The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  Except while he was free of his vampiric nature, he wasn’t free of duty. There was far too much to be done to linger here to watch a sunrise.

  Lifting the radio, he called downstairs for the other pilot — the one whose throat he’d injured — to be brought to the roof for transport to the clinic he’d just left.

  Ten minutes later, after his wounded partner had been loaded on board, Hitchman said, “Thanks for doing this, man. We both know my former boss would not have been so gracious if Robertson there was your man.”

  That, Delano thought, was the understatement of the century. “Just get your friend taken care of.”

  Hitchman gave him a salute — a genuine, crisp military-style salute — then climbed aboard the idling chopper. As the craft powered up and lifted off, Delano joined his waiting men by the door. They escorted him inside and down the stairs, one on either side as though they thought he might need assistance. Which wasn’t far from the truth. He was exhausted and hungry and parched, not to mention his chest felt like it had been trampled by a very large horse.

  Ainsley greeted him at the door, and Shalvis and Ross melted away discreetly.

  “How is Geoff? Did you get a feel for his prognosis before you left him?”

  Geoff? Oh, she must mean Bartlett. He smiled. The guy had worked for Delano for the last four years, and he’d never once used the guy’s first name. Leave it to Ainsley.

  He wanted to reach out, pull her into his arms and hold her against him. He wanted to feel the in and out of her breath stir against his skin, feel the beat of her heart against his chest. It was so strange not to be able to hear the surge of her blood in her—

  “Delano?”

  He blinked.

  “Geoff Bartlett? How is he?”

  “Right. Sorry. His prognosis is not bad, all things considered, but he’s going to have the rehab from hell.”

  “Thank God! I’ve been worried sick.”

  She flipped her hair off her nape and he braced for the heated scent of her to invade his senses. Then blinked when all he got was the faintest whiff of her shampoo. This was going to take some getting used to.

  He cleared his throat. “How about our patients? How’s everyone doing?”

  “Devon hasn’t stirred. As you promised, she’s sleeping like a newborn babe. No nightmares, no anguish, not even the hint of a frown on her forehead.”

  Thank God he’d had enough power left — barely — to give her that gift. “Good. And Mrs. Michaels?”

  “Believe it or not, she’s sleeping, too. Well, with the aid of a little sedative, and with one arm wrapped around Devon.”

  “And Eli?”

  “Hard at work, managing everything from his sickbed via the radio.”

  Delano grinned. “That sounds like Eli, all right. Speaking of whom, I’ve got some tests to do to make sure he doesn’t run into trouble.”

  Before he could turn away, Ainsley grabbed his arm. “Everything’s downstairs in your lab and ready for you, but the tests will wait a few more minutes. I’ve made you something to … that is … I mean, I thought you might be hungry.”

  His stomach growled by way of reply. “I guess you have your answer,” he conceded wryly. “The question is, what do you start with after 168-odd years?”

  “I’ve been giving that some thought. Follow me.” She turned and headed for the kitchen.

  As instructed, he followed, touched that she had anticipated the potential difficulties.

  “You’ve been drinking water?” She threw the question over her shoulder.

  “Lots of it, with no trouble.”

  “Okay, I figured you can’t go wrong if you start bland, and avoid anything fatty, spicy, fibrous or acidic. But then I thought, maybe it should be clear liquids.” She gestured to the table, where she’d assembled about a dozen possibilities. “As you can see, I couldn’t quite make up my mind.”

  Delano regarded the assortment of foods. Soda crackers, what looked like plain noodles, applesauce, bananas, and some other unidentifiable mushy thing, not to mention a number of small glasses filled with various clear liquids.

  “What do you think?

  “I think I’d like an enormous baked potato slathered in creamery butter, along with about half a cow. And to wash it down, about three pints of stout. But I take your point. Small, bland portions washed down with a little apple juice or water is probably a better reintroduction to the joys of eating.”

