Page 35 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Tressa studied his face for a long moment, then sighed. “Okay. In that case, let me show you to the gym.”
Chapter seventeen
Tressa
Tressa lingered in the doorway, watching as Ethan joined Saiden and Derrick who were stretching on the floor of the gym. More than anything, she wanted to go over there and join them. Maybe offer to massage Ethan’s healing muscles.Allof Ethan’s healing muscles.
Instead of giving into her desires, though, she closed the door. She’d already messed up once when she caught his fall. If she spent time training with him, there was no way she would be able to hide her vamp strength. As her mate would say, science was science, and her body with a notable lack of visible muscle mass could only realistically achieve so much. If she wasn’t careful, Ethan was going to start asking questions she couldn’t answer.
Saiden and Derrick could handle it. They were both fairly ripped, so any inhuman slips might be more easily dismissed.
She debated simply sitting on the sidelines and observing as Ethan trained with her cousins. She imagined watching his muscles bunch and strain, his shirt darkening with sweat as he exerted himself. Possibly removing said shirt when he got hotter. She could envision him dropping into a deep lunge, the waistband of his sweatpants riding lowto reveal that tattoo on his ass that begged to be nipped…
Fuck. And now she needed a cold shower. Stat.
But more than that, she needed advice. Tressa would normally go to the most level-headed member of their little cadre, but Raven had been struggling ever since Saiden found his mate, so she was off on a ‘soul-searching journey’ as she put it. Raven would never admit the real reason for her vacation, but Tressa knew it was all the old emotions that had come rushing back in.
Raven losing her mate to a back alley mugging before she had a chance to turn him was not something she could just get over. A hundred years later, and there was still a deep sorrow that lived in her eyes. It scared Tressa, that sadness. She had fought tooth and nail to overcome her tragic past, but if she lost Ethan?
She understood it now. How when Raven’s mate died she became suicidal, picking a fight with every rogue she could find in the hopes one of them would end her lonely eternal existence. Even after Saiden saved her and brought her into the fold, Tressa suspected Raven still lived with the kind of pain that no amount of family could cure.
If Ethan died, Tressa couldn’t imagine going on. It was like living your entire life in a dark cave and then finally emerging into the sunlight. Once you know what you’d been missing, how could you ever live without it?
Sighing, she considered her other options for advice. Marquin and Eliana were like parents to them all, even though technically Marquin had only sired Saiden. Tressa couldn’t really see herself doing boy talk with her father figure, though. Eliana, Marquin’s mate, would probably be open to offering her input, but Eliana wasn’t just a vampire. She had been a seer before she was turned, and it made her a little… unique. Nobody had any idea how old she was, but given she’d sired Marquin, she had to be borderline ancient. That, combined with her visions, usually meant interactions could take a weird turn fairly quickly.
Tressa had been talking to her a few weeks back about having the gardeners plant some pear trees, and Eliana grabbed her wrists tightly and screamed, “No!”
Tressa had no idea why a few trees would elicit such a reaction, but then again, Eliana never shared the reasoning behind what she said or saw. Regardless, no pear trees had yet to join the orange and lemon grove toward the back of their property.
So Eliana and Raven were out. And Liessa, her other cousin, was still freediving in the Bahamas. That left…
She smacked her forehead. Of course. Who better to discuss her mate issues with than someone who was human herself only a few months ago?
Striding down the hall, she just hoped Cora wasn’t too busy.
“I will sink my fangs into you and drain every last drop of blood from your body until you are nothing but a shriveled husk,” Cora growled at her computer when Tressa nudged the door open.
Blinking at the newest addition to their cadre, Tressa tried to make sense of Cora’s words. More than anyone, Cora knew the importance of hiding the existence of vampires. So who was she threatening so blatantly?
“Uh, Cora?” she called out tentatively.
The new baby vamp spun around and grinned when her eyes landed on Tressa. “Hey, Tress. Just give me a second.”
She turned back to the set of monitors and adjusted the microphone on her headset. “Okay guys, take five. Jinx, please work with Nick, and make sure the next time he delivers that line he says it with the kind of violence I’m looking for.”
Cora tapped a few buttons on her keyboard, then hopped off the chair and plopped down onto the gray microsuede couch next to her desk, her long auburn braid whipping about her shoulders. She patted the spot next to her, and Tressa took a seat, curling her legs up under her.
“Sorry,” Cora said. “With Saiden’s financial contribution, we were able to hire a much better actor to play the villain in my film, but he’s still lacking the kind of deep, menacing vibe I need. I guess I was spoiled with my own real-life vampire. No one else comes close to matching Saiden.”
Tressa grinned and sank back into the plush cushions. “Fair enough. Saiden does have the kind of resting murder face that makes you think he’d slit your throat then go home to a cup of tea.”
Cora laughed and shook her head. “He doesn’t drink tea, but I could totally see him doing that. What does it say about me that I fell in love with him?”
“It means you have good taste.”
They both giggled at that for a second. “While I always love our girl time, Tress,” Cora said, glancing at her watch, “I can’t leave the crew in LA waiting too long. What’s going on? I know you didn’t come in here just to catch up.”
“No, I have a reason,” Tressa mumbled, picking at one of her cuticles. “A six-foot two reason with glasses and a brain the likes I’ve never encountered in the male gender before.”
