The Rise-Book II

Chapter 21: The Deal

"We should try dinner, Ethan," I suggested. We were in his office, making an appearance so he could answer some emails while I looked around his office for anything that Thomas could have hidden to frame him.

"You know how I feel about it," he groaned, a pencil between his teeth as he typed away furiously on his MacBook.

"It would throw them off more. You know they wouldn't expect it, and, let's say we do get a chance, we could go get the box," I stated with eyes filled with small bits of hope as I looked back at him.

He took the pencil out of his mouth and leaned back in his chair, sighing while he scratched at his scruff which was really more a beard these days. I smiled gently and got up off the ground next to his bookcase and walked over to him; crawling into his lap and kissing his neck.

"This is getting a little long," I mused as my fingers playfully scratched at the hair on his face.

He frowned a little. "Baby I'm not shaving it. It's like Sampson's hair. If you make me shave it off, all my power will go away."

"Oh my God Ethan," I laughed out. He smiled and laughed with me before I gave him a mock scowl. "I didn't say shave it, I just don't want to feel like it's about to eat me when I kiss you."

"Speaking of being hungry," he growled lowly as his voice dropped a hair, sounding raspier and more seductive.

He moved quickly to my neck, kissing me quickly while his fingers tickled my sides. "Ethan! Stop!"

"But the beard and I are hungry baby," he whined against my skin as he tickled me some more without mercy or relent.

My belly started to hurt because I was laughing so hard; hard enough that there were almost tears in my eyes while I tried to win the tickle war. "Fine! You don't have to shave it!" I laughed while he tickled my ribs some more.

His fingers froze as a shit-eating grin tugged at his lips. I rolled my eyes and smacked his chest. "You're a royal turd."

"I know I'm the king shit baby, you don't have to tell me." I threw my hands up and tried to get out of his lap, but he just tugged me back and nipped at my neck. He rested his head on my shoulder while his fingers played with the edge of my dress. "Ok, we can do dinner. I hate it, but, if there is an opportunity, then we need to take it. We're running out of time. There's a reason the tree showed us that box, maybe it does have something we need, but you have to get Aaron on board. It won't work unless we have help."

I snapped my head around and beamed at him. "Really?"

He sighed reluctantly and nodded. "Yes, I–"

There was a knock on the door. We stilled as our beasts trotted forward, sniffing the air for the scent of the visitors.

Ethan bit back a growl while I reached out to my beast and calmed her. "Come in!" Ethan called out.

The door opened to reveal Thomas. He eyed the two of us and smiled knowingly. "Are you two actually getting work done?"

"Yes," I scoffed. "We are very productive Thomas."

He eyed us as his brows raised and laughed to himself. "Right," his voice breathed out. "Wanted to see if you got to look at the potential hunt schedules Ryder sent over?"

Ethan shook his head. "I was emailing Greg back. I told him we could take more transfers in a few months. We only have a few rooms and he wants to send quite a few over."

"How many again?" Thomas asked as he leaned against the door.

I could feel Ethan's skin rippled slightly, mine was about there too. I leaned against his chest and tugged at the bond gently; whispering sweet things to him that I knew would balance out his anger.