Page 55 of King of Serpents

Therxian cleared his throat, his gavo twitching. “If you insist,” he muttered. “It says: ‘The fruit of love is strange but sweet//How I yearn to taste it endlessly from the mouth of my lover.’ Below that it says: ‘If only I could possess the courage of Luwai to seek the path illuminated by my hearts.”

“Who is Luwai?” Alex whispered.

He dipped his chin, his mouth tightening. Apparently, he was just as puzzled as she was. “It will take some research. It may be nothing, but I am curious as to who might have left this. Access to the lower palace is heavily restricted. Perhaps Luwai is a clue that may point out who had ventured down here.”

“It hasn’t been all that long ago. I’ve seen more dust in the corners of your nest than I’ve seen on that thing,” she pointed out, and his gavo snapped again in agreement.

“Which makes the timing curious,” he rumbled. “The condition of my nest is due to it being abandoned for many revolutions. This has been here for far less time.” He craned his neck to peer up at the ledge. “You said that there are more?”

She nodded. “Yes, there are probably a doz—eeeyah!” she shrieked, her stream of words fragmenting into a cry of surprise as her mate snatched her up into his arms and launched them into the air.

The flight was short and far more expedient than taking the ramp. The platform was clearly originally intended for the flightless Uralial. However, seeing Therxian on the ledge as he bent over the pile of scrolls clarified the sheer size of it. It was easy to imagine an entire family of Seshanamitesh of similar size lounging around a table while others played in the pool below. It just seemed wrong that all that remained was a pile of scrolls and remnants of a forgotten feast that had long since rotted away. His hand skimmed over them, hovering over them, but he withdrew it with a sigh.

“I will return to examine these later. For now, let us return to the nest. I am certain that you are hungry. I brought the morning meal that Jathella delivered to me.”

“Food?” That piqued her curiosity. She was indeed hungry. But... she cast a reluctant glance toward the steaming water. It really did look inviting, and she really had missed having her mate all to herself. Breakfast could technically wait a little longer. She drew back a step, her fingers toying with the zipper of her flight suit. “It happens that I’m hungry for a little of something else.”

He glanced over at her with confusion. “You have not even looked at what I brought. How do you know that you are not hungry for it?”

Alex drew her zipper down slowly, the movement drawing his gaze.

“Oh,” he breathed, and the scroll clattered forgotten to the table. “Yes. We should stay a little longer and enjoy the bath to satisfy other... hungers.”

Alex chuckled and drew it down her belly. Smart male.

Chapter 39

Alex didn’t know what was more delicious: the feeling of the hot water lapping at her body or the heat of her mate’s hands sliding over her bare body. A sigh escaped her as one of his palms slid over her breast and captured her nipple between two knuckles, gently pinching it. She wiggled in response, her bottom brushing against her mate’s scaled tail.

Therxian huffed in amusement. “Are you trying to tempt me, hithana? You say that you wished to bathe.”

“Who is tempting who?” she challenged breathlessly. “Last I heard, the human breast doesn’t require that much attention... or pressure,” she added when he leisurely rolled her nipple and tugged on it with his knuckles.

“The human anatomy is a mystery. How am I supposed to know the proper procedures?” he whispered, the faint hiss of his breath teasing her neck as he bent low to whisper into her ear.

She shivered in response, her mouth curling as she settled back more fully against him. The muscles of his torso and chest supported her weight easily as he held her, his wings sweeping through the water on either side as they semi-enclosed her. The tip of his tail was busy tracing little circles and random geometric patterns on her thigh. Never in her life did she think anything remotely related to geometry would be so sexy. It moved across her skin like a primitive script, sending tiny tremors through her as it drew inward to the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh. She squirmed again as she made a small, plainative noise in the back of her throat.

“This hardly seems fair when you have more appendages than I do with which to torment,” she panted.

“The laws of nature are seldom fair,” he hissed. “Especially for a male on Seshana. Did you know,” he continued, his voice taking on a soothing, rumbling cadence behind her, “the haga in which juvenile males received their education taught us many useful survival skills. Among them was how to attract and please our mates. Even among the Seshanamitesh, the females are sensitive around their reproductive and nursing areas. But humans are so soft, delicate, and pliant. You are a hundred times more so. It is almost too easy.”

“Are you seriously telling me,” she panted, “that you had a sexual education that encompassed that much. I think Earth is failing in that regard, then, when human males struggle to find the clitoris.”

“Clitoris,” he murmured, echoing that single word. He said it as if he were vocally caressing it.

His opposite hand slid around her side, grazing her hip, and his claws traced a light path down her belly. It was of no surprise that she squirmed again, but she gasped for air in the next moment when his fingers cupped her sex in a very exact manner as slipped his fingers between her thigh and caught the small bead of flesh at its apex between the first two knuckles of that hand. He rolled it gently in time with the one still clasping her nipple, and lightly plucked at both simultaneously, making her body bow subtly in response.

“A delightful anatomical addition,” he rasped. His tongues flicked, their tips teasing her neck and shoulder. “It makes you well up with such sweet scent and flavor, hithana.”

“I bet,” she croaked, drawing another chuckle from her mate.

“It is fascinating. If I tug just so,” he rumbled as he applied a downward, pulling pressure that made her forget to breathe, “it reacts like a thread pulling your body taunt and drawing your pleasure from its well deep within you. But your reaction is even sweeter when it is plied by my tongues.” He rotated his wrist, lightly twisting and turning her clit in a way that drew tension down her spine, only to suddenly drag his knuckles downward to put pressure on her entrance and push into her cunt. If it weren’t for the fact that she was submerged from the breast down in warm water, she might have gushed all over his hand as he repeated the pattern over and over. She perhaps still was, but if so, it was lost within the water. Therxian paused, his mouth brushing her hair. “Breathe, ashlava. Death will not steal you from me, not even by way of the sweetest pleasures.”

Her captured breath left in a sharp expulsion, and she drew another ragged gasp of air. “Gods... so you say, but I think you’re trying to kill me. Or you will come close if you keep that up.”

He pressed his mouth against her hair and groaned. “Do you imagine that you are the only one, hithana? I ache for you even now.”

He angled his body, pressing his tail just below his navel upward so that his extruded sant dragged against her bottom, the bulging folds of the sheath sliding with delicious pressure against the back end of her sex as he continued to work his knuckles in and out. Alex trembled as pleasure gathered and rolled through her in a small magical release that heightened her awareness and made her tremble all over.