Chapter 201: Addicted to Cuddles and Kisses

For the first time since he got the Cupid System, Silas was given a good lesson on monopoly and possession. To Echidna, though, those two terms meant the same thing: "Silas is mine!"

Anna, Chloe, and Gromda could only watch helplessly as their man was literally kidnapped into their own room. They were even locked out.

Anna, being the mature one of the trio, just sighed and consoled the others, while they made plans to make Silas pay. If the pink-haired guy knew what he was going to face a day later, he would’ve fought his way out of Echidna’s iron grip.

***

The room was chosen by Echidna herself because it was where "all his women slept with him." The door was locked from the inside and the windows faced away from the main courtyard. Silas had been carried here, literally, over her shoulder. His playful protests had been met with a tail wrapped around his waist and a laugh that rattled the windowpanes.

Now he sat on the edge of the bed, and Echidna sat on him.

Her legs bracketed his hips, while her arms looped around his neck. Her face hovered inches from his, her slit-pupiled eyes studying him like he was a puzzle handed down by the gods.

"You’re warm," she said.

"Thanks?"

"All my children are cold." She touched his cheek with one claw-tipped finger, tracing the line of his jaw. "Scales, chitin, and carapace. Cold things, all of them. But you’re warm."

Silas stayed very still.

"That’s nice," he said carefully. This woman was truly unhinged and bipolar.

"You’re also soft." Her thumb dragged across his lower lip. "In some places."

"Echidna."

"Yes?"

"Why am I on the bed with you?"

She tilted her head, genuinely confused by the question.

"Because I want you here."

"That’s not..."

"I am the Mother of Monsters." Her voice dropped, a rumble that vibrated through her chest and into his. "When I want something, I take it. You kissed me. So now I want to kiss you back. Many times."

Silas opened his mouth and closed it. Even though he could control her, he chose not to. He didn’t want his estate, along with everything, to be destroyed by that crazy woman. Yet still, he smiled at her.

"That’s... not quite how it works."

"How does it work?"

He had no idea how to answer that, and Echidna didn’t wait for one. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

It was terrible.

Her aim was off- she caught the corner of his mouth, half his upper lip, and a sliver of chin. She held there, motionless, her eyes open and watching him like she expected something to happen.

"Nothing," she reported, pulling back.

"Because you..."

She kissed him again.

This time she found the center. Her lips pressed flat against his, still motionless, still watching. Her breath puffed against his cheek.

"Still nothing."

"You have to..." Silas sighed. "You have to move your lips a little. And close your eyes."

"Why would I close my eyes?"

"So you can feel it."

Echidna considered this. Then she nodded, resettled her grip on his shoulders, and kissed him a third time.

Her eyes stayed open.

He could feel her staring at him from an inch away, her pupils blown wide with concentration, her lips pressed to his like she was trying to learn his taste by osmosis.

"You’re not closing your eyes."

"I want to watch."

"Watch what?"

"How you react."

Silas felt heat creep up his neck.

"That’s not fair."

"I am the Mother of Monsters." Her lips curved against his. "Fairness is not my domain."

She kissed him again. And again.

Each one was a little better than the last.

She learned fast, alarmingly fast. By the fifth kiss she’d figured out pressure. By the seventh, she’d discovered that tilting her head kept their noses from colliding. By the tenth, she’d found his lower lip and learned she could pull it gently between her teeth.

The eleventh kiss made a small sound escape her throat. She pulled back, startled.

"What was that?"

"That was you."

"I made that sound?"

"You did."

Her tail curled tighter around his waist. Her eyes had gone very bright.

"Do it again."

"Do what?"

"The sound. You make it happen."

Silas laughed, a real laugh, surprised out of him, and Echidna’s expression flickered with something like triumph. She was cute and crazy, just how he liked his women.

"Good. You like this too."

"I..." He couldn’t deny it. "Yes."

"Then we continue."

She kissed him again, and this time she had the rhythm. Slow, exploratory, her tongue darting out to trace the seam of his lips like she was testing a lock.

"You have a tongue too," she breathed.

"I do."

"Show me."

He showed her.

His tongue met hers, and she froze, every muscle in her body locking up at the sensation. Then she moaned, a low, shocked sound, and pressed closer, her hands fisting in his shirt.

"More," she demanded. "That. More of that."

Silas gave her more.

She learned kissing like she’d learned everything else in her ancient life... by devouring it whole. Every new sensation became a toy she refused to put down. His lower lip. The corner of his mouth. The way his breath hitched when her claws raked lightly through his pink hair.

"Your hair is soft," she murmured against his mouth.

"Your scales are warm," he said.

"Their scales are cold. Mine are warm. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I’m pressed against you."

She kissed him again, and this time it was hungry, not with sex, but with discovery. Her tongue learned the inside of his mouth, the ridge of his teeth, the way he groaned when she sucked gently on his tongue.

"I like that sound," she said.

"What sound?"

"The one you just made. Make it again."

"You can’t just..."

"Make it."

She kissed him until he made it.

Time blurred.

The window light shifted from gold to amber to orange. Echidna’s hair, a wild mane of black, fell around them like a curtain, sealing them into their own small world. She had him pinned against the headboard now, her weight on his lap, her tail wrapped around his thigh, her mouth never still.

"Another," she said.

"Echidna..."

"Another."

"You’ve kissed me..." He counted, lost count, and gave up. "A lot."

"Not enough."

"It’s been hours."

"Hours are nothing. I am older than your world’s oceans." She cupped his face with both hands, her claws careful against his skin, her eyes fierce. "I have never felt anything like this. I will not stop until I understand it."

"What if you never understand it?"

Her lips parted. A slow, wicked smile spread across her face.

"Then I will kiss you forever."

She sealed the promise with her mouth.

Silas let her.

He let her because her curiosity was genuine. After all, she looked at him like he was the first warm thing she’d ever held, because every new kiss made something ancient and lonely in her eyes flicker with light. He let her because she’d never been touched like this, never wanted to be touched like this, and he was beginning to suspect that the Mother of Monsters had been waiting her whole immortal life for permission to want.

"Silas."

"Mm?"

She pulled back, breathless, her cheeks flushed, a blush on the Mother of Monsters.

"I think I’m addicted."

"To what?"

"To this." She touched her swollen lips. "To you."

Silas looked at her, at the ancient, terrifying, impossibly lonely creature perched on his lap, cradling a new feeling like it might shatter.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay?"

"Okay. Be addicted."

Her tail tightened around him. Her smile could have outshone the sun.

"Then you’re mine."

And when she kissed him again, slower, softer, like she was memorizing the shape of him. Silas found he didn’t mind being claimed.