Chapter Eleven
Cottonmouth
“Did you mean it?”
It was the first thing Avelina said to him in hours.
They spent the rest of the day stuffed in that cabin with the windows open while there was actually a breeze in Gloomsdale.
Most of his crew came and left, telling him updates as people made it back home from Parandor.
The Stronghold was up in arms, apparently the rumor was Cottonmouth and an unknown warlock almost broke in.
While it wasn’t exactly the buzz he’d hoped to stir, he didn’t hate the image it painted.
That made the real deal seem more genuine.
If they ‘tried’ once, the Paladins would be certain he’d make a second attempt.
And he’d ride off into the sunset with a new name, all the gold he could carry, and end up somewhere like the Chroma Coast or something.
But, the entire day, while he worked out schematics in his mind and moved pawns on his imaginative chess board, Avelina was quiet.
She took her lumps and played nice with all the rest of the crew.
Even when they tried to rag on her for fucking up their escape, or tease her into striking back, she stared through them with that hollowed gaze.
It was getting kind of sad…then, as they laid in the dark, the crickets chirping out in the swamp under a full moon, she spoke.
“Mean what?” He blinked the light sleep out of his eyes.
“That you don’t need nor want kisses as payment from me?”
He scoffed, “Is that what’s got yer goat this whole time?”
“Just answer the question,” she huffed into the pillow she was curled around.
“Yes, I meant it.” He rolled his eyes. Sheeeesh, a man makes a joke one time and the little warlock gets bent out of shape.
Rolling over to loom over her, he watched her eyes snap open.
Like catching a cat in the briar at night, her orbs flashed.
He arched a brow in response. “Do I look like the kinda man who can’t get ass if he’s craving it? ”
“You don’t want me to answer that,” she grumbled into her pillow.
“Ooooo, watch out now, little viper’s finally getting her venom,” he teased.
When she neither flushed nor shirked away, he frowned.
Now, hang on a second. Spreading out his tail, he finally laid his body beside her, propping his head up onto her pillow.
Avelina scowled back at him in the hazy moonlight.
It filtered through the thick canopy of trees, leaving the whole bed covered in shadowy tattoos.
She had that faraway look, like she was lost deep in thought again and he hated being left out of it.
He prodded the center of her forehead with his forefinger. “Spit it out.”
“What if I did want it?” she blurted out, shocked and surprised with herself. Poor things eyebrows were up in her hairline.
“What now?” He blinked hard, once.
She stared into his eyes, cheeks finally turning a bright red.
Oh, now she’s gone and done it. Avelina had the look on her face like she’d opened a can of worms, and she disliked the contents spilling out into her lap.
A wicked, slow smirk crawled up his face.
What if I did want it? He was about to prod her again when she confessed, in a low rasp.
“You said if I wanted my bodice ripped, we could talk about it. And now, I wanna talk about it.”
“And, uh, why the change of heart?” His tail slithered up the bed to cradle her backside, keeping her an inch from him.
“We’ve both been pretty frustrated,” she started, clearly mustering up all the courage in her body. She clutched the pillow like it was a life raft. Fingers curled around the cushion, knuckles bone white, her fingernails would have left tracks if it was his flesh and not a stiff cotton.
“We have?” He spoke softer, fingers teasing her skin as he trailed them up her arm toward her elbow.
“Look, this doesn’t need to be—” she choked on her own words as his claws scratched up the back of her bicep. Heat radiated off her. “I was just thinking.”
“You do that a lot, darlin,” he murmured, closing the space between their faces. She sucked in a breath. “Was that all that little attitude was about today? You’ve been hot and bothered.”
“You know what,” she swallowed, twisting from him, “forget I said anything.”
But his fingers found her jaw in the dark and brought her face back toward him.
Her lips crashed into his and he didn’t even consider how bad of an idea it was.
She was his toy, his plaything, his pawn.
Avelina was his means to an end, and getting tangled up was a mistake.
While Callum could disconnect from most things, sex and feelings went hand in hand for him.
It’s why he hadn’t craved anyone or anything in some time, why he berated Grahm for his priorities…
because he couldn’t separate the emotions from the euphoria.
