Page 101 of Split or Swallow

We will try something different.

Tem had no idea what to expect.

A moment later, a curious sensation overtook her. It felt as if Caspen were pulling her—drawing her consciousness away from her body and down the shared corridor between their minds. For a moment, everything went completely black. When light returned, Tem was still looking at herself in the mirror. But instead of looking straight ahead, she was looking down, and she realized with a jolt that this was Caspen’s perspective. She was inside his eyes—inside his mind—and she was seeing herself, literally, from his viewpoint.

Tem started to panic. What if she couldn’t return to her mind? What if she—

Relax, little viper.

Caspen’s voice was so loud Tem saw her reflection jump in the mirror. It came from all directions, as if she were standing in the middle of a tiny room and a hundred people were yelling his words at her. Tem tried to say something back, but found that she couldn’t. Her panic only increased, and with it, his amusement.

Untamable, as always.

As soon as he said it, Tem felt her panic disappear. She was calm because he was calm.

Now pay attention.

His focus, and hers, returned to the mirror.

It was like looking at herself through a kaleidoscope—the childish toys she had played with at the market after church—except instead of seeing a rainbow of fractured colors, she saw herself through all five senses. Suddenly she could smell her own scent—at least, how she smelled to Caspen—which was warm and rich and something else she immediately recognized, but couldn’t name.

The sea. Caspen supplemented softly. You always smell like the sea.

Tem had never been to the sea. But her mother kept a bottle of salt spray on her dresser and ever since Tem could remember, she had stolen spritzes from it for herself, spraying it in her hair to texturize her curls and rubbing it on her wrists so she could smell it throughout the day. She’d always been drawn to that clear glass bottle, always loved the cool, salty spray that made her dream of places far away from her life on the chicken farm.

Tem’s eyes—Caspen’s eyes—traveled over her body once again. The sensation was completely unnerving, and if Caspen weren’t holding her up, she was sure she would’ve fainted. But every time she came close to panicking again, Caspen calmed her down, soothing her with his mind as he showed her how it felt to look at her.

His gaze wasn’t sexual, exactly, although it was impossible to remove sex from a basilisk’s mind entirely. It was more intimate than anything, and Tem watched in fascination as Caspen’s eyes explored the curve of her hips, the dip of her collarbones, the soft crease where her thighs pressed together. She felt his craving for her—the ache of want that lurked just beneath the surface of his thoughts—and the herculean effort it took him to suppress it.

There was such unrestrained certainty in his desire—such unparalleled ownership—that Tem finally understood what Caspen had said earlier. Protecting her was his most basic instinct. It was at the forefront of his mind, even greater than his lust, which was stronger than anything she had ever felt. Caspen wanted her—need⁠ed—her. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, nothing he wouldn’t sacrifice—including himself—if it would guarantee her safety. Tem couldn’t believe Caspen was willing to be this vulnerable. It was like seeing straight into his heart. Everything he had said was true.

He found her extraordinary.

Again and again, his gaze fell to her neck, where her pulse was visibly beating. She made a mental note that he liked that area.

That should not come as a surprise.

She had forgotten he could hear her thoughts. At this proximity, he could probably control them.

Nobody could control you, Tem. But even if I could, I would not.

She watched as Caspen traced his fingers slowly across her waist. The sensation was completely foreign to Tem. She could feel every one of her own heartbeats pounding insistently beneath his fingertips, speeding up as he trailed his hand down her stomach. The temperature of her skin increased the lower his hand went, and when he slipped his fingers inside her, she gasped, but not because she felt anything between her legs.

Instead, she felt what he felt, which was a tidal wave of hunger so deeply animalistic and desperate that she had no idea how he didn’t unleash it immediately. He wanted her so badly—more, if it were even physically possible, than she wanted him. He wanted to taste her, he wanted to fuck her, he wanted to bury himself inside her. He wanted to hear the sounds she made when she came, and he wanted to hear them over and over and over again. He wanted to be the only one who understood her body, the only one who knew what turned her on, the only one to pleasure her.

Caspen wanted her on a primal level—one that went far beyond the limitations of his true form or her courtship with the prince. He wanted her in a way that was possessive, irreversible, and guaranteed to result in consequences if he didn’t have her. He wanted her more than life itself, because a life without her wasn’t one he cared to live.

Finally, Tem understood the effect she had on Caspen—how irresistible she was to him—how far beyond the physical their connection truly went. She saw how they had been balancing on a treacherously thin knife’s edge ever since the night they met, and Caspen was finally done fighting the inevitable. She was his sun. He revolved around her.

“Now do you believe me?” he whispered in her ear.

Tem was back in her own mind, standing in front of the mirror.

For once, the answer was yes. But rather than say it, Tem did what she knew Caspen wanted most; she turned around and pressed her lips to his.

They fell onto his bed together, their bodies intertwining on the silk sheets.

He had kissed her many times already, but this time was different. This time Caspen gave Tem no commands. This time they were equals, both deserving of pleasure from the other. He was no longer her teacher; she was no longer his student. They were just two lovers, experiencing each other the way lovers should.