Knowing he was aroused by me made my heart flutter, to be honest. We had enough of an emotional connection he felt sexual attraction, which was something I’d worried about at first. I’d never been good at connecting, but I wanted to connect to him. Needed it, even if he hadn’t already been my mate.
I respected his choice to hold out for the right moment, too. Em wasn’t the type to fuck me on the training mat in a room where anyone could walk in, no matter how turned on both of us were.
As if to remind us why fucking in the training room was a horrible idea, the door opened as we stared at each other.
“Freya!” Mabel called out. “I feel like I never see you anymore.”
Emmett spun to face the other way, hiding himself from my cousin. I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned to see her and Ama striding toward us. Ama was rolling her eyes, no doubt noticing our heightened scents, but May didn’t notice.
“I’ve been busy preparing for the mission,” I said. “It’s not like you’re bored here.”
Her cheeks flushed. My cousin was wearing tight workout gear, no doubt dressed by her girlfriend. “Fine, fine,” she said. “Amabella is going to teach me some self-defence tricks, and she said we might run into you here. Want to help me train?”
I wasn’t certain if Em still planned to show me how to relax, so I glanced over my shoulder at him. He’d calmed down to the point where he could turn around and walk over to us, draping an arm over my shoulders.
“Freya is going to relax for the rest of the day,” he said. “She’s all bruised up. I don’t think I can stop her from coming back in the ring tomorrow, though.”
May grinned. “Perfect. It’ll give Ama a chance to teach me things, and then I can see how well I do against Freya.”
Amabella gave me a warning look over Mabel’s shoulder, and I almost rolled my eyes. Obviously I wouldn’t beat my cousin to the ground, even though it would be easy to do so with only one day of practice on her part. I wasn’t that kind of a bitch. Sparring with May was probably a good idea, though. It would be easier on my body than sparring with the guys was, but I would feel productive.
“We’ll see,” I said with a chuckle. “I bet Aunt Clara will be proud if you go home an absolute badass.”
“Yeah, and my mom will pretend to be horrified but really be proud.” She rolled her eyes.
“I’m excited to see how much Ama can teach you in one day.”
I had no doubt Ama would only be teaching my cousin the simplest tricks that could take out an attacker with minimal risk and effort. Maneuvers that would be considered cheap in an actual ring, but would be helpful in a life or death situation. It was better for May to have some way to protect herself, though. I hated to know what would have happened if the witch who cursed Oswald hadn’t appeared when Kylan’s men infiltrated the building. She’d been hiding helpless in a bathtub.
“Not enough to beat you, but I’m sure you’ll let me win once or twice anyway,” Mabel said. “Enjoy you’re relaxing. I hope Emmett can teach you how to do that.”
Biting my tongue against a claim that I knew how to relax, I shook my head. “I’d never go easy on you. See you tomorrow.”
Emmett led me away, and I didn’t protest to the herding like I might have in the past. He took me in the elevator to a different floor, then led me down the hall to a door labelled ‘utilities room.’
“Last I heard, you and Caspian were fucking in this room,” I said. “I’m assuming that’s not the kind of relaxing we’re going to be doing.”
His cheeks went a little pink and he shook his head. “No. Sex isn’t the kind of relaxing you need right now. If it was, you’d be relaxed already.”
I went ahead of him in the room, finding it a little balmy and smelling of dust. He closed the door behind us and stepped around a water heater to settle down on a blanket placed in a small corner. There was a pillow for behind his back and a couple of books piled on the ground. I hesitated, but Em gestured for me to come sit in his lap.
It was cramped with the two of us, this tiny room much quieter except for the hum of the machines. “What do you do in here to relax?” I asked.
“Exist.”
He picked up a book and handed it to me. The cover had a howling wolf positioned behind a bare-chested man, and I recognized it as Null supernatural smut.
How long had it been since I’d read something?
“You just sit in here and read? Why can’t you sit and read in the suite?”
I guessed the answer before he gave it.
“Too many people. They’re distractions and it’s hard to relax when everyone around you is emotional and expressing that in different ways. Especially now that I’m feeling some of their emotions through you, and not just reading their body language.”
Flipping open the book, I stared at the first page. Emmett had read it before, or gotten it from someone second hand. The spine had some cracks in it and the front page was crinkled. “Why do you read?”
“Turns the mind off,” he explained. “I want you to try it.”
