Page 111 of Split or Swallow

Caspen sighed, tilting his head up to the ceiling.

“It is complicated, Tem.”

“So explain it.”

He sighed again and looked her in the eye.

“Basilisks and humans are not meant to be together. We are your enemy. We are your predators. We are predisposed to destroy you—to take pleasure in your pain. When we are together, I walk a line between pleasing you and…hurting you. My human form craves the former. My true form craves the latter.”

Tem processed his words slowly. Just as she realized their meaning, Caspen spoke it out loud:

“Some part of me enjoys hurting you.”

His words were thick with shame, and Tem knew it had cost him dearly to say them. But she found it wasn’t a surprise. She thought about how he’d bit her lip, drawing blood. How he’d thrusted into her even after she’d tried to pull away. She remembered the untethered darkness in his eyes when he’d finished. His hunger.

Hunger for her.

Caspen had told her that her body should only know pleasure—never pain. But what if his pleasure could only come from her pain?

She reached for him again. Caspen caught her wrist and gently rolled her off of him.

“Tem,” he said. “Enough.”

Tem wanted to protest. But she knew she had no more to give. Caspen knew it too; his mind was inside hers, and she couldn’t hide her pain from him. She looked him in the eyes, and saw there was no anger or impatience there. Perhaps it was easier to stop; perhaps he didn’t trust himself around her anymore.

Tem nodded, accepting his final command.

Caspen pressed his lips to hers, and all they did was kiss. When Tem couldn’t kiss any longer they simply laid there, and Caspen brushed his fingertips up and down her body.

“Sleep, Tem,” the basilisk murmured in her ear.

She did so.

When she woke, Caspen’s arms were still around her.

Tem watched him as he slept, realizing it was the first time she’d ever seen him do that. He breathed impossibly slowly. Tem tried to hold her breath in between each rise and fall of his shoulders, but found she couldn’t make it a single time. There was something inherently peaceful about his expression—it was completely devoid of his usual intensity and seriousness. He looked younger, whatever that meant in the grand scheme of his long basilisk life. There was a tiny fleck of blood on his temple. No doubt from when he’d bit her lip.

Caspen’s cock was pressed against her thighs, already hard.

Does that thing ever take a day off? she wondered.

It does not.

Tem nearly jumped out of her skin as Caspen opened his eyes.

“You could warn a girl before doing that,” she managed to say.

In reply, he kissed her.

“Caspen,” she murmured as he worked his way down her neck. “We can’t. I need to get home.”

He rubbed his entire palm between her legs. “Do you?”

“The farm—I—”

But it was useless. She was already wet and she couldn’t pretend to give a shit about the chickens right now.

He slid the head of his cock inside her, then stopped, his eyes flicking to hers.