Chapter 10 #2
Her hand brushed aside the knot at my shoulder keeping the robe in place and I returned the favor, not bothering with the brooch, just pushing it away.
I straddled her thighs, wrapping my arms around her neck and pressing us together, breast to breast, breath to breath.
Her chest rose and fell quickly. She cradled my jaw in both of her hands as I kissed her, a faint tremor running through her.
Medusa, the fearsome monster, the mythical man-killer.
Trembling for me.
My head spun.
She felt impossibly strong beneath my hands.
I explored every part of her I could reach.
The warm expanse of her back with the deep gutter running between the bands of muscle either side of her spine; the slight dip of her waist; the flare of her thigh.
My other hand moved up, along the strong muscles of her arm to stroke along the side of her breast and higher, to feel the ridge of her collarbone.
One of her fangs caught my lip, just gently, and I tasted just a hint of coppery blood.
I wanted to dive deeper but she made a noise of distress, pulling back.
I let her go, gulping in air. The globe of one of her ass cheeks filled my palm. “I hurt you,” she said, horrified. “Cassandra—”
“A tiny scrape,” I told her. The hands cradling my face held me back when I would’ve had her again. “You don’t scare me,” I promised.
“I should,” she said, her thumb swiping over my lip.
My body ached and I struggled to breathe, trying to clear my head.
The serpents against my back slithered, every bit as hungry as I, holding me tightly against her, moving restlessly.
I tried to turn my head but she held me tightly, except this time a few of her claws bit into me, not deliberately and not far, just enough to remind me I was dancing on the knife’s edge.
How I wished I could see her expression as she looked at me.
My fingers found her neck, urging her mouth to me.
“Kiss me,” I challenged, and she trembled again.
My blood roared in my ears. I tried to drag her closer, but she was like granite, save for the writhing serpents that supported my arching back.
One dragged its weight over my breasts and the weight of it, the slight rasp of the scales, against the tops of my breasts made my breath catch.
Suddenly, the serpents stilled.
“Do it again,” I demanded, but it was breathless. “Please, do it again.”
The weight of the serpent moved back the way it’d come, except a fraction lower this time, directly over top of my nipples.
I moaned, my hold on her softening to create enough space to let her touch me more easily.
My hand on her ass shifted, skimming up over the cloth pooling between us.
Her belly was soft. Above it, the bones of her ribs provided structure.
I skimmed past them, too, and heard her draw in a breath that shook as I explored the soft underside of her breast with the backs of my knuckles.
The velvet flesh called to me. She held me, though she’d frozen against me, her serpentine digits writhing restlessly against my back and shoulders again, tugging me closer.
A thrill went through me and I opened my eyes to see her face tipped back.
I couldn’t make out her expression. I didn’t need to.
Beneath the sensitive pads of my fingers her nipple was already pebbled.
Her breath caught, then rushed out as I rolled it slowly between thumb and forefinger.
Delight rippled through my body, the ghost of my caresses serving only to heighten my hunger, not to sate it.
The softness of her breast in my palm, the shudder of her breath, the tension in her limbs and the drumming of my own heart formed my world.
“I want to kiss you here,” I said. As I spoke, her claws brushed against my cheeks, an unintended reminder of the Gorgon’s power.
And she shivered again for me. An unintended reminder of mine.
“I want to take your nipples in my mouth,” I whispered, rolling the firm bud slowly still, aching to do more. “I want to feel you tremble and I want you to think of nothing except me. I want to taste you. I want your thighs to tremble and your hips to beg me not to stop.”
“Cassandra,” she said, like I was a deity.
The awe in her voice went straight to my blood and made my head swim. “Release me,” I told her. “Let me have you.”
Her hands shook. “I could hurt you.”
The ache in my heart cleared my head a little. Was she truly so scared of herself? “I could hurt you, too,” I acknowledged. “Accidentally break your heart. Will you risk it?”
