Page 30 of Don't Bite the Botanist
“Wait,” she shouted, and he whipped back around.
“You have to take your shoes off,” she told him, making it sound as if he’d been about to commit a grave sin. “The grass is so luscious, it’s like you’re one with nature when you walk through the hedges barefoot.” Tressa bent over, placing her delectable ass front and center as she removed her shoes.
Swallowing, Ethan used the full extent of his willpower to pull his gaze away and reach down to untie his own sneakers.
Wriggling his bare toes in the grass, he had to agree with her. Whoever maintained their zoysia was doing an impeccable job.
Tressa linked her arm through his and directed him into the garden. They veered off to the right in a slow meander as his gaze swept overthe place. The entire thing was laid out like a maze, except the various hedges only came about chest high and were periodically broken up by bushes exploding with exotic flowers he itched to examine. Any direction he turned, he was greeted by new wondrous plants he hadn’t seen since his college days.
“Holy shit,” Ethan breathed out. His feet locked in place, and Tressa nearly pulled him off balance before realizing he’d stopped moving. “Is that…”
Unhooking his arm from hers, he took a tentative step forward, then pulled his glasses off to wipe the lenses. He was hallucinating. Had to be. A side effect from the coma most likely. Because there was simply no way his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
A few cautious steps closer, though, confirmed that, no, he was not actually hallucinating. Whirling around, he fixed a hard, almost accusatory stare on Tressa.
“This is a Middlemist Red Camellia,” he snapped, waving a hand at the plant sitting innocuously amongst a row of other flowering bushes.
She frowned and glanced between him and the Camellia. “But it’s pink.”
His jaw dropped. “That’s what you’re focused on?”
Her eyes darted around the garden, and she rubbed at the back of her neck. “Sorry, I don’t know much about flowers. Um, it’s really pretty?”
There was so much genuine confusion on her face that Ethan knew she had to be completely oblivious, but how could she not know what they had planted on their property?
“The name Middlemist Red Camellia really doesn’t mean anything to you?” he asked cautiously, his eyes searching her face for any hint of deception.
“Nooo,” she drawled, her brows furrowing. “Should it?”
After another glance at the flower to confirm one final time that he wasn’t losing it, he turned back to her. “Yes, it should.” He let out a long exhale and shook his head. “Tressa… this is widely considered to be the most rare flower in the world. There are only two known shrubs, one in New Zealand and one in the UK. And they are both less than half the size of this one.”
“Oh,” Tressa said, grinning. “That’s cool.”
“Cool?” Ethan sputtered. “It’s not… It doesn’t even come close to…” He fought back the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. “Imagine if I found out vampires were real and just said ‘cool.’ No matter what you’re feeling, ‘cool’ is so far from an adequate response.”
Tressa bit her lip. “Um… I’m not sure what you’re looking for here, Ethan. While I find your enthusiasm to be absolutely adorable, it’s just a flower.”
“Just a…?” Ethan couldn’t even bring himself to look at Tressa until he calmed down, so he spun around and stared at the plant that shouldn’t exist on this side of the Atlantic. His fingers itched to reach out and touch it, to caress the petals, yet at the same time, he was terrified of the oils from his skin damaging the delicate cell structure.
“Hey,” Tressa said softly, gently tugging his chin around to face her. “I didn’t mean to sound like I don’t care. I do care. If it has you this flabbergasted, I want to know more. Teach me, Ethan. Tell me about this plant.”
Ethan gazed into her brown almond-shaped eyes that shone with not only an internal glow and warmth, but also genuine interest. She really wasn’t placating him. She had no idea what the plant was, but for some reason, she legitimately wanted to learn.
He couldn’t help but lose his heart to her just a tiny bit more. He might have taken a job in pharmaceutics because it was the shortestpath to what he wanted to achieve, but a not-so-small part of him had considered academia for a while since he loved to teach.
“Okay,” he said, his annoyance fading into the excitement that always built inside him whenever he got to share the wonders of the botanical world. Grabbing her hands, he tugged her closer to the plant but stopped a few feet away so she wasn’t tempted to reach out and touch it. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it was the most rare flower in the world. I’ve been trying to get a cutting for years so I could propagate it here in the States, but neither of the owners are parting with them. They probably like the prestige of the rarity. Which is damned selfish because the pharmaceutical possibilities for this flower are endless. It has immense antioxidant properties which could lead to serious breakthroughs in treating cardiovascular disease and even some kinds of cancer.”
He turned away from her and analyzed the bush in front of him. So many blooms with vibrant petals and healthy stamen, the plump anther ready to release its pollen. His brain swirled with all the possibilities this flower could offer to his research. If they had it growing successfully, he could probably transplant some cuttings to breed even more. And with such a large supply, he could conduct an endless number of tests. Fuck, he could potentially find a cure for heart disease altogether with this flower.
He started mentally compiling all the various steps he would need to take to get a lab up and running. VieTek would fund the whole thing in a heartbeat when he explained the situation. Or maybe he could cut them out entirely and get his own private lab going so he could control what happened with the medication. He would need a loan to do that which would be hard without a job, but…
His hopes came screeching to a halt when his brain landed on the most important thing any pharmaceuticalbotanist needed—a competent organic chemist.
He rubbed at his chest as the ache deep inside blossomed anew. Jake had been his chemist. For years, they’d worked together, researching side by side with the goal of developing a medication that could truly change the world. They’d become brothers in all but blood. He should be here. He should be at Ethan’s side, embarking on this incredible new journey with him.
Only he wasn’t.
Because of the vampire.
