“Hot damn.” Matteo inhaled deeply and groaned, “I may never eat out at a restaurant again.”
Tibby looked proud as she put the cover back on the pot, “That’s my plan. Feed you so much that you rely on me and can’t live without me.” She teased, moving around Matteo and me to start buttering up some of the still warm french bread that was sitting on the island counter.
I passed Tibby and gave her one final kiss on the side of her head,“where’s Theo?” I asked Cobb.
“He’s up looking at all of the evidence,” Cobb looked unhappy, “It was a rough day in FBI-land. We’ve kind of hit a wall with the case.”
Uh-oh. I knew exactly what that meant. I met Matteo’s already waiting eyes, and he gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod, telling me he understood what the situation with Theo entailed.
“Cobb,” He began, “Why don’t you and I get the french bread all buttered up and Tibby can show us some cool knife tricks?” He was giving me the opening that I needed to slip upstairs without Tibby or Cobb noticing.
When Theo was at a stand-still in something that he felt was important he became surly and stopped eating and sleeping. It was a by-product of years in a high stress job and PTSD from being shot. It happened every so often when he hit a wall with whatever he was doing and he sometimes struggled to break himself out of the mood. Matteo and I had eventually developed a system that worked, I usually went in first to see if I could soothe him and take his mind off of things. This usually worked, but if it didn’t I would send in the big guns, the big guns being Matteo. He would go in and annoy Theo until the alpha yelled at him—usually irritation would get him out of his funk pretty quickly after that.
I quietly climbed the stairs, leaving everyone else downstairs, chatting together in the kitchen. The first door on the right was the guest room where Cobb was staying. I opened the door without knocking and stepped inside. The bed was rumpled and unmade and I could smell Cobb’s soothing eucalyptus smell permeating the space like a stamp, declaring the room as his. If his smell didn’t do it, the murder wall definitely did. The wall that had hundreds of photos, papers and other copies of evidence usually housed a dresser and a plush chair. Cobb and Theo had pushed both of those out of the way so that they could access the entire wall. To me, the wall looked like the unorganized chaos of someone slapping pictures up at random, but I knew that Cobb and Theo knew what each and every piece of paper said, and had put it in the most logical spot for their current thought process.
Theo was sitting on a folding chair right in front of the wall, his elbows were on his knees, and his chin was propped in his hands as he stared blankly up at the wall. His blonde hair was disheveled, and looked like it needed a good wash. Theo had also let his normally neatly trimmed facial hair grow into the beginnings of a full-blown beard. I had hardly seen him over the past week and it definitely showed. I felt a little twinge of guilt as I looked at him, I had missed him over the past week, it wasn’t normal to sleep apart like this for multiple nights in a row. I wished that he would come into Tibby’s room and sleep with us, but the stubborn man had shot me down any time that I brought it up. I wanted to sleep with him, but I also wanted to be there for the omega downstairs who struggled to sleep on her own.
Even still, I had a feeling that he hadn’t gotten very much sleep this last week anyways. I’d even caught him nodding off in his office last night when I’d gotten home after eleven and had sent him off to bed. I should have paid more attention to his mental state over the past few days, because looking at him now I could tell that he was way past being burnt out.
I smoothed a hand across his back, making him jump with surprise at the sudden physical contact. Theo’s blue eyes swiveled from the wall to me and took in my worried expression. “That bad, huh?”
I nodded, and he glanced down at the sweatpants and dark shirt he was wearing and scrubbed his jaw with his fingers. “Sorry, babe, I didn’t realize.”
“It’s okay, I should have realized that you needed me too...come on, I’ll wash your hair for you.” He came with me willingly, which I was grateful for. It meant that he wasn’t as into his funk as Matteo and I thought. I led him across the hall into my bedroom, which I hadn’t slept in since Tibby had come to stay with us. My four-poster bed was neatly made, and there were still several outfits still laid out across the dark duvet. I was famously indecisive when it came to getting dressed in the morning, and this was the evidence of that.
I bypass the clothes, tugging Theo along with me into the master bathroom. The bathroom was nearly as big as Cobb’s bedroom, and featured a large clawfoot tub, a shower that took up half of the room, and a wall to wall counter/vanity combo made out of marble slabs. Everyone in the house could get into the shower all at once and still have enough room for...ahem...activities. I had learned very quickly that my great-grandparents had a serious bathroom fetish and I suspected that they may have also moonlighted as swingers....but to each their own I guess. The only changes that I’d made to the house, since inheriting it twelve years ago after my grandparents passed away, was to modernize the fixtures and add in technology that made everyone’s lives easier.
