Chapter 29 Luka #2
Luka paused, not looking over his shoulder, but stilling all the same.
“Not that it should matter, but if it does, know that I agreed to her stipulations,” Theon said. “I just need you to know that.”
He didn’t ask what he meant. Maybe it wouldn’t matter in the end.
Maybe what he had to say wouldn’t make a difference now that Theon had what he’d wanted all along.
While he wasn’t surprised, he was…something.
His dragon was up, trying to pace in his soul at the thought of someone else having what he’d claimed, and while Luka was grateful to feel the thing, now was not the time to have it trying to drive his actions.
Climbing the stairs, he didn’t bother knocking when he reached the door to Theon’s room. She was bent over something on the small sofa, and she straightened at the sound of the door.
Wide violet eyes landed on him, looking him up and down, before she turned back to whatever she was doing.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I was trying to be out before you came back.”
The door clicked shut behind him, and he crossed his arms. “What do you mean, ‘out?’”
Packing. That was what she was doing. She was putting odds and ends into a small bag.
“Eliza and Razik have been staying in the room across the hall. That’s your room, right? They’ve been staying there. Axel and Kat are upstairs. You need a room—”
“So do you,” he interrupted.
“I don’t need a room,” she said. “I can sleep on a sofa just as well.”
“I doubt your husband will allow such a thing,” he retorted, and yeah, the word sounded a little bitter.
Tessa froze for a moment, slowly setting down the items in her hand before she turned to face him. “He told you already?”
“Thank the gods he did. You probably would have kept it from me for months.”
Her eyes dropped to the ground, and gods. He was a fucking prick, but he was also still furious with her.
He said nothing else, watching her struggle with what to do. Finally, she turned back to the sofa, returning to packing that fucking bag.
“I just need to grab a few more things, and I’ll be out of your space,” she said.
“This is Theon’s room.”
“But you are still healing, and now that you are awake, I won’t…”
Luka glanced at the chair where she’d been sleeping, then back to her. “Did you sleep there for the entire three weeks?”
“I’m sorry I was asleep when you woke,” she answered. “I didn’t mean to be.”
“That wasn’t what I asked you.”
She zipped the bag then, turning to face him once more as she lifted it over her shoulder. “Yes, I did. I just needed to see…”
“See what, Tessa?” he demanded.
“I needed to watch your chest rise and fall because it didn’t for a time, Luka,” she said, tears already pooling in her eyes.
“You weren’t moving, and your heart wasn’t beating, and I needed to see you wake up.
Even if I missed that part, but I needed…
” She cleared her throat, wiping at the tear that had slipped free.
“And now I have, and I know you don’t like me in your space, so I will leave. ”
“Go back to the way things were in the cave,” he said flatly.
“I mean, I know it will be different, and maybe eventually things will be— I don’t know, Luka. I don’t know what you want me to say or do. I don’t know what you want from me right now,” she said, her hands coming up and reaching for her hair.
“Don’t you dare,” he growled. “We agreed you weren’t doing that anymore.”
She froze, but her eyes flashed. “We agreed to a lot of things that aren’t happening,” she retorted. “So again, I ask you, what do you want from me? Because I’m tired of trying to figure it out.”
And there she was. This was the tiny thing of fury he could pick a fight with because that was what he actually needed right now. He wanted to punish her for what she did, and he couldn’t do that when she was docile and submissive. He wanted her fiery and bratty; he wanted her ready to push back.
“You slept in my bed, and then you left me with nothing but a note,” he growled, low and menacing as he reached behind him and locked the door.
“You made it clear I wasn’t what you wanted anymore,” she shot back, lifting her chin. “I deserve more than ‘just for tonights,’ Luka, and you deserve not to be bound to someone you can’t stand to look at.”
“Is that what you think? That I can’t stand to look at you?” he asked, slowly prowling toward her, but she stood her ground, her grip tightening on the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
“I don’t know what else I’m supposed to think.
When I entered a room at your cave, you looked away.
When you spoke to me, it was short and to the point.
Even when I came downstairs to find you awake, you didn’t even turn to look at me.
I’m incredibly adept at knowing when I’m not wanted.
I don’t need it spelled out,” she said, her breathing erratic now.
“Are you done with your little fit?” Luka asked.
“Little fit?” she spluttered, her light flaring, illuminating the Mark around her wrist that matched Theon’s.
