Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
Eventually, they found their way to each other again.
Tem traced his skin with her fingers, exploring the peaks and valleys of his torso. His body was so unfathomably hard. She could almost picture the scales right beneath the surface of his skin and wondered if she’d ever see them again.
When she touched his cock, he let out a soft hiss.
Tem ran a single finger gently down his shaft, starting at the base and following a vein all the way to the end. He was completely hard by the time she got to the head.
She shifted closer to him, pulling only the tip of his cock inside her. “Do you want me?” she whispered.
“Do not ask me that.”
“Why not?”
“Because what I want and what you need are two very different things.”
“I just need you.”
“Tem.” He shook his head. But he didn’t push her away.
Instead, Caspen rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him. Tem understood she was meant to take the lead-that he wanted her to do only what she could bear, since if he had his way, he would only fuck her harder. She rolled her hips slowly back and forth, straddling him with her palms splayed flat on his torso, sliding herself up and down his cock at a pace she could handle. She liked teasing him this way; it was satisfying to withhold something from Caspen, especially when she knew how badly he wanted her.
Tem rocked herself along his cock, tilting her body forward so that her clitoris was stimulated against the base of his shaft. She watched Caspen as he watched her, knowing how much he liked seeing her come. His eyes flicked greedily from her face to her neck to her breasts. His jaw was tense with restraint.
Her orgasm built quickly; she yelped as it slammed into her, leaning down to kiss him as she came.
When she did so, Caspen’s hands slid suddenly down her body, grabbing her hips and yanking them against him so he could thrust into her from below. She tried to sit up, but he bit her lip, holding her to him as he thrust even faster. It was almost more than Tem could handle, but she shut her eyes and let him do it, feeling the raw desperation of his rigid body beneath hers, his teeth nearly tearing through her lip as he finished with a single violent thrust.
When his head fell back on the mattress, his eyes were wild-dark and bottomless, as if she were looking into the depths of a never-ending well. There was so much desire there, so much naked hunger and unrestrained strength, the depths of which were so unfathomable, Tem felt momentarily afraid. She remembered without a shadow of a doubt that although he wore his human form, he was a monster. She saw the darkness fade, his chest rising and falling as he steadied his breathing, slowly returning to himself.
What had she gotten herself into?
Tem touched her finger to her lip, and it came away bloody. At the sight, Caspen sat up.
“Tem,” he said, rough traces of hunger still clinging to his voice like tar. “Forgive me.”
It was the second time he’d said that tonight. Tem didn’t know how to answer. Of course she forgave him. Part of her liked that she was so irresistible to him that he couldn’t stop. But he had hurt her-there was no denying it.
Part of her liked that too.
“I’m fine,” she said. The same thing she said after Jonathan.
Caspen raised his hand tentatively to her lips. When he touched them, the firelight dimmed, and she knew he had healed her. But the memory of his bite would likely never fade, and they both knew it.
“I…lost myself,” Caspen said quietly. “It will never happen again.”
Tem met his eye. “Yes, it will.”
She didn’t know how, but she knew it to be true. She was a human and he was a basilisk, and they were tempting fate every time they were together. It would happen again, and she would let it. There were no greater truths in the world.
“I am…not used to this yet,” Caspen said, clearly choosing his words carefully.
“This?”
“You.”
Tem nodded. She understood this was hard for him. There was nothing more painful than trying to suppress your true feelings. For a basilisk, those feelings were surely stronger than a human’s. It must be agony to resist them.
“What can I do?” Tem whispered.
Caspen laughed softly, shaking his head. “Nothing. You can only make it worse.”
She recoiled.
“Tem,” he said, pulling her against him. “You know what I mean. The closer we get…the harder it is for me.”
She nodded, tears forming in her eyes.
“Do not cry,” he whispered. “I cannot bear to see it.”
Tem shrugged, trying to hold it in.
“You have every effect on me,” Caspen said quietly. “But I cannot give in. Otherwise…” He trailed off, his fingers whispering over her jaw.
She leaned into his touch, savoring the warmth of his skin on hers. Tem couldn’t help it. She didn’t care about the danger. She needed him. “Why does it happen?” she asked.
“Why does what happen?”
“The transition. Why does it happen every time we’re…together?”
Caspen sighed, tilting his head up to the ceiling. “It is complicated, Tem.”
“So explain it.”
He sighed again and looked her in the eye. “Basilisks and humans are not meant to be together. We are your enemy. We are your predators. We are predisposed to destroy you-to take pleasure in your pain. When we are together, I walk a line between pleasing you and…hurting you. My human form craves the former. My true form craves the latter.”
Tem processed his words slowly.
Just as she realized their meaning, Caspen spoke it out loud: “Some part of me enjoys hurting you.”
His words were thick with shame, and Tem knew it had cost him dearly to say them. But she found it wasn’t a surprise. She thought about how he’d bit her lip, drawing blood. How he’d thrust into her even after she’d tried to pull away. She remembered the untethered darkness in his eyes when he’d finished. His hunger.
Hunger for her.
Caspen had told her that her body should only know pleasure-never pain. But what if his pleasure could only come from her pain?
She reached for him again.
Caspen caught her wrist and gently rolled her off him. “Tem,” he said. “Enough.”
Tem wanted to protest. But she knew she had no more to give. Caspen knew it too; his mind was inside hers, and she couldn’t hide her pain from him. She looked him in the eyes and saw there was no anger or impatience there. Perhaps it was easier to stop; perhaps he didn’t trust himself around her anymore.
Tem nodded, accepting his final command.
Caspen pressed his lips to hers, and all they did was kiss. When Tem couldn’t kiss any longer, they simply lay there, and Caspen brushed his fingertips up and down her body.
“Sleep, Tem,” the basilisk murmured in her ear.
She did so.
When she woke, Caspen’s arms were still around her.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.