The second thing she noticed were the muscles. The sheer physical strength displayed in his upper body was as breathtaking as the tattoos. She allowed her gaze to travel the sculpted gorgeousness, every dip, curve, mountain, and valley. This was a man who took care of himself, who worked out on a daily basis and had a body fit for any male modeling job, scarring be damned.

His gaze was now centered on her and his face wore an expression of challenge. “Got a problem?”

Sarafina blinked and cleared her throat. “Problem? No, no problem. Your body is just, just—”

“Scarred? Disfigured? Disgusting? Pick an adjective.”

“God, no, you’re gorgeous!” she blurted and immediately wished to call the words back into her mouth. “I mean, the tattoos are very well done.”

“Thanks.”

She busied herself squirting some of the antiseptic onto a cotton ball. Not only was his chest decorated with ink, he had a couple of nasty gashes that needed attending. “Did you do them?”

“Yeah. I had help for the places I couldn’t reach, but I did a lot of it.”

“That’s crazy.”

“I do them for lots of the earth witches here, and some of the others who just want them for aesthetic reasons.” He paused. “Why? You want one?”

She smiled. “Too late. Got one already.”

He lifted his brows.

“You’ll never see it, buddy.” She grinned and swiped a drenched cotton ball over a gash.

He yelped.

“Sorry. Considering you just fought a demon, you’re really kind of being a wimp about this.”

He only glared at her in response.

“How’d you get past the warding on my apartment, anyway?”

“I created them, Sarafina, that means I can break them.”

Of course. Duh. She mentally slapped her forehead. “So you were watching my place? Sitting out there on the street, monitoring me?”

“Yeah.”

That was a little creepy. “So, I guess you still think I’m a bad guy.”

He didn’t answer for a moment. “No. Not after tonight. I was watching you to see if—”

She nodded, anger prickling through her. “You were using me as bait, weren’t you? To see if Stefan showed up again.”

“Yeah, there was that,” he answered with a one-shouldered shrug. “But it was also to make sure you stayed safe. Scout’s honor.”

Her lips twisted. “Somehow I can’t see you as a Boy Scout, Theo.”

“Got me there. I never was.”

“I don’t want to even know what my apartment looks like after that battle. Is my landlord going to sue me for damages to his property?”

Theo shook his head. “It’s taken care of. I used earth magick to clean it all up. Almost looks good as new. It’s a little messy, but there’s nothing your landlord will sue you over. I even put up a sound barrier around the place so you won’t get any complaints about the noise.”