Page 55 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“If browbeating were a sport, you’d medal,” I say to give myself time to respond. “Being sneaky and strategic is how you get what you want.”

Ari sighs, pained. “I don’t want our relationship to be only because I manipulated you. I’m… sorry.”

I close my eyes and confess more than I should. “It worked for me. Your machinations that brought us together made it easier to have what I wanted without being… at fault for it.”

Ari’s breath brushes my face and I open my eyes. His gray eyes are serious. “So now that you need to make the decision, what do you choose?”

“This can work?” I ask.

“Yes.” There is no doubt in his response.

“Then I’m open to… trying this.”

Ari cups my cheek and we both sigh, him in relief and me in pleasure. I am rarely touched, and Ari’s touch is always a manifestation of something I thought I could never have. A mate.

He’s keeping secrets still. I’ve known him long enough to know that, but if it’s true that this could work… maybe whatever secrets he keeps are for the best.

I kiss him for the first time in our relationship without the disguise that what we share is casual. Ari freezes in surprise and I make a pleased sound when he takes over. He’s dominant in all things and I wouldn’t change that. There’s no escalation, no grappling that turns to sex, there’s just this moment sharing breath and an intimacy I’ve denied myself.

I break the kiss before I can be tempted into something more than I’m ready for. This relationship we’re starting is more than just the two of us now.

“If you’re set on wooing, you can help me set up something for her,” I say.

Ari shows his surprise before his face breaks into a delighted grin. “It sounds as if you were already set to woo her, with or without my intervention.”

I shake my head. “Not woo, not really. I just wanted to make this all easier for her.”

“Well now my curiosity is piqued.”

I waggle my eyebrows in a move that feels foreign to me. “Well then you can be piqued while you help carry the items up from my car.”

Ari’s grin is wide but threaded through with heady seduction. He holds my face close to his with both hands, the action too quick for me to avoid even if I’d wanted to, which I don’t.

“Just don’t forget, lover. She isn’t the only one I’m wooing,” he says and kisses me.

26

EMILIA

The boardsunderneath me swirl with rot and decay as the men who snatched me on my way to my car sneer at my crying. One keeps doing magic tricks with fire and terror makes it hard to breathe. It’s a trap. I’m the bait. They want Grace. They’re going to hurt her.

Every time I try to run, it’s as if I’m moving in slow motion.

“Emilia.”

Suddenly Ma’s in front of me, her face losing color and turning to stone. I scream.

“Emilia! You’re dreaming.” Jasper shakes me awake.

“What?”

“You were having a bad dream.” Jasper’s face is creased with concern, and he doesn’t relax the grip he has on my arms.

I swallow. “Did I wake you?”

His brow furrows and he eases his grip. “No, I’m a bad sleeper. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I say, even as my heart races and dread pools in my gut. “Nightmares are par for the course now. I must have gotten lucky yesterday because the adrenaline from everything knocked me out.”

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