The shudder that took her told me I’d guessed right, that it wasn’t the physical pain she feared. “If I ask you to stop,” she said, “you must.”
The ache in my heart grew fangs. Grief and fury, two sides of the same coin. “Always,” I promised without hesitation.
“I know,” she whispered, the words shaking. “I’m sorry I had to say that. I knew you would.”
“I’m glad you said it.” I turned my face, and this time her hands were gentle enough against my skin that her fingers bent with the movement.
I pressed a kiss to her palm. “I want to push you onto your back and feast on your breasts,” I told her, the plans swirling.
Important to let her know. She’d need it.
Maybe she always would. “I’m going to rub myself against your leg while I do.
I’m going to kiss your neck and I might even nibble against your ear.
I want to put my hands on your knees and spread your thighs, Medusa.
” That breath catch, the tremble. My head spun, but I held onto the plan.
“If you want me to put my fingers in you, I will. I’d like that.
I want to taste your clit, though. I want to learn how you like to be sucked and licked, and what noise you make when you come. ”
She let out a long breath. It shook. One of the serpents rubbed against my cheek, its nose lingering seductively against my mouth. “And you?” she asked, the question aching. “I want you, too.”
The issue of claws and fangs wasn’t insurmountable, but it wasn’t my priority right now. “Good. Because I plan to sit on that beautiful face of yours. I do believe those fangs won’t get in the way if I’m still. You can keep me still, can’t you?”
She growled something that sounded like it was caught between a threat and a promise that made my body ache, her hands falling away. The shudder of feathers sounded and her wings unfurled, blotting out the world around us. Enclosed in the darkness, the warmth of the fire at my back, I fell on her.
I straddled her belly and her hands ripped at the robes on me.
Her neck was long and warm and delicious.
Beneath my lips, her pulse beat helplessly.
I licked that point, tasting the slight saltiness of her skin, feeling for the first time the difference between us in the way it moved beneath my tongue.
Firmer, almost like it was more attached to her than skin usually was to a person.
I was more attached to her, too.
“I like it,” I told her, and she let out a sound that was sort of shocked and also a little amused.
There was so much to explore. The arch of her collarbone was disarmingly graceful.
The tip of my nose traced it. Her hands were shaking, but she was gathering up my hair, combing it with those claws as she went.
The sensation of them scraping softly against my scalp was so perfect I had to pause and enjoy it, my forehead resting against her chest, her hands in my hair and her body welcoming beneath me.
The slow tug and coil as I felt her wrap the mass of it around one fist made my mouth water. Nothing would be allowed between us. She’d see to it.
The beat of her heart beneath her breasts was a siren’s song.
I pressed a kiss between them, honoring her vulnerability.
Honoring her excitement. Through my lips I felt it drumming to me, the sound of hope.
Around me her serpents slithered, rubbing against my face, kissing their noses to my ears, pressing their comforting weight encouragingly against the back of my neck and over my shoulders.
She held my hair firmly with one hand, her breathing quick and excited beneath me.
I explored the expanse of her skin as I’d done her neck, with kisses, with the sensitive curve of my cheek and the tip of my nose.
I rubbed against the swell of her breast and felt the resistance of it.
I found the velvet edge of her nipple, ridged with occasional fine, irregular bumps and I traced the boundary of it with my mouth.
I memorized the contrast of her flesh before I let myself be guided by those desperate serpentine digits to take the bud of her nipple into my mouth.
She let out a breath, as if in relief. The sensation swept through me, too.
Hunger not yet assuaged but at least acknowledged released some of the tension in my limbs and I listened to her breathing and tracked the flex and arch of muscles.
When I sucked lightly, her breath caught and she arched into me.
When I pressed the pebbled nipple to the roof of my mouth, her hand got a little heavier against the back of my head.
When I caught it gently between my teeth and sucked as hard as I could, the tension flooded out of her and she lay back, glorying in the sensation just as I’d done as she’d given me that neck massage earlier.