Page 38 of It's In His Hiss

Alice

6 Months Later

I wake up to something cool and damp nuzzling the side of my neck.

At first, my groggy brain thinks,Oh, it’s Gordy. He’s being all sweet and nuzzly.

Then the nuzzling slithers up my ear.

“Okay, that’s not Gordy,” I mutter, swatting halfheartedly at what I now recognize as one of his more curious snakes. It chirps indignantly—chirps,like a grumpy bird that got up too early—and retreats back into the messy knot of serpents currently sprawled across the pillow nextto me.

I blink up at the ceiling. “It’s too early for a snake cuddle pile.”

“Tell that to them,” Gordy grumbles from beneath the covers. His voice is rough with sleep, low and delicious and way too sexy for this hour. “They decided you’re part of the den now.”

“Oh, I’m flattered. Truly.” I sit up slowly, the sheet pooling at my waist. “But one of them just licked my eyelid.”

Gordy groans and flops an arm across his face. “That’s Shelly. She’s affectionate.”

“She’sterritorial,” I mutter, nudging a tail off my collarbone. “She tried to pin me to the mattress.”

“Honestly? Same.”

I turn to glare at him, but he peeks at me with a sly little smile, and just like that, I melt all over again.

Gods, he’s a mess. Snakes sluggishly untangling themselves, stubble shadowing his jaw—and somehow, he looks like a mythological painting come to life. The kind I would’ve sketched in my dorm room and pretended wasn’t based on my fantasy of the perfect monster boyfriend. The kindthat would get banned in school libraries for being tooemotionally explicit.

“You’re staring,” he murmurs.

“You’re smug.”

“I had great morning sex,” he says, stretching like a satisfied jungle cat. “Amazingsex. With a woman who talks to my snakes like they’re her coworkers.”

“They are, in a way,” I mutter, inspecting my shoulder. “Do you think I’ll bruise? Sheila was wrapped around me like a feather boa in a wind tunnel.”

“I’m sorry about that.” He leans over and presses a kiss to the spot in question. “They’re still learning to share.”

I hum. “I’m honored to be the first woman deemed snake-worthy.”

He grins. “They call you ‘The Soft One.’”

“I willfightthem.”

“No, no, it’s a compliment,” he says, laughing as a small green serpent bobs its head in agreement. “Apparently, you smell like oil paints and chaos.”

I sniff myself. “I mean, that tracks.”

Gordy leans in and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “You okay? That was intense earlier.”

Intense.That’s one way of putting it. Gordy and I are incendiary between the sheets. And up against the wall. Oh, and over the back of the sofa.

I nod, sobering slightly. “Yeah. I’m more than okay. Safe. And sore. But in, like, a deeply satisfying way.”

“You turned on the shower and levitated my bookshelf again. I’m surprised the ceiling’s still intact.”

“I was multitasking.”

“You nearly orgasmed the furniture into a new dimension.”

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