by EJ Whitmer
“Hello, Anna,” he greeted me pleasantly.
Figaro hopped back onto the bed and scowled at me before padding over to Blake and sitting on his bent knee.
“What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
He scratched Figaro behind the ear, setting off another round of loud purring, before shooing him away and scooting closer. “Do you remember last spring when you went to Orlando and had Michael cat sit? I had him make me a key.”
“Why would you have him make you a key? Why wouldn’t he ask me? And why, again, are you here?”
Blake scooted close enough to reach out and cradle the back of my head in his palm. “I heard about what happened tonight. Are you hurt?”
I couldn’t breathe when he was that close to me. “No, I’m fine.”
His shoulders sagged in relief for a moment before he swiftly brought his hand around to flick me in the forehead.
“Ow! What the hell?!”
“Quiet,” Blake demanded in a harsh whisper. “How many times do you have to be nearly killed for you to listen to me and stay out of our business? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? We got a text that you’d been in another altercation as we were boarding the plane. We were out of our minds for the entire flight!”
“We? As in you and Emmett? Why isn’t he here?”
Blake groaned in frustration. “He’s at the office being briefed by the rest of the team. Don’t change the subject. Honestly, Anna, is it impossible for you to just mind your own business? Do you not care at all about your own safety? Or about the rest of our safety?”
“Of course I care!” I snapped back. “I also just can’t stand by and let you guys put yourself in danger, knowing that there may have been something I could have done to help! I didn’t mean to overhear their plans for the evening. I saw Lilith’s light on this evening and went to shut it off. They were in there talking about taking down some bad guy. I honestly just went there to watch and make sure they were alright.”
Blake buried his face in his hands and shook his head. When he finally lifted his gaze to meet mine, his eyes had lost some of their fire. “I get it, Anna. I do. But when you put yourself in these situations, it takes our focus away from the task at hand. I know I can’t concentrate when I’ve got you to worry about. I’m sure Emmett and the rest of the team feel the same way. We’re good at this. Aside from our powers, we’ve all invested a lot of time into training for situations like this. Please just let us take care of it.”
Thoroughly admonished, I sat quietly and nodded my head. Blake reached out again and I tensed, preparing for another forehead flick. Instead, he carefully brushed a strand of hair behind my ear and lifted my chin to look in my eyes.
“You sure you’re okay? You weren’t hurt?”
I nodded, touched by the warmth in his tone.
“Okay. Question number two – why is Carl asleep on your couch wearing Michael’s Illini shirt?”
“Ah. Well, Carl was rescued by a werewolf. Evidently the werewolf bit down too hard when he was dragging Carl by the arm. So unfortunately, Carl is now in the process of shifting into a werewolf. I brought him home with me to bandage him up and feed him meat.”
Blake stared blankly at me for a moment, rapidly blinking as he digested the information. After a few moments, he nodded once and patted my leg. “Alright then. I’ll let you get some sleep. See you in the morning.”
I stifled a yawn as he rose and sauntered to the door. “There’s pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry on your way out. It’s meatless meat-lovers.”
Blake didn’t turn around, just shook his head and quietly shut the door behind him.
10
My alarm clock woke me the next morning at 5:15am and I did something I haven’t done since college. I skipped the snooze button and shut the whole damn alarm off. I’m a rebel, I know. The mere act of rolling over and reaching to power it down was painful enough to cause a grown man to cry. Wednesdays were cardio days, but there was just no way I could do anything at the gym with my sore arms. Plus, after the eventful night before and my early morning visitor, I felt I deserved a break. I finally forced myself out of bed at 6:45 and zombie-walked to the kitchen. Carl was already up, eating a massive pile of runny eggs.
He looked up at me for a moment before returning to his breakfast. “Eggs,” he muttered. “No sausage or bacon in the fridge, so I figured eggs were good protein. My grandmother used to fry eggs for her dogs in the morning. Wolves are dogs. I figured it’d do. You should get some bacon, though.”
“I don’t buy bacon because I can’t just eat one piece. I eat the whole package and instantly gain ten pounds. And then when I sweat, it’s like bacon grease is coming out of my pores. You’ll have to deal with eggs.”
Obviously, I wasn’t used to having morning visitors. I needed coffee and quiet. I made my way around Carl and his glistening pile of eggs and started the coffee pot. While it brewed, I went back to my bedroom to attempt to find clothes for the day.
Unfortunately, my blouses were all hung up on the top level of my closet. I debated whether or not to call Carl and have him retrieve some hangers for me, but I also had several lace nightgowns hanging up. I wasn’t sure Carl had ever seen a woman’s lingerie outside of a department store and I didn’t want to make the guy faint.
