Page 208 of A Dance of Water

"Do you want help, Tharen?" Bastian crooned.

Her neck ached as she turned her head to stare at Bastian, finding the pale skin of his chest right before her face. She gulped as her eyes dipped to his thighs… He was entirely uncaring of how lewd he appeared with such hardness straining against the thin black briefs he wore.

Tharen grumbled. "Yes."

"Well, then ask for it," Bastian teased. "Because right now I have no motivation to help." He leaned down, breath ghosting over her nape, and she shivered, aware of the tingle between her thighs and the currents that ran under her skin. "The view is rather pleasing."

Tharen tugged on the ribbon.

"That hurts," Luella pleaded.

She couldn’t see his face, but she felt the eye roll he gave as he spat, "Fine, Bastian. Help her."

Her mouth fell open. He asked for help onherbehalf?

"Well," Bastian started, "I don’t think I’ve ever heard you ask for anything before. Maybe under all that anger, you do have a soft spot for our little Vincire."

"Don’t push it," Tharen grumbled, but he was careful to keep still so he wouldn’t jostle her.

The vampire placed his hands on her shoulders, fingertips spanning along her bare back as he slowly untangled them. Her arm was pulled behind her as Tharen’s arm wrapped around her back, the ribbon cutting into her waist.

Bastian’s fingers snagged on her hair as he gently took the ribbon and unraveled it, unlooping the silk from where it wrapped around her forearm in tight twists.

She grimaced as Bastian raised her arm, then lowered it before her. The tautness of the ribbon finally relented, and Luella could pull away from Tharen without feeling pain.

"There. All untangled," Bastian announced, but his voice was tinged with a sad playfulness.

Luella sat back on Tharen’s lap, unable to meet his eyes as she instead stared at her bare thighs, wrapped indecently around his hips.

"Sorry," she muttered, starting to extricate herself from him.

His fingers tightened before he let her go.

Luella stood with one hand held before her, the ribbon still keeping her tethered to Tharen, as he sat and watched. His icy eyes burned like winter frost on her bare flesh.

She didn’t know if she was more embarrassed by how she’d fallen into Tharen’s lap, or by how part of her hadn’t wanted to leave it.

"Can I—may I have a robe? Or… or a blanket?" Her voice wavered with awkwardness.

The stool creaked as Tharen stood, and she peeked up at him. The mage held his hand before him, embers sparking at his fingertips. She stumbled back as he stepped forward, but it was not her he was moving toward, but the ribbon tying them together.

With fire-tipped fingers, the Prima grabbed the ribbon. Flames ate away the silk as it dissolved to ash, leaving dark smudges on Bastian’s rug.

Her chin trembled as the flames drew nearer, crawling up the silk until it licked against her wrist. But it didn’t burn. It was warm, pleasantly so. The flames turned the remainder of the ribbon to ash, and she was tied to Tharen no longer.

Free, she wrapped her arms around her midsection.

Tharen held her gaze as he tugged his shirt over his head and took another loud, brutish step toward her, pulling her arms free from where they wrapped around her body. He put his shirt over her head, yanking it down to cover her nearly nude frame. It swallowed her whole, falling to brush her knees. It smelled like him, crisp and cold. She resisted the urge to bring the fabric up to her nose and inhale.

The mage’s bare flesh gleamed in the amber glow of the flames. His chest was a map of pale scars across his tanned skin. His muscles rippled, powerful, barely contained by his skin. So different from Bastian’s lithe build.

"I guess the ribbon wasn’t enough to keep you from me." The mage’s voice blanketed the room like falling snow.

Compelled to speak her mind, the words tumbled from her anxiously bitten lips:

"Did I fall asleep? Am I dreaming? Why are you being so nice to me?"

Bastian huffed a low laugh, a hand falling on her shoulder to pull her back into him. "Yes, Tharen, why are you being so…niceto her?" he mocked.

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