Page 19 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“Quite,” he says, and I wince.

I sense him lift a brow and turn slightly toward me.

He makes a sound that almost sounds like a sigh. “No, this isn’t what I’d planned to do today. But you are my responsibility, Ms. Rivera, and we will find a way to break whatever spell has befallen you.”

I want to tell him to just call me Emilia like he’d done with his hand around my throat.What the fuck is wrong with me?Has my libido decided that now that my entire life is imploding, I should start having very inappropriate feelings for a man who has never even asked me the time of day?

The elevator dings before I can contemplate further. The doors open and I suck in a surprised breath. We walk directly into someone’s home, and it screams luxury. Not the kind of gleaming luxury from the lobby, but the kind that explodes with comfort and color. Thick oriental rugs, gleaming gold statues, and tapestries. The mix is eclectic and rare and in the center of everything approaches a man dressed in white.

“Jasper! What a surprise it was to get your message.”

The sight of the speaker stuns me. Adder stiffens at my side. Adder is attractive, all sharp angles, golden eyes, and dark hair. This man, this man isgorgeous. His white linen shirt and pants offset his dusky skin, combined with his wavy dark hair, it all makes his pale eyes even more striking.

“You weren’t answering your phone.” Adder’s response is sharp and the man he addresses shrugs carelessly.

“I figured if it was something important, you’d seek me out, and you have. Now, who is this beautiful woman you’ve brought?” There’s an edge to the question that I can’t interpret.

“Ms. Rivera, may I introduce you to Askari Zeyad—” Adder breaks off as this Zeyad character swoops in, taking my hand in his in an extravagant greeting.

The grip sparks something strange even though there’s a coolness to it, and some other sense tells me that this man isn’t human.

The man smiles, his teeth so white I blink. “Please, call me Ari.”

I clear my throat, surprised nerves haven’t risen up to choke me. “You can call me Emilia.”

Ari’s smile widens at that, and the light almost makes it look like he has fangs for a moment.

Adder makes a sound in his throat, distracting me from the heat rising in my cheeks. “Ari may know how to solve this curse.”

At the mention of a curse, Ari’s energy changes from dashing seducer to eager puppy. “A curse you say? I love curses!”

Adder snorts and it’s such a foreign sound from the man that I blink.

“Come into my study!” Ari says. “Don’t mind the clutter. I’m a bit of a collector.”

“A bit?” I say weakly as Adder directs me into the room next to the entryway. His touch moves me past the stacks of books and unidentifiable museum-quality knickknacks. The innocent press of his hand to my lower back inspires impossible butterflies and I want to go back in time to before I’d stared into his eyes.

It would be more comfortable.

It’s probably a good thing he’s directing my movements. My fingers itch to stroke every stack of books. Old books are my weakness after all.

Ari sprawls his body across an ottoman and gestures to the pillow-laden settee. I swallow at the way the linen he wears bunches around the muscles of his shoulders.

My libido can shut the fuck up now.

I get it, it’s been a while, but now is not the time. I turned down the option of casual sex already, and neither of these men has made any moves of interest at all.

Once my hair doesn’t have a mind of its own, I’ll look into the dating scene again. Promise.

I sit and Adder sits with an appropriate distance between us, thankfully ignorant of my thoughts.

“So, what is your ailment? Not speaking in tongues, or boils that I can see.” Ari’s cheerfulness has my lips twitching, but the director is the one who responds.

“Some kind of spell was cast on Ms. Rivera when she opened the book you submitted for the Archive.”

There he goes with the formality again. Wait, the book was from Ari? I tuck that detail away.

“It’s actually Ms. Adams Rivera if you want to be accurate about it,” I say. Adder glances to me in surprise and there’s an odd twist of satisfaction in me for surprising him. “Since that’s a mouthful, you could just call me Emilia.”

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