Page 66 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“So you've said,” I reply.

She frowns in frustration. “I don’t do well around people I don’t know. It makes it hard to speak sometimes.”

“Are you uncomfortable now?” I glare around the crowded club.

“No.” She grabs my arms as if to stop me from pushing the people around us away even farther. “It’s more in situations where I'm expected to interact with people. This is nice… freeing.”

She swallows and the vulnerability on her face completely absorbs me. It takes a moment for her to muster whatever she’s struggling with, but I wait for her.

“I have avoided places that have lots of people since finding out about magic,” she says. “It’s all been frightening. How can I possibly tell who is a threat when everyone is wearing glamours?”

She doesn’t mention her abduction. Maybe it isn’t the biggest part of her worries, but I doubt that.

“But you’re fine here? We can leave if you want to.”

Emilia lifts a brow at me, and I prefer the look of annoyance on her face rather than the fear that was in her eyes.

“I already said it’s nice.” She bites her lip. “And I'm with you. I know you and Ari will protect me.”

Pride lifts my chest at the trust Emilia is putting in me, but it deflates just as quickly. There are many creatures I could stand against, but even a midlevel serpent kin would overpower me easily. But that fear of the world around us.... the nightmares she’s suffered since the abduction... I can relate to that flavor of helplessness and it's something I wouldn’t inflict on anyone, let alone this vibrant woman.

“I'd do everything in my power to keep you safe,” I say, my voice considering. “But you are a formidable foe on your own. You never have to feel powerless again.”

She looks at me with wide eyes the color of dark toffee and I'm helpless to the pull. Her lips curl.

“All those times you were so curt with me, was it because you thought I was afraid?”

My cheeks start to burn. “I didn't want to inflict myself on you longer than could be helped.”

Something I’d misinterpreted, but Emilia only tilts her head.

“You aren't what I expected, Director Adder,” she says.

My cock thickens at the huskiness of her voice and the honorific. Mesmerizing her, quick as it had been, had teased unknown truths about myself. The pleasure of holding dominance over Emilia is an addiction I never assumed to feed.

“You are more than I could have ever hoped for.” I'd be ashamed of how clear the longing is in my throat if her pupils didn’t dilate and the flavor of her arousal didn't cut through the mix of hazy scents of the club.

I only see Emilia and all her facets of contradictions that weave a spell of need over me. Shy to my gaze and fierce to Ari’s teasing, funny in the in-between moments and unrelentingly passionate about her work. She belongs to us. She is mine and Ari’s. There are no surrounding paranormals or music pounding in our veins.

I step forward and she steps back. The action riles a deep urge I’ve rarely fed. The urge to hunt and seduce. We repeat the dance and her back makes contact with the wall. She licks her lips, and suddenly I can’t bear to look away, making me doubt who exactly is hunting who.

“Among the least,” I whisper. “The temptation I feel around youthreatens to swallow me whole.”

Emilia’s face breaks into a wicked smile. “And being swallowed whole would be such a terrible thing.”

The innuendo claws my gut.

“Temptress,” I hiss, as my mind is filled with thoughts of Emilia's pretty red lips stretching around my hardness. Or Ari’s.

Fuck.The idea of Emilia’s tongue tracing up the veins of Ari’s extruded cock erodes my control.

I bring my face within a breath of hers and her lips part. My body locks. I’m torn with indecision. I can practically taste her vanilla scent on my tongue, I want to devour her, but what if this isn’t what she wants?

“Now who’s being a tease?” she whispers. I growl and kiss her.

Her flavor is sweet and hits my senses like being engulfed in flames.

Not since Ari have I met anyone whose every touch feels like fire and home all at once. She is a blessing from a being more gracious than I’ve ever found the Goddess to be.

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