Exiled Villainess: They Threw Me Out, Now Every Beastman Wants Me
Chapter 28: His Golden Rod

Chapter 28: His Golden Rod

Tera didn’t know how long she was staring.

But Xavi’s back was a landscape of muscle that shifted and rolled with every movement, and her architect brain was doing the thing it always did when presented with an impressive structure: analysing every line, every curve, and how it all connected.

The clouds were covering the moon, so she could barely see as well as she would have liked, but she watched the water trickling down his shoulder blades, following the deep groove of his spine before disappearing below the surface.

Tera realised she had never seen Xavi’s ass before.

He must have a nice ass.

Very possibly even nicer than hers.

His arms moved slowly as he scooped water over his shoulders, and each motion made the muscles along his sides flex and release like something mechanical and precise beneath his skin.

He was built so well...

Tera bit her lip.

This technically wasn’t the first time she had seen him shirtless, which he constantly was. But seeing him bathing, and knowing very well that he was naked underneath, was a nice layer to the experience.

Xavi stopped and turned slightly. Their eyes met across the water.

Tera shot to her feet so fast that she didn’t register the small, jagged stone until the bottom of her foot came down on it with her full weight.

The pain was immediate, specific, and absolutely blinding.

"FUCK—!"

Her leg buckled, and she went down sideways, catching herself with one hand while the other grabbed her foot. The stone had jammed into the tender arch of her foot with the precision of a homing missile, and the sensation was so sharp and so sudden that her vision went white for a second.

It felt exactly like she had stepped on a lego brick!

’IT HURTS!’

Xavi was already moving. The water churned around his waist as he strode through it, and Tera realized that he was about to walk out of the water naked to come help her.

’YES. COME!’

But the words that came out of her mouth were something else.

"I am fine! It’s nothing! Just a—OW—just a stone! I just stepped on a rock..."

He paused.

’You fucking idiot!’

Why did she say that?!

"You are in pain."

Tera winced, still clutching her leg where the dull, painful ache was radiating from. She couldn’t think straight with it.

"It really, really hurts."

Xavi looked concerned, but he stopped at the edge instead of walking out entirely. He crouched down and moved closer.

"Let me see."

"It’s just a bruise, It will heal—"

"Do you not like help?"

Tera paused, not entirely understanding where the question was coming from. Then she realised a second later.

’Oh...’

"Give me your leg."

Tera sighed and shifted her weight, extending her leg so he could see the bottom of her foot. There was a small, red mark where the stone had jabbed her.

Xavi gently grabbed her ankle and turned her foot to examine the sole, brushing his thumb near the spot where the stone had struck.

Tera hissed.

"It is not broken, but I need to correct it."

Tera blinked. "Correct what? My foot? What does correct mean? That sounds like you’re going to break my foot and set it back in place. I don’t need my foot corrected."

What she needed was an ice pack, a very strong painkiller, and possibly a lawsuit against whatever geological process created that stone.

"I am not going to break your foot."

Tera grumbled and scooted closer, wincing as the movement sent a fresh throb through her sole. Xavi adjusted his grip, cradling her foot in both hands now, and pressed his thumb firmly into the centre of her arch.

"Ow! That hurts!"

"Sorry."

"Then why are you still doing it?!"

"It will stop hurting soon." His thumb dug in again, slower this time, spreading the pressure outward from the centre. He pressed along the sole in long, deliberate strokes, working from the ball of her foot toward her heel.

The pressure of his thumbs ached, and the deep, sharp sensation made Tera grit her teeth.

"Go easier!"

Xavi eased the pressure, his thumbs moving in slower circles. The sharp ache began to dull, fading from a stabbing pain to a deep, spreading warmth that radiated up through her ankle and into her calf.

"Oh," she said. "That’s... actually better."

Xavi made a low sound of acknowledgement. His thumb continued its slow circles, and now that the pain was gone, Tera became aware of other sensations.

Like how warm his hands were, his gentle grip, and how his thumb was now pressing into a spot near her arch that sent a strange, tingling sensation up her leg.

Her toes curled involuntarily.

He pressed again, slightly to the side, and a strange, tingling warmth shot from her foot directly up her inner thigh.

’Whoa. Hold on now!’

His touch was firm and precise, and every press sent that warm, curling sensation higher.

It had stopped being a medical procedure at some point. She wasn’t sure exactly when, but the line between therapeutic and sensual had blurred without either of them acknowledging it.

Another pressure, and Tera made the mistake of letting a moan slip.

They both froze.

Xavi’s hands went rigid on her foot. His golden eyes snapped up to her face.

Tera’s entire body had turned to stone.

The moan hung in the air between them like a physical object she wanted to grab and shove back into her throat.

"Sorry. Mistake," she blurted.

He was staring intensely at her.

Tera couldn’t help but look at where the waiter met his waist.

Her mind supplied a very vivid image of what lay beneath that water. She remembered exactly what he looked like, what he felt like, and remembered, with painful clarity, that she had been interrupted before she could finish what they had started.

All she could think about now was running her foot down the lines of his abs until her toes reached that golden rod of his.

"Let me wash you."