His dragon snarled. Or maybe that was him.
He was close enough now he could reach out and touch her if he wanted, and he was still debating what he was going to do next when she threw her hands in the air.
“Forget it. I’ve apologized. I’ve given you space. I’ve asked how to make amends. If you can’t forgive me, I understand, but I won’t sit around and let you play mind games with me,” she snarled, already taking steps toward the door. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”
His hand snapped out, gripping the back of the zip-up sweatshirt she was wearing. “Can you stop being so godsdamn mouthy all the fucking time?” he growled, yanking her back. She stumbled over her own feet, the bag dropping to the floor.
“Why? You can’t seem to stop being a prick for even a minute,” she snapped in response. “Let me go.”
“No.”
She scoffed, reaching up and unzipping the sweatshirt. “I made a mistake. A big one. I fucked up,” she ranted. “I’ve tried to apologize. You rejected me. That’s your right. But you don’t get to continue to make me feel like a fuck up just because I’m in the same room as you.”
She spun around, shrugging out of the sweatshirt he still gripped in his hand before she stalked toward the door. She was left in fitted leggings and a tank top that exposed her midriff.
“Come back here, Tessa,” he barked, tossing the sweatshirt aside.
She looked over her shoulder as she parroted him from seconds ago with a smirk. “No.”
Then her eyes went wide as he lunged, and she screamed, darting the other way, leaping onto the bed and down to the other side. He let her run, prowling behind her, because now she was trapped.
Or she would be.
As he rounded the bed, she made to climb back over it again, but he lifted his hand, black flames springing up to stop her.
She cried out again, lurching back and straight into his chest. Luka spun with her, shoving her forward and pressing her against the windows, the curtains open wide so they could see out over the Underground below.
“Let me go, Luka,” she growled.
“Not a chance,” he growled in kind, his fingers threading into the back of her hair. “We need to talk, and we can’t do that if you insist on being an incessant brat.”
Her lip curled in a sneer. “I already said I don’t need it spelled out for me. I got it, okay?”
“Apparently you do need it spelled out for you,” he retorted. “By Sargon, you are infuriating. It drives me half crazy.”
“Join the club,” she snarked back. “So what’s the plan here, Luka Mors? You need to make me suffer?”
His cock twitched at the thought, because yes, that was exactly what he wanted to fucking do.
“What if I do?” he replied, his voice going low and dark as he leaned in to speak into her ear. “What if I need you to suffer for keeping something so important from me? What will you do?”
Her laugh was sharp and slightly unhinged. “I’ll take it and ask for more just to piss you off.”
His grip on her hair tightened at the words, and she gasped, pushing onto her toes to relieve the pressure. There was no twitching of his dick now. It was fully hard, and his dragon was completely on board to remind her who the dominant one was in this relationship.
She arched against him, her breasts pressing to the glass and nearly spilling over the low cut of her top.
His hand in her hair shoved her forward a little more, forcing her to turn her head so her cheek was against the pane.
Her ass pressed into him, and his other palm landed on the window next to her head.
“Stop that,” he snarled into her ear. “Tell me why you kept my father from me.”
Her breathing stuttered, her fight stalling for a few seconds. “I didn’t trust you,” she admitted. “You were only there because Theon told you to be.”
“Not in the end. You knew that,” he retorted.
“And what was I supposed to do?” she cried. “Bring it up after we fucked the first time or the second? ‘Thanks for the incredible sex. By the way, your father is being held in the cells in Faven. Let me check with Rordan and see if we can visit before we go for another round.’”
“This fucking mouth,” he snapped, spinning her roughly around so her back was to the window now. She stared up at him, defiant as always, while her power flickered in her eyes. “Loyalty is everything to me,” he said, low and controlled. “You betrayed that.”
“I know,” she said. “And I’m sorry. I don’t know what else I can do or say.
I wasn’t keeping him from you. I was keeping him for me.
I didn’t know… I was trying to figure out who I was.
He was a link to my past, and until I decided which path I was going to take, I needed that secret, Luka.
I’m not saying it was right. I’m not trying to excuse my actions. But I—”
“Do you regret it?” he interrupted.
“What?”
“Do you regret keeping it from me?” Her eyes darted to the side, but he took her chin, guiding her gaze right back to his. “Answer me.”