Page 29 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

You touching yourself right now.

A dark laugh skittered down the bond.What makes you think it’s my hand doing the touching?

Theon gripped the counter harder, darkness seeping from his palms.Tessa…

Do you want me to tell you what he’s doing?

Is it Luka?

There was another pause.Why would Luka be here?

He couldn’t even respond as he thought of another touching her.

He’s got two fingers in my cunt, and my breast in his mouth right now, and gods. It’s so?—

He didn’t hear the rest as his fist slammed into the mirror. Glass shattered, raining down on the vanity. Shards were embedded in his knuckles, and he watched the blood stream. It dripped onto the dark countertop, but he couldn’t feel it. Hecouldn’t feel anything besides the fury and the envy and thepainof knowing she was finding pleasure with someone else.

You made me bleed. Now I make you bleed, Theon.

Then she shoved him out, putting that wall back up down their bond as her dark laugh echoed in his mind.

7

TESSA

“Get up, Tessa,” came a voice that grated on her ears.

“Get out, Oralia,” she retorted as the Fae threw open the room-darkening curtains. Light flooded the room, and it had Tessa burrowing deep into her covers to escape it, seeking the dark. Not that she’d been sleeping. She never slept anymore, but she’d made it worse by taunting Theon about someone else being in her bed. No one had been here, of course. It had all been to rile him up, and it had worked. She’d felt the slice of pain and his anger. It should have been satisfying to know she’d made him bleed the way he’d made her bleed, but it had been satisfying in an unexpected way.

Sheenjoyedfeeling his jealousy at the mere idea of someone else touching something he considered to be his. Not because it hurt him or because she thought she belonged to him in any way, but because it madeherfeel valued.

And what did that say about her?

Probably that she was indeed the monster she claimed to be.

“I do not have time for your whining today, Tessa,” Oralia chided. “Get up, and get dressed. We need to go.”

“Go where?” Tessa muttered, still not moving.

“It appears the acting Arius Lord sent his guard dog to check on your wellbeing.”

Tessa threw the blankets back, sitting up. “Luka is here?”

Oralia was in the large walk-in closet now, but her voice carried out as she said, “Not yet, but he will be shortly. He was spotted entering the grounds and felt crossing the wards.”

Tessa hadn’t felt him down the bond, which could only mean he was blocking it on his end. A dirty, clever move after her refusal to speak with him a few days ago, but to show up in the Achaz Kingdom? At Lord Jove’s home?

That was a stupid move she’d never have expected from the dragon.

More than that, he was far too close to something she didn’t want him knowing about.

That thought alone had her up and out of bed, rushing to the door.

“Where are you going?” Oralia demanded, darting in front of her and blocking her path.

Tessa skidded to a halt, her power crackling around her. “Did you not just tell me to get up?”

“Yes, andget dressed,” she drawled, tossing some clothing onto the bed.

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