Chapter 2 #3
“Tempting,” he corrected. He smiled against her skin, slow and knowing.
“I think,” he murmured, voice dropping to something softer, more intimate, “there are some things that are the same.”
Before she could ask what he meant, his lips brushed just below her ear. The contact sent a sharp, unexpected shiver down her spine. She inhaled, the sound escaping her before she could stop it.
He stilled for half a second, then gave a quiet, satisfied hum. “Yes,” he said, voice thick with amusement. “That’s the same.”
“Oh, you are full of it,” she breathed, but she didn’t move away.
Instead, his hands slid more firmly to her hips, and with slow, deliberate pressure, he turned her in the water until her back met his chest. The shift was fluid, effortless, his tail adjusting beneath the surface to keep them balanced.
His mouth found the pulse at her neck. A soft kiss. Then another.
“Same?” she managed, though her voice had lost some of its teasing edge.
“Yes,” he answered simply against her skin.
His fingers tightened slightly at her hips as he drew her back against him, the solid warmth of him pressed to her spine, undeniable now.
“This,” he added quietly, brushing another kiss along the curve of her neck, “is very nice.”
The water lapped gently around them as his mouth traced a slow path downward, unhurried, attentive.
Liora let her head tip back against his shoulder, breath unsteady.
Maybe there were differences, but in this moment, with his hands steady at her hips and his mouth exploring her skin, some things were definitely the same.
He stilled just enough to look at her profile, his mouth still close to her skin.
“I’m guessing this is okay,” he murmured.
His hand slid lower, slow enough for her to stop him if she wanted to, and curved over her ass, fingers squeezing experimentally.
“Yes,” she breathed, nodding quickly.
She knew exactly where this was heading. And she was more than ready.
His touch grew bolder, fingers skimming her skin with curious intent rather than practiced confidence. There was something almost fascinating about that; his exploration wasn’t rushed. It was thoughtful. Attentive.
“This,” he murmured, voice lower now, “is uncharted territory for me.”
Fingers slipped between her butt cheeks. “Is this?”
She shook her head faintly, pulse racing. “No…but it can be.”
A dark chuckle vibrated against her skin. “We’ll get back to that.”
His fingers drifted forward, sliding softly, testing boundaries. He paused when he reached the delicate seam between her thighs, “Oh,” he murmured thoughtfully. “This feels somewhat the same.”
Her breath caught sharply as he traced the line with careful curiosity.
“I think if I do this…” His fingers shifted slightly, dipping past her pussy lips, “…I’ll get to—”
“Yes,” she gasped, hips instinctively tilting until she felt him at her hole. “That’s right.”
Another low, satisfied laugh.
She was glad that they were in the spring because then he would’ve felt how aroused she was and proof that she wanted so much more.
He adjusted again, exploring further, and the sound that escaped her this time was closer to a whimper than she intended.
“And this?” he asked softly, fingertips finding the small, sensitive point that made her whole body tense.
“Oh—” She arched back against him as he pressed gently, experimentally. “That is purely for pleasure.”
She felt him testing the pressure again, and her breath stuttered, her fingers gripping his arm.
“I like this,” he said, voice edged with heat and fascination.
“Me too,” she managed, hardly recognizing her own voice.
The night around them felt impossibly quiet, the stars overhead sharp and distant while everything between them narrowed to warmth, touch, and the steady rhythm of shared discovery.
There was nothing practiced about what he was doing, no rehearsed rhythm or smug certainty.
And yet somehow, somehow, he found it. He paid attention.
Every shift of her breathing. Every tightening of her fingers around his arm.
Every soft, involuntary sound she made when he adjusted his touch just slightly.
It wasn’t skill honed over time. It was instinct sharpened by focus.
And it worked.
“Oh—” Her voice broke, surprise flooding her as much as pleasure. “How are you—”
He hummed softly against her neck. “You make it very clear,” he murmured. “Your body answers.”
That only made it worse, in the best possible way.
She was close. So close. And that hardly ever happened.