I scanned through what I could see and finally landed on a scrap of navy polka dot fabric. I knew that blouse! I carefully raised my arms to grab the blouse, bit my lip against the pain, and selected a mustard yellow pencil skirt from the lower rack. Task accomplished, I laid out my selection on the bed and had just turned to head back toward the kitchen when something caught my eye.
An orange pill bottle was sitting on my nightstand. Upon closer inspection, it was a prescription for muscle relaxers, written by Doctor Thomas and filled at a local pharmacy the previous day. Mae hadn’t mentioned calling the doctor until we were heading out last night. Did I sleepwalk to CVS? My head was telling me to question the pills’ origin. My arms were screaming at me to open the damn bottle and swallow them all. I compromised and grabbed two of the pills to wash down with my coffee.
By the time I finished my coffee and soaked in the shower, my muscles were already feeling nearly back to normal. Carl and I headed to Vance Publishing where he picked up his moped and raced home to change. I crammed myself on the elevator with about ten other people and checked my phone for the time, discovering I had missed two calls and a text from Emmett that morning. The text asked me to swing by his office before heading up to my floor. The majority of the people on the elevator wore boring gray suits and looked half asleep, so it wasn’t a surprise to see that the twenty-seventh floor was already selected on the elevator panel.
As soon as the doors opened, I bolted toward Emmett’s office. I was slightly hurt that he hadn’t checked in on me last night, especially after knowing I was in another close call, but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he didn’t want to wake me.
I shrugged off my insecurities as I rounded the corner and approached Gia’s desk. Of course, she looked ridiculously beautiful in a simple pink sweater and navy slacks. The pink was the perfect shade to enhance her perfect blonde hair and her perfect little bunny nose.
“Good morning, Anna!” Gia greeted me with a smile. “Mr. Vance said to go right on through when you got here. Can I bring you a cup of coffee?”
Why does she have to be nice? It’s hard to hate her when she’s nice!
“That would be great. Would you mind putting a bit of cream and stevia in it? Thanks, Gia.” I smiled politely and let myself into Emmett’s office.
I stepped in quietly, just in case he was on the phone, shut the door behind me and squeaked when I turned to find Emmett less than a foot away. One hand was instantly in my hair, the other cradled my jaw as he searched my face.
“Are you alright?” Emmett leaned forward and kissed my forehead softly.
I smiled and stood on my toes to deliver a kiss on his lips
. “I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt at all.”
Emmett’s shoulders sagged in relief and he pulled me in for a tight hug. “I was worried sick,” he murmured into my hair. “Do you enjoy nearly giving people heart attacks?”
I pulled back and scowled at him. “Of course not. But if you really were that scared for me, you could have called or texted last night when you got in.”
Emmett sighed and released me. “It was late, Anna. I didn’t want to wake you. I spoke with my father and he said you were uninjured and able to drive yourself home. We needed to regroup and discuss what happened. If I thought you were anything but one hundred percent okay, I would have rushed to your place.”
Somewhat mollified, I nodded and stepped into his big body for another hug. “So what did you want to see me about?” I mumbled into his shirt.
Emmett released me and steered me to a guest chair. “Blake is on his way down. We’d like you to fill us in on what you saw last night.”
My eyes lit with excitement. “You mean you’re actually going to talk to me about this stuff!?”
“Don’t get too excited,” he warned, just as a knock sounded on the door. “We just want to hear your side of the story. I still don’t want you involved. That’s not going to change, Anna.”
I shot him a death glare before turning around to see Eric Blake saunter in with two cups of coffee. He handed me a cup before sitting down in the chair next to me. I glanced down and scowled at the plain black coffee.
“Hush,” Blake said as he sipped his own sugary, cream-filled coffee. “I didn’t see you at the gym this morning. You don’t need to drink your calories today.”
My jaw dropped in outrage as I inhaled a “you’re going to get it” breath. Thankfully, Emmett cut me off before I said something truly heinous.
“Enough, kids. Anna, can you please fill us in on what happened last night from your point of view? Start at the marina.”
I closed my open mouth and clenched my jaw as I stared at Blake’s profile. Trade me coffees. Now. I haven’t had my moment. I swear on all that is holy-“
“For crying out loud …” Blake’s thoughts interrupted my mental tirade as he snatched the coffee out of my hand and shoved his own in its place.
I smiled smugly and took a sip before launching into my story. “Well, when Carl and I arrived downtown, I realized pretty quickly that everyone was staring at his super suit, so we decided to split up. I walked along the edge of the lake and he took the streets. We didn’t see anything, so I sat down on a bench to rest. Then, some random, naked old guy ran past me and stopped and helicoptered his penis at me.”
I expected the guys to be shocked and instead witnessed Emmett smirking and giving Blake a knowing glance.
“What? You think that’s funny?! It’s sick! It was tiny and he was old!”
“Vance is old,” commented Blake, earning himself a stiff middle finger from Emmett.
