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Mentally cursing himself, he stopped near a lamppost. “Hold on to this for a second.” Once Kai was steady on his feet—or foot, as it were—he stepped away, stripped out of his jacket, then turned to drape it over his shoulders. “Here. This should help a little.”
“You didn’t have to…” Pulling the jacket tighter around him, he pressed his nose to the collar and smiled. “Thank you.”
Gathering him against his side again, Bas started walking, wishing he could do more, but instinctively knowing Kai wouldn’t allow it. All too soon, however, his apartment building loomed ahead, its windows illuminated with soft, amber lights, or flickering with the glow of television sets.
“Almost there. How are you doing?”
“It hurts,” he admitted, “but I’ll live.”
He liked that. Truthful and to the point without being manipulative.
“Here we are,” he announced a few minutes later when they stepped through the front doors of the building. “Home, safe and mostly sound, as promised.”
“My hero.”
“Indeed.” He frowned at the sign on the front of the elevator that proclaimed it to be out of order, then glanced toward the carpeted staircase. “Tell me you’re not on the fifth floor.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.”
Bas frowned. “Just how do you plan to get up to your apartment, then?”
Easing away from him, Kai offered a half-hearted shrug. “Carefully?”
Stubborn man. Without giving him the opportunity to argue, Bas kept one arm around his waist and stooped to hook the other behind his knees, sweeping him easily into his arms.
Kai squealed, a sound he didn’t think him capable of making, and swatted at his chest. “What the hell are you doing? Put me down!”
“How else do you plan to make it up five flights of stairs?”
“Shut up.” He grumbled a little under his breath, but after a moment, he settled into his arms and stopped squirming. “Are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“Logical.”
“Not really.” He shook his head as he began the climb to the fifth floor. “It’s probably fifty-fifty.”
“You’re not like other guys,” Kai muttered somewhere near the third-floor landing.
It sounded like a compliment. He looked thoughtful instead of irritated when he said it. Bas decided to take it as a compliment.
Reaching the uppermost level, he headed toward the end of the corridor, following Kai’s instructions to the last door on the left. “Do you need help getting settled?”
He expected the obstinacy to return in full force, so he was surprised when Kai nodded after only a brief hesitation.
“If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it.” Tilting his head to the side, he studied him thoughtfully. “You’re not a serial killer, right?”
“Not recently.”
Gently, Bas lowered him to the floor but left his hand on Kai’s lower back to help stabilize him while he dug in his pocket for the key. Waiting for him to unlock the deadbolt, he let his mind drift, creating a short to-do list once they made it inside.
Kai would need to change, of course, and the scrape on his knee needed to be cleaned and bandaged. Compression would help his ankle, but at the very least, he needed to ice and elevate it. A pain reliever would make him more comfortable, but he would probably need something to eat before taking it.
Still mulling over his mental checklist, he didn’t realize Kai had opened the door, nor did he notice the nuclear meltdown in progress until a high-pitched screech jerked him out of his own head. Jesus, he hadn’t thought humans capable of making such a sound, but then again, he’d never met anyone like Kai London.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Even with his injured ankle and torn slacks, Kai commanded the attention of everyone in the room—especially the naked couple twined together on the suede sofa. “Get. Out.”
He bit out each word, every syllable dripping with venom. Making a note to never find himself on the wrong end of that temper, Bas crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him. He’d had a front-row seat to his share of family disagreements at the club, so he knew better than to step between Kai and his sister.
