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She finally turned to face him fully, stepping up to him. Her palm slid up his chest to his shoulder, and fuck. Her touch. It’d been far too long.

“Would you like to tell me a better one?”

“I’m not a very good storyteller,” he replied, his voice dropping an octave as her other hand came up, fingers brushing along his belt.

“But there’s one you know I would really love to hear,” she purred, pushing onto her toes as her hand slid to the back of his neck. A slight tug had him appeasing her, bending so she could speak into his ear. “I want to hear the story of how you learned my lineage and kept it from me.”

He snapped upright, his eyes going wide. How could she possibly know that?

“Tessa, I?—”

She reached up, placing a finger at his lips. “I do not want lies or excuses. I simply want the story.”

He held her gaze for a long moment before he said, “I figured it out while you were in Faven. It took me a little time to piece all the information together, so I can’t say I was confident in my conclusions until a few weeks after.”

“But you knew enough when I’d returned. You knew enough you could have told me. You knew enough that you could have proven them all wrong,” she retorted, taking a step back from him and dragging her fingers through her hair where she tugged at the ends.

“Proven who wrong?”

“They told me,” she murmured. “They warned me you would do this, but I… Gods, I was naïve, and then I found her there, in your room.”

“Ourroom,” he corrected, not sure why he thought now was a good time to make the clarification.

A bark of humorless laughter came from her. “It stopped being our room the moment I found her in there, Theon. Then again, it was never trulyourroom, was it? It was always to be a room you shared with her or some other female.”

“Tessa, we talked about this. You know that was a set-up. You know I’m trying to figure it all out.”

“But you did figure it all out, and you kept it from me.”

“All of it was to keep you safe.”

“I’ve never been yours to protect,” she retorted.

He moved fast, his arm looping around her waist and hauling her into him. “You will forever be mine, Tessa. Whether in this life or in the After.”

Something he didn’t understand shuddered in her eyes at the words. “We were always meant to destroy each other,” she said flatly, looking away from him.

He took her chin with his other hand, forcing her gaze back to his. “I crave destruction at your hands, clever tempest. If that’s what it takes to keep you, then so be it.”

“Such pretty words to get what you want,” she murmured.

“You think I am lying to you?”

“I know you are.”

His hand slid into her hair, tilting her head back. “And what about you, beautiful? Still lying to me?”

“I never stopped.”

“Good,” he said, then brought his lips to hers.

She opened immediately, sliding her tongue against his, and he deepened the kiss. Her hands slid to his shirt, deftly undoing the buttons as he kept her in place, refusing to let her go. When his shirt was hanging open, her palms landed on his chest, pushing him backwards. He let her, dragging her with him as he stumbled back to the armchair. He bumped the end table as he sat, the liquor glass falling to the floor and shattering. Neither of them cared as she climbed onto his lap, and he groaned as she settled over him.

His hands slid to her ass, squeezing as she leaned back, her lips sliding along his jaw, down his throat.

“Tessa,” he rasped.

“How much will you let me take, Theon?” she murmured, her words vibrating against his skin.