Chapter 8 #2
He cocked his head. “And why do you think that is? Because of your copper hair? Or is it something else entirely?”
It was a strange question, but there was nothing ordinary about any of this. “They say I taste good.”
“Who says that?”
“Every vultus I’m with.”
His grin was sexy. Nearly too sexy to look at. Being around him almost hurt, as if there was a pull on my insides, like the moon was inching closer to the earth. I hated the things it did to my body, flushing me with heat, but there was no avoiding it. Especially not with one this powerful.
“What else do they say?”
I inhaled deeply, trying to recall to mind what they said. “They say I have a lot to give. That I am deep and potent. That I fill their appetite easily.”
I’d heard it so long that I believed it, even if I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it meant. You have so much to give. It’s like there’s an ocean inside you. My gods, human. You’re never ending.
“You fill their appetite easily,” he said, almost to himself as he took my hand, rubbing his thumb over the top of it. “And you are deep and potent.”
I blinked down at his hand caressing mine.
If this were a typical tasting, I would’ve crawled into his lap by now while Jaxlyn filled the silence with endless chatter, but here I was at a standstill.
I couldn’t tell if it was thoughts of Lennox and Landry, churning around my stomach, prickling it with nausea. Or if it was him.
“How lovely.” The king smiled, holding my gaze as he said, “Let’s see if you are just as lovely on your knees, boy.”
My swallow was stiff, but I lowered to the floor.
“Come, human.” He parted his legs in invitation, patting his thigh, beckoning me forward. “I know my big, scary commander likely frightened you, but you may touch me, my pet.”
It was like there were a thousand bees buzzing inside my body as I crawled between his legs, as I touched him.
The warmth of his body was spectacular as I ran my hands up his thighs. It was like inching closer to a fire, only it was a fire that was toying with me. Whispering dangerous sweet nothings, urging me closer.
Then he leaned over me and said, “Well, come on. Let me see it.”
Why they all needed to see a human’s tongue piercing before they tasted them, I did not know. It was like it was ritualistic for them. I peered up through my lashes as I jutted my tongue from my mouth.
“Oh, it looks so pretty on you,” he said, brushing two fingers over the piercing.
I whimpered at the feel of his fingers inside my mouth. A part of me wanted to seal my lips around them and suck. That was the allure of a sex demon. Your body responded to them before your mind could keep up.
“I would love to see more of you pierced.” He grazed his fingers down my chin and neck, all the way to my chest, where he gently pinched one of my nipples. “Here, maybe.”
My nails dug into his thighs.
He trailed his fingers all the way down my torso until they found my navel, where he rubbed a small circle. “Definitely here. How do you do with pain, young human? You tolerate?”
That was an impossible question. Did I want to experience pain? Not necessarily. Did I sometimes crave it anyway? Crave that intoxicating combination of pain and pleasure? Well, I was only human.
“Respectfully, Your Grace, I could handle that pain and much more.”
He swiped his tongue over his teeth. Close up, it was even more apparent how well he fed with his skin so dewy and supple, and without a single blemish on it. He had to feed several times a day to look like that.
While we starved.
“Are you always so outspoken, human?”
The word outspoken wasn’t typically a desirable trait, especially for a human, but of course, the answer was yes.
Especially now. Especially today, when I was struggling to keep my head from spinning off with possibilities of where my brother might be.
It was a horrible moment to try to force submission into my bones—something I struggled with anyway.
Which was probably why I said, before I could reconsider, “What is called outspoken for a human is likely just called honesty for a vultus. Even if they are the same words.”
He smirked, but I could almost swear, something fiery flashed in his gaze at the same time his temperature spiked a degree or two hotter, and at that moment, I couldn’t be entirely sure I knew what the hell I was doing.
What the hell was I doing?
“Open your mouth, my pet,” he said.
I swallowed. Then I parted my lips once more.
“Much, much wider.”
I did as I was told. He gripped my jaw with one hand and inched closer.