All sense or reason fled his body as he kissed her like a starved beast set loose in a field of unsuspecting sheep.
He ripped from kiss to kiss, each nastier and more brutal than the last. A hint of metal tang touched his tongue.
Callum pulled away, finding one of his fangs nicked her bottom lip.
It didn’t phase Avelina at all, as she scrambled to get ahold of him and drag him back in.
Her puffy lips met him in equal parts ferocity and demand.
He hummed against her mouth, drowning in her kiss. An eternity is a long time not to come up for air. Their lips brushed, damp and warm. He growled hungrily, “Tell me what you had cookin’ up in that noggin of yers all day, little viper.”
“I want to come,” she breathed, pushing away from his mouth to suck in gulps of air. “I want you to make me come, I want it to make all my muscles relax. I want to forget what happened in Parandor. Even if for a few hours.”
“I think I can make that happen,” he snickered.
That’s not even a hard ask. Curling her wild mane around his fingers, he tugged her head back.
With her chin to the ceiling, his mouth descended on her throat.
He groaned at how pliable she was, hungry thing.
She pressed her back hard against his tail.
One of her legs looped over his hip as he melted against her warmth.
Just like a serpent to spread out to sun himself on a rock.
Her jugular thumped with a rapid heartbeat.
His tongue flicked out, pressing to her salty skin.
Swiping up, he was rewarded with hard body shivers from Avelina.
She curled fingers around his shoulders and clutched him tight.
Callum kissed down her throat toward her collar until he met her shirt.
A part of him wanted to rip it off. Get it between his teeth and hear the pop-pop-pop of the buttons as he tore it inch by inch.
However, seeing as the poor thing only had so many shirts, and he didn’t have anything to replace them with, he behaved himself.
She inhaled sharply as he worked the clothing open leisurely.
All the while he kissed, nipped, licked, and sucked her skin as he steadily exposed it.
When he got to those pretty breasts he’d seen the first time he bathed her, he groaned.
Out of pure greed and his own desires, he sucked on her pebbled nipples.
Her hips bucked against him at the sharp intensity.
He licked them better as an apology, but he wasn’t actually sorry.
Especially as he did it again with the other.
She dug a heel into his scaley hide. The feel of her leg scraping against him is what did him in.
His cocks hardened to the point the tips protruded from his pocket.
They were sensitive and a hard shiver ran his spine from crown to the tip of his tail. He needed to move faster, or he’d be fucking the mattress.
And the little viper requested an orgasm, didn’t she? About time she gets one.
Avelina had a point. They were both frustrated. Cooped up in his cabin, breathing each other’s air, they were willing to bite each other’s head off. Sex was a far better tool to relieve that tension then actually fighting…in his opinion.
He worked open the last three buttons in quick succession and moved past her soft belly to the apex between her thighs.
With a sharp tug, those underclothes came off her thighs to her knees.
One day, likely in the near future if he continued to make poor decisions, he’d love pushing those down to just the middle of her thigh.
There wasn’t anything he liked more than bending a lover over, dropping their drawers juuuust low enough to fuck them brainless, then pulling the cotton undies back over a well fucked backside.
Oh, who am I kidding, we are oil and fire.
He knew for certain he’d be inside her again.
Especially after he swiped his tongue through her curls.
If he thought kissing her mouth was like igniting a flame?
Callum moaned into her cunt. She was already drenched and he was simply lapping up all her sweet nectar.
When he finally got to teasing her clit, the thighs he’d draped over his shoulders trembled.
Making my job a little too easy there, darlin’.
Callum told himself he’d get another orgasm out of her.
The first one didn’t count, not when she was inches away before he’d even stuck his tongue in her.
Callum held her hips down and did the work with his tongue.
Avelina came up and over the edge with a whimper.
Thighs clamping down on his ears, his warlock broke apart.
Her fingernails clawed tracks into his scalp, and it only made him hum harder against her clit. Sweet, wet, and a good scratcher? Fuck.
His cocks brushed against the sheets and he knew there was a large damp spot from his slick. Hips rutting softly, he couldn’t help himself while her walls futtered around his tongue. She sighed dreamily and he had to pull away or he’d end up rutting himself into the mattress.
