And yet here she was. In a hidden spring. In a land that wasn’t hers. Pressed against a basilisk whose tail curled possessively around her waist while his curious, deliberate touch learned her faster than most men ever had.
Maybe that was it. The secrecy. The danger. The fact that she was somewhere she shouldn’t be, doing something reckless with someone entirely not human.
Maybe being wrapped up in a monster beneath an open sky was exactly the kind of “something else” her body needed.
His fingers adjusted again, firmer now, more confident, and her breath shattered.
“Right there,” she whispered, barely able to form the words.
He obliged immediately.
Her head tipped back against his shoulder, stars blurring overhead as sensation crested fast and bright. Too fast. She couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe she was this close, this quickly.
“You’re shaking,” he murmured, voice no longer teasing.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed.
His tail tightened subtly, anchoring her as his touch remained steady, intentional, driving her closer with every precise movement.
And when it happened, it was sudden.
A sharp inhale. A broken sound she didn’t bother to swallow. Her body arching against him as the orgasm washed through her, hot and overwhelming and impossible to contain.
For a long moment, she couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak. She just floated there in his arms, breath unsteady, pulse racing wildly under his lips.
He went still, holding her securely as the aftershocks faded.
“Well,” he said softly after a beat, unmistakable satisfaction threading through his voice. “That seems…universal.”
She let out a breathless laugh, still recovering. “Shut up.”
His lips curved against her skin.
“But you’re right,” she admitted quietly, turning her head just enough to glance at him. “I didn’t expect that.”
“In a spring?” he asked lightly.
“With you,” she corrected.
His eyes darkened at that, not teasing this time. “Good,” he said simply.
And the way his tail remained wrapped around her, the way his hand lingered at her hip, it was clear he wasn’t done discovering just how many things they had in common.
Her pulse was only just beginning to steady when a voice cut cleanly through the night.
“You should not be here together in the spring.”
It wasn’t loud, but it carried.
Liora stiffened instantly, the warmth that had wrapped around her moments ago turning sharp and cold. Maldenis’s tail loosened from around her as they turned toward the rocky path leading down to the water.
An older basilisk stood there, tall and rigid, his gaze bright and deeply unimpressed.
Liora’s stomach dropped.
“This spring,” the elder continued, voice clipped, “is sacred.”
Maldenis straightened slightly in the water, shifting so that he was partially in front of her. “Elder?—”
