Page 36 of Between Two Kings

When their eyes met, Apollo’s mind brushed against hers, and Tem fought the urge to recoil. She didn’t let him in. She couldn’t. Instead she threw up a barrier—the same one she’d used against Caspen—to keep him out. His gaze dug into her like a knife, hot and insistent, unrelenting in its intensity. He wasn’t touching himself—no one was—that act was reserved for the Serpent Queen. But his cock was hard, and without thinking, Tem’s eyes trailed down his body to look at it. It looked so much like Bastian’s. The resemblance was uncanny. Like father, like son.

With a gasp of surprise, Tem came.

The moment it happened, the crowd erupted into cheers. Caspen picked her up by the waist and spun her around before setting her down and kissing her straight on the mouth. Tem kissed him back, squeezing her eyes shut tight, willing herself to forget what she’d just seen.

The couple was beaming; it was clear they were overjoyed by her blessing. Only Tem knew the truth: that the couple had not made her come at all.

“Now what?” she asked, still breathless.

Caspen smiled. “Now we celebrate.”

Celebrating, of course, meant sex.

Everyone around them was already doing it; the crowd was breaking off into pairs and groups, their bodies overlapping in an endless wave of skin. Caspen pushed her down on the mattress, and Tem wrapped her legs around him. She knew many were still watching, and she knew she didn’t care. She might even have preferred it at this point. Her basilisk side was alive and well, filled with the communal joy that her blessing had brought to the couple.

Caspen spread her legs, but she stopped him before he could enter her.

“Wait,” Tem said.

He paused. “What is the matter, Tem?”

“I…” Tem began. She looked up at him, and her throat seemed to close.

At her expression, Caspen took her face in his, pressing his lips to her forehead. “Talk to me,” he murmured.

For some reason, tears pricked her eyes. “Am I good enough?”

Caspen frowned. “Good enough at what?”

“This. Everything. You.”

His frown deepened. “Me?”

“Yes. One day I’m nobody and then suddenly I’m queen of the basilisks. It’s…too much.”

“Tem.” Caspen pulled her closer. “You have nothing to fear. You are doing beautifully.”

“How can you say that? I can’t transition without help. And even then I can barely—”

“Tem,” he cut her off again, pressing his forehead to hers. “Enough.”

She stared into his golden eyes, trying to understand the fondness in them. “How can you always think the best of me?”

“Because you are the best of me,” he said simply.

His words floored her. It was impossible to believe that she could make a centuries-old creature better.

“You are more than good enough,” he murmured against her cheek. “You are perfect.”

Tem smiled. Caspen smiled too, pulling her closer.

Are you ready?

Yes.

Unmistakable approval lit up his face. He kissed her on the lips.

Caspen thrust into her relentlessly, and she took him deeper and deeper. He was right; they did look better. Tem knew it by the way basilisks watched them enviously, as if they yearned to step up and join them. But for now, they belonged only to each other. There was no daylight in the courtyard—no way to know how much time had passed in the endless tangle of limbs and liquids and frenzied breathing. They lay on the mattress between climaxes, draped in each other’s arms, the celebration raging around them.