“Yeah, well he doesn’t helicopter his wiener at me,” I replied.
Blake barked out a laugh. “Not yet, he doesn’t.”
Emmett’s smirk grew into a full-on grin.
“Ew!” I exclaimed. “Is this a thing? Why aren’t you shocked by this behavior?”
“It’s a guy thing,” Emmett confirmed. “Now please, continue on with your story. Go ahead and skip the tiny, old penis part.”
I huffed and took another sip of my coffee before finishing the story. By the time I was done, both Emmett and Blake were off in their own thoughts, completely ignoring the part about a possible werewolf biting Carl. Honestly, it was probably par for the course by then. Carl doesn’t do drama-free rescue attempts.
Finally, after what felt like ages, Emmett took a deep breath and sent me a half smile. “Thank you for filling us in.” His polite business tone did not bode well for my plans of grilling the two of them on what happened in Boston. “Obviously, we’re both glad you escaped uninjured. I imagine lecturing you on the dangers of involving yourself in situations like these would only upset you more.”
“You imagine correctly,” I seethed.
“Alright, well then I think we’ve got all we need. Thank you for stopping by.”
“Excuse me? He’s just dismissing me?”
“Let it go, Jennings,” Blake’s voice resonated in my mind.
I mentally flipped him off and made my exit.
11
By the time I reached my office, I was running behind schedule. Mae followed me in and shut the door behind her before setting a fresh cup of coffee and a box of granola clusters on my desk.
“You look much better today,” Mae observed. “Did Mr. Blake get you those pills he asked about?”
“That was him?”
Mae smiled as she pulled out her cell phone. “Yep. He called yesterday while you were away from your desk. I told him you’d be a bit before you got back because you were moving slowly. Yadda yadda, he said he’d pick up your meds if I called them in.” She looked up from her phone to smile brightly at me before returning to her app. “So anyway, Duncan and I have really hit it off! We’re going to lunch today! I’m so glad I wore my plum sweater. Plum is the new black, you know.”
I was still processing that Blake had been kind enough to pick up my meds, so I just nodded. Mae prattled on about her mustache man and several other silver foxes she’d been trolling. A knock on the door snapped me out of my cloud and Mae out of her Tinder updates.
Eric Blake poked his head in and smiled at Mae. “Good morning, ladies.”
Mae gave Blake a not-so-subtle once over and practically drooled. In her defense, he did look rather sharp that day in a very well-tailored navy suit, white dress shirt and lavender striped tie.
“Good morning, Mr. Blake,” Mae said sweetly. “Oh, will you look at that. Your tie is a bit askew. Let me just give you a quick handjob so you can start your day out on the right foot!”
Blake’s eyes bugged out of his head as Mae reached up to straighten his tie. ”Did she just say what I think she said?” Blake’s voice shouted in my mind.
“Oh, she definitely did.” I thought back to him. “I’m guessing that’s the result of another vocab lesson with her grandson. Remember last year when she thought jacking around and jacking off meant the same thing?"
I could feel Blake's shudder in my mind. "Yes. I couldn't ask her what her weekend plans were for an entire summer because she kept telling me how she planned on jacking off in her garden or kitchen or the park."
Oblivious to any tension in the room, Mae hummed to herself as she finished straightening Blake's tie, giving it a pat before stepping back. "There you go, Mr. Blake. Much better. Would you believe you're the third man I've given a handjob to today?"
Blake cleared his throat and smiled tensely. "Thank you, Mae. Erm … I'll be going now." With one last wide-eyed glance at me, he made his exit.
"He's such a nice man," Mae tittered as she straightened my desk.
"Mae …" I paused and chewed my lip, pondering how to broach the subject. "Maybe you should Google the phrase hand job. On your phone. Not on a company computer."
Mae's face paled. "Oh dear."
I gave her shoulders a squeeze before steering her out the door. Sure enough, five minutes later I heard a loud squeak followed by quick footsteps rushing past my door toward Blake's office. I chuckled to myself as I finished my granola clusters and dug into the dozens of waiting emails.
The morning whizzed by in a blur of employee reviews. By the time the noon hour arrived, I was exhausted. I have an absolutely fabulous team, but giving the semiannual reviews still sucks. Between appointments, I'd managed to shoot a quick email off to Emmett about meeting up for lunch. When I finally had a chance to check for his response, I was disappointed to learn he already had plans. As a last ditch attempt to find someone to join me, I sent a quick text to my friend Lea. Five minutes later my phone pinged back with my secured lunch date.
I spotted Lea almost immediately after entering the Greek deli down the bloc
k. She's hard to miss. Lea McIntyre is absolutely stunning with her long blonde hair and even longer tanned legs. Lea and I, along with our friend Jo, had been best friends since college. Jo had since gotten married and popped out a couple children, but the three of us still made it a point to have regular get-togethers.