Usually, it took comfort. Familiarity. Knowing someone’s rhythm, trusting their pace. She wasn’t the kind of woman who unraveled easily in someone’s arms, especially not someone she’d just met.
And yet here she was. In a hidden spring. In a land that wasn’t hers. Pressed against a basilisk whose tail curled possessively around her waist while his curious, deliberate touch learned her faster than most men ever had.
Maybe that was it. The secrecy. The danger. The fact that she was somewhere she shouldn’t be, doing something reckless with someone entirely not human.
Maybe being wrapped up in a monster beneath an open sky was exactly the kind of “something else” her body needed.
His fingers adjusted again, firmer now, more confident, and her breath shattered.
“Right there,” she whispered, barely able to form the words.
He obliged immediately.
Her head tipped back against his shoulder, stars blurring overhead as sensation crested fast and bright. Too fast. She couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe she was this close, this quickly.
“You’re shaking,” he murmured, voice no longer teasing.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed.
His tail tightened subtly, anchoring her as his touch remained steady, intentional, driving her closer with every precise movement.
And when it happened, it was sudden.
A sharp inhale. A broken sound she didn’t bother to swallow. Her body arching against him as the orgasm washed through her, hot and overwhelming and impossible to contain.
For a long moment, she couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak. She just floated there in his arms, breath unsteady, pulse racing wildly under his lips.
He went still, holding her securely as the aftershocks faded.
“Well,” he said softly after a beat, unmistakable satisfaction threading through his voice. “That seems…universal.”
She let out a breathless laugh, still recovering. “Shut up.”
His lips curved against her skin.
“But you’re right,” she admitted quietly, turning her head just enough to glance at him. “I didn’t expect that.”
“In a spring?” he asked lightly.
“With you,” she corrected.
His eyes darkened at that, not teasing this time. “Good,” he said simply.
And the way his tail remained wrapped around her, the way his hand lingered at her hip, it was clear he wasn’t done discovering just how many things they had in common.
Her pulse was only just beginning to steady when a voice cut cleanly through the night.
“You should not be here together in the spring.”
It wasn’t loud, but it carried.
Liora stiffened instantly, the warmth that had wrapped around her moments ago turning sharp and cold. Maldenis’s tail loosened from around her as they turned toward the rocky path leading down to the water.
An older basilisk stood there, tall and rigid, his gaze bright and deeply unimpressed.
Liora’s stomach dropped.
“This spring,” the elder continued, voice clipped, “is sacred.”
Maldenis straightened slightly in the water, shifting so that he was partially in front of her. “Elder—”
“Sacred,” the older basilisk repeated, cutting him off. “Used for marriage rites. Binding rituals. Oaths before witnesses seen and unseen.”
The word hit her like a slap.
Marriage.
The lingering warmth in her body iced over.
“Marriage?” she repeated faintly. And then she shoved Maldenis away from her as though he’d burned her.
He blinked, startled more by her reaction than the accusation. “Liora—”
“You did not tell me that,” she snapped under her breath, heart racing for entirely different reasons now.
The elder basilisk clicked his tongue, shaking his head slowly. “You two don’t know what you’ve gotten yourselves into, do you?”
Silence stretched. The spring suddenly felt much smaller, and the stars less romantic.
Maldenis looked between Liora and the elder, confusion tightening his features. “With respect, Elder, we did nothing but—”
“You entered the spring,” the elder said sharply. “Unwed. Unbound. You touched in the waters.”
Liora’s face went hot for an entirely new reason.
The elder’s eyes flicked meaningfully to where they stood waist-deep.
“And you completed the rite’s final threshold,” he added pointedly.
Her mouth fell open. “That was not a rite!”
The older basilisk’s expression did not soften. “The spring does not differentiate between ignorance and intention.”
Maldenis swore softly under his breath.
The elder folded his arms. “The water binds what it witnesses. The spirits below mark what is sealed within it.”
Liora’s heart hammered painfully against her ribs. “Sealed?”
The elder gave them both a long, measuring look. Then, with maddening calm: “Congratulations on your wedding.”