Python's Embrace (Bitten Point Book 3) (17 page)

T
he boat tilted over
, and she hit the water with a splash, yet didn’t sink. The heavy coils of a sinuous body wrapped around her, but forget panic. She wanted to smile instead.

As her head broke the surface of the water, she sucked in a breath of air, but didn’t scream as she came face to face with a python.

“Hello, angel.”

A forked tongue flicked, and Constantine hissed.

“I don’t think this is the time for tongue.” She smirked. “How about later if we make it out alive?”

The serpentine head bobbed in agreement.

A cry shrieked from the sky overhead. Her reptilian lover peeked upward.

“Merrill’s pet is looking for me,” she explained.

Was it possible for a snake to grin?

Weaving in the water, Constantine carried her, drawing her past the remains of the second boat, Fang and the other occupant nowhere to be seen.

Nessie had nothing on her serpent.

She heard the fierce bark of a certain Princess, and she strained to peek. Only once she saw did she exhort him to, “Hurry before that lizard makes Princess into a snack.”

Although, Princess seemed determined to prevail, even against the odds. The valiant dog darted to and fro, avoiding the reaching talons of a flying lizard no longer controlled by a certain remote. Probably on account of Merrill lying on the ground with his head tilted at an unnatural angle.

Before they could hit the shore and rescue her, Princess squealed as the thing scooped her in a clawed hand. It sprang into the air, taking the dog with it.

“Oh, hell no. If anyone gets to eat that thing, it’s me,” she grumbled. Her feet hit the ground, her wet gown came off, and she strained. Hard as she could. She pulled on the essence of her eagle. Pulled and pulled and…

A caw of success vibrated on her lips as her flesh turned to feathers, arms extended into wings. Pushing with her legs, she sprang into the air and extended her wings. A few mighty flaps and she was airborne. She immediately followed the lizard bastard.

She uttered a challenging cry. It was answered, the lizard thing halting in mid-air and hovering. The creature held Princess aloft, grinned, and then opened its mouth wide.

Intending to eat the dog didn’t mean it managed to. Princess turned rabid, twisting her head far enough that she managed to chomp it on the wrist. The leathery skin might be tough, but it proved no match for needle-like, determined teeth.

A screech from the creature and it forgot its plan to eat the furry snack. Of course, Princess’s new situation, which involved plummeting to the ground, wasn’t any better.

A choice faced Aria; let her mighty eagle take down the enemy in the sky or save one stupid little, annoying dog.

The things I do for the man I care about.

She plummeted, her wings tucked tight to her body. Streamlined, she arrowed through the sky, hurtling after the little furry form. As she neared the point of no return in her dive, she reached out. The hook of her claw caught on the collar Princess wore, and she banked out of her suicide plunge, catching the air currents before they crashed into the ground.

Of the lizard monster, there was no sign. He’d escaped.

For now.

As she hit the ground, she changed until she wore her own body. A body that got crushed against another naked one as a happy Constantine hugged her.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Are you talking about me or your dog?” she asked against his bare chest, Princess’s furry body squished between them.

“Do I have to answer?”

She snorted. “Probably best if you don’t.”

Yip
. Princess agreed.

As he released her, she took a peek around. “I see you took care of Merrill, but what happened to Ace?”

“Who?”

“The other lizard guy. The one who helped me escape. He was here when I took off in the boat.”

Constantine shrugged. “No idea. When I came out on the hill, only Merrill was here. Dumb fuck thought he was tough.”

“Proved him wrong?”

“I proved a hug is mightier than the fist.” He grinned.

The ground under foot rumbled, enough that she reached out to steady herself using his rock-hard chest. A thick arm curled around her waist.

“What was that?” she asked.

Smoke billowed from the door leading back into the secret installation.

“I think someone just cleaned up some loose ends.”

“So how do we get out of here?”

As he glanced at the swamp, she groaned. “Oh, hell no. I am not going back in there.”

Luckily, she didn’t have to. Her eagle was now hers to call upon again.

With night blanketing Bitten Point, hopefully no one noticed the eagle skimming the swamp, keeping a close watch on a snake, who wore a little dog as a hat.

Landing in the yard behind his house, she shifted back and gasped. “Constantine. Your poor house.” She took in the damage and couldn’t help the guilt that filled her.

“I don’t give a fuck about the house. You and Princess are safe. That’s what matters.”

As was his mother and brother and sister-in-law and their kid and a whole bunch of other people who poured into the yard from the house all demanding answers and, after some red-cheeked moments, offering them some robes.

The most astonishing part of that evening in the yard wasn’t the fact that they lit a firepit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over it, or the fact that no one thought it odd Constantine held her perched in his lap with Princess in hers. The weirdest part was how they all acted as if she belonged.

Here. With him.

And the urge to fly, to seek new skies, to drift upon new winds, didn’t strike.

Can I make a life here, with him?
What of the better question, did Constantine want her to stay?

I
t seemed
to take forever before everyone left. A man loved that his friends and family cared, but dammit, right now Constantine cared about more important things, such as peeling that robe from Aria, bathing every inch of her body, and then checking her to make sure for himself that she had emerged unscathed from her ordeal.

