Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
Stop.
She paused, her hand out.
I may want you again.
Anticipation rushed through Tem. Eagerly, she slipped the claw back inside her. It went easily; she was still wet. Then she pulled the blankets up and, despite her excitement, fell straight to sleep.
Caspen had her twice more that night.
The first time, Tem was awoken by a pulse shooting abruptly through her. It shattered her dreams, immediately setting her skin on fire. Caspen sent pulse after pulse in increasing intensity until she cried out, her legs crossed together tightly, her fingers pressing the claw even deeper. It was equal parts exhilarating and exhausting, and when it was over, Tem was covered in sweat and gasping for breath.
The second time was different.
The pulse was soft and tentative, reverberating through her so gently, she didn’t even feel it at first. But it nudged her awake insistently, and as the wave built, Tem felt as if she were being unraveled from the inside out-as if Caspen were unfolding her in a field of sunlight. Her climax was long and lingering, buzzing gently along the edges of her body before fading into nothingness. When it was finally over, she heard his deep voice whisper, Sleep, Tem.
Tem slept.
She awoke to her mother’s insistent knock on the door.
“Wake up, dear. There is someone here to see you.”
Tem groaned, rubbing her eyes. There was only one person she wanted to see, and she was quite sure he wasn’t in the kitchen. When she stumbled out of her bedroom, Gabriel’s cheerful grin lit up the room.
“Morning, sunshine.”
Tem glanced at her mother, who was standing pointedly in front of the drying rack.
“Hey.” Tem sat next to him at the table. “What are you doing here?”
“Delivering this.” He brandished a letter.
Tem recognized the royal stationery. “Why do you have that?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Peter was going to deliver it. I tagged along.”
Tem smiled, pressing a kiss against his cheek. “I’m glad you did.”
Everyone watched as she opened the letter. There were just three lines of thin black text, which she read out loud:
Temperance Verus,
The prince requests your presence at the castle this evening for a formal group dinner.
Kindly be ready at 8:00 p.m.
“What’s that?” Gabriel pointed at the back of the letter.
Tem turned the letter over. There, scrawled in messy red ink, were two additional words:
Torture me.
Leo’s voice ran immediately through her mind: Apparently I’m partial to torture.
Apparently Tem was too.
Gabriel plucked the letter from her fingers. “Torture me?” he asked.
Tem sighed. “Leo,” she said simply.
She wondered if the other girls had gotten a personalized addition to their letters. Somehow, she doubted it.
The last twenty-four hours had been such a blur that Tem hadn’t had a chance to think about what she’d overheard in the foyer at the end of her date with the prince. But it all came back to her now. She remembered how Leo had argued with Maximus, how his father had chastised him for making the same mistakes of his past. Was Evelyn the mistake he was referring to? Tem knew nothing about her, but she knew Evelyn meant something to Leo. Could Evelyn be the cause of the rift between father and son?
Tem remembered something else from their conversation-something that made her blood run cold with resentment:
You are only doing this because you know it will anger me.
Maybe that’s part of the fun.
If Leo was only pursuing Tem to make his father angry, then he had no respect for her as a person. That was unacceptable to Tem. She was not a strategy; she would not allow herself to be used to further the prince’s agenda. It didn’t matter that it gave her an advantage in the competition. It also reduced her to a prop in Leo’s game. And Tem was far more than that. She was a catch, and she refused to be seen as anything but.
“So?” Gabriel was saying.
Tem blinked. “So what?”
“How are you going to torture him?”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
“Tem,” her mother scolded. “You should be trying to impress him.”
“Torturing him is how I impress him, Mother. You wouldn’t understand.”
Her mother shook her head.
Gabriel, on the other hand, smiled wider. “You know, if he’s into pain, you might consider-“
“Out!” her mother cried.
With one last rueful grin, Gabriel left.
Tem performed her chores on autopilot, thinking about the invitation. She wasn’t surprised there would be a group dinner tonight. There were nine girls left, which meant that they were in the second stage of the elimination process. The events would become more intimate from this point forward, to ensure each girl had as much time as possible with the prince. Tem wasn’t sure how she felt about having more time with Leo. Attending an event at the castle meant she wouldn’t be able to go to the caves tonight. The thought disappointed her; she wanted nothing more than to see Caspen.
We will see each other tomorrow.
Tem nearly jumped out of her skin as she remembered that their minds were connected now. She’d spent so long trying to destroy the barrier between them that she wasn’t used to it being down.
How long have you been there?
Not long.
Tem frowned. She didn’t like that he’d listened to her thoughts without her consent.
I meant no harm, Tem. You are…hard to ignore.
Somehow, she knew it was a compliment. Before she could reply, he spoke again.
From now on, I will only come when you call.
His presence faded.
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.