Choosing Theo: The Clecanian Series Book 1 Victoria Aveline (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📖

all that, she’d still ended up in the bathing room. He’d roughly dropped her here after coming in, then left, locking her inside.

Her treacherous body was still feeling the effects of their beach scuffle. How could someone she despised turn her on that much? If he hadn’t stopped, she would’ve come right there in the sand. No question.

Jade shivered. It felt like it would’ve been a really good orgasm too.

Was he going to come back? What was she going to do if he did come back?

The fear of getting naked and wet with a complete stranger wasn’t the only reason she fought so hard to get away. The sexual attraction she felt toward Theo was undeniable. She didn’t trust herself to be naked in a tub with him.

They’d been together less than two days, yet she was already so sexually frustrated that being in a bath with him might send her over the edge.

She rifled through the contents of a nearby cupboard but only found towels and a large bottle with thick, shimmering liquid. As she closed the drawer to the cupboard, she noticed something shiny on the wall.

She concluded it was some sort of control panel. The screen illuminated when she waved her hand in front of it. Four small squares appeared on the panel.

What’s the worst that could happen? The tub drains, and I get to leave?

The first button she pressed caused a blinding light to fill the room. Shielding her eyes, she pressed the button again to turn the light back down. The next two buttons she pressed caused the steam in the room to intensify and abate.

A loud whirring sound filled the room when she pressed the last button. She turned to see that jets in the bathing pool had been activated. Her shoulders slumped. Well, that doesn’t help.

Maybe I’ll leave them on anyway. When she was young, her father had owned a jacuzzi for a while, and she’d always liked to run the jets on and float on the softly bubbling water. When she was about seven, they’d had to get rid of it because…

An idea came to her in a flash. She dashed to the cupboard and pulled open the drawer containing the bottle of thick liquid. She ran to the edge of the pool and dumped the contents into the water, all while chanting, “Please let this be soap. Please let this be soap.”

Frothy bubbles started to form, covering the surface of the water like a blanket.

Ha! She smiled triumphantly.

The reason her father had to get rid of the jacuzzi when she was a kid was because she’d broken it. She’d poured bubble bath into the water, thinking it’d be fun to use the jacuzzi instead of the bathtub, not knowing that soap clogged up the jets.

Suddenly the door opened and Theo strode through, carrying two large bottles of that red drink. He looked slack-jawed at the mountain of bubbles now forming in the pool.

Shooting her a lethal glare, he stalked toward the panel to turn off the jets. “Here,” he said, holding out the bottle to her.

She eyed it wearily but made no move to take it.

He clenched his jaw then started walking toward her, at which point, she quickly backed away. Setting the bottle on the floor, he returned to stand near the front of the room.

He stared at her menacingly as she retrieved the bottle and sipped. “Strip and get in.”

“No,” she said firmly.

“If I have to come over there and do it for you, I will, but I doubt you want me near you right now.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

It only took one step in her direction before she cried, “Okay! At least turn around.”

“So, you can throw that bottle at my head? No thanks,” he snapped.

“I’m not stripping in front of you,” she argued, shooting him a lethal glare.

Gradually he turned away. “You have ten seconds to get in that tub!” he barked.

She stripped quickly then slid into the tub from the ledge. Once in the water, she made sure the bubbles shielded her body from view.

Theo turned back around and stared at the bubbles as though trying to see through them.

After taking a swig from his bottle, he set it on the ground and started to undress. Jade tried to look away, but it was like her eyes were magnetically drawn to him.

He pulled his shirt over his head and revealed his broad shoulders, rock-hard chest, and chiseled abs. She barely contained an appreciative sigh. As he started unbuttoning his pants, Jade forced herself to look away and focus on retrieving her booze.

Bottle in hand, she chanced a glance over her should and saw that Theo was now sitting on an underwater ledge, staring at her.

“What was that on the beach?” she snapped. “Does tackling people turn you on or something?”

Theo scrubbed a palm over his chin. “Chasing does. Not tackling.”

Jade arched her eyebrow. She hadn’t been expecting that answer and she couldn’t for the life of her understand why the thought excited her.

Not knowing what else to say, she asked, “How long do we have to stay in here?”

“We can leave when we’re both done bathing.” Theo made a show of stretching his arms over the ledge of the pool.

Pursing her lips, Jade said, “And I suppose you’ve decided to take your time.”

“What’s the rush?” he replied casually.

Locating another submerged ledge, Jade got comfortable. His stubborn ass would probably make her stay in here all night.

“What was your life like on Earth?”

The only conversations she’d had with Theo were either fraught with sexual tension or anger. Jade was surprised to hear a genuine question about her life from him. Not knowing how to traverse this new terrain, she decided an honest answer would be best. What was the harm in him knowing about her life?

“Well, I live in a house alone and I work as a landscape designer.” At his confused expression, she added, “I help people make their yards and