thirty minutes, remember?”
“Today you’re taking more than thirty minutes. It’s not like you don’t already work late into the night and get up early every morning. By the way, if I haven’t told you yet, I don’t like waking up to an empty bed.”
“But I kiss you before I leave. I remembered that from your cabin.”
Her smile made his heart skip a beat. “It’s not much of a kiss if it doesn’t give me a hard-on.”
“If I gave you that kind of kiss, then you would drag be under you and I wouldn’t make it out of bed until noon.”
“What’s your point?”
She swatted his arm.
“Lower, Angel. Or maybe I should show you the proper technique.” He swung her about and his hand landed on her ass where he gave her a squeeze. “Right here, in the fleshy part, that’s where you want to start.”
“Oh, no, we’re not starting now,” she said as she peered past him, no doubt searching for Frank and Callen.
