The Sleeper's Harp (The Arcane Artifacts, #1)

Chapter 25 - Pasta

True to his word, Bastian dropped me off at the house, then showed me how to work the keypad in front, warning me that I shouldn't be coming and going at this point, and to stay inside. Then he sped off in his car and I was left alone.

I checked Teddy's food, cleaned his litter box, then curled up with a book. A couple of hours passed before I was seeking out my phone. I had two missed calls from Vivi. I called her back.

"Jeez, Elle! Did you die?!" she asked, picking up on the first ring.

"Hey girl. Sorry. Been busy."

"With that hot goblin guy, huh?" she teased. I huffed. "Oh. My. God! You have been, haven't you?"

I groaned, scrubbing a hand over my forehead. "I'm in such deep shit, Vivi."

"All right, spill. I want all the details—wait, did you guys kiss?! Tell me you kissed."

"Ugh." I let a silence stretch out and then—"Yes, all right. We kissed, and...did some other stuff too."

There was a loud shriek on the other end, some hushed whispering, and then, "Okay, you owe me details. I want everything!"

So, I spent the next thirty minutes going into excruciating detail of exactly what Bastian and I had done, both after dancing at the club, and again last night in his pool. I included some of our conversations, and some of the mixed signals I'd received.

"Huh," she said at last. "It sounds like he's pretty conflicted."

"You think?!" I deadpanned. "One minute he's all over me, the next he's all, 'If you lay a finger on my cock, I'm going to fuck you,' and a bunch of other bullshit stuff. Actually...it was pretty hot, but still," I whined.

"Wait, he said that?"

I snorted. "I think it was more like, 'I'm going to bend you over the side of the pool and fuck your fucking brains out,' or something of that variety."

"Oh my god!" she breathed. "I don't think anyone has ever said anything that hot to me. Ever."

"Me either," I agreed. My muscles twitched, low in my abdomen at the memory of his words.

"Well, he clearly wants you."

"Tcha. That much is obvious."

"But he's afraid to have sex because he's afraid of getting too close and being all possessive and shit. But, Elle, I gotta say, that's pretty hot. I'm all about possessive dominant men—shit, I mean, the kinds that don't hurt you. The sexy dominance, not the..."

I winced. "Yes, yes, I know what you're trying to say. Honestly, I thought I would never be able to do a dominant possessive guy ever again, after Luke. But..." My grip tightened on the phone. "Bastian is different," I finished.

"From the little I've heard, he sounds completely different. Elle...I don't think he'd ever hurt you, not like that."

I swallowed, my throat going dry. "I don't think he would either," I admitted. I knew it in my gut, had known it the moment I laid eyes on him. "The only problem is, my conscience keeps telling me that my judgment is compromised and just because I feel like he won't hurt me, doesn't mean he won't."

"Well, maybe not in the same way," Vivi pointed out. And she was probably right. There were many ways to break a heart, and Bastian Croft probably excelled at most of them. Sure, he wouldn't lay a finger on me, would never physically harm or demean me, but that wouldn't stop the pain when it came. There was no way things wouldn't end badly between us, me being human, him being...what he was.

"I feel like a moth near flame," I groaned out. "I know he's capable of burning me. I know it deep in my bones, Vivi. And yet, I just don't fucking care. For once, I just don't."