“You are such an assh—” I shrieked as my grip slipped. My fingers brushed the balcony railing, but I was too far to grab it. Just as suddenly as I started to free-fall, something wrapped around my forearm, claws digging into my skin, jerking me to a sudden and painful stop.
“Sure you don’t need help?” Bastian drawled from where he leaned over the balcony, his blond hair plastered to his face as the rain pelted us.
“I think you dislocated my shoulder,” I rasped.
“Rescuing damsels in distress isn’t really my thing.” He flexed his claws, and they cut a little deeper into my skin, giving me a fresh wave of pain as I dangled in his grasp. “Say, ‘Bastian you’re absolutely perfect. Thank you for rescuing me from my own idiocy,’ and I’ll pull you up.”
I looked down. Nothing but darkness and mist greeted me. I glanced back at Bastian, and he grinned at me. He wouldn’t drop me. I was mostly certain of that.
With the balcony railing bracing him, he wasn’t under that much strain. He absolutely would hold me like this for a while.
Fuck that.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I swung my other arm up and grabbed his forearm. Then I jackknifed my legs up, my body swinging at the movement.
“Rynn,” Bastian warned, his claws sinking in deeper.
I flung my legs up again, building on my momentum, and yanked his body with mine, twisting until I landed on the other side of the railing.
Bastian rolled his eyes before releasing his claws from my flesh. He planted one hand just next to my dislocated shoulder and gripped my wrist with the other, steadily pulling my arm straight out. After a few seconds of excruciating pain, it popped back into place.
“You’re welcome.” He let me go and strode back through his open balcony doors. “Don’t get blood and water all over my room.”
I stood on the balcony, shivering from both adrenaline and the cold. It took my mind a second to catch up to the fact that I was back on solid ground. And then it very quickly processed that a stupidly gorgeous Velesian was stripping in front of me.
“What are you doing?” My hands flew up to cover my eyes, but not before I got a very good view of Bastian’s ass.
His extremely tight and totally biteable ass.
“Really, Princess?” Bastian’s deep laugh filled the air. “You’ve seen me naked plenty of times.”
“But we’re in your room!” I countered.
“No. You’re on the balcony. I’m in my room.” Fingers gently gripped mine and tugged them away. I let him but kept my gaze firmly fixed on his green eyes. Bastian released me and stepped back, the corners of his mouth quirked up. “I’m dressed now, you weirdo. Get in so you’re out of the rain, but stand there.” He pointed to a spot just inside the doors.
“Barely,” I muttered, noting that all he was wearing was a low-hanging pair of pants. But I did as he said because my only other option was to continue standing in the freezing cold rain, and even I wasn’t that stubborn.
Bastian disappeared into another room and came back out with a towel. “Strip.”
“What? No.” I crossed my arms beneath my chest, only to realize I’d grabbed a white shirt when I’d changed before dinner, and it left very little to the imagination now.
Bastian’s grin widened.
“Oh shut up!” I snapped.
“I didn’t say anything.” He laughed and tossed me the towel.
I grabbed it before turning my back to him and tugging my shirt off. Then I wrapped the towel around myself and wiggled out of my pants. And now I was basically naked in Bastian’s bedroom.
Awesome.
I dropped my soaking wet clothes onto the floor because I knew it would annoy him. The smirk on my lips died when I turned around to find Bastian lounging sideways in a chair, his legs kicked over the side. Why couldn’t he sit like a normal person?
And more importantly, why did he have to lie in a way that drew so much attention to his chest and those abs that I really wanted to run my fingers across?
“You’re drooling.” Bastian grinned. “Although I appreciate the confirmation that you do in fact enjoy my abs.”
“Hate you,” I muttered before glancing around and spying his closet against one wall. Bastian tracked me as I stalked across his room and flung the closet doors open. I grabbed one of the neatly stacked shirts and carefully pulled it on, letting it fall to mid-thigh before letting the towel drop.
