“It doesn’t matter anymore. You need to stay away from me, Clara,” Bastion said, shaking his head. “I’m not safe.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve been following me around for years like the bodyguard I never asked for. Now suddenly you’re the bad guy?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m the bad guy. I’m like one of the monsters from your books.”
I snorted. If that was the case we’d be fucking right now.
“This thing I’m trying to save you from—you can’t kill it. Not like you did with Hogan.”
With a frustrated sigh, I pinched the bridge of my nose. All I wanted for Christmas was to understand this man. I shook my head, arms folding around myself to keep me from shivering. “Whatthingare you talking about Bastion?”
“Something ancient…” Freshly fallen snow crunched beneath his boot as he took a cautious step toward me. “Something demonic.”
“Demonic? Ancient? Wow, sounds like a good story you’re cooking up there. Maybe you should quit tree farming and get into writing,” I said dryly, finding myself wishing I’d brought my mug of eggnog outside to warm my stiff fingers. Any sane person would have gone inside by now to leave the psycho stalker out in the cold.
Maybe it was my curse to forever be drawn to this strange man.
He was magnetic, even when he looked at me like I was something to eat. Hell, especially then.
He took another step toward me and then another, slowly shrinking the distance between us. “Oh, I’m being dead serious.”
“Yeah? Fine, let’s pretend for a second that I believe. What ancient demon lives inside you Bast? Or is this all just some metaphor?”
“No metaphor. A dark curse runs through my family, something my grandfather brought over when he immigrated from Germany. Something that runs in my blood. Something that allows me to turn into a monster.”
“A monster? Like a werewolf?”
The corner of his mouth hiked up in a devilish smirk. “Like the Krampus, Clara.”
Silence stretched between us as I waited for the punchline to drop. When none came, I laughed anyway. “Okay,nowI’m beingpunked, right?” I did my classic gag of looking around for the hidden cameras. When I turned my attention back to Bastion, I jumped and clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle my yelp of surprise.
He’d devoured the several feet of distance between us without me noticing in under a second.
I peered around him to find there weren’t any footprints from where he’d been to where we both stood now. As if he’d teleported.
“H–how did you do that?”
He produced another candy-cane seemingly from mid-air and pushed the shaft into his mouth with that signature grin. “Magic.”
Bastion always had this mischievous air about him, despite the miasma of dark energy clinging to him, like the way he twirled the candy cane around his finger before sticking it in his mouth. His constant sweet tooth and his sarcastic jokes, paired his white hot gaze brimming with hunger, burned into my flesh like a brand.
The combination was fucking electric.
“Go back inside, Clara. You’re shaking.”
Iwasshaking, but it had nothing to do with the cold anymore.
He was so close we were nearly touching. My entire body burned with the need to feel his skin against mine.
Like something chemical going off in my brain, drawing me closer.
This time I took the last step forward—my chest now flush with his, my palms smoothing over his pectorals. Even over his jacket I could feel how built he was. Lugging lumber all day really kept him fit.
“You shouldn’t be rewarded for spying on me, but I’m not going to leave you out in the cold to freeze.”
He smiled, as if I’d said something funny. “I won’t freeze. My demon keeps me warm.”
“What other tricks can your demon do?”
