Page 29 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Tressa blinked at him, and her jaw dropped open slightly. “Uh, yeah. How did you know that?”
“Deductive logic. Your physical features are a key indicator, plus I thought I heard you say‘magaitinamu’to the nurse in the hospital. And I’m fairly certain I recognize this image as the Sawa-I-Lau Caves.”
When the shock on Tressa’s face turned to mortification, he couldn’t help but grin.
“Wait, wait, what?” she stammered, sitting up straighter. “You knew what I said in the hospital?”
He appreciated how red her face turned beneath her golden-brown skin. It wasn’t fair he’d been the only one blushing up a storm that morning. Smirking, he said, “I did. And Tressa, who knew you had such a dirty mouth?”
“But… I…” she sputtered. “How?”
Abandoning the safety of the space between them, Ethan sat next to her on the bed, still clutching the towel at his waist with both hands so they didn’t go wandering. “I spent six months in Fiji as part of my master’s program studying the indigenous plant life,” he explained. “I became friends with a few locals, and you know the first thing they always teach you are the swear words.”
Tressa threw her head back and laughed. “Yeah, I’m not surprised.”
“So have you visited recently?” he asked.
Her expression darkened, and she pushed up off the bed. “Not in a very long time,” she answered with her back to him, her voice somber. When she whirled around, though, a smile was firmly plastered on her face once more. It was like a light switch, the way she could instantly turn it back on. “Are you done eating? I have something to show you that I think you might enjoy.”
Ethan eyed the remaining croissants on the plate, their smell taunting and teasing him almost as badly as Tressa did. “Yeah, I guess so,”he told her sadly. “They mentioned in the hospital that I shouldn’t indulge too much right away since my stomach is still adapting to solid food again.”
“In that case,” she said, snatching him by the wrist and pulling him off the bed, “I’ll give you a minute to get dressed, and then we can go on a brief tour of the compound. After that, I have a surprise.”
“Umm…” Ethan glanced at the towel, then gestured around at the room that lacked a closet full of men’s clothing.
Tressa grabbed a black duffel from the hall. “Courtesy of my cousin, Saiden,” she said, handing it over. “I think you guys have pretty similar builds. Just warning you, though, his wardrobe is pretty monochromatic.”
“As long as my dick is covered, I’m happy,” he muttered, reaching for the bag.
“Well, that makes one of us.” She winked at him, then pulled the door shut behind her as she slipped out.
Ethan stared dumbfounded at the space where she’d been standing. He could typically analyze a person for a day or so and have a firm grasp on who they were. Tressa, on the other hand, continued to keep him guessing at what might come out of her mouth next.
And he didn’t think it would take much to fall for a girl like that.
“I’m in love,” Ethan breathed out, his eyes widening as he took in the beauty that greeted him. The garden sprawled out for what had to be acres, and before he even stepped past the first hedgerow, he couldalready see at least three plant species that should not be growing in the United States.
He couldn’t believe she’d dragged him through the entire house for almost an hour and even showed him an indoor swimming pool while saving this gem for last.
Although, he couldn’t deny he’d enjoyed listening to her share all the lore the hunters had learned about over the years. Hearing vampires had supposedly been created by Lilith as a revenge against Adam and his human kin had been fascinating, if a bit hard to swallow.
Okay, make thatveryhard to swallow. He might believe vampires were real because it was a little hard to deny the existence of something that had chewed on your neck, but the scientist in him still assumed it was some kind of viral mutation, not the result of a biblical break up.
Despite his protests, Tressa asserted it was the truth. When Adam rejected Lilith and cast her out of the Garden of Eden, she turned to Samael and asked him to help her create a being that would eternally crave the blood of Adam’s descendants. Of course, the hardest part of her story—and the thing that kept him from accepting it—was the fact that it implied beings other than just vampires were real. Beings like angels, demons, and… God?
Ethan had fought to suppress his laugh when she was telling him about it, barely managing to keep his reservations to himself. Tressa was so committed to the myth he didn’t want to break her heart and reveal that his only true religion was science. Instead, he’d distracted her from continuing the story by asking about all the other vampire traits he’d heard about.
Thankfully, she told him most of it was false, and they didn’t turn into bats or mist. The dismissal of those Bram Stoker qualities was only more fuel for his viral theory, though. She’d been starting to go into detail about what they did know to be true about vampires whenthey’d arrived at the garden and Ethan nearly fell to his knees.
“I’ll add this to the list,” Tressa said jokingly, apparently having heard his earlier confession. “Flowers,” she explained when he gave her a curious look. “So far I have croissants and flowers as things that make you happy.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess so.” He brushed his hair out of his face. “That’s pretty much my life in a nutshell. I eat delicious food and spend most of my day with plants.”
“Well then,” Tressa said, stepping closer and tucking a stray hair he’d missed behind his ear. “I’m glad I was able topleaseyou, this morning.”
Her wicked grin combined with the way she said “please” sent a burning need coursing through him. His borrowed track pants were suddenly much tighter through the crotch, and he was grateful this Saiden guy was at least a size bigger than him so his cock didn’t immediately make its presence known.
In an attempt to escape the seductive smile that was becoming harder to resist, he stepped around her and headed into the garden.
