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“Thanks,” Theon replied, following Tessa through the doorway to the bedroom. She moved straight to the bathroom and reached to pull her torn running top over her head. Then she disappeared into the closet, and Theon moved forward to fill the giant bathtub.

He heard her come back into the bathroom, and her voice carried to him.

“A bath?”

“I thought it would be more calming than a shower,” he answered, turning to face her, “but if you would rather—”

The words died on his lips. She stood before him in lacy red underthings that matched the red sports bra she’d worn running that morning. Despite the dried blood and dirt on her skin, the bond spiked with desire at the sight of her.

He cleared his throat. “If you would rather take a shower, I can get that set up for you.”

“A bath is fine,” she said, moving forward and reaching for her sports bra.

“I will check on you in a few minutes,” he said, turning quickly to leave.

“Wait,” she called out, and Theon turned back to her.

She was worrying her bottom lip, and her hands had dropped to her sides where her fingers were curling and uncurling into loose fists.

“What do you need, Tessa?” he asked when she didn’t speak after several moments.

She still didn’t look at him when she said, “Can you stay? I don’t want to be alone right now.”

17

THEON

“You want me to stay in here? While you bathe?” he asked slowly, sure he was misunderstanding what she wanted.

“If you don’t want to, can Luka or Axel? I don’t want to be alone,” she repeated. “The quiet is too loud sometimes, and I feel trapped in it,” she added in a whisper.

Fuck if he was going to let Axel or Luka in here while she was naked.

“I can stay,” he said. “I will just step out while you get in.”

He waited in the bedroom for a full two minutes, trying to get himself under control. His mind was flooding him with all kinds of filthy fantasies, and the bond was capitalizing on them. It liked the idea of her wet and naked.

It liked that idea a lot.

When he re-entered the bathroom, Tessa was just coming back up from under the water, her hair plastered to her head and water dripping down her skin. He’d put jasmine and lavender scented soap in for her, so at least the suds obscured her naked flesh from his view. She leaned her head back against the tub and closed her eyes.

“You can’t sleep in the bathtub, beautiful,” Theon said softly, moving to stand next to her with his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

“I know,” she answered, her fingers skimming through the bubbles.

“We need to talk about something.”

Her eyes opened at that. “I don’t know what those things were that came up out of the ground. I don’t know what that was or how it happened.”

That statement was definitely something he would be revisiting later on this afternoon, but he needed to get this bond sorted out first. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, and after today, he needed it firmly in place.

“Let’s come back to that,” he replied. “Why are you terrified of me, Tessa?”

“I’m not scared of you,” she answered defensively.

“Pavil and Metias have gifts that can amplify certain emotions. When they touched you, they used their power to amplify your greatest fears,” Theon said, pulling his hands from his pockets and rolling back his sleeves. He lowered to his knees beside the tub. “When I found you, you were terrified because of what had happened, yes, but you were also terrified of what I was going to do to you.”

Tessa was silent as he took the cloth he’d set out for her and dunked it into the water. He gently began cleaning dried blood from her arm. “I don’t want you scared of me, Tessa. I just need your submission.”