Chapter Six #2
“Wasn’t hard to figure, little viper. Look at ya.
Complicated relationship with the Paladins, guilt over all those deaths, and yet not a teardrop for yer daddy?
Also, not a surprise, is yer momma wasn’t.
Nah, ye’ve got a spirit in ya—sweet, desperate for approval, afraid of violence.
Bet yer momma was a real nice lady. Probably had a family home in Eshorion, where the two of ya hid from him for most of yer life.
But then he shows up and yoinks ya out of that life…
meaning, that fun second fact is that she’s dead. Ain’t she.”
Avelina pushed off the frame, jabbing a finger at him. “Fine, I guess you got two. But it’s not a hard leap, try for something more impressive or else this doesn’t count.”
His eyes hardened. Those slits, like a paper cut through sheets of gold, made his gaze harsher as he slithered closer.
Cottonmouth met her in the middle of that doorframe and growled darkly, “Want better, huh? How about the fact that yer not even sad about yer dead momma, huh? Guarantee ya didn’t even cry over her. Wonder why that is?”
“That’s not a fact,” Avelina huffed.
“Probably cause ya only care about that Tala girl. Bet if she’d been the sick one and not yer momma, you’d never have left the city.
Ye’d die of a broken heart first.” He spoke a dagger right into her chest. Avelina stumbled back a step; hands clutched to her collarbone.
Oh. Oh fuck. No, that’s not—it’s different.
Tala is different. She’s…more important.
Her lower lip trembled. Cottonmouth lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “That’s three, darlin’.”
“The deal was five,” she blurted out as a way to stave off the horror creeping up her spine.
I didn’t grieve Dalgna, not like she deserved from her only daughter.
Avelina gave her mother a whole ceremony, letting people come in and give their condolences, all while Tala stood at her side.
At the time, she thought she’d been taking it fine because she accepted it.
Her mother had been ill for a long time, everyone knew she was on borrowed time.
The only person who seemed shocked by it was her father when he came to bury her at the temple.
Then she realized, while her mother had been dear to her, the reason she moved on was Tala. She didn’t lose the person who mattered to her. Ooof, that stung.
“Fine, then number four is that despite yer current warlock skill, you couldn’t cast a lick before signing yer soul away.”
Avelina sputtered, gaze darting up from the floor where it fell to his face. “And how’d you know that, huh? How could you have possibly known that?”
He shrugged nonchalantly, arms out at his sides.
The tone was back to being playful with a slightly raspy laugh as he continued, “Most spellslingers don’t look shocked when their spells work.
Cause they know they’ll work. Cause they’ve practiced magic before, unlike someone who looked like she might fall apart at the seams.”
“Oh, har-har, okay, you got me! I wasn’t a mage, alright?
But if that’s all you got, I’d like my property back now.
” Avelina rolled her eyes, one hand on her hip and one palm out to him.
She didn’t want to hear what he could scrape up for a fifth fact.
If Avelina never heard another thing about herself, it’d be too soon.
She was apparently an open book and it was so terrifying to be perceived.
Cottonmouth watched her, smugly. It made her swallow hard as he studied her intently. His shoulders swayed slightly with delight, and she knew something was brewing. Oh, what now. She grimaced as he finally exhaled. “Now, it’s only fair I get my shot at all five…”
He trailed off, leaving her on a knife’s edge.
Cottonmouth raked his gaze down her body, making her skin crawl.
She unconsciously crossed her arms over her chest to cover up like it mattered at all.
There was only thin cotton between his claws and her flesh.
Her thighs clenched pre-emptively as he hummed.
“Despite the fact that yer a fan of romance books. I even wager, ye’ve got quite the collection, or had before yer daddy snatched you up. ”
Avelina rolled her eyes, licking her lips and starting to tell him off about his wild shot at her about romance when he cut her off.
“Despite the fact ya love all those ripped corsets, no ones ever ripped yours, have they?” Everything.
Went. Cold. Her eyebrows shot up on her face and her mouth fell off both hinges.
Cottonmouth snickered, “Nary a pirate captain, dazzling princess, nor fairytale price has had the pleasure of crawling between them thighs have they, Darlin?”
He nodded down at the hem of the shirt, and she dropped her arms so fast it actually hurt as her breasts fwump’ed back down.
She snatched up the fabric and dragged it down against her thighs.
His yellow eyes were glued to them as she fought with a spike of adrenaline in her veins.
No, there’s no way, there’s no fucking way.
So what! She was inexperienced, it wasn’t a crime.
“How-how-how-how did you know that? There’s no way you knew that about me by just looking at me—”
“Now, now, I think we had a deal,” he teased, slithering closer.
She pushed off the door frame into the bathroom, like her body needed to physically escape him and his accusation.
Cottonmouth stalked her down till he had her pinned against the back wall in the bathroom.
Palms outside of her shoulders, his face near her ear, his pleased hiss was wicked. “You. Owe. Me. A. Kiss.”
“Why do you even want a kiss?” she erupted, trembling to the bone.
It wasn’t the fact she was inexperienced.
Avelina wasn’t ‘saving’ herself for anything.
Sure, she’d felt licks of desire throughout her life.
There were a few individuals she imagined—as she always did—could take care of that itch she wanted to scratch.
The problem was the imagination. Her reality never lived up to her fantasies for anything else.
Not the daydream of a loving mother who saw her as more than a doll to dress up.
Nor the doting father who came home from long journeys full of stories he wanted to share by a fire and long hugs that made her feel safe.
Or the tickle of excitement in her belly from a first kiss.
None of it met up with what was inside her head—and so she worried that something she could accomplish by herself with what was behind her eyelids, she’d never find someone who could beat it.
No one could make her toes curl, leg pop, and lure a moan out of her throat like they did in all her books. That’s what she wanted. That’s what she was waiting for…someone that made her feel like she was struck by lightning.
“Pay up, Darlin.” Cottonmouth pulled back so that their noses were only an inch apart.
His smug mug was the last thing she wanted to kiss.
Mouth screwed up, Avelina wanted to pitch a fit.
A full temper tantrum—foot stomping, arms flailing, screaming at the top of her lungs that it wasn’t fair.
She just wanted to call Tala, to tell her she was alright.
He shouldn’t be able to read her like a book.
It had been a foolish bet in the first place!
And yet…she let out a breath she’d held for a terribly long time. Fine! He wanted a kiss? A kiss as payment for being an asshole? Fine!
Fine!
Fine!
Avelina grabbed his annoyingly pretty cheeks and dragged his curled lips into hers. Then was immediately struck by lightning.