  “Okay, have a seat. I’m going to brew some tea. Tea is good.” She plugged in an electric kettle. “Would you like me to make some white bread toast?” A frown pleated her brow. “Or not. The butter probably isn’t the best idea.”

  “Relax. There’s plenty here.” He sat down at the table and pulled the dish of noodles closer.

  “The noodles? Good choice. But let me warm them.” She snatched the bowl right out from under him and whisked it off to the microwave.

  He shrugged and pulled the bowl of sliced bananas closer. Spearing a slice with his fork, he popped it into his mouth and chewed it slowly, savoring the burst of impossibly intense taste on newly awakened taste buds.

  “Wow,” he said, when he’d swallowed it, “This is … indescribably amazing.”

  “Better than you remembered?”

  “I never had a banana before.”

  “Of course.” She returned with the reheated noodles. “They wouldn’t have been introduced to Europe yet. I’m an idiot.”

  “Ainsley, you are far from an idiot. But apart from that applesauce, it’s probably safe to say I’ve never eaten any of these things.” He ate the rest of the banana slices quickly, but with no less relish than the first bite.

  She plunked a glass of water down beside him. After he’d taken a bite of the steaming noodles, she asked, “So, what’s the verdict?”

  He chewed slowly and swallowed, considering. How to answer? He took another bite, chewed, swallowed. “Well, if bland was the object, I think you can say they were a success.”

  She laughed. “They’re totally naked. You’ll have to give them a fair chance when you’re able to handle something more adventurous.”

  Delano put his fork down, suddenly sober. Their positions had been reversed, he realized. When she’d been so rudely thrust into his world where vampires — the good, the bad and the ugly — dominated, she’d been forced to depend on him in a milieu that was completely foreign to her.

  Now the tables were turned. Now, he was the babe in the woods, learning his way.

  He pushed his chair back. “Thank you, Ainsley. I feel much better. But the blood work … I really shouldn’t put it off any longer.”

  She stood, and he knew her stiff, awkward posture mirrored his own. And when her eyes met his, he saw uncertainty there. No doubt about it, she wanted to talk about their relationship. Females hadn’t changed that much in two centuries. But dammit, he wasn’t ready for that talk yet. Not feeling like this. So … off balance.

  He looked away. “I’ll be back after I’ve run those tests.”

  Ainsley felt the little flame of hope in her heart sputter as she watched Delano beat a hasty retreat to his lab. He knew she needed assurance, but he was dodging her. Oh, his excuse was legitimate enough; they definitely needed the results of those tests to assess Eli’s condition and plan his further treatment. But if that convenient task hadn’t existed, he’d have invented another one. She didn’t need a psychic link with a man to recognize when he went into avoidance mode.

  And if he couldn’t give her the reassurance she needed, there could only be one reason. His feelings had changed. He regretted what he’d said when he believed them to be eternally and irrevocably blood-bonded. Now that they were no longer inextricably linked, he didn’t know how to break the news to her that he felt differently now.

  At the thought, devastating pain ripped the air from her lungs. She sank into the chair Delano had just vacated, a wave of loss threatening to swamp her and drag her under. Oh, Ainsley, what now? What now?
>
  Now, you get your ass up and get on with it.

  She was a big girl, and not without some experience in this area, usually, to her shame, as the avoider. And that experience had taught her that the avoidee gained nothing by protesting or begging. She promised herself that if she left here with nothing else, she would leave with her pride intact.

  With that vow, she pushed the sick, empty feeling down, squared her shoulders and went to check on Eli.

  She found him surrounded by four of his men. At her appearance, he dismissed them.

  “Don’t let me break up your huddle,” she said. “I just wanted to check your vitals. It’ll only take two or three minutes, tops.”

  “No problem,” Eli said, as Shalvis, Hayes and the other two, whose names she did not know, filed out of the room. “We were winding up anyway. Any word on Bartlett?”

  Ainsley gave him the good news. She also told him Delano was down in the lab right now running the blood work to see what he might need in the way of coagulotherapy. She asked him a few questions about how he felt, took a quick core temperature reading with the ear thermometer, made some notes on her chart, then checked his urinary output since the last check.