Maybe, this was exactly what I needed. I needed him to taste me so that he’d determine he wanted me, and then he’d take me upstairs where I’d get to pour every ounce of my frustrations into concussing him against a headboard.
Fucking a sex demon was one of the few ways to escape the hell they created.
But he didn’t kiss me as expected. He sucked in a long mouthful of the wine, then he leaned over, squeezing my jaw to pry my mouth open wide.
He parted his lips, and in poured the wine.
I squirmed when the sharp sting of alcohol slid over my tongue. It was so much and all at once, and I hadn’t been expecting it, so I struggled to swallow it all.
He chuckled, raspy and sexy, when it spilled from the corners of my mouth, trickling down my chin and neck, soaking my chest in streaks of ruby red.
“What a unique thing you are.” He gripped my hair and licked spilled wine from my chin. “Let’s see if you taste as good as you say you do.”
That was when his tongue snaked from his mouth.
And by snaked, I meant snaked.
Their tongues were so fucking long that it was like they never ended. As if by magic, they stayed coiled until needed, only to rise up from the depths of their throats, just on and on. They could choke you with it if they wanted and did.
Us whores called it getting deep tongued. I’d had many a fun night with it.
He began with my neck, lashing the streaks of wine with his tongue as if punishing them.
I whimpered as he lapped up every drop that’d been spilled, licking and sucking, his body jolting in twitches as he made his way to my mouth.
My breath quickened as he tightened his grip on my hair, tilting my head back to expose my mouth to his, brushing his lips over mine. Then the king of Novithia kissed me.
It was pleasurable right away, like a drug in my veins. Oh, he was good. So good with his drinking. Skilled and deft and understated.
Then he released his tongue into my mouth, and I melted.
This was what the Tasting Room was designed for. It wasn’t for them to feed on a human but experience a human’s energy.
His tongue explored each corner of my mouth, and I could almost feel him accessing every sexual word I’d spoken all day as if hearing them for himself.
It wasn’t that simple, of course. He couldn’t read my mind or access my memories, but I’d heard they could taste every vultus before them as if they were all connected by a single thread.
Every filthy act I’d done. Every time one’s cum dribbled down my throat.
Which made me an asset to their kind, as I was not without my fair share of filth swimming about my veins for them to savor. It was probably what made me so potent.
His body jerked more, carnally even, as his hand cupped the back of my head to hold me in place so he could discover me. My eyes rolled back into my skull at the pleasure blanketing my body, curling my toes.
I raked my fingers through his silky hair and began to kiss him back, dancing my tongue against his, which was clean. So clean he tasted.
He pulled back so abruptly, it was as if he’d been burned. He blinked as flames of red licked the rims of his irises, but that wasn’t the alarming part. The alarming part was the way he was looking at me.
“What is that?” he asked, nearly out of breath.
I scanned his face. “What is what, Your Grace?”
“You.” His voice was tight as if caught by his breath and his fingernails were digging into the arm of the chair. “There’s a well inside you, human. You said it was deep, but you have no idea how deep it is. It’s like it is endless.”
I’d never heard one of them refer to it as a well. I’d heard a sea before. An ocean. A river even. None of it really made any sense.
“What in the kingdom have I stumbled onto?” he whispered, a smile curling his lips. He twisted his fingers into the white streak in my hair, tugging gently as if testing if it was real, smiling more when deciding it was. “The gods have delivered me luck. They’ve delivered me a diamond.”
Jaxlyn was right. He wanted me. The king of Novithia wanted me.
Fantasies of all sorts drifted past my vision. Me on top, riding him. Me jamming my fingers down his throat. Me pressing my thumbs against his perfect Adam’s apple.
“Take me upstairs, Your Majesty,” I said, offering him my best attempt at a smile. “You won’t be disappointed.”
“Oh, my pet.” He clicked his tongue. “You misunderstand. One doesn’t go through the trouble of discovering a diamond only to leave it for someone else.”
My brows pinched together. Leave it?
He twisted toward the door. “Neopal. You may enter.”