My muscles trembled with exhaustion. Since I used poison magic for all of my attacks, and I had people who managed my estate, I wasn’t used to this much physical labor. Burying a dead body was a lot harder than I had thought it would be. Normally, I didn’t care if anyone found the corpses I left in my wake, so I had never had to dig holes and haul dead people around a garden at night. Why did they weigh so much when they were dead anyway?
Tiredness mixed with irritation washed over me as I stalked up the steps to the second floor of our house. I was covered in dirt and blood, and all I wanted to do was to throw Callan out of a window, take a shower, and then get some sleep.
After grabbing a change of clothes from my room, I headed straight for the bathroom. But as I yanked open the door, I found that Callan had managed to get there first and was already stripping out of his clothes. The door banged as I stalked in anyway and slammed it closed behind me.
“You do not get to use the shower first. This whole mess was your fault, so you can go out and wait in the corridor until I’m done.”
He snorted dismissively as he tossed his shirt on the floor and got started on his pants. “How is it my fault that some damn gardener’s assistant just happened to walk past right at that time?”
“You didn’t have to run a force blade through his chest.” I shook my head at him in disbelief. “By all hell, have you always been this stupid? How are you still alive when you are clearly entirely incapable of being sneaky?”
Callan stopped unbuttoning his pants and instead closed the distance between us. Taking my jaw in a punishing grip, he forced my head back and locked eyes with me. “Watch that tone.”
“Or what?” I didn’t have the strength left to lift my arms, so I just glared up at him. “You’ll stab a force blade through my chest too? Seeing how that’s the way you always solve your problems.”
“Oh I can’t wait until we’ve dealt with Lance Carmichael. Because then, I will do just that. And so much more.”
Before I could reply, he released my jaw, making me snap my head to the side as he did so. I just slowly turned my head back and stared at him as he finished undressing. Blood and dirt caked his dark pants, but he simply dropped them, along with his underwear, on top of his shirt and stepped into the shower.
The sound of splashing water filled the room as he turned it on. It was an open shower, and the water came from a wide square in the ceiling, so I had an unobstructed view from where I still stood halfway between it and the door.
Water ran down his body, washing away the dirt and the blood.
For quite a while, I just stood there watching his muscular back as he scrubbed away the evidence of his latest crime. I knew that I should be doing something. Leave, tell him to hurry up, or even just insult him. But I was so exhausted. It had taken hours to dig a hole deep enough and then bury the body without anyone seeing. My arms and back ached, and I just couldn’t find the strength to do anything other than watch as Callan showered. Besides, it was a nice view.
Callan was hot. There was no point in trying to deny that. And as I studied the way his lean muscles shifted, I couldn’t help but wonder what his naked body would feel like pressed against mine. An image popped up in my mind. That expression of pure bliss on that woman’s face when I had walked in on her and Callan back in his mansion. He probably was good at it. But the problem was that I couldn’t fuck someone like him. I couldn’t put myself into such a vulnerable position with someone who was a threat to me.
“Enjoying the view?” Callan said, smug amusement lacing his voice.
When I forced my mind back to the present, I found that Callan had turned around and was now watching me. His lethal body looked even better from the front. But I would die before I ever told him that. So instead, I dragged my gaze up and down his body with deliberate slowness.
A mocking smirk played over my lips. “I’ve seen better.”
He let out a dark chuckle and strode over to the towel rack. While he grabbed one and wrapped it around his hips, I reached up to undo the laces at the back of my ruined dress.
My muscles screamed at me.
After letting my arms drop down by my sides, I tried to shake out the muscles a little before reaching up behind my back once more. They just fell back down again.
A low growl ripped from my throat. It made Callan look over. Embarrassment flushed my cheeks and I snapped my gaze towards the other wall while I reached towards the laces once more. This time, I managed to grab a hold of the bottom ones. My arm muscles trembled as I tried to undo the knot. Before I could get it open, my fingers slipped and my arms dropped down to my sides yet again.
