18. Areana #2
The ride up was silent except for the low hum of the cabin, and when the doors opened, the smell of chlorine reached her right away, proving they were at the right level of the massive underground complex.
She wheeled the chair toward the double doors with the small round windows at their top, and Daniel pushed them open for her.
The pool was all about function with no consideration for architectural flair. A plain rectangle of blue, white tile walls, and simple overhead lights. It was silent except for the low hum of the filtration system somewhere out of sight.
"I've got it from here," Areana told Daniel. "I'll call you when we are ready to go back."
Navuh wouldn't appreciate the Guardian watching him struggle through the rehabilitation exercises, and Daniel could program the cuffs to restrict Navuh to the pool so he would be assured that they wouldn't leave without him.
Daniel arched a brow. "Are you sure? I should at least help you lower him into the water."
"I can manage that." She smiled. "And you don't want to get wet. No reason for you to be bored in here."
Navuh said nothing, though she half expected him to argue the point, given he'd tried only days ago to bribe the man for the dignity of a discreet trip to the bathroom. Perhaps privacy from Daniel mattered to him less than she'd assumed. In any case, she wanted privacy with her mate.
They'd spent many pleasurable hours together at the harem pool, and she missed those intimate moments.
"Of course, Lady Areana. Just don't forget to call me before you wheel him out this door."
"I won't." She winced. "I know what will happen if I do."
"Call if you need anything."
As the door swung shut behind him, Areana wasn't sure she had done the right thing. She was strong enough to lift Navuh off the chair and carry him to the bench, but then what?
How was she going to get into the pool with him in her arms?
Perhaps she could sit on the edge and slide in.
"You look concerned," Navuh said.
"I am trying to figure out how we are actually going to do this," she admitted.
"Too late for regrets now. Unless you want to call Daniel back."
"We will manage," she said, more confidently than she felt.
The most difficult trick to pull off was not to let Navuh feel humiliated. He needed to be an active participant in this.
She untied her sarong, stuffed it in the back pocket of the wheelchair, and then walked back around and stood in front of him.
"First, take your robe off."
He managed that just fine without her help, which was a step in the right direction.
She took it from him and draped it over the back of the chair.
"Now put your arms around my neck." She leaned and wrapped hers around his torso. "I'll take your weight, you help as much as you can, and we go together."
He looped his arms around her, and she braced her legs and lifted, feeling every atrophied, uncooperative muscle in him resist the effort even as he tried to help her.
For one precarious moment, they hung there together, half in the chair and half out of it, and then momentum carried them the rest of the way onto the bench.
"We made it," he said as he sat down.
"Step one accomplished." She reached for the buoyancy belt Hildegard had left on the bench. "This goes around your waist. It'll keep you upright in the water without needing your legs to do any of the work."
He arched a brow. "I thought that the point of this exercise was to rehabilitate my legs."
"In good time."
She fastened it around him and re-examined her approach. In all the training videos, the pool had a special ramp that was easy to navigate. There was none in this pool that had been obviously built just for swimming, not the rehabilitation of immortals.
She had no other choice but to lift him, sit on the edge of the pool, and slide him in. The belt would keep him afloat.
"I'm sorry about this part." She executed her plan without looking into his eyes and then slid into the water after him.
"There," she said. "We survived the hard part."
"Was that the hard part?" Navuh tested his legs beneath the surface, a slow, exploratory motion. "It felt considerably more dignified than most of what I have to contend with."
Areana released a relieved breath.
Navuh wasn't making a big deal out of it.
Standing waist-deep in the water with her mate floating beside her in a buoyancy belt felt like a monumental achievement.
"All right." She positioned herself in front of him, the way the videos had shown, hands braced under his forearms. "Let's see what your legs remember to do. Small steps."
He tried.
His right leg drifted rather than stepped, foot trailing up instead of planting down, the muscle refusing to answer the signal his mind was sending.
He overcorrected, twisting at the hip, and the belt held his torso upright even as his lower body listed sideways like a puppet with half its strings cut.
"That's fine," she said. "Any form of movement is good."
"That was not walking."
"It was a good attempt. We build from those. Let's try that again."
They worked through it slowly, a dozen halting steps, their bodies brushing against one another in the water, the contact stimulating and distracting.
For her, and probably for him as well.
"You're improving," she said, a little breathless and not from the exertion.
"Not really." His voice had dropped, low enough that she felt it more than heard it. "But I'm enjoying this far more than I expected."
She smiled. "So am I."
His hand drifted to the small of her back, and not for balance. He drew her the rest of the way against him, water sluicing between their bodies as the last of the distance was eliminated.
"Areana."
"Yes."
"I find I have very little interest in continuing the exercises."
"Hildegard would be very disappointed in me if I don't do my job."
"She is not here."
He kissed her before she could decide whether to argue the point further, and it was nothing like the sweet, soft kisses they'd traded lately.
This kiss had heat in it, his hands tightening on her waist, pulling her flush against him. She felt need and desire wash over her body, her fingers curling into his shoulders, a small, desperate moan escaping her throat against his mouth.
He drew back only far enough to look at her, his dark eyes blazing with that familiar inner light, and then he smiled, the real smile that he reserved just for her. She hadn't seen that smile since before the cliff.
"There you are," she whispered. "I've missed that."
"It's still all in here." His arms tightened around her. "It only needed the right motivation to resurface."
She laughed. "I'm glad I can still do that for you."
"Always, and no matter what. I love you, Areana. You are my whole world."