“That ought to relax a few of them muscles,” he teased smugly, licking his lips clean.
Callum slithered up her body. Arms scooping under her torso, he dragged his belly against hers.
His cocks fully pushed out of his pocket till their tips brushed through her folds.
Callum took only a second to line up his hips before he thrust in.
Just one…for now.
She made a noise, a tiny squeak as he captured her lips again.
While a gentleman might have warned her, or prepared her for what was going to happen, Callum wasn’t.
What he was, was a good people reader. Avelina didn’t ask him to ‘rip her bodice’ to have a nice guy make love to her.
She was far too clever, more so than she gave herself credit for, and wicked vipers like herself only got into bed with The Cottonmouth because they wanted vicious.
They wanted a fuck so bad it left an impression on the underside of her stomach. So, he didn’t warn her.
Her legs flew around him and squeezed. His bottom cock was the one currently buried deep in that core of hers.
The top one was rubbing through her curls, brushing against her clit.
Avelina cried out into his mouth as he dragged them both backward then slammed forward.
Her body was a burning lava pit that he eagerly sank into.
It was more than her wet cunt that gripped him tight.
Her arms coated in a light layer of sweat as she hugged him tight.
The way her nails dug into his back, actually drawing blood as he continued.
All he could think was, bet this is better than them novels, huh?
It made him too cocky, too self-assured; he was poisonous.
Hearing her moaning as his tongue danced with hers, it inflated his head till he would surely be insufferable come morning.
His viper enjoyed every moment of it. Every thrust resulted in another sound of ecstasy until he was forced to give her mouth back.
She panted for air, eyes blown wide, she looked as feral as he felt.
Grinning from ear to ear, fangs barred, he pushed up on his arms. Giving her a little more breathing room let him pick up the tempo.
Her thighs started to tremble at his sides, and he knew she was close again.
Staring down at her, he couldn’t help the raspy chuckle escaping him.
“Now ain’t that just the prettiest sight I’ve ever seen. ”
“What?” Avelina croaked. Every inch of her was flush, eyes big, lips puffy—she was a wet dream if he ever had one. The clamp of her walls around him warned that he was a thrust or two away from fulfilling that request. He could practically see her seeping out of her ears already.
“You on the verge of comin’ hard enough to see stars.”
Her mouth turned down for a moment, as if she might back talk him, but she lost the words.
She couldn’t speak. Her eyelashes fluttered and every muscle in her seized.
Walls closed around his cock and he saw stars too.
A breathy curse or two off her lips to match his snarl of delight, the pair followed each other into the abyss.
He was too dizzy to care as he painted both her insides and belly.
Hips rutting, sharp and frenzied, he chased the euphoria.
She fluttered around him and milked every drop she could.
“Gods damn,” he exhaled, punching down into the mattress with his fists to keep from crushing her beneath him.
“Agreed,” she swallowed loudly. Callum finally cracked open his eyes, smug, shit-eating grin plastered to his face.
His inflated ego didn’t dim the self-satisfied, sex-drunk smile tugging at her lips.
Looks good on ya, darlin’. He spared a hand to cup her chin.
Inspecting her playfully from left to right, made her smile bigger.
His cocks finally softened enough to retreat to his pocket.
“Now, humor me, darlin’…”
“Yes,” she laughed, slapping away his hand.
“Yes what?” He hummed inquisitively as he slipped back down onto the bed beside her. Both of them sticky and sweaty but equally relieved, he’d say that was a job well done.
“Yes, that was better than one of my books.” She rolled her eyes, shifting as if to get up. He shook his head, throwing an arm around her and pulling her into his chest. Avelina scoffed, “Hey!”
“Ignore it,” he stated with finality. “It’ll dry down and you can wash it off in the morning.”
She huffed but did as she was told. Even with her dirty, sticky belly brushing against his, Avelina curled up in his arms was the best thing he’d had in a long time. He soaked in the euphoria of his orgasm. Better that then to face the reality that he’d fucked up.
He liked her.
Callum knew it without having to question it. He liked bickering with her, liked kissing her more, liked laying there with her sticky from his cum. Liked claiming her.