Python's Embrace (Bitten Point Book 3) (10 page)

W
hile he might not mind
a little fur, Constantine had to admit tonight’s floorshow pushed that limit.

The hairy beast loped onto the runway, not even wearing a thong or pasties while the red and blue and white lights streaked and swerved, giving the creature a surreal appearance.

Dogman—because he just couldn’t think of him as Harold—let out a howl when he glanced their way. Freakish paws/hands pounded its chest.

“What is he, part gorilla?” he mused aloud.

“Does it matter?” hissed Aria. “We need to get out of here.”

“Why?” He didn’t turn to peek at her, but he did ask the question.

“Because he’s coming for us,” she yelled as she ducked under the table.

A good place to hide if she didn’t have him and Princess—his valiant dog who stood atop the table barking and bristling—to protect her.

Constantine braced his feet on the floor, spread his arms away from his body, and waited, timing his next move carefully. He grabbed dogman mid-leap and used the momentum to swing him away.

Crash
. The loose table on the floor couldn’t handle the force of the body landing and it skidded before collapsing. The impact didn’t stop the beast.

Harold, still wearing his collar and looking more rabid than a certain dog in a movie, sprang to his feet, ignoring the scattering patrons as they bolted for the exit.

Harold had eyes for only Constantine.

Good. Let the monster focus on him instead of the others. He flexed his fingers. He could use a bit of exercise.

With a sweep of his arm, Harold cleared a table laden with beer bottles. The tinkling breakage of glass brought a few stray screams from those still within the room. They, like Aria, chose to dive for cover instead of running.

Princess loved a challenge, and Constantine could only watch with bemusement as his dog bolted to within a few feet of Harold, where she proceeded to prance and bark madly.

Grawr.

As if that intimidated his dog. Princess squatted, peed, and then turned her back with a disdainful diss.

GRAWR
! “Schnackk,” Harold lisped.

The dogman spoke, and Constantine bared a smile. “No one’s eating anyone today.” Unless Aria was on the menu—a menu for him alone. “Forget about my brave Princess. What do you say you and I play, Harold? Does the big, ugly doggy who needs a bath want to play fetch?”

“That sounds like something Cynthia would say,” Aria muttered from behind him.

Compared to a girl. His ego might never recover. As Harold ran at Constantine again, he revised his plan. Hand-to-hand with the rabid beast might not prove his best course of action. He didn’t have the claws or slavering jaws the monster did.

Yet he wasn’t one to swap into his snake without good cause, especially since there were still witnesses around. Snakes freaked people out. Didn’t matter if he was the good guy here. People would see his python and scream, or try to kill him.

But he was less worried about that than the opinion of a certain woman.

Did he want to scare Aria?

That would solve the problem of me possibly walking away.
Get her to leave first.

What a cowardly way of dealing with his fears.

As Harold once again leaped, front paws tipped in claws extended, he ducked and let Harold soar over his head to crash into the table behind him.

Aria squeaked, but scuttled out from under the table.

“Run,” he advised. “Get outside if you can, into my truck.” Where he hoped nobody waited for them.

Flipping around to face the really pissed-off dog thing, Constantine stripped off his shirt and put his hands to the button of his pants.

“Why the fuck are you stripping right now?” Aria yelled, not having run away as he told her to.

“Gonna unleash my mighty snake.”

“That better not be a reference to your dick.”

No, but he should note his cock was mighty, too.

As Harold scrambled from his awkward wedge between the banquet seating and the table, Constantine shed his clothes.
Yessss, rid yourself of that unneeded, unnatural skin.

His head lifted and his eyes closed as he mentally called his python.

While his cold-blooded beast didn’t often talk to him, not like wolves and cats that had noisy partners, they did communicate through feelings.

So he felt the cold satisfaction as his body rippled. Every molecule undulated, and moving in a wave, they gathered and reformed. Reformed into something different.

One limb. One slick and smooth body.

“Holy fuck!” his delicate lark yelled.

It might have to do with his impressive size. Long, so very long, with a defined pattern on his skin.

I am attractive.
It was only right the female admired his traits.

But the mating would come after the battle.

The enemy was almost upon them. He held his serpentine body upright as his jaw unhinged, opening extra wide. He hissed, the sharp points of his fangs projecting.

The smelly-thing hit him, and he whipped backwards, the enemy atop him. Claws went to rip at his flesh, but got caught in the thick leather of his skin. Still, it did sting.

He sank his teeth into the creature, wishing his had poison like some of his cousins. But he had something almost as good.

