Viper's Kiss - Lisa Smedman [63]
No, that wasn't the dress. It was her breast. That wasn't skin his fingertips were caressing, but… Scales?
Her charm spell-which only now did he realize she'd been successful in casting-abruptly ended. He broke off the kiss, jerking his hand out of her dress. Suddenly, everything made sense. Her strange comments, her taking offense when he'd tried to warn her about the yuan-ti of House Extaminos.
Karrell wasShe sat up. "You have just realized that I am half yuan-ti," she said_ Her expression was a strange mixture of hurt and defiance.
Arvin nodded, mute. "That's not why-" he stammered. "It's just…" Conflicting emotions surged through him. He wanted Karrell, he ached for her, even without the benefit of her charm spell-but now she reminded him of Zelia.
Her cheeks flushed. With a quick, angry motion she jerked at her dress, straightening it. "I am used to it," she snapped. "It is just one of the barriers in the maze of life-a barrier that I must overcome, if I am to find my true path. But it is hard. People are always mistaking me for human. How do you think it feels, to hear their comments about how "cold-hearted' and evil the yuan-ti are, knowing that it is you they are talking about? The yuan-ti, also, are unkind. To them I look too human to ever be considered…" She glanced away.
"Beautiful?" Arvin asked. "Desirable?" He reached out with a hand and lifted her chin. "You are. Believe me." He sighed. "It's just that, for a moment, you reminded me of someone. Another yuan-ti woman-a psion. She used her psionics to plant a seed in my head. If it hadn't been removed, it would have stripped my mind from my body and left me an empty husk for her to fill with a copy of herself. She used me."
Karrell's eyes softened. "The woman at Riverboat Landing?"
Arvin nodded.
"Not all yuan-ti are so cruel."
"I realize that," Arvin said. "And now that I look at you-really look at you-I see that you're not like Zelia at all. Not one bit."
He leaned forward-slowly-and kissed her. Karrell didn't resist. Instead, at first hesitantly, she kissed him back.
Arvin broke off the kiss. "How do you say it?" he asked. `"Kiss'-in your language."
"Tsu."
Arvin smiled. The word puckered Karrell's lips beautifully as she spoke it. "And "beautiful'? How do you say that?"
"Kiichpan."
"Woman?"'
She gave a slight frown, obviously wondering what he was up to. "Chu al."
Arvin returned it with a frank stare. "Keech-pan choo-hal," he said haltingly. "May I be your yctakun?"
She tossed her hair, mischief dancing in her dark eyes. Then she slapped him-lightly-across the cheek. "You charmed me," she said in an accusing voice.
Arvin chuckled. "And you charmed me." He rubbed his cheek, pretending the slap had stung the cut on his face, and saw her eyes soften in apology. "But I'm not under your spell anymore. Not that one, anyway."
"Your spell, also, has ended," Karrell said. Then she smiled. "Yet somehow, I still find you… intriguing." She hesitated then began unlacing the front of her dress.
As Arvin unlaced his breeches, removing them, his eyes were drawn to her breasts. Her scales, he saw, were small and fine, and a delicate shade of reddish- brown that nearly matched her skin, giving it a flushed appearance. He was, he realized, about to find out if the stories about yuan-ti women were true.
When she let her dress fall to the bed and moved toward him, encircling him in one graceful motion, he decided they might be, after all.
CHAPTER 9
Where have you been?" the baron growled. "My daughter is ill-she may be dying-and instead of finding her, you-"
Arvin bowed. "I apologize, Baron Foe- smasher. I was poisoned."
The baron blinked.