Page 56

Too wild. Too disobedient. Too much of a hassle.

Theon drained the last of his whiskey, the glass settling back onto the counter with a faint clunk. He braced his hands against the edge of the countertop and stared at her. She couldn’t read his eyes or his features, but she held his gaze, staring right back at him.

After nearly an entire minute, he began walking slowly towards her, and she couldn’t help but take a step back. “What are you going to do?” she whispered.

“Oh, Tessa,” he said mockingly. “There is so much that needs to be said. So much that needs to be discussed. So much that needs to be done.”

With every step he took, the farther she stepped back until she hit the dining table. She looked around frantically, trying to find something to…what? Defend herself? It wouldn’t matter. She’d seen his magic in the woods, but she knew that wasn’t nearly the full extent of it. And when he could draw even more power from her? He’d be an unyielding force.

“But none of that is what I am going to do now.”

“It’s not?” she breathed.

“No, it’s not.” He stopped directly in front of her, his eyes roaming over her with an intensity she didn’t know what to do with. “Right now, I’m going to count to three, and then I’m going to kiss you.”

“You’re going to…” She trailed off, sure she wasn’t understanding what he was saying.

“If you do not want me to kiss you, say so before I get to three,” he added with a casual shrug. “One.”

He stepped further into her personal space. His hands came to her waist, lifting her smoothly onto the table, and Tessa’s breath caught in her throat. She was too flustered to process what was happening.

“Two.”

Theon slid his hands down her thighs to her knees, where he pulled them apart and stepped between them. One hand came to the back of her neck, and he leaned forward, lining his lips up with hers.

She opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but nothing came out. The cord inside her was frenzied with anticipation, and something unacceptable was curling low in her stomach, heat flooding through her.

“Three.”

He didn’t wait another second, pulling her the short distance that was left between their lips. This kiss wasn’t soft and slow. It was hard and punishing. This kiss possessed her very being. His tongue pressed against the seam of her lips, demanding access, and she let him in. He tasted of night and smoke as their tongues tangled with each other. His hand held her in place at the back of her head, while the hand on her hip worked its way under her layers to graze bare flesh.

Her skin tingled wherever he touched, and tiny sparks of energy seemed to follow his fingers. She gasped when his hand reached her breast, squeezing it over her bra.

This damn bond.

Or was it the bond?

She couldn’t focus enough to worry about it as his mouth left hers and began making its way down the column of her throat. Her hand sank into the silken strands of his black hair, while her other hand gripped the edge of the table. She was trying to remind herself that she was only feeling this way because of the bond. That if it weren’t for that, she wouldn’t be letting him touch her, but she couldn’t focus on anything but his lips on her neck as they sucked and teased. He was going to leave a different kind of mark on her skin at this rate, and a part of her didn’t care as she sank into the pleasure of it all.

When a soft moan escaped her lips, a dark growl came from Theon. His hands left her body, reaching for the edge of her sweatshirt and lifting it over her head in one swift movement. He wasted no time returning his lips to her skin, to her mouth.

His hands slid down her sides, over her hips, down her thighs, as if he couldn’t touch her enough, and she couldn’t get enough of his touch. Unable to stop herself any longer, her other hand finally wrapped around his neck, drawing him closer. He growled again in approval, and a hand slipped back under the thermal. Fingers dragged up along her spine.

Theon wrapped her ponytail around his other fist, yanking on it to tilt her head back. At her gasp, he drew back, nipping her bottom lip. His eyes were darkened with want as he stared down at her, his breathing as ragged as her own. He seemed to search for something in her eyes, and she didn’t know if he found it or if he gave up when he said with a voice like gravel, “Go and shower, Tessa. I’ll have clothes laid out for you in the closet. You have five minutes, and I will be entering the bathroom.”

Still trying to think through her lust-addled mind, Tessa blinked several times. “I…I can’t be done showering in five minutes. I’m a mess.”

Theon released her hair and straightened, forcing Tessa to crane her neck back even more to look up into his face.

“If you think I am letting you out of my sight for longer than five minutes in the near future, you are sorely mistaken. You are lucky I am not following you into the shower itself. If not to finish what we were doing here, then at the very least, to ensure you do not somehow figure out a way to slip down the godsdamn drain.”

Tessa felt her face flush at his words, and she lowered her eyes, biting her bottom lip. Theon stepped back, and she nearly fell off the table.

“Go, Tessa. Your time is counting down.”

She scrambled down at those words, rushing across the room and into Theon’s bedroom. Lifting her shirt as she went, she kicked off her sneakers that had surely left a trail of mud. She undressed in the bathroom, not bothering to get her clothes to the laundry bin in the closet as she turned on a set of the shower heads to lukewarm. Despite how cold it was outside, her skin was on fire after what had just happened on the table.

What had just happened on the table?