His tail, often possessed of a mind of its own, rose from the floor and moved with purpose. It slithered across the back of the hairy thing then tucked around its chest, back around again.

The dog let out a rancid, hot puff of air. Definitely not dinner material, but good for a squeeze.

The coils of his body tightened around the dog thing. Clawed fingers dug at him, some piercing the skin. The pain served to only tighten him further, a crushing vise around the unnatural thing until it exhaled one final time and went limp.

Since there was no point in keeping the body trapped, the length of him uncoiled from it, letting the limp meat sack fall onto the floor.

Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. His head pivoted as his body rose higher, a tall stalk towering to give him a vantage point.

The female observed him.
His
female. She did not exude fear, not much at any rate. He slithered closer, bobbing down to peruse her. Her breath caught, but she did not flinch.

Not prey.

Not this one.

He circled around her, around and around until she stood amidst a loose mound of coils.

A fluttery touch against his skin as her hands came to rest on him.

“You’re hurt,” she said.

Words he understood but couldn’t reply to. The tip of his forked tongue flicked forth, and now she did lean back ever so slightly.

That did not prevent him from tasting her skin. He would know her flavor.

Voices yelled from afar. Others appeared to approach.

She pivoted in her ring and regarded him. “Angel, you have to come back now. There’re people coming.”

Perhaps they would provide a cleaner repast than the foul one on the floor.

“You have to change. We can’t know who’s coming. You know your kind get a bad rap. I don’t want them to shoot.”

Bullets. Ripping, tearing holes. No. Those did not appeal. And it was cold in here. Time for a nap.

Constantine threw his head back and heaved a deep breath as he came back to himself.

Of course, there was no hiding a six-foot-plus naked man on the floor standing a little too close to the naked dog thing.

Thinking quickly, Aria doused him with beer from an intact bottle.

When questioned, he stuck to his guns with a slurred, “I don’t know.”

A
ria couldn’t help
but laugh at Constantine as he drove them to his house. Princess sat on his lap, one eye cocked, watching for trouble—in other words, making sure Aria didn’t put the moves on her daddy.

As for Constantine, he kept his gaze trained on the road while sporting a stern countenance.

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad.”

He snorted. “Not that bad? I think neutering would have been preferable to you telling the cops I was stripping for you.”

“I only said it to explain your nakedness.” Because poor Constantine didn’t have time to pull on his pants before the cavalry arrived.

“Men don’t striptease.”

“They do out in Vegas.” She had a vague recollection of a very drunk Cynthia dragging her to a show where the men wore G-strings, leather chaps, and nothing else by the end of the show. Made her want to ride a cowboy at the time.

“They can do whatever they like out west. I don’t strip.”

“Why not?”

“It’s weird.”

He sounded so discomfited she couldn’t help but tease. “Some guys make good money at it. You’ve got a good body and some serious moves. I think you could make a killing taking it off and shaking that snake.”

“Snake?”

“I’m sorry. Should I have said your python?”

This time, he couldn’t hide the quirk of his lips, although he tried to remain serious. “I am not stripping for money.”

“How about for free?”

“How about not at all?”

She needled him because it was fun. So often he seemed to send her off balance. About time she returned the favor. “You know that’s not technically true, given you just did it in public, in front of not just me.”

“Only because I had to shapeshift. My legs can’t fuse together properly if I’m wearing pants.”

“Ever thought of wearing a dress?”

“No.”

“What if I suggested you wore a kilt?”

“I am not letting my junk hang loose under a skirt. I’ll keep it in my pants, thank you.”

“Speaking of junk…” She snapped her fingers. “You just reminded me of something I wanted to ask, but you were kind of busy at the time. Where does your worm go when you’re in like snakeman mode?”

“Worm?” He shot her a glance.

“Would you prefer the term willy?”

“I’d prefer it if we dropped the topic. Or if you’re that obsessed with my dick then, by all means, grab a handful. Or mouthful. I’m not picky.”

She knew he expected his words to shut her up. Except it was more fun to say, “Maybe I will suck on it.”

Nothing more empowering than being able to tease she might blow him and have him almost crash the truck into a ditch.

“You are a tease,” he growled.

“Only if I don’t put out.”

He did better at controlling his swerve this time, but that didn’t stop her laughter. “So why are we going back to the house? I thought you said it would be too dangerous,” she mentioned as she took note of the familiar landmarks.

“We just got rid of one of their main players. We got rid of another this afternoon. At this point, we’ve weakened them and shown we’ll fight back. And we’ve proven we can win. Whoever it is behind the attacks will want to regroup before striking again.”

