Page 49 of Eternally Bound
“I would,” he replied. “Don’t overdo it or you’ll be useless tomorrow.”
“I won’t. Be careful out there.”
This time, he found himself pleased by her concern instead of angered by it. “I will,” he vowed.
***
Over the following days, she continued to find herself still staring at the ceiling more often than she remained on her feet, but she was getting better. Already she had more muscle definition in her arms and legs, and she was faster. She’d even managed to get in a couple of blows against Ronan before staring at the pretty lights again.
Her endurance was also better. Though, every night she still crawled into a hot bath to ease the soreness in her muscles and stayed there until she was more pruned than a raisin. Then, she would go down to the library and read until Ronan and the others returned. Her eyelids were always drooping by then, but she couldn’t sleep until she knew he was safe.
Tonight, while waiting for him to come down to work with her, Kadence wandered into the poolroom. She was examining the chess table near one of the windows when he found her. The table had been carved from the trunk of a tree and appeared to be at least a couple hundred years old. Judging by the grain of the wood, each of the chess pieces had also been carved from the same kind of tree and polished until they shone.
“Do you play chess?” he asked.
“I have a basic knowledge of the game,” she replied. “Enough so that I would be able to play with my husband, if he enjoyed the game.”
He strode into the room, his eyes running over her lithe figure in the black yoga pants and form-fitting, pink tank top. He’d asked Marta to purchase some workout clothes for her, but he’d expected sweatpants and sweatshirts, not this temptation. He’d have kept her in jeans had he known Marta was going to torment him with this outfit.
“And what if you enjoyed the game and your husband didn’t?” he asked.
She shrugged and glanced back at the pieces. “Then I probably wouldn’t have played again, at least not often.”
“Ridiculous,” he muttered.
“It’s the way of things with us,” she replied. “I was educated enough to converse with my husband without boring him.”
“And what if he bored you?” The radiant smile that lit her face struck straight to his heart.
“I wondered the same thing recently!” she exclaimed.
Ronan had to take a minute to gather himself as she continued to beam at him. “Well, it is not something you will have to be concerned about anymore.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed.
“Would you like to play now?” he asked.
She glanced back at the table and then him. He saw the longing on her face before she shook her head. “No, I should train more.”
“You’ve done well. You could use a break.”
“Maybe tomorrow night,” she replied. “After you left last night, I mastered throwing the shuriken and want to show you.”
“Mastered it, did you?” he inquired as they made their way out of the room and to the basement door.
“Okay, maybe not mastered, but I hit the target multiple times.”
“Good,” he said as he opened the basement door and followed her down to the gym. “They’re easily concealed and will allow you to impair your attacker without getting close. It may not kill them, but it will slow them down and might make them rethink coming after you.”
“I like that,” she said as she walked across the room to the weapons.
Stepping back, Ronan admired her taut ass in those pants. He was going to spend the next couple of hours trying to conceal his erection from her, but it would be completely worth it. She stretched to grab some shurikens from the wall, and he almost groaned aloud when the action exposed a patch of the creamy skin on her lower back.
She came back toward him, her breasts swaying with each step as she took up a position across from the dummy he’d set up for her to work with. Unlike the dummies the hunters had given her to train with, this one was hooked to a rope and could be jerked around by hand or by a machine. She pushed a button and the machine came to life, jerking the dummy one way and then another.
The weapons sliced through the air as she released them with deadly speed and accuracy. She may not be able to take on a vampire by herself, but she was extremely talented, and he couldn’t deny that she was faster than the hunters he’d come across, except for maybe her brother. She was also stronger than they were and growing more so every day.
When she was done, she’d hit the target with all six of the shurikens and bounced on her toes as she spun to face him. Drawn toward her, he stalked across the mat and hit the button on the machine, shutting it down.