  “So, Nurse Crawford, how am I looking?”

  She glanced up from her chart and gave him with her best squelching stare. “Eli Grayson, if I wasn’t a hundred percent sure you know there’s nothing to be gained from flirting with me, I might think you were. Flirting with me, that is.” She picked up his wrist, found his pulse and fixed her gaze on her watch.

  He laughed. “Ainsley, honey, I am a thousand percent sure it’s gonna get me squat, but when has a man ever let that stop him? Besides, I’m a little giddy that this whole thing is over, and that it turned out so well. You’re safe, the hostages are safe, I’m safe, my men are safe. That rapacious bastard Janecek is dead, and our small firefight at twenty-nine stories seems to have gone undetected by the authorities. And Delano is—”

  “Delano is changed.” She dropped his wrist.

  Eli watched as she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around his bicep. “Is that a problem for you?”

  “Of course not.”

  She put the earpieces in her ears, slid the head of the stethoscope under the cuff, and started inflating the cuff’s bladder. He waited quietly while she opened the valve slightly and listened as the pressure was released. A moment later she removed the stethoscope and whipped the cuff off his arm. “Very good.”

  “Getting back to this Delano thing…”

  “We’re not blood-bonded anymore.” She forced the words past the lump in her throat, surprised to hear how normal they came out. “That’s over.”

  “You’re not… Of course! He’s no longer a vampire. Oh, Ainsley—”

  “No big deal.” She bundled the stethoscope and cuff and shoved them into the medical bag. “He’s a regular guy now, like any other, and the whole world is open to him. He can have any woman he wants, and he should. He deserves to make up for all that lost time.”

  “Whoa, wait a minute. I think Delano has already made his choice.”

  “No, the blood-bond made the choice for him. And the blood-bond would never have come into play if I hadn’t crawled into his bed. He never would have crossed that line if he hadn’t thought he was dreaming. I took his choice away from him, even though I didn’t mean to. Now he’s got it back.”

  “But I don’t think he wants—”

  “It’s okay. It’s better this way. He should have a chance to adjust and take stock and decide what he wants to do.”

  “And who he wants to do it with?”

  “Exactly.” She had to swallow a couple of times before she could go on in a reasonably normal voice. “I just don’t want him to feel any sense of obligation toward me for anything he might have said under the influence of the blood-bond, when I was literally his only choice.”

  “I see.”

  As he said the words, Eli’s gaze slid to the doorway.

  Oh, please God, no.

  But when she swiveled to look, there was Delano standing in the doorway. From the expression on his face, it was impossible to tell whether or not he’d heard her exchange with Eli. Nevertheless, she knew he had. Way to go, Ainsley.

  He cleared his throat and moved into the room. “I have your test results back,” he told Eli. “You have some very minor coagulopathies going on that we need to monitor. Nothing that screams danger, but enough to be a concern. Which means you’re going to have to stay put in that bed for a day or two and give us blood at frequent intervals.”

  “A day or two?” Eli looked completely horrified, a reaction that was no doubt overdone in an effort to deflect attention from what he and Ainsley had been talking about. “Oh, man, you’ve gotta move me back to my own room if I’m going to be stuck in bed that long. No way can I survive a stretch like that without television.”

  “I guess we could do that.”

  Ainsley leapt up. “Good plan. I’ll go make your room ready.”

  Before either man could object, she fled the room, castigating herself as she went.

  Stupid, stupid woman.

  Delano’s forehead creased as he watched Ainsley rush off.

  “You heard all of that, I presume?”

  He turned back to Eli. “Enough.”

  “Well, buddy, it looks like you’ve got a free pass to date your way through the 514 area code, to see if there’s another chick out there who suits you better.”

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.”

  “I knew you would, but then again, I’m not the one you need to convince.”