“You mean gather his troops so they can stack the odds when they come after us again. That’s not exactly reassuring.” She wrinkled her nose.

“If you wanted reassuring, you would have left town by now. But you, my brave hawk, crave a bit of excitement.”

She thought she had until the attack in the bar. “I highly doubt that, seeing as how my first instinct was to hide under a table.” In retrospect, her cowardice burned. But what could she have done?

Lit your drink on fire and tossed it at dog boy, Molotov style.

Hindsight sucked. Aria had gotten used to the voice talking in her head. What she had a bigger problem with was the violence it usually encouraged.

I thought we liked to poison.

Among other things.

It was the other things that worried her. As did the fact they were getting closer to the bayou, which meant closer to his house, a bed, and then seeing what would happen.

Since the explosive kiss they’d shared, he’d admitted to liking her, but also the fear he’d leave her. Honest, if not easy to hear.

Meanwhile, she could admit she also liked him and feared him leaving her. A fine dilemma.

But is that really any different from anyone else when they first start dating?

Everyone suffered doubt. Everyone entered relationships with the best of intentions. Sometimes, love grew stronger over time, or so the romance books claimed. In other cases, the bloom of lust wore off and the little things nagged until couples split.

She’d seen it happen before. While Aria might not have a family of her own, she’d grown quite talented at observing the families of others.

Funny the things she remembered. Most of her early life seemed okay to access. It was the more recent stuff she had problems with still. The biggest problem of all being what to do with Constantine.

I haven’t known the guy long enough to really be thinking about this seriously.

Yet she couldn’t help it. Which begged the question, why? Other guys scratched an itch. She didn’t worry about getting involved with them or taking advantage of their bodies. With Constantine, though, she worried.

This is a man who could hurt me.
Not physically, but because he made her want to stick around for a while. Maybe give that whole, “hey, you’re cool, let’s hang for a while” thing a go.

Commitment. Not something she knew too much about. Not something she felt comfortable with.

For some reason, she just couldn’t think of Constantine in terms of only once. With him, it would be all or nothing.

She’d nicely circled back to her main dilemma again, the one where she feared to jump because she might fall flat.

But if I don’t take that leap, I cannot spread my wings to fly.
Faith that she would stay aloft. Could she give that faith to Constantine? Did she dare take a chance, grasp what she could, and give what simmered between them a chance to fly?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained—a motto never more apt than now.

The headlights of his truck illuminated his house, their stark brightness reflecting off the dark windows.

He shut down the engine, and they both sat in the truck for a moment, listening to the sounds of the night. The steady chirp of crickets. The hum of mosquitoes. The ticking of a hot engine cooling.

The sounds of normalcy.

“What are we waiting for?” she whispered.

“The weird part is, if I say flying monkeys, it’s actually the truth.”

“I hope there’s no more of them.” Shudder. She definitely wouldn’t watch the movie about Oz without remembering the mutant version.

“I hope so, too, and yet I keep wondering what other monsters might be out there that we haven’t seen yet.”

“You think there’s more?”

“Yeah. And for all I know, they’re waiting in the shadows.” He drummed his fingers on the dash of his truck.

“That seems unlikely given the nightlife seems pretty noisy and active.” The distant croak of a toad punctuated her belief.

“Or they’ve been lying in wait so long that no one is taking note anymore.”

“Are you scared?” she asked.

It wasn’t just Constantine who snorted. His dog did, too.

“I’m not scared for me, but I am worried about you. Maybe coming back here wasn’t such a good idea. I mean, we’re pretty isolated. If they attack en masse, I might not be able to defend you.”

“I thought you said you didn’t think they’d try anything until they regrouped.”

“I’ve reassessed that belief.”

She rolled her eyes. “Stop second-guessing yourself. They’re either here or they’re not. And going somewhere else doesn’t mean they won’t follow. The best way to know for sure if something lurks is for one of us to go outside as bait.” No sooner did she say it when Aria swung open her door, but before she could hop out of the truck, Princess scooted across her lap, onto the running board, then leaped to the ground.

“Just had to one-up me again, didn’t you?” she muttered as Constantine flung himself from the truck with a cried, “Princess, stay where Daddy can see you.”

While he might show concern for his dog, he also showed some for Aria as he loped around the truck. He arrived in time to grab her and swing her to the ground.

She didn’t move away, and he didn’t remove his hands. They stood for a moment, bodies close yet not quite touching, staring at each other.

“I don’t hear any monsters.”

“I don’t smell any either,” he replied, his gaze unwavering. The air between them sparkled with electricity. His hands on her waist were firm. Dare she even say possessive?

He drew her closer.