The house with its wreckage couldn’t handle them for the night, so Caleb loaned him some money and dropped him and Aria off at a motel—run by shifters, so no questions were asked about their lack of normal clothing.

Once the motel room door closed, Constantine turned to Aria with a smile. “At last. I’ve got you alone.”

Yip
.

Aria snickered. “Better explain that to your dog.”

But Princess didn’t require explanation. With a look of disgust, his dog jumped onto an armchair and curled into a ball.

Poor jealous baby. She’d come around. He hoped.

“Shower time,” he announced.

She arched a brow. “Is that just your way of getting me naked again?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you just say so?” She laughed, but she also dropped the robe to the floor and led the way into the white-tile washroom. The brat even bent over to turn on the tap.

It was enough to strangle a man.

Hug her.

Good idea. He wrapped her in his arms, hugging her tight to him, closing his eyes as he finally relaxed enough to realize she was safe.

“You’re squishing me,” she said when she finally realized he wasn’t letting go.

“Get used to it,” he retorted while manhandling her so she had to face him.

“You like hugging, don’t you?”

He couldn’t help but smile. “Just a bit.”

“I’m good with that.” Her arms wound around him and squeezed just as tightly.

Perfection. However, their bodies that closely entwined meant he didn’t get to look at her. And he really,
really,
wanted to take a peek.

Lifting her, he climbed into the shower. Only then did he release his grip on her.

With a seductive smile, she leaned back against the tile wall. “So in all the excitement, I don’t know if I said thank you for coming to rescue me.”

His eyes tracked the finger that drew a line between her breasts and then dipped lower. “If you ask me, you were doing a pretty damned good job of saving yourself.”

“Guess I did, but a girl does like to know she can rely on her man.” She paused, and she peeked at him, a coy smile curving her lips. “And I think this girl should thank the angel who saved her.”

“No need to thank. I’d do anything for you.” Never had he spoken truer.

“Really? You’d do anything? Then wash me, would you, because I am so done with smelling like a swamp.” She wrinkled her nose, and he laughed.

“Your wish is my command.”

The soap sat on the dish inset within the tile wall. He made quick work of its wrapper. The lemon scent filled the shower as he lathered his hands. He rubbed those soapy palms over her breasts, cupping them and watching with hunger as those berries puckered, begging for a bite. He saw no reason to wait. He lowered his face and brushed it across an erect nub, lapped, spat, and rinsed his mouth.

“Too clean?” she teased.

“You’re evil to tease a man suffering,” he mumbled.

“What are you going to do about it?”

Why tease her right back, of course.

She inhaled sharply as he dipped in for another taste. A bite. Her back arched, and she thrust her breasts at him, begging him to do more than flick his tongue. He ignored her invitation and spent more time circling around the erect tip.

Lithe fingers weaved through his hair, tugging him close, attempting to force his mouth to take her engorged nipple. As if she had the strength to make him do anything.

He chuckled, blowing hotly on her nipples, loving how they tightened further.

“Bite them,” she begged.

“Giving me orders?” Hot, but not what he had planned. He stood, forcing her hands to release their grip. Before they could choose a new spot, he clasped them in an iron fist and pushed them over Aria’s head.

She arched, thrusting her body at him, the warm water sluicing down her frame.

With his free hand, he gathered the bar of soap. “I don’t believe I was done with this.” With the slippery soap in hand, he pressed against her mound, rubbing against her downy curls. A shudder went through her.

He could understand how she felt. His whole body hummed, vibrated as if full of electricity. A live wire waiting to zap.

His soapy hand slid between her parted thighs, brushing over the petals of her sex. Her breath caught, and her body went taut, anticipation heavy between them.

With her hands still braced over her head, he kept rubbing against her core while dipping his head for another taste of those nipples.

She cried out. She thrashed. But sweetest of all, she moaned.

Need burned within him. Arousal made him painfully erect.

“I don’t think I can wait any longer.”

“Then don’t,” she replied.

Releasing her hands, he palmed her waist and hoisted her, high enough that her legs came around his waist. Her arms wrapped loosely around his neck. He peered between their bodies, admiring the slickness of their skin. The tip of him brushed against her wet curls. By angling his hips, the head of his cock pressed against her sex.

She sucked in a breath as he pushed in, watching his shaft slide into her slick heat. Deeper. Deeper. Fully seated.

And her channel constricted him and hugged him so deliciously tight.

With a gasp of pleasure, he pulled out then slammed back in. Out. In. Her legs squeezed around his shanks, holding him close, burying him within her welcome heat.

He couldn’t help but drop his head so that his forehead pressed against hers. The soft pants of her breaths fluttered over his skin as he seesawed in and out of her.

The sharp nails in his shoulders were but a pinch and meant she’d reached her cusp. He thrust deeply, one last time, so deep inside her, then threw his head back and hissed.

Hissed as her channel hugged him tight.

Sucked in a ragged breath as her sex undulated around him.

Held her close knowing he would never, ever let her go.

Oursss.