Page 69 of Bitten By the Basilisk

She sank onto the ottoman with a sigh of exhaustion. “I checked the upload before I emailed you. It was working fine then.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Alice. The printer agreed to push back the deadline a little, but it’s in an hour. I need you to try the upload again.”

“I’m nowhere near my laptop right now.”

“Get to it, then,” he snapped. “Or you can kiss that promotion goodbye.”

Her boss hung up on her before she could respond.

“Asshole,” she seethed as she checked her messages. Indeed, she had a dozen missed calls and texts from Paul’s cell number. He must have been out of the office and unable to call her from his desk.

She tossed her phone onto the ottoman next to her and dropped her head into her hands with a sigh. Was a promotion really worth all this stress and hostility? Even though she wouldn’t be Paul’s direct report anymore, she would still have to work with him on occasion.

“Anything I can help with, kitten?”

Chapter Twenty

Silas

Silas slithered into the private side room where Alice had gone to take her phone call. He had only overheard the tail end of her exchange, but it had been more than enough to tell him she was stressed. That and her defeated, slouched posture.

“Not unless you can teleport my laptop here,” she said, turning her palms up to indicate where the device should appear, “and give it a stable internet connection.”

“I can have it brought here in minutes, but…the Wi-Fi would be spotty. Can’t really help that.” He sat next to her, partly on the ottoman, leaving the rest of his tail coiled upon the rug-covered floor. “What happened, if I may ask?”

She exhaled loudly, clearly exasperated, then began telling him that her boss had been hounding her to revise a project on her time off and threatened to deny her a major promotion.

As offended on her behalf as he was, not to mention convinced that her boss was a raging narcissist—Ask me how I know.—he couldn’t help feeling a guilty sense of relief to learn how toxic her job was, as it would make convincing her to stay that much easier.

“Now he urgently needs me to reupload the file because the one I already uploaded isn’t working for some reason.” She slid him a disgruntled pout. “Sorry to bail on you, but I need to get back to my mom’s place ASAP.”

He didn’t hesitate to pull out his phone and send Nic a message. Seconds later, Nic sent back another salute emoji. “Done. By the time we get back to the pickup area, a car should be waiting.”

She breathed a small sigh of relief. “Thanks. Guess I should take off the jewelry, then.”

Before he could interject, she exposed her thigh through the slit in her skirt, preparing to remove the web of delicate chains he’d wrapped around her leg. He laid his hand over the thin elastic band, preventing her from moving it.

“I would prefer if you wore it home.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is this a territorial thing?”

He nodded, hoping she would grant him this concession. If she walked out without the jewelry, other males might assume she had rejected him. “We’ll bring the lockbox.”

“We? Don’t you need to stay?”

He began massaging the soft flesh under his palm, sneaking his fingertips closer to her heat. Her lips parted on a gasp. She took his wrist into her grip, stopping him, but she didn’t pull his hand away.

“As your suitor, seeing to your every want comes first,” he purred. “Once you’ve dealt with the upload, I intend to take you home with me for the rest of our date.”

She closed her eyes, releasing her next breath with a shudder.

He resumed stroking her inner thigh, his fingertips brushing the damp crotch of her panties, and leaned down to whisper into her ear. “I promised I would show you how good I can make you feel with my cock deep in your ass.”

The whimper she let out tore through the final frayed thread of his self-control, and his fangs erupted from his gums. He grasped her arm without thinking and dropped his head to her bare shoulder, intending to inject her with enough venom to ensure at least one mating atop the ottoman, perhaps two.

He managed to curb the instinct only a split second before piercing her skin, the tips of his fangs so close they would scratch her if she moved too suddenly.

Alice gasped in startlement. Once she realized what had almost happened, she gently but firmly pushed his shoulder to put space between them, forcing him to remove his hands from her.