Page 23 of Serpentine
It’s been nearly forty-eight hours since he stuffed her in her trunk and brought her here. No one even thought about ordering her clothes. It just shows we’re not used to women sticking around for long.
“We can get you some tomorrow. For now, you can wear one of my shirts and some of my boxers or sleep pants.”
She looks me up and down, taking in the size of me. I’m six-foot-two to her five-foot-six-ish. My pants would swallow her, but that was the intent.
Thinking of her bare pussy inside my clothes makes my teeth itch to strike into her flesh. When we get into my room, I give her clothes and a towel, allowing her space in the bathroom to shower and have a moment to herself. Even though a few times I’ve paced behind the door, talking myself out of peeking at her nude body.
She’d admitted to me she was a virgin.
I say was because I don’t know what Brax did to her. From the look that passed between them before I punched his ass, something had happened.
When she finally comes out, she has her clothes in a dirty pile in her hands. I point toward the hamper, and she drops them inside.
She’s a timid creature, but something is lurking below that I can almost see. Something that, when roused, is venomous.
She climbs into bed beside me, and I shut off the light.
For a beat, it’s silent. It has me wondering if she had instantly fallen asleep.
“I know you probably think I’m insane. Telling you I’ll behave when you’ve kidnapped me,” she says, filling the ringing air with words again.
“I didn’t take you, Brax did. You weren’t a part of the plan, Aella.”
“I’m glad he did,” she admits. Maybe it was the darkness veiling the room, or perhaps she needed to say it, but I was startled by her words.
“Why?” I ask, turning towards where I can hear her breathing, steady and soft.
“Because I’d had the worst night of my life. I got stood up at dinner by my best friend, only to come back home to find her riding my fiancé. She looked me dead in my eyes and smiled, Miles. She meant for me to find them. I know it. I got rid of my apartment. I had only just moved in with him. I was still in flux. I had nowhere to go.”
I scoff. “You’d have found a hotel somewhere, I’m sure.”
“That’s not the point. A hotel isn’t somewhere to go. A home is. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a home? And tonight, when Brax told me he would get me back home, I realized I didn’t have one, and it hurt more than anything. Even more than their betrayal.”
I close my eyes. I don’t know the feeling, but some of our Cobras do. They found solace here.
“Well, even if it’s only for a little while, this can be your home.”
I don’t register she’s turned toward me until her lips find mine in the dark.
I don’t kiss!
But even as my brain screams the notion, I’m kissing her back. It’s brief and hesitant, but it’s her saying ‘thank you’ when words have failed her.
“Was Brax... Did he... Was he good to you, I mean?” I finally ask, the dark hiding the blush on my cheeks.
She sighs, and there’s a heat that wafts from it. “So good,” she admits, and then she giggles. “I didn’t know it could be so good.”
Jealously rages through me, even though I know she’s not ours to claim.
It’s her choice who she lets touch her, even if who she’s chosen worries me.
“Well, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed yourself,” I say, and she giggles again. This time, a massive yawn moves through her.
“It wasn’t the best part of the night, though.”
I don’t know that I’ve ever laid in my bed and talked to anyone the way I am with her, and I’m not faking a moment of it. I’m genuinely interested in what she says about how her night went.
“Oh yeah? What was the best part, then?”