“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin.
Oh God. Was my kiss that bad? Maybe I’d read this wrong.
“Don’t. Move,” he breathed and looked down at the water between us.
The next few seconds were weird. It was like time stopped and sped up at the same moment. I peered down and my brain tried to process what I was looking at.
Then it did.
Fucking snake.
A fucking snake slithering right between the gap that lay between Ashton and my stomachs.
“No,” I whimpered as every muscle in my body clenched.
I was about to bolt and start screaming and rip off what was left of my clothes and call 911 and have a general fucking panic attack, when Ashton’s arms came around me in a vise-like grip.
“Don’t. Move.” He was calm, as the snake slowly skimmed the water between us, and spots started to dance at the edges of my vision.
I couldn’t breathe.
I was going to die.
“Cottonmouth.Veryvenomous,” Ashton said as the snake’s tail passed us and then it was gone, swimming toward the shore like a fucking Jesus snake who walked on water.
Even though the snake was gone, its scales, head, its slithering motion, was imprinted on my brain. I still couldn’t breathe, I think I was having a panic attack.
“Shit. Hey. You okay?” Ashton asked as his gaze zeroed in on my chest.
I looked down, saw the red hives splashed across my chest, and then I blacked out.
Ashton
I shouldn’t have kissed her.
I mean shit … Ilovedkissing her, but maybe I’d cursed the god of widows or something because a fucking water moccasin slithered across my belly, breaking us up. That was a sign, right? A sign from her dead husband? I believed in spirits and shit, that stuff was real. I’d gone and kissed a widow after she told me about losing her husband in an accident and then a venomous snake broke us apart.
Then she broke out in hives and fainted?
This day was fucked. I was never touching her again, I didn’t care how beautiful she was.
I should just have my cousin drive her back home at this point.
After hauling her out of the water, I was scouting the ground for any more snakes when she stirred in my arms.
Jesus Lord almighty she was the most beautiful chick I’d ever seen. I kept my eyes on her face because it felt fucked up to check out her body while she was unconscious, but I’d gotten a glimpse of her sheer bra and white panties before she jumped in the lake and it was over for me. She was insanely hot … when she wasn’t fainting from snake encounters.
“Did I pass out?” She clung to my neck and eyed the ground, seemingly for snakes. Feeling her skin pressed against mine, having her grip tightly to me, I liked it. I felt … needed. Something I didn’t know I liked to feel.
I nodded. “Afraid of snakes I take it?”
She eyed the ground again and held on to me tighter.
“Terrified,” she yelped.
Poor thing. A red blotchy rash marred her chest and face. “The ground is clear, I’m gonna set you down so you can get dressed, okay?”
