Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Benjamin felt exactly like the little mouse Atlas called him: small and breakable and frozen in place as a predator he could barely fathom towered in front of him.
Atlas had been tall before, but the serpent’s tail he rose up on—thick and coiled and six feet long at least—gave him even more height. He was close to touching the apartment ceiling, and Benjamin was just a speck in comparison.
Before Benjamin could think better of it, he was staring into that pale-green gaze again. “I’m not supposed to look in your eyes,” he said dumbly, even as he couldn’t bring himself to blink. He swallowed with a dry throat.
He tried to remember what he knew of basilisk legends. Looking in their eyes was supposed to kill someone, right? Here Benjamin had needed to steel his nerves coming to Atlas’s apartment tonight, just to confront him over his gift. Was he really going to die after his one act of bravery?
Atlas gave him a sly smirk, a lock of bleached hair falling in front of one eye. Funny that he could still look like a complete fuckboy as a half-snake monster with glowing eyes. “I gifted you my scale,” he purred, like this was a seduction and not an attack. “It affords you certain protections.”
Benjamin processed that. “You can’t kill me?”
Atlas shrugged. “I could. But I’d have to mean it.”
Atlas’s tattoos hadn’t disappeared with his transformation. Benjamin didn’t know why they would have, other than that it seemed odd to be a half serpent, half man with tattoos. But there they were, thick black strokes over skin that now shimmered with pale, iridescent green.
Yes, it’s the tattoos that are the odd part here.
Atlas slithered even closer, his coiled tail flattening so he wasn’t quite so monstrously tall.
His bare torso still positively loomed over Benjamin, and the sudden increase in proximity had Benjamin scuttling backward on the couch before he even realized he was doing it, not that his attempt created very much distance at all.
There simply wasn’t enough couch to retreat on.
“Are you frightened of me?” Atlas asked, sounding more amused than offended.
Benjamin nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes.”
“Only frightened?”
“No,” Benjamin admitted. “Not only frightened.” He knew it to be true as soon as he said it. His heart might have been racing, his palms just on this side of sweaty, but there was also electricity running through him, zapping along his nerves and setting him alight.
Something strange was happening. Something strange and beautiful and scary, and it was happening to him. Benjamin the accountant.
He could choose to be terrified. He could run in the other direction. But then he would be right back where he started, all alone and wishing it were different.
Whatever this was, Benjamin wanted it. He wanted it badly.
Benjamin blinked. He wasn’t trapped in Atlas’s gaze anymore, frozen and unable to look away. So he let his eyes roam over the basilisk in front of him with all the greed of his newly awakened hunger.
Yes. Beautiful and scary. That was exactly right. That was what Atlas was.
And also… confusing.
Benjamin frowned at the part of the serpent tail that covered where Atlas’s groin would normally have been. “I thought you were showing me your dick, but now you don’t even have one,” he pointed out, his tone more petulant than he might have liked.
Atlas gifted him with a low, husky laugh. “Disappointed?”
Benjamin shook his head wordlessly. How could he be disappointed? Something magical was taking place. The sex would have been secondary.
It still would have been welcome.
And maybe Atlas would let Benjamin… rub around on him a little. Even if nobody penetrated anyone else, they could still make each other feel good, slipping and sliding against each other. If that was what this was even about.
Benjamin really hoped that was what this was about.
“You’re being very brave for me, little mouse.” Atlas uncoiled even lower, his chest now barely above Benjamin on the couch. One broad hand slithered around Benjamin’s ankle, and Atlas stroked a thumb over the bare skin above Benjamin’s sock. “Do you want to touch?”
Benjamin did. He really did. Realizing he was still technically cowering against the back of the couch, he straightened and reached out a hand, tracing the tattoos on Atlas’s chest lightly with his fingertips.
Atlas huffed in amusement. He must have expected Benjamin to go right for the tail.
But Atlas had a beautiful torso, and this might be Benjamin’s only chance to touch it. So he spent a long, luxurious time on that warm expanse of skin, brushing, petting, caressing.
Eventually, he let his hand slide down, down, down, to where shimmering skin blended seamlessly into shimmering scales.
They were smooth to the touch except on the uneven places where they overlapped.
And they were warm. So warm. Benjamin had thought maybe the scales would be cold—hadn’t they been cold the other night? —but they weren’t now, not at all.
Benjamin’s fingers hit a spot right in the center. A spot with… give. Almost a seam?
Atlas made a strangled noise above him.
Benjamin lifted his gaze. “Does that hurt, when I press there?”
“No.” Atlas’s voice was low and rough as he answered. “It doesn’t hurt.”
There was nothing but molten heat in his pale-green gaze. Benjamin’s own eyes widened. Oh. Oh.
Gently, carefully, Benjamin pressed his fingers into the seam, slowly increasing the pressure. It split easily, and Benjamin’s fingers dipped in. It was blisteringly hot. Wet.
Benjamin could hardly breathe, and Atlas didn’t seem much better, panting gasping breaths above him. Benjamin dipped his fingers in further, almost all the way to the knuckle in that slippery pocket, and then he hit a hard ridge.
Atlas groaned.
It seemed like a good sign, so Benjamin stroked at that ridge with slippery fingers. It seemed to grow in size the more he did so, and eventually it was nudging his hand, pushing it back out of the seam, following him to protrude out.
It was a cock. The shape was unmistakable, even if it was unlike any cock Benjamin had seen before. Smooth and white like a marble statue, with shimmering pale-green veins, and tapered at the head.
Benjamin’s mouth watered. He coughed, choking on his own saliva. “I, um, stand corrected.”
Atlas was panting now, openmouthed, his fangs on full display. “Shall I take you to my lair, little mouse?”
“I’m already in your lair,” Benjamin told him absently. He was a little distracted, both by the cock that had emerged and by his own slick fingers. He held them in front of his face. Should he give them a taste?
“Deeper, then,” Atlas crooned. He cupped Benjamin’s face, capturing his attention with ease.
He was so fucking hot, even without considering the tail and the beautiful green and the mysterious cock pocket. Even if he’d been human, he would have been magical. Out of Benjamin’s league, out of his reach. And yet here Atlas was, seducing him.
“I want to take you deeper, little mouse. I want you in my clutches. I want to devour you.”
Every bit of that should have been terrifying, but Benjamin found himself nodding frantically. His heart was racing so fast it was probably going to give out any minute. It was working hard, pumping all that blood to Benjamin’s dick. He’d never been so hard in his life.
“Okay,” he agreed breathlessly. “Take me deeper.”