Page 68 of Blade

Before I could figure out how to ask if I’d been driving him crazy, he kissed the side of my head. “It’s been nice. Almost like a vacation, but you’re getting restless. There’s a part of you thatwants to stop hiding and keep moving even if it’s just to hide someplace new for a while.”

He could read me entirely too well.

“You haven’t gotten to explore the country before, so I liked the idea of showing it to you and sharing my favorite places.” That’d made it easier to push past some of my anxiety. “I thought going someplace new would make me relax.”

“For a while that might work, but I don’t think it’s a good long-term solution.” Blaine’s ability to be a good grown-up and Dom was kind of frustrating sometimes…so was his amazing patience with my crazy. “Let’s try actually talking instead.”

Why had I kept asking the universe for a good Dom?

I was an idiot.

CHAPTER 22

BLAINE

Who knewI’d find drama so adorable?

His groans and sighs were cute, but my favorite part was the way he was mumbling and whining to himself even though he didn’t realize it. My chatterbox never stopped talking and it was wonderfully helpful. In our current situation it was not only entertaining but it let me know he really didn’t understand why he was feeling so much anxiety.

“I don’t want to talk.” He was hiding still, but I knew he’d be pouting. “I’m going to take a nap.”

No, that wasn’t going to work.

Ignoring it, I kissed his head again and tried to get more information. I was starting to think I knew what was going on, but he was human, so I needed to double-check a few things first. “How would you feel if I said I was going to go run some errands for a while?”

The way he froze told me everything I needed to know, but he didn’t understand it yet. “What if I said I’d be back in an hour because I was going to walk up to that small store down the street to bring you back a surprise?”

Henley’s entire body tensed and his fingers dug into my shirt. “No. I…I don’t like that.”

Were we making progress?

“You like surprises. Hmm?” Pushing him even that much had him taking deliberate, deep breaths. Time to ease back a bit. “I’m not going anywhere without you. That was purely hypothetical, remember?”

Barely nodding, he was trying to look calm but doing a terrible job of faking it. “I remember.”

“I don’t think this much stress is just random.” Tightening my arms in a firm hug, I pinned him against me until he could barely move. Even taking in a deep breath couldn’t be easy, but he slowly relaxed against me until he was almost boneless.

A human couldn’t have kept up the pressure for very long, but luckily for my mate, I wasn’t human and I’d spent the last seventy years doing nothing but building strength.

And I was pretty sure chasing squirrels…but I wasn’t going to talk about that.

When his heart rate slowed and sweeter scents were coming from him, I tried again. “Be my good boy and tell me what you’re thinking.”

He whined but didn’t fight against the order. “We can’t leave. We’re safe here and happy. It’s stressful outside.”

Ah.

“That’s my good boy. Thank you.” Nuzzling against him, I marveled at how well that phrase worked. Henley kept saying not to believe everything I read online, but some of the information was invaluable. “I’m very proud of you. I know that was hard.”

His frustration-filled sigh came with less anxiety that time. “It shouldn’t be. What’s going on?”

And now he was ready.

“Well first, I’m going to remind you that hiding things from me isn’t helpful. As your Dom and mate and partner, it’s going togenerally make any problem worse.” It sounded simple in theory but with his background that was going to be a work in progress.

His family hadn’t taught him good communication skills between partners…they’d taught him how to track nearly anything and how to shoot incredibly accurately based on what he’d said.

“I’ll try to remember that.” Yeah, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy. “I’m…I’m usually a lot better at masking stuff like that, though.”