“I need to return every day. There’s a female who needs me. Diemos calls for me personally to tend her. If I don’t come when summoned, he’ll know something’s wrong. And I won’t abandon her.”
There was no way she was going anywhere on her own, especially anywhere near fucking Diemos. She was never leaving his side again. “If you’re summoned, I’ll go with you.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“I just need a disguise,” he said, grinning as he removed the cloak she’d draped around his shoulders. He just needed armor, the helmet would hide his face, and he’d pass as a guard. “It’ll be fine.”
Scarlet bit her lip at his nakedness. He glanced down at himself. He was filthy and scarred and covered in dry blood. “Is there a bathroom in here?”
She nodded and motioned to another door off to the side. “Sit there and I’ll get the bath ready.”
Tobias growled. He wanted a bath badly, but he hated that he was still so fucking weak. He needed to rest and eat, regenerate the blood he’d lost.
He needed Scarlet to remember who the fuck she was, who he was.
“Someone’s surly.” She smirked at him.
The way she said it, that smirk, it was so Scarlet. So much so that he lost the power to speak. She walked away before he could think of a reply.
He may be as weak as a wet kitten, but he’d be damned if he would make her carry him to the fucking bathroom. It wasn’t easy, but using the furniture to hold himself upright, be finally made it.
Like the others, this room was massive. The bath big enough to fit more than a dozen people at once. It was already full of steaming water.
Scarlet was moving around the room, collecting what he needed, and glanced up at him, again trying not to look below the waist. She failed, and he had to bite back his grin.
“Are you ready?”
He nodded and moved to the bath. Christ, it was more like a small pool. He was going to fucking drown in there with how weak he was.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” Scarlet said as if she could read his thoughts.
She always had known exactly what he was thinking.
He growled again, pissed off that he couldn’t even fucking wash himself. But the growl died an abrupt death when Scarlet reached up, untied her tunic at her shoulder, and let the coarse brown fabric slide to the floor and pool at her feet.
Naked.
She was completely naked.
His cock responded instantly, like all knights…hell, all males, at the sight of their female standing bare in front of them. She was blushing again, but then she shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I’ve seen you naked loads of times. It’s just skin and bone and muscle.”
Tobias grabbed on to the wall as her words hit him, as a memory of the night they first mated rushed him hard and fast.
“I’m in here,” she called from his bedroom.
He swallowed, and followed that beautiful voice across the room, into his bedroom. The bathroom door was open.
He paused at the threshold and was forced to grip the frame.
She stood by the tub, in only a damp towel. “Laz let you live, then?”
He nodded. It was all he was capable of doing.
Without another word, she let the towel fall at her feet. Tobias stood there, rooted to the spot.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He shook his head. He was so not okay.
She chuckled. “What’s the big deal? I’ve seen you naked a thousand times. You guys are always shifting in front of me and flashing your junk. It’s just skin and bone and muscle. Get over it.”
He looked up at her, swallowing repeatedly when he saw she was flushed pink. It was the first time he’d ever seen his warrior female blush.
She was nervous.
“You’re so much more than that,” he rasped. “Christ, Scarlet, you’re so fucking beautiful.”
A small splash pulled him from the memory in time to see her take the first two steps into the pool.
“Are you coming?”
He released the wall and reached for her. “Yeah.” He’d follow her fucking anywhere.
And thanks to Lucifer, Hell included.
Her smaller fingers curled around his, leading him down the steps and into the steaming water. “Sit there on the step, so you don’t drown.”
He ate up the sight of her, knowing every freckle, every scar on her body—every one of those lush curves. When she turned to reach for the shampoo and a