  Delano massaged his forehead. “God, here I was worrying that having reverted to normal, I wouldn’t be able to…”

  “Float her boat?”

  “Eloquent as ever. But yes, basically. I’m still worried about it. But come to find out she thinks I might have changed my mind about her because I’m just a regular man again? I will never understand women.”

  “Well, I have every confidence you’ll convince her. But a tip, if I’m not overstepping?”

  Delano could use all the help he could get. “By all means.”

  “Ainsley isn’t looking for a superman, Del. She won’t care if you can’t run as fast as you used to, or jump as high, or bounce back from a bout of sex like an eighteen-year-old. She fell in love with you for the same reasons I left the army to follow you.”

  Delano lifted an eyebrow, pretending to misunderstand. “To kill rogue vampires?”

  Eli snorted. “Yeah, that was definitely an attraction for me, I’ll admit, but it’s not the one I’m talking about. Ainsley sees in you the same things I saw. Your dedication to protecting the vulnerable, your commitment to the greater good, your capacity for self-sacrifice in the name of your ideals. None of those things have changed just because the vampirism mutation has been reversed. Do you see me or my men lining up to leave your employ?”

  “I don’t know. Do I?”

  “Not unless you’re plannin’ on firing me. The world is an infinitely better place without Janecek in it, no mistake about it. But this war is a damn sight far from over. We’re not going anywhere.”

  Delano blinked rapidly. “Thank you. That means a lot to me, Eli.”

  “You’re welcome,” Eli said gruffly. “And here’s the thing, Delano: if you give Ainsley half a chance, she’s not gonna go anywhere, either.”

  Delano struggled with emotion. When he’d conquered its grip on his throat, he laid a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Thank you, soldier.” Then he turned and left the room.

  Ainsley managed to dodge Delano for the rest of the day. She spent several hours with Lucy and Devon. Thankfully, as Delano had promised, Devon awoke with no memory of how her impromptu helicopter ride had ended.

  By noon, Ainsley succumbed to the need for a nap. When she arose three hours later, still slightly groggy, she discovered that Delano had also retired for his own nap. This business of moving from night to day was brutal, but she
had more experience at it than most. Certainly more than Delano.

  Now, evening was upon her. And although she managed to evade Delano in the flesh, she was less successful at evading thoughts of him. Her face still burned with embarrassment when she let herself recall how she’d spilled her deepest fears to Eli. What must Delano think of her? She should have had that conversation with him, and no one else. But now, she just wanted to bury her head in the sand and pretend it hadn’t happened. Maybe he’d go along with that. He certainly had kept his poker face on when—

  A knock sounded at her door. “Ms. Crawford?”

  Recognizing Shalvis’s voice, she flew to the door. “What is it? Lucy? Devon?”

  “No, they’re all right, ma’am.”

  “Eli, then? Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine, ma’am. Back in his own quarters, too. The reason I’m here, the boss wants you to join him in the lab.”

  “In the lab?”

  “Yes. That was his request. As soon as you’re able.”

  God, her hair was a mess and she needed a shower. It was bad enough that Shalvis saw her like this. She inclined her head. “Thank you, Mr. Shalvis. Tell him I’ll be down in ten minutes.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. I’ll do that.”

  Ainsley closed the door and raced for the shower. Ten minutes later, she combed her long, damp hair back from her face and regarded her image in the mirror. The sheer foundation she’d applied helped hide the hectic flush in her cheeks, but nothing could disguise the sheen of hope and excitement in her eyes.

  Giving up, she smoothed the material of her sweater — the plunging v-neckline of which was more daring than anything else she owned — before running her hands over her hips in the slim-fitting khaki pants she’d chosen.

  Too obvious?

  Not nearly as obvious as the dress she’d almost chosen. But maybe the sweater was too much…

  She glanced at her watch and sighed. She’d have to do as she was. She was out of time.

  To say that she expected to find Delano alone was an understatement. To find him there with another man jolted her, but it was nothing compared to the jolt she got when she looked closer at the other man.