Tall, Silent & Lethal (Pyte/Sentinel #4)(27)

That didn't mean that she appreciated the little alpha male routine he was pulling on her at the moment. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. She'd been doing it for more than thirteen years and one night of hell was not going to change that.

“I'm not getting in that shower with you standing there,” she bit out through clenched teeth when he didn't make any move to leave after a few minutes. She was freezing her ass off and so damn tired, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Hell, she'd be lucky if she could sleep in a few days when exhaustion finally took over.

“Fine,” he said, shrugging as he pushed away from the doorway.

She nearly sighed with relief. That is until he said, “You're leaving me with no choice but to drag you in there.” As he spoke, he pulled off his sweatshirt and tossed it aside, revealing a simple gray tee shirt that molded to his perfectly sculptured chest and abs, leaving Cloe momentarily stunned.

That is until he pulled the tee shirt off and tossed it to the side as well.

Living near the beach for the past few years, she'd seen some very drool worthy bodies, but none of them, and she meant none of them, had anything on Christofer. Every muscle was perfectly defined and tanned. Even the light dusting of dark hair on his chest and trailing down his stomach didn't mar the perfection. If anything it added to it. Thankfully he dragged her out of her thoughts before she did something stupid like drool.

“Let's go,” he said, picking her up before she realized what he was doing.

“Hey! Put me down!” she snapped just as a violent tremor tore through her body. God, she was so damned cold.

“No problem,” he said, carefully placing her in the shower, just out of reach of the water.

“Thank y--hey!” she may have screeched when he surprised her by snatching her towel away and tossing it over his shoulder.

He ignored her outraged glare and simply pointed towards the water that was even at this distance giving off a delicious warmth. “Get under the water or I'll put you there,” he said evenly and she knew that he'd do just that.

With a small sigh, she gave up and moved beneath the water, making sure to keep her back to the wall. She was too tired to care that she was na**d in front of a man that on a good day made her a little nervous. At the moment the only thing she cared about was getting warm, making sure that he didn’t see her back, and keeping the lights on. Anything else was too much work for her frayed nerves.

“I'm going downstairs to check on my sister. Do you think you'll be okay for a moment?” Christofer asked, reaching over and pushing her now soaked hair out of her face.

“I-I'm f-f-fine,” she stammered through her chattering teeth. “Y-you don't n-need to c-come back.”

Of course he ignored her. “I'll be back in a few minutes, Cloe,” he said firmly as he walked out of the bathroom, leaving her alone.

As the hot water streamed down her body, delivering much needed warmth, she fought against the urge to close her eyes and simply savor it. Although she doubted he would get a chance to come back before she was out of the shower, she didn't want to take the chance of him coming back and getting a glimpse of her back.

He would either react with pity or disgust and right now she didn't have the energy to deal with either. She didn't know which reaction she hated more, but she knew that she didn't want to see either expression on his face. She wasn't sure why it mattered what Christofer thought since it was more than obvious that he didn't want her here, but it did.

The boyfriends she'd had over the years, granted there hadn't been many, either tried to play it off like it was no big deal or flat out lied, but she never missed the looks of pity or revulsion on their faces whenever they saw her back. While most women would probably hide their scarred backs, she didn't. She didn't exactly flaunt it or make a big deal out of it, but she did use it to see just what kind of man she was dealing with.

There were a few guys that took one look at her back and walked away and although their reaction disappointed her, it never really bothered her. If they couldn't deal with the scars covering her back, making her less than perfect, then that was more than fine with her. She wasn't looking for “Mr. Right” anyway. She just wanted someone that she could spend a little time with every now and then to forget her troubles. The guys that managed to pretend that her back didn't bother them had provided her with the only thing she allowed herself, casual companionship.

That is until she’d met Aidan. In the beginning he'd been great, fun, kind and unbelievably great in bed. He hadn't seemed to mind her scars. In fact, they’d actually seemed to turn him on. At first she’d thought it was sweet, but soon after they began sleeping together it started to creep her out just a little bit. When she tried to pull away and end things he became possessive and she hated to admit this, but he actually started to scare her a little bit.

Not too long after she’d ended things with him the late night phone calls began. When she spotted him when she left the house she was a little weirded out, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't until she’d noticed that she couldn't even go out to grab the mail without seeing him that she realized that she had a little problem on her hands and decided to cut her losses and get out of Florida.

It had been past time to go anyway. She never stayed anywhere for very long and she’d already stayed in Florida a year longer than planned. So she’d contacted the agency that she worked for and looked into what they had available before she’d decided to give New England a try.