Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
“For what?”
Now Caspen hesitated. He turned to her, his jaw tense. “Tem,” he said quietly. “I must ask you something. And you must answer with complete honesty.”
Tem blinked. He was so deeply serious-so obviously concerned-that she had no idea how to react to his tone. She said the only thing she could think to say: “Ask me.”
Still, Caspen hesitated. He touched her waist, drawing his fingertips slowly down her body. “Are you loyal to him?”
Tem understood he was asking about the human prince. There was no doubt that Leo held a piece of her heart. But so did Caspen. He always would.
“I am loyal to you.”
Not a yes or a no. Simply a statement of fact. It was the best Tem could give him, and Caspen seemed resigned to her answer. His hand gripped her tightly, his fingers digging into her hips as he said, “The royals use basilisks for bloodletting.”
Tem frowned. “Bloodletting?”
“It is a process where our blood is alchemized into gold. This”-Caspen touched the golden claw around her neck-“is a piece of me.”
Comprehension hit Tem like a tidal wave. The necklace was not just a gesture-no mere trinket to symbolize his intentions. Caspen had bled for her.
“They hunt us, Tem,” he continued, his words rushed and tight. “They take us to the castle, and they bleed us until we have nothing left to give.” He gestured at the memorial. “Hundreds have died there.”
Tem reeled from this revelation. It was difficult to comprehend such cruelty. Everything made sense now-how the royals had accumulated so much gold, how they used their wealth to wield power over anyone who tried to cross them, how Maximus kept the basilisks in their place. She thought of Leo’s teeth, of his tapered incisors sheathed in gold: a symbol of wealth, of power, of dominance. Their fanglike shape was nothing but an imitation and a mockery of the basilisk from whose blood they were made. Tem fought a wave of nausea as she remembered how her tongue had touched those teeth just last night. Something even worse occurred to her.
Did Leo know about this horrible practice?
Would he sanction it the same way his father had? Leo hated the basilisks. It was a hatred formed by years of prejudice-a hatred that ran irreversibly deep. Tem remembered Leo’s gold cuff: the same one that encircled Maximus’s wrist.
Like father, like son.
“Is there a way to help them?” Tem whispered. “To get them out?”
“Yes,” Caspen said slowly, his golden eyes searching hers. “But it will be…difficult.”
Tem was sure of that. There was no way to rescue the basilisks in the castle without alerting the royals of their departure. Surely any plan to get them out would involve bloodshed. Tem didn’t want to imagine which side would suffer more.
“Tem,” Caspen murmured, breaking her from her thoughts. “The time will come when you will have to choose.”
Tem didn’t want to believe it. She refused to believe it.
And yet somewhere in the depths of her soul, she knew Caspen was right. She knew, without a doubt, that she would be forced to pick a side-that eventually, her heart would inevitably break.
“I don’t want to choose,” she whispered.
Caspen smiled sadly. “I know.”
The room seemed to grow colder.
Tem’s fingers touched the little golden claw around her neck. She thought about how it was made from Caspen’s body-from his blood. There were no words for what he had done.
Her eyes found his. “Caspen,” she whispered.
He pressed a single finger to her lips. “Tem,” he murmured. “It was worth it. For you, I would give anything.” His hands moved to either side of her face. “I love you.”
He’d said it just minutes ago. But this time it was a plea, a question to which only Tem had the answer. He was asking if she was on his side, if her feelings for Leo were nonnegotiable, if she would choose the basilisks over the humans.
Tem didn’t have the answers to any of those questions.
Caspen looked at her, and for the first time, she saw how difficult their situation was for him. It wasn’t unlike the way Leo had looked at her just this morning. Both men wanted Tem for themselves. But there was a factor that neither of them could predict: her. She did not want to pick a side; she did not want to choose. There had to be another way.
They stood at the memorial for a long time. Eventually, Tem began to shiver again, and they walked back through the passageways together. When they reached Caspen’s chambers, Tem reclined on his bed. Caspen followed, wrapping his arms around her before releasing a weary sigh against her shoulder. Tem knew he had not asked for any of this.
Neither had she.
Caspen’s fingers skimmed gently up her back. “Please, Tem,” he whispered. “Tell me I have not lost you.”
It was impossible to miss the desperation in his voice. But it didn’t matter really how Caspen felt. The only thing that mattered was what Tem was willing to do-how far she was willing to go for him.
“You haven’t lost me,” she whispered.
Caspen pressed a soft kiss to her neck. Then to her cheek. Then to her lips.
Tem kissed him back, forgetting everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. She forgot how Leo had showed up at the Horseman, how he had come to her cottage, how he had touched her while she touched him back. She only knew this moment, right here, with Caspen.
They moved slowly at first, remembering the way the other felt. Tem undressed herself, enjoying the way Caspen watched her as she did so. He was still holding back-still waiting for permission to take things further. Tem was ready to give it.
Caspen.
Tem.
Touch me.
Caspen trailed his fingers slowly down her body, brushing them along the dip of her waist before pulling her beneath him. Tem tipped her knees open, and Caspen’s eyes immediately turned black.
So beautiful, Tem.
You always say that.
Because it is true.
Craving bloomed within her as Caspen slid two fingers deep into her center, all the way to his knuckles. Then he paused. They both stayed perfectly still, each of them watching the other. Caspen’s gaze traced over her body with boundless veneration.
Tem would never get tired of being looked at that way.
His fingers moved steadily in and out of her, warming her with each stroke. His other hand wrapped around her neck, arching her head back so he could bend down and kiss her throat. It felt so right to be connected to him like this, to move together as if they were never apart to begin with. Caspen understood her in a way no one else ever could; her body was an instrument only he could play.
Caspen waited until Tem was dripping with wetness before removing his fingers. His hand went to his cock, but he didn’t enter her. Instead, he said, May I?
Tem found it significant that he had asked. She knew it was a gesture, a way to seek her forgiveness. He was asking permission to fuck her, begging for the privilege of being inside her. It made Tem feel powerful, and she liked that feeling.
Yes.
Even with her consent, Caspen still went slowly. He positioned himself between her legs, wrapping them around his torso one after the other. His eyes met hers as he finally entered her, sliding only an inch of his cock in before pulling back out. Tem moaned as he did it again, going just an inch farther this time, holding himself back from everything she knew he dearly wanted to do.
More, Caspen.
He gave her more.
Tem gasped with relief as he filled her completely, and Caspen did the same. He was her home, and she was his. Their union was sacred. It was the truth.
Tem pushed Caspen so she could climb on top of him.
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.