“If you’d wanted a bath,” Fin said idly. “You should have just asked me.”
Hypothermia kept me from letting out a startled scream or jumping like one of those girls in a horror movie this place would make the great set for. However, I did spin and punch him square in the nose. The sudden motion sent pins and needles raking through my frozen limbs, but the numbness protected my hand when a couple of the bones crunched at the blow.
Fin winced and put a hand to his face, even if the blow barely rocked him. A real smile curved the corners of his mouth. “Maddox said you were a fighter.”
“Fuck you.”
“I won’t say no.” His grin grew more teasing, and I rolled my eyes as I sank into the water. Sobering, he shook his head, then shed a heavy robe before following me into the water. “Come here.”
“Why?” Hostility rolled off the word, but it didn’t slow Fin down. He grasped my arm and hauled me over to him.
“Because you’re freezing, Beautiful. And I can help warm you up.” He pulled me right to him, one arm around my waist and the other hooked around my shoulders.
The hot water swirled around me, but he was warmer still, and his hands were like brands where they rested against me. He sank us down to sit so my shoulders were under the water. My tangled hair was soaked from the mid-length down, but I didn’t care.
“If you knew I was up and looking, why didn’t you just tell me where the bathing room was?”
“I didn’t know you were looking for it,” Fin told me, then kissed my nose. “My apologies, Beautiful.”
I stared at him. “You thought I was wandering around this frigid ass mausoleum naked for kicks?”
A grin flashed across his face. “I didn’t know what you were doing, Beautiful, but since you didn’t come back to bed, I thought I’d watch and see. I figured if you wanted us, you would have at least come and woken us up.”
Yeah, that was too reasonable.
I scowled. “Spying is kind of creepy.”
“If I were spying, I would agree with you. I think of it more as advanced protection detail. You get your privacy, and I get to look after your gorgeous ass.” He cupped his hand against my ass. “Speaking of which…”
“I’m sore, you can wait.”
He blinked at the rejection, but his smile only grew. “Good to know, we’ll be sure to take better care of you. Rogue didn’t mean to be so rough, you know. It’s just been a while.”
And I’d had him on a lust loop. “The rough was fine, he’s very talented,” I said with a shrug. “Just I’m definitely sore in a lot of places.” I lifted a hand to finger the puffy bite at my neck. I didn’t want their teeth at my throat, but Rogue had bitten into me while he fucked me stupid, and I hadn’t said a damn thing.
“Why the hell did he drain me?”
Fin snapped his focus from my breasts back to me. No, I hadn’t missed the way he’d zeroed in on them after my comment about liking it rough. Pretty boy here probably didn’t know what really rough was like. I could show him—after I no longer felt like I was straddling a bowling ball.
What the hell was Rogue that he’d knotted up in me like that, too?
Did they all knot like that?
Studying me from beneath half-lowered lashes, Fin traced his fingers up to the spot and a shudder went through me as he circled the bite. “You fed off the warden.”
“So?”
“So, shadow demons have powerful blood, don’t get me wrong. The more of them you take in, the more access they have to you. You probably had a craving for him, he came to you often, then started stretching it out. Making you wait a little bit longer each time.”
Eyes narrowed, I nodded. “I figured he just didn’t think I needed as much. He definitely fed me well.”
“I’d keep that last part to yourself where Maddox is concerned. He already wants to kill the guy. If he finds out he was marking you too, it could be bad.”
I rolled my eyes. “Back to the draining part.”
Fin sighed. “Rogue drained you because we all need to. We need to drain and feed you back up. Your transition was sloppily done, and then giving you nothing but a shadow demon to feed off of is a terrible idea. You’re vulnerable. We’ll make sure you’re not.”
“Uh huh, you know what I hear you saying?” Despite my irritation, I relaxed more and more as feeling surged through my limbs. The hot water melted away the chill. “We want to make sure the only ones marking you are us.”
“Not denying it,” Fin said easily. “We can feed both sides of you quite easily, but we need to balance you out. I should have gotten to you sooner, Beautiful. I missed you by mere hours.”
No skin off my nose. “I’m not staying here.”
“A discussion for another day,” Fin told me, then pressed his lips just below that spot on my neck, and I would have rocked off his lap, but he gripped me tighter. “Not going to bite. You’ve made it clear you don’t want us there.” Another kiss. “Was that where Dimitri bit you?”
Fingers curling, I glared at him. “Don’t dig around in my head.”
“Can’t help it if you projected those thoughts of vengeance so loudly, Beautiful. I have no problem helping you remove his spine one vertebrae at a time.”
Oh. That was a provocative image.
“Or we could nail him to the floor,” Fin continued kissing a path to my shoulder. “Nail guns are really neat. We could start with his penis and work our way out to all his extremities.”
“Vicious,” I approved. “I like it.”
His lips curved against me, then he kissed my biceps and glanced up me. “Bloodthirst is very normal in a baby vamp.”
“It’s not his blood I crave.”
“No, it’s his suffering because he took something from you that wasn’t his.”
Precisely. “And he’s a moron.”
Which was almost worse than if he’d done it out of some evil nefarious purpose.
“Does that bother you more because of his choice, or because you fucked him?” Genuine curiosity lived in that question.
I shrugged. “Probably a little bit of both. I just needed to feed, and I figured it was an even exchange. The sex wasn’t even that great.” Hell, I hadn’t even gotten off at first. No, I had come later. He had though.
Twice.
Asshole.
I’d also died later, too.
Good times.
“Oh, we’ll definitely start with his dick then,” Fin told me cheerfully. “Not pleasing you was his first mistake.”
Okay, I laughed. That was funny.
Fin’s eyes twinkled as he grinned. “Feel better?”
“A little bit.”
“Good.” He pulled my hand from the water and kissed my palm. “The soaking pool is much warmer.”
“It was warmer when there were big ass bonfires lit in the hearths, too.” Neither of which were burning right now.
“I can fix that if you like, Beautiful.” The offer came with another kiss, this time to my fingers. “Would you like a fire?”
I studied him. “Are you trying to seduce me?”
“Is it working?” He raised his brows and then ruined the effect with a laugh.