“Strip.” I ordered gently and pressed the buttons in the shower to start the jets of water, setting the temperature I left it to warm up and then moved to my bath products dresser. Was it excessive for me to have an entire dresser dedicated to my bath products? Probably. My biggest joy in life, however, was relaxing and treating myself to spa days. Sure, I could go to a spa myself—and probably afford a pretty good one at that—but between work and spending time with my pack...spa trips were few and far in between. Instead, I chose to own more bath products than most people used in their entire lives and use them to bring comfort to those that I loved.
Looking at the contents of the drawer, I idly tapped my chin, trying to figure out what products to use for my wayward alpha. Theo needed a pick-me-up, so I pulled out some citrus and bergamot products. The bergamot would help to calm him down and the citrus would put a little bit of pep into the shower. Opening a glass of citrus powder, I used the metal scoop that always sat on top of the dresser and spread a liberal amount onto the floor of the shower. Almost immediately, the bathroom filled with the scent of citrus and we were on our way to a nice shower.
While I had been busy preparing our bath products, Theo had stripped out of his clothes and kicked them into the corner. One look at him showed me just how tired he actually was. He leaned against the bathroom counter and was watching me with a worryingly blank expression.
I quickly put my chosen bath products on the shelf that was directly above the shower controls and turned my back to Theo, “Unzip me?” I asked, pulling my hair out of the way so that he could reach the zipper. Theo’s fingers tugged at the zipper and he slowly unzipped the sheath dress that I was wearing, his warm knuckles grazing my spine.
“Thanks, love,” I smiled over my shoulder and slid the dress down over my hips and let it pool at my feet. Stepping out of it I slid off my underwear and looked up at him, trying to meet his blue eyes with my own, “In you go.” I gently shoved him towards the shower and followed him under the heavy stream of the jets until we were both fully submerged.
The force of the jetting spray prickled across my skin and I let the water soak my body and hair, making sure that Theo was doing the same. He tended to be a little bit robotic when he was in these moods, unsure of what to do with his body when he wasn’t forcing himself to work on something. It was always hard for me to see him like this, when it had first started happening after he was shot we had no idea on how to deal with it. Eventually, I had given Theo an ultimatum: therapy, or we would have to seriously consider dissolving the pack. That year had been rough on all of us, but together we had made it. Now, Matteo and I knew what to do to help Theo and Theo had his own tricks when things got really bad. My love language was acts of service, I wanted to be able to take care of everyone in my pack and, when I couldn’t do that, I usually felt pretty despondent.
“Sit,” I pointed at the little stone bench that was built into the blue-tiled shower wall. There was no way that I would be able to wash his hair unless he sat down, even though I was nearly six feet tall myself. Theo still towered over me and I needed to be able to reach the top of his head while he was standing. Theo complied and nearly collapsed onto the bench, and even sitting down his head still came up to just underneath my breasts.
We didn’t speak as I poured a liberal amount of shampoo into my palm and got to work. Theo’s hair was on the shorter side, so it sudsed up quickly, and I scrubbed it in, using my nails to scratch his scalp as I went. Theo rewarded me with a low moan of pleasure as I brought the soap down to the nape of his neck, and used my fingers to knead the tight tension that I found there. Once he was properly soaped up, I grabbed the handheld shower head that was hanging next to the bench, and flipped the switch to divert some of the water to it.
“Head back,” my voice was gentle as Theo complied. “Eyes closed.” I reminded him and his eyes drooped shut.
As I rinsed Theo’s hair, I hummed under my breath as I made sure to get all of the soap out. The bergamot scented shampoo mixed in with Theo’s sweeter spearmint and the effect was heady as it surrounded us. I could even feel my own mood kick up as the bergamot, citrus, and spearmint permeated the air.
“Thank you.” Theo rumbled as I slicked his clean, wet hair back.
“Shhh. Just relax.” I hushed him and grabbed a loofah off of the hook on the wall.
Theo settled in and closed his eyes as I finished washing his body. I left him with his eyes closed and quickly washed my own hair and body.
After my legs started to feel more like spaghetti noodles rather than limbs, I turned off the shower and stepped onto the heated marble floors. Reaching into the towel warmer I pulled out two towels and tossed one to Theo and we quickly toweled off.
“Let me shave your face for you too,” I pointed at my vanity.
“Ria you don’t have to... I can—” But I cut him off with a stern look, and he sat down sheepishly with a quiet: “Yes ma’am.”
