Page 35 of Bitten By the Basilisk

He brought her to the bathroom attached to his bedroom and set her down next to the water closet, telling her to take her time. She shut herself inside to use the toilet, her legs trembling as she bent her knees to sit. Miraculously, her borrowed shirt didn’t feel damp anywhere except for a little sweat from between her breasts, although the fabric was now stretched out.

Out in the bathroom, one of the vanity’s two sinks ran for a moment, then came the telltale splashing of a tub filling.

The bathroom, like the rest of his gorgeous apartment, favored a mix of midnight blue, dark gray, warm gold, and a little white. Besides a twin vanity, it also had a large standing shower with multiple heads, tall cabinet doors she assumed opened a linen closet, and a massive, built-in bathtub with a wide, rounded rim and a single stair.

The previous time she had seen it, the design on the dark tile that wrapped behind the bath had dominated her attention. Etched in gold, it depicted a monstrously large snake, its cobra-like head poised over the coil of its long, powerful tail.

After completing her business in the water closet, she emerged to wash her hands and found herself stopping to stare at Silas’s naked buttocks, as toned as the rest of him. He had taken off his sweatpants and was depositing them into a hamper hidden in the linen closet.

A trail of sweat glistened on his spine, reminding her how roughly he’d taken her—had been taking her—and all of it had felt so good.

Her core began to ache again, feeling empty and fluttery. Aghast at herself, she forced her feet to take her to the sink. She’d always known she liked sex, but had she really not had enough yet?

Then again, could anyone blame her?

As she soaped up her hands, she dared to check her appearance in the mirror. Her magically styled hair still looked fantastic, but her mundanely applied eye makeup had smudged yet again and needed to come off.

If she had her mom’s illusion magic, her makeup would still be perfect, and it would be as easy to remove as snapping her fingers.

Alas, all she could do with her ability was notice a faint trace of magic on the mirror that she assumed kept it from steaming up. How helpful.

“Before we pass out for the night,” Silas said, his reflection leisurely lifting a few towels from the upper shelves of the linen closet, “I’d like to relax in the bath together.”

She turned around, drying her hands on a towel so soft it felt brand new, and raised an eyebrow. “Just relax?”

Wearing a lopsided smile, he set the towels on a small table near the tub, which was filling quickly from two faucets on either end. The black marble basin wasn’t quite as large as the individual steam baths at the spa, but nearly.

“Unless you want something more,” he smoothly replied, now facing her, his cock already half hard.

She took a deep breath, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. “We’ll see. First, I need some stuff from my bag.”

Before she could push away from the vanity, he moved toward the door, staying her with a gesture. “I’ll get it.”

When he returned with her backpack, she put her hair up in an elastic band and removed any trace of makeup with a travel pack of beauty wipes. Silas meanwhile used the water closet. By the time she was done rinsing her face and patting it dry, the bath was ready, and she pulled his shirt over her head.

Silas’s heated gaze caressed her body as he helped her step into the oblong basin, similar in depth to a soaking tub. The temperature of the water was a few degrees less scalding than she liked, but it was still plenty warm.

Once she was sitting, he followed her in and pulled her onto his lap and into his arms, her back to his chest, her head resting on his shoulder. His dick remained stiff against the top of her ass, twitching as it grew, but he merely wrapped his arms around her and exhaled slowly, contentedly.

They remained that way for a few languid moments. Silas traced swirls on her skin and nuzzled the side of her face. His hold was incredibly comfortable, as though they were made to fit together, his light touches both soothing and stirring.

After a long day of travel—a flight to the East Coast, then a bus to Indigo Cove—not to mention the excitement of the past few hours, weariness was finally settling in, her head and limbs growing heavier.

She stroked the hand of his arm wrapped around her, finding something hard—a ring—on his index finger. He didn’t stop her as she lifted it out of the water to look at it closer. She had glimpsed it much earlier, knew it was magical, but Silas had a knack for distracting her.

The shape of the setting and its engraved snake symbol told her it was a signet ring, something passed down. Its magical aura brightened as she concentrated on it, revealing the ring to contain a rather potent ability, one activated with blood.

A suspicion teased the back of her mind. The shifter holding her lived in the building’s penthouse, parked his motorcycle in bay number one, his luxury car in bay two, and wore a powerful artifact he’d likely inherited, as though he were some sort of prince or…king.

“Were you aware that my kind are sometimes associated with alchemy?” Silas asked, his voice soft by her ear. “Specifically, an alchemical formula to synthesize gold?”

She recalled that about the legendary basilisk—sometimes depicted as an enormous snake like the one on the wall above her, other times a creature similar to a cockatrice—and that it could kill with its gaze.

He continued once she hummed her assent. “This ring allows me to sense the location of rare deposits for our miners to extract. It’s not my only job expectation, but it’s a primary one.”

She needed a moment to absorb that, her mouth parted in astonishment. “Well, no wonder you’re so rich.”

His low chuckle rumbled against her back. “Indeed. Much of the nest’s wealth stems from this ring.”