143
" After she knocked, she walked into the room with confidence she didn’t feel, her head up, her spine straight, her unease camo’d by a combo of posture and professional focus. “How are you this evening?” she said, as she looked the patient right in the eye.
The instant his amethyst stare met hers, she couldn’t have told a soul what had just come out of her mouth or whether he replied. Rehvenge, son of Rempoon, sucked the thought right out of her head, sure as if he’d drained the tank of her brain’s generator and left her with nothing to catch a mental spark off of.
And then he smiled.
-Ehlena's thoughts "
― J.R. Ward , Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #7)
146
" Let’s see what your temperature is,” she said, bringing an electronic thermometer over from the desk.
“It’s higher than usual.”
Her amber stare flipped up to his. “Your arm.”
“No, your eyes.”
She blinked, then seemed to shake herself. “I seriously doubt that.”
“Then you underestimate your appeal.”
As she shook her head and clicked one of the plastic covers onto the silver wand, he caught a whiff of her scent. His fangs elongated.
“Open.” She brought the thermometer up and waited. “Well?”
Rehv stared into those amazing tricolored eyes of hers and dropped his jaw.
She leaned in, all business as usual, only to freeze.
As she looked at his canines, her scent surged with something dark and erotic.
Triumph singed in his veins as he growled, “Do me.”
There was a long moment, during which the two of them were bound together by invisible strings of heat and longing. Then her mouth flattened out.
“Never, but I will take your temperature, because I have to.”
She jabbed the thermometer in between his lips, and he had to clamp his teeth together to keep the thing from deflating one of his tonsils.
S’all good, though.
Even if he couldn’t have her, he turned her on. And that was more than he deserved.
There was a beep, an interval, and another beep.
“One oh nine,” she said as she stepped back and released the plastic cover into the biohazard bin. “Havers will be with you as soon as he’s able.”
The door clapped shut behind her with the hard syllabic smack of the f-word.
Man, she was hot.
-Ehlena & Rehv "
― J.R. Ward , Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #7)
148
" She wobbled, steadying herself against the pale blue walls. “You’ve been going out alone?”
“Yes.” He reached out for her arm, but she tore it away from him. “Beth—”
She yanked open the door. “Don’t touch me.”
The thing clapped shut behind her.
Rage at himself had Wrath spinning toward his desk, and the instant he saw all the papers, all the requests, all the complaints, all the problems, it was like someone hooked jumper cables up to his shoulder blades and hit him with a charge.
He shot forward, swept his arms across the top, and sent the shit flying everywhere. As papers fluttered down like snow, he took off his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes, a headache spearing into his frontal lobe.
Robbed of breath, he stumbled around, finding his chair by feel and collapsing into the damn thing. With a ragged grunt, he let his head fall back.
These stress headaches were becoming a daily occurrence lately, wiping him out and lingering like a flu that refused to be cured.
Beth. His Beth…
When he heard a knock, he gave the f-word a workout. The knock came again. “What,” he barked.
Rhage put his head around the jamb, then froze. “Ah…”
“What.”
“Yeah, well…Ah, going by the door slamming—and, wow, the stiff wind that clearly just blew by your desk—do you still want to meet with us?”
-Beth, Wrath, & Rhage "
― J.R. Ward , Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #7)
154
" Her moan of despair came through the phone all too clearly. “Oh…Christ. Whatever. Kill yourself, fine.”
She hung up on him.
“Fuck.” He rubbed his face.
“Fuck!” Rehv sat up and fired the cell phone at the bedroom door. And just as it ricocheted off the panels and went flying, he realized he’d busted the only thing he had with her number in it.
With a roar and a messy scramble, he launched his body off the bed, quilts landing everywhere.
Not a great move on his part.
As his numb feet hit the throw rug, he went Frisbee, finding air briefly before landing on his face.
On impact, a sound like a bomb had gone off rumbled through the floorboards, and he crawled for the phone, tracking the light that still glowed from its screen.
Please, oh, fucking please, if there is a God…
He was almost in range when the door swung open, narrowly missing his head and clipping the phone—which shot like a hockey puck in the opposite direction.
As Rehv wheeled around and lunged for thing, he shouted at Trez. “Don’t shoot me!”
Trez was in full fighting stance, gun up and pointed at the window, then the closet, then the bed.
“What the fuck was that.”
Rehv sprawled out flat to reach the phone, which was spinning under the bed. When he caught it, he closed his eyes and brought it close to his face.
“Rehv?”
“Please…”
“What? Please…what?”
He opened his eyes. The screen was flickering, and he pressed the buttons fast.
Calls received…calls received…calls r—
“Rehv, what the hell is going on?”
There it was. The number.
He stared at the seven digits after the area code as if they were the combination to his own safe, trying to get them all.
The screen went dark and he let his head fall down on his arm.
Trez crouched beside him. “You okay?”
Rehv pushed himself out from under the bed and sat up, the room spinning like a merry-go-round. “Oh…fuck me.”
Trez holstered his gun. “What happened?”
“I dropped my phone.”
-Ehlena, Rehv, & Trez "
― J.R. Ward , Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #7)