Yip
.

With a sharp bark of annoyance, Princess broke the stalemate, yet she couldn’t break the anticipatory tension humming between them. Nothing could, short of an attack. But nothing lurched from the darkness to eat them. Nothing swooped from the sky to snatch them. They made it into the house, not far, before their lips met with a hard clash of teeth.

Given Constantine’s height, she needed help to reach. His hands spanned her waist and hoisted her so that their mouths could meet.

Meet sounded so trite, though. It was more an explosion of hot breath, wet tongues, and frantic need.

She cupped his face, loving the feel of his skin as she sucked at his lower lip.

“I want you.” The words rumbled against her mouth.

They made her shiver and only served to increase the heat invading her.

“I want you, too.” The soft admission made him groan, and she found her back pressed against the wall as his mouth continued to devour. Or did she devour him?

Did it matter?

There was nothing stopping them now. Nothing to prevent her clothes from being ripped from her body. She was just as violent with his clothing, her hands pulling at his T-shirt until he yanked it over his head, baring his skin.

The flesh-to-flesh contact of their upper bodies had her sucking in a breath. Could skin sizzle?

It felt like hers did.

With a strength she admired, and a body she longed to worship—with her tongue—Constantine pinned her to the wall. A good thing he held her aloft because arousal liquefied her limbs. She trembled, boneless at his touch, her body aware of every sensation.

The unshaven edge of his jaw scraped across her tender skin, abrading and awakening it as he kissed his way over to her ear.

He nibbled it.
Oh my
. He sucked on the lobe, and she moaned. It seemed she had an erotic spot, and he exploited it with hot breath, tugs, and sucks until she panted and clutched at his shoulders.

Then he left the tender shell of her ear, his lips trailing down the column of her neck. He leaned back, using his lower body to keep her pinned as he kissed his way down to the valley between her breasts.

Keeping one arm anchored around her waist, he let his other hand roam. Slightly callused fingers cupped a breast, his thumb rubbing against the protruding tip. Her nipple tightened to an even sharper point.

It took some adjusting, him hoisting her higher on the wall, but the new height meant he could latch his lips around her aching peak.

She made a noise as she clutched at his head, with pants and moans urging him on.

Take it deeper into your mouth.

He did. He sucked her breast in, the heat of his touch exploding in her.

Gasping and squirming didn’t mean he hurried. Oh no. He took his time torturing her poor nipples, first one then the other. The nubs tugged with his lips, his teeth nipping at them while his tongue swirled around them.

He drove her absolutely crazy with desire, enough that she gasped, “Stop teasing me and fuck me already, would you?”

“But I’m having fun,” was his rumbled reply, the words quivering on her skin.

“And I want to come.” She didn’t need to say on his cock. He understood, and it was his turn to shudder.

He still wore his pants, and he took a few fumbling, precious seconds to push them down. Then it was her turn to lose her bottoms, his hands rough in their removal, but titillating as proof of his excitement.

Once he bared her to his touch, he repositioned her against the wall, his hands cupping her ass cheeks while his lips scorched hers in a passionate kiss. It rendered her quite breathless. His shaft throbbed against her belly, hot and
alive.

As arousal ran like liquid fire through her veins, she sucked at his lower lip, her entire being thrumming with excitement.

I need him so badly.

“I need you.”

He echoed her thoughts as he drew his hips back and let the hard length of him bob up from where he’d trapped it under her body. He angled his hips far enough back that the tip of him teased.

He might have his hands full, but she didn’t. She kept her legs loosely coiled around his waist as she reached down. She gripped his cock firmly, and he sucked in a breath. Stroke. Stroke.

She slid her hand on him, keeping the head of his mushroomed shaft rubbing against her core.

Her arousal moistened the tip of him, covering him in a glistening sheen that made the rub against her clitoris even more moan-worthy.

“If you don’t stop, I am going to come before I get inside you,” he growled, his fingers digging into her cheeks.

“Oh no you don’t,” she muttered. She pulled at him, inserting the head of his cock into her sex, but then couldn’t get him any farther.

He locked his body, and she growled. “What are you doing?”

“You’re tight.”

“And you’re big.”

“Exactly.”

He worried about hurting her? She took her gaze from their bodies and their intimate joining to see he held himself rigid, the cords in his neck tense and shaking.

“Don’t worry about me, angel. I can handle a little thickness, and I don’t mind a bit of rough.” With those words, she grabbed him by the cheeks and drew him close that she might kiss him. As he relaxed, she tightened her thighs and, with a chuckle of excitement, thrust with her hips, sheathing him.