“You’re staring,” he said softly.
“I am,” she admitted.
“At what?”
She let her gaze wander deliberately down his torso and back up again. “Just assessing how human you really are.”
His smile turned wicked. “And your verdict?”
She let her fingers skim over his chest, light, curious, exploratory. “Still gathering data.”
His tail tightened, and she felt the shift in him, interest deepening into something more focused.
“Careful,” he repeated, quieter this time.
But she didn’t move away. Because for the first time in too long, she wasn’t just surviving the heat of Solkaris. She was enjoying it.
He leaned toward her slowly, that infuriating, confident smile playing at his mouth, like he knew exactly what he wasdoing. Like he was waiting to see if she’d be bold enough to follow through.
It was absolutely a challenge.
Fine.
She closed the last inch between them and kissed him. For half a heartbeat, she wondered if he’d freeze. He didn’t.
His lips were warm, very warm, and softer than she’d expected. Human. Completely human. The faint brush of teeth, the low sound in his throat when she pressed closer, even his forked tongue, none of it monstrous.
Oh.
Oh, that was good.
She pulled back just enough to look at him, her hands resting against his chest. “Well,” she murmured, a little breathless. “More human than monster.”
His eyes gleamed. “Disappointed?”
“Not even slightly.” She traced her fingers lightly down the center of his chest. “This will be a first for me, being with a basilisk. Or any monster at all.”
His brow lifted. “You say that as though you assumed something would happen between us.”
She gave him a look. “You carried me into a hidden spring under the stars.”
“And?”
“And,” she said sweetly, sliding one hand lower, feeling the unmistakable evidence of his arousal against her stomach beneath the water, “I can’t see it, but I can definitely feel it.”
His laugh was low and unashamed. “Observant,” he murmured.
Her curiosity flared again, wicked and insistent. She shouldn’t be thinking about it, but she was. Wondering what he looked like fully. Wondering how different it would be. How it would feel.
Dang it.
He leaned closer, lips brushing the corner of her mouth. “Same for me,” he said quietly.
“Oh?” She tilted her head. “You’ve never been with humans before.”
“Yes.” His smile turned slow and deliberate. “But I’ve been wondering about something.”
“And what would that be?”
