STORY EXCERPT

Fuck them, Andrea thought, coming back to his station. I don’t need anyone. Neither Greta nor Simone, much less the snake man.

He wanted only to be on his own and keep tattooing. Was that so damn difficult? He entered his station, closed the door, and looked out the window with tears in his eyes. He loved this place. He liked Rome. He liked to work here, where his desk was always clean and disinfected and disposable materials were always available. He liked to be here and didn’t want to run again.

Andrea continued to work until the evening, taking only a short break for another coffee, until the sun dropped behind the glass and the lights of Rome on the Tiber began to shine. He had been involved with a swan on the hip of a girl, a nightclub dancer, a black swan that gave him great satisfaction. He asked and obtained permission to photograph the swan, still shiny with ointment, with his Nikon. He would transfer the photo on his laptop and print out and hang it with the others.

It was past eight o’clock when he came out of the studio. Almost all were gone, including Simone and Greta, and that was a relief. He walked briskly toward the Milvian Bridge, wondering what could arrange for dinner as his stomach growled. He couldn’t go back to McDonald’s again. He could no longer eat that stuff. But it was cheap. He chose to rent a small room past the bridge, not far from the studio. The rent in the center of Rome ate more than half of his salary.

He was thinking about all this when a shiver down his spine told him that someone was following him. Andrea spun sharply on his heels, the hairs on his neck standing on end with violence, his heart speeding up surprisingly quickly. He felt as if his heart had suddenly swollen against his rib cage.

Behind him, on the road, was the snake man.

“Are you following me?” he asked.

The snake man joined him with ease. They were almost on the bridge, close to the towers, on the edge of the road. Andrea saw his narrow green eyes gleaming in the yellow light of the streetlights.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’m not scared,” Andrea said, but he was.

“I did not want to follow you like a thief, really,” the man insisted. “I just realized I started the wrong way with you.”

“There was nothing to start with,” Andrea said.

“I really want you to give me some consideration instead. Because has been a long time since I’ve meet someone I like as much as you,” the snake man said in a whisper, getting closer. His face was pale and serious. His strange eyes scared Andrea. Generally he understood a lot about a person just by looking into his eyes. If one was good or not. This didn’t work with the snake man.

“I do not want anyone in my life, actually,” Andrea said, taking a step back.

“Yes, I know. Your friend told me.”

“He’s not my friend.”

“What happened to you?”

“I don’t want to discuss it with you. And if you keep this up, I will no longer take care of your tattoo.”

“Please don’t say that. I want you to do it.”

The man’s began breathing faster, and Andrea could tell he was furious. Even Andrea was breathing too fast. His chest had become huge, and his heart was pumping at twice its normal speed, making him feel dizzy and ready to run away.

“Then leave me alone. And stop following me.”

The snake man smiled, showing those expression lines on his cheeks that Andrea, against his will, found attractive. “It seems that whatever I do with you, I’m wrong. Right?”

“Just do nothing then.”

“Well,” he said. “I like you a lot, I’m trying to tell you in every way, but this apparently does not mean anything to you. However, you have my number. If you need help with something, anything, you can call me.”

“I do not need anything,” Andrea stated.

“However, I would like you to continue to work on my tattoo,” he said. “But you are breaking my heart. You know this, right?”

“You do not know me,” Andrea said with a bitter laugh. “There is not much to break.”

“I was struck as soon as you entered the room,” the snake man said in a very low voice. “I never imagined such a thing could happen. I never believed in love at first sight. But that’s what happened to me today. I hope you have a nice evening, because mine will be a hell,” he concluded, then turned and left him there.

He really, really needed to start running.

And he did but didn’t run home. He came back to the studio. Andrea hoped to find the door still open. There was always someone working late, and in fact there was. He ran back to his workstation. He would do the only thing that could calm him down. He would work for a while to his cheetah fur.

ADULT EXCERPT

Silvano opened the door. Andrea was standing there, leaning against the couch, naked. But with his boots on.

Andrea smiled at the stunning look of awe and desire on Silvano’s face. Silvano slammed the door closed without taking his eyes away from his body. His gaze made Andrea’s cock completely hard, as it was already filling from the call.

Silvano came forward, and Andrea wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth, Silvano lifted him from the floor and took him in his room. He roughly threw him on his bed, his eyes narrowing into two slots.

Fuck. He’s horny as hell.

“So, you like my boots,” Andrea said.

“I do love your boots,” Silvano said, climbing onto the bed above him and then bending over to kiss him. Finally, Andrea thought, and opened his mouth to accept his tongue as they exchanged a breathtaking kiss. It was their first kiss, a little too frantic, but Andrea felt himself strangely wild, and even the snake man was put to the test. He broke away from him and fiddled with his shirt to unbutton it, but in the end he tore it off, and Andrea laughed hearing the buttons flying across the room. Silvano undid the button of his jeans and the zipper and kicked them away.

“You can’t run away, now,” he said hoarsely.

“I don’t want to run. I want your dick right inside of me.”

“Good, because I want only shove it inside of you and nothing else.” Silvano moved and rummaged in the nightstand drawer. He took a condom and slipped it in his cock. At least he kept a little clarity, because Andrea would not have thought of that. Andrea took the lube that Silvano had taken from the drawer of the bedside table and used it to stretch himself. They kissed again. The snake man was on top of him, and Andrea tightened his legs around his waist. The head of his cock was still pushing on his hole.

Andrea couldn’t have imagined being able to do this again, with someone. But the only thing he wanted at that time, after the run, which was still pounding his heart and shaking the left side of his body, was marking his territory. The snake man was his, and Andrea wanted to be claimed right now.

“Are you sure I can do this immediately?” Silvano asked.

“All I want is to be claimed.”

“I warn you that I won’t last long, in this way.”

“I don’t care. Hurry.”

Silvano hurried. He pushed his cock completely into him with a grunt.

Andrea fisted the sheet and screamed. He did so for many reasons. Because finally the snake man claimed him. Because his cock inside him was fantastic. Because he hadn’t done that in over a year so it was also a bit painful, and then for relief, because he thought he couldn’t do it anymore. But most of all, Silvano was liberating him from the bondage of Rashid. Although a year had passed since Andrea escaped, he kept being his slave anyway.

The snake man was already discharging his cum inside of him. Andrea was proud of it. He raised more his hips for Silvano to go deeper, to be more open for him as he came. Then, the snake man fell on him, shivering, still inside of him. “I’m sorry,” he said in his ear. “I was too horny to wait for you.”

“Never mind,” Andrea said. “I don’t want you to move away.”

Silvano lifted on his elbow and took Andrea’s cock in his hand, without slipping off of him. He began to stroke him slowly. “Do you know?” he said in his ear. “I never felt like this before. I thought I had lost you, and it was killing me. Because you are not like everyone else. You are strange, and mysterious, and I've always wanted someone like you, and I love you.”