Tara's Fate

Chapter 7

Of course, Tara checked the door as soon as she heard Martin’s footsteps fade away. She would have been insane not to check the door and Martin would have, of course, been a complete nutcase to leave it unlocked.

All things considered, it was good to confirm they were both mentally stable. But that meant Tara wasn’t going anywhere unless she had somehow developed some special escaping skill in the last hour.

She turned from the door and checked the windows. The damn things wouldn’t open, no matter how hard she tried. After ten minutes, Tara concluded she was well and truly screwed. The room might have as well been a prison cell in a maximum security building.

Grudgingly, she made her way to the small bathroom that was connected to the room. Since she wasn’t going anywhere, she was going to at least wash away the sweat and dirt of the day.

She entered the bathroom. It was nothing fancy, just a basic bathroom with a bathtub, wash sink, mirror, and toilet. The color theme was definitely masculine in dark blue and gray. It almost made the room look dark, like a cave, despite the lights being on.

She relieved herself of what little fluids her body thought it wise to expel before she turned to the bathtub. As much as she would have liked to refuse what little hospitality the man had offered, Tara couldn’t resist the possibility of a hot bath.

She knew she needed to clean up before she began to offend herself. Tara quickly discarded her clothes and climbed into the tub filled with hot water. The water was soothing, just what the doctor recommended after a day like the one she had just had. She could almost feel every sore muscle in her body relaxing one after the other, even as steam filled the room like heavy fog. The water was so good she dozed off without realizing it.

When Martin entered the bathroom some time later, he found her fast asleep with only her head above the water and leaning against the edge of the tub.

The water had cooled and steam no longer filled the room. But there was still too much heat in the room, which did not help the heat he felt rising in his own body.

He had a pretty good view of her body as well. The water barely reached her sternum. So the swell of her breasts and her long smooth, folded legs above the water were in perfect detail. The rest of her under the water was also not too hard to see. He could see her belly button without a problem, and lower to the junction of her legs. Martin stood over her and lost track of his thoughts. He completely forgot the reason he had entered the bathroom in the first place. His self-control slipped, and he felt his c**k stir to life.

“Damn,” he muttered under his breath angrily. The last thing he wanted was to get involved with the woman, regardless of how much his wolf was pushing for it.

The sound of his voice startled her. She shifted her body in panic and managed to spill a third of the water over the edge of the bathtub. Tara sat up, then realized she had given him a perfect view of her upper body. She quickly sank back down into the water, which didn’t help much. Frustratedly, she quickly wrapped her hands over her chest and covered her breast while she twisted and hooked one leg over the other to hide other parts of her body.

She then looked up at the man who hadn’t moved the entire time she fought to cover her body from sight. The glare she gave him would have frozen hell in a flash.

“Don’t you know something about privacy?” she demanded once she had caught her breath and found her voice.

Martin shrugged casually while he fought to get rid of the erection that was slowly making his jeans very uncomfortable. It was not a simple task, considering the woman’s body was still on display in front of him. Somehow, though, he managed to inject enough boredom in his voice when he responded to her question. “Nothing I haven’t already seen a hundred times before.”

It was a fact. He had seen many naked women before, especially in the pack, but she didn’t know that was what he meant. And he was very sure she would take a different meaning from his statement, and he let her. Anyway, it wasn’t like he had been a monk. He did also have intimate knowledge of a woman’s body. But his adventures in that department were not as vast as his statement suggested.

Color rose from her neck to her cheeks and ears. First from embarrassment, then anger. “I am not going to be one of the many candidates to add to your numbers,” she told him angrily.

“I wasn’t dreaming of it. As I said earlier… I like my women begging. You don’t strike me as the type to beg.”

Truth be told, Tara would have thrown her dignity to the wind and begged the man if he had so much as touched a finger to her heated skin. But his words hit her like a hard slap or a bucket of ice cold water. He wasn’t interested in her, and he was making it very clear.

Tara squared her shoulders. She was not about to show the man that his words affected her. After all, it was for the better. She couldn’t exactly start falling for a man that was locking her up against her will. And more importantly, she still had the very urgent matter of finding her sister.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked.

Martin finally stepped away from the bathtub and walked to the door, where he retrieved a bathrobe and held it out in an obvious hint that her bath was over. “I was making sure you didn’t drown yourself in the bathtub. By the looks of it… I came in just in time.”

The anger Tara felt boiled a few more degrees hotter. The man was really pushing her buttons and not the good ones.

Since he showed no intention of walking out of the bathroom and giving her some semblance of privacy, Tara stood angrily and grabbed the robe he offered. She quickly covered her body while avoiding his eyes.

She had no illusion that the man hadn’t watched and studied every inch of her body while it had been on display. Despite his earlier words, the thought gave Tara a warm feeling in her stomach. She may never compare with a model in height, but she knew she had a great body. She had just the right amount of muscle and fat on her body to not be considered anorexic, but lean. As for curves, she must have been at the back of the line when those were handed out, but she still had something to show.

With her mind still in the clouds, wondering if Martin had found her attractive or not, Tara stepped out of the tub. The moment her foot touched the tiled floor, the room tilted dangerously.

She had forgotten about the water that had spelt during her abrupt movements when Martin had startled her. Remembering that piece of information too late meant Tara had her hands flapping in the air like a baby bird trying to learn how to fly desperately before plunging into a shameful fall.

But even she knew nothing was going to prevent her from hitting the hard, wet floor with her ass. She only hoped she wouldn’t hit her head or break a vital bone as well.

Tara braced herself and waited for impact. But it never came. When she dared to open her eyes again, she was in Martin’s arms, and he frowned at her with a lot of disapproval. She was still so out of it she still couldn’t feel the hold.

“How the hell have you managed to get to the age of twenty-three with your lack of survival instincts?”

“Excuse you?” Her voice came out breathless and confused. Her head was still catching up to the fact that she hadn’t fallen and broken her bones.

“You wander into the forest with no regard for your safety, and now you nearly break your neck in my bathroom.”

Her confusion cleared with his tone. Tara couldn’t believe it. “I was safe until I had the misfortune to stumble into your path.”

Martin raised a brow. “Misfortune? I would say you were very fortunate I came along, otherwise all manner of creatures would have made a meal out of you before dawn. That is… If you didn’t stumble over your own foot and fall to your death.”

It did not help that the conversation was taking place while Tara was held in Martin’s arms which she could now feel and their bodies were pressed so close together she could also feel his heartbeat. And, the bathrobe he had given her had shifted during the process of almost falling and Martin saving her. It was not covering as much as it should have been.

“Put me down,” she said through clenched teeth. The man had a point. She had been at the mercy of wild creatures in the woods, but she would never tell him that, even if her life depended on it.

Martin ignored her and began to walk out of the bathroom with Tara held tightly in his arms. “Didn’t you hear me? I said, put me down. Right now!”

“Save your breath. I will put you down when I feel like it.”

Under normal circumstances, Tara would have wondered what exactly went through her mind at that moment. But these were not normal circumstances, and she did not give it any thought. In a split second, she turned her head to face his chest and in the next heartbeat, Tara opened her mouth and sank her teeth right into the flesh below his collarbone.