Callan advanced on me while I tried to get my muscles to obey me. I rolled my shoulders so that I could try again, but before I could reach up, Callan slapped my arms away and grabbed the end of the long ribbons.
“I don’t need your help,” I snapped.
“You can’t lift your arms for more than two seconds and your hands are shaking.”
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking slightly. Swallowing another snarky reply, I kept my mouth shut and just stood there as he started unlacing my dress.
A muttered curse came from his throat. “Seriously?”
“What?”
“Who even designed this bloody dress?” He yanked angrily at the loops and long ribbons that twisted back and forth. “The Chastity Association of Impenetrable Clothes?”
I laughed. Not a mocking or vicious laugh. But an actual laugh of genuine amusement. It shocked me that Callan had managed to draw such a sound out of me, so I twisted my head to stare at him over my shoulder. But Callan wasn’t looking at me. He was studying the ruined remains of my ripped-up skirt as if he was considering something.
Then he abruptly looked up.
His hands dropped from my back to my hips before spinning me around so that I faced him instead.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he lifted his arms again.
“The dress is beyond saving anyway.”
Using both hands, he took a firm grip on my collar.
And then he ripped my dress open.
A jolt shot through my body and my heart pounded hard against my ribs as I stared up at him with my mouth slightly open. Heat flooded my core. Before I could press out a single word, Callan released the dress and let it flutter down to the floor around my feet. My skin prickled at the exposure as I suddenly found myself standing there in only a pair of lace panties.
“There you go,” Callan said and gave my shoulder a soft push towards the shower that was still running. “Now get in the shower.”
I was still so stunned from what I had felt when Callan had ripped my dress open, that I just stripped out of my underwear and did what he said without arguing. My back was to him so I couldn’t tell for certain, but I was sure that there was a satisfied smirk on his lips right about now. I would have to deal with that later.
Warm water washed over me as I staggered into the shower. After the night we’d had, it was a heavenly feeling to just have that warmth soaking into my aching body. The water ran red and brown as it swirled down the drain. I still couldn’t lift my arms for more than a couple of seconds at a time, so I just stood there, hoping that all the blood and dirt would be washed away on its own.
“You’ve gotta scrub it off,” Callan said from somewhere behind me, informing me that he was apparently still in the room.
“Yes, well…” I didn’t know how to finish that sentence so I just trailed off.
Only the sound of water splashing against the marble floor broke the silence for about half a minute. Then Callan cursed loudly.
“For fuck’s sake, Audrey.”
I slowly turned around.
Yanking off the towel from around his hips, he stalked into the shower with me. It took me by surprise, so I just stumbled a step back towards the wall. Water ran down his body and soaked his hair once more while he closed the final distance between us and stopped in front of me.
Exasperation flashed across his face as he reached over my shoulder and grabbed the soap from the small rack set into the wall. Running it between his hands, he worked up a lather.
“What the hell do you think you’re…” I began while taking a small step forward.
He just planted his palm on my collarbones and pushed me back against the wall before raising my arm with his other hand. I stared back at him in disbelief as he ran his palm up and down my arm, washing off the dirt and blood that still clung to my skin.
When he was done, he moved on to my other arm and did the same thing. I studied his face, trying to figure out why the hell he was doing this for me. But his eyes were focused on his own hands, making sure that he got all the blood off me.
Picking up the soap, he worked up more lather before crouching down to scrub the dirt from my legs. A jolt shot through my body when his rough hands made their way up my calf and towards my knee. Water poured down his neck and back, and made his black hair fall into his eyes as he looked down at my leg. My heart did that weird thing again where it pounded hard a couple of times before returning to its normal rhythm.
Callan drew his hands up my thigh.
Desire flooded my core and a shudder of pleasure coursed through my body as his fingers skimmed the inside of my thigh close to my entrance. Tilting my head back, I closed my eyes and let the water run down my face. Callan kneaded my skin for another few seconds before his calloused hands moved to my other leg.
As he reached the same spot on that thigh as well, I failed to suppress another shiver of pleasure. Dark desire rolled through me as Callan drew his hand back and forth across my skin.
By all hell, the bastard did know how to work his fingers. And I had to admit, I didn’t hate the way his hands felt on me.
He stood up.
I quickly wiped the expression off my face as I opened my eyes to look at him. For a moment, he looked down at my chest and stomach, as if considering whether to put his hands there too even though those areas were free of blood and dirt. Since I realized that I wanted to know the answer to that too, I just stood there watching him while water splashed down over us.
His gaze flicked to the long dark tresses that now lay plastered to my skin.
Taking a firm grip on my hips, he abruptly spun me around and shoved me chest first into the wall. I let out a hiss and tried to step back, but he just planted a hand between my shoulder blades and pushed me up against the wall again.
“You still have mud in your hair,” he announced as if that excused his manhandling.
My arms were still trembling with exertion, so I didn’t have the strength to push myself away from the wall. Even if I hadn’t been exhausted from digging a grave all night, I doubted I would have been able to win a strength contest against Callan Blackwell. But as he began massaging my scalp while he rubbed the shampoo into my hair, I realized that I didn’t think I wanted to fight him on this right now.
With my body pressed against the wall, I rested my cheek against the smooth marble as I let my mortal enemy wash my hair and get all the blood and mud out of it. The cool stone against my naked body helped dampen some of the heat that seemed to pulse from my skin.
“There,” Callan said at last.
Instead of answering, I just drew in a few more deep breaths. I hadn’t even realized that my chest was heaving.
The splashing noise stopped as Callan turned off the shower. Silence that suddenly felt deafening filled the bathroom. For a while, nothing else happened.
Then Callan reached over my shoulder and wrapped his hand around my throat. Still standing behind me, he hauled me away from the wall until my back was pressed against his chest. When he leaned down to place his lips next to my ear, his cock brushed against my back.
“Aren’t you going to say thank you?” he whispered, his hot breath dancing over my wet skin and making another treacherous shudder course through my body.
There was not a chance in hell that I was thanking him for anything, ever, so instead I replied, “I didn’t ask you to do that.”
Keeping his grip on my throat, he moved me away from his chest and swung me around so that I faced him instead. He took a step forward, forcing my back up against the wall. But before he could answer, I blurted out the question I had been turning over in my head since the moment he stepped into the shower with me.
“Why did you do it?”
He paused. There was a seriousness on his face that I hadn’t really seen before. For a few seconds he said nothing, as if he was pondering the answer to that himself. Eventually, he opened his mouth as if to reply, but then he closed it again. Another couple of seconds passed. Then he shook off the seriousness and a cocky smirk slid home on his lips instead.
“I wanted to test a theory.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What theory?”
“That I can make you do what I want.”
A dark laugh slipped my lips. “Once again, you show how clueless you really are. I just got you to wash my body for me, and you think you’re the one in control?” I let out another mocking laugh and raised my eyebrows in challenge. “You really are so easy to manipulate.”
His fingers tightened around my throat as he leaned closer to my face. “Oh the things I could do to you. I could make you beg for mercy.”
“I have never begged for mercy in my entire life.”
“Then maybe it’s high time someone made you experience that.”
I shifted my hips so that my body brushed against his cock. It hardened, pressing into my skin. Running my tongue over my teeth, I smirked up at the frustrated-looking force mage. “Keep dreaming, pretty boy.”
His eyes seared into mine for another few seconds. Then he flashed me a lethal smile and released my throat.
Without another word, he turned around and walked over to his discarded towel. After wrapping it around his hips again, he strode out of the bathroom, leaving me standing there in the shower. Alone. And wet in more ways than one.
As I watched his half-naked body disappear out the door, I couldn’t stop the insane and absolutely ridiculous thoughts that swept through my mind.
No, I had never begged for mercy in my life.
But right now, I kind of wanted him to try.
