Page 22 of Demon Food

“I’m not permitted to drink wine, Your Grace,” I said. “It’s against the rules.”

“I didn’t ask if you were permitted.” His voice was as smooth as it was direct. “I asked if you were thirsty.”

Indeed, he had. For once, I was grateful for the restrictions as I did not need the effects of alcohol muddling my mind further, but if anyone could disregard the rules, it was the monarch who sanctioned them.

“Pour us one glass,” he said, grinning as he unfastened the button on his other cuff. “We’ll share.”

Oh, we’d just share, would we? Orphan Feloré with no surname and no age would simply share a glass of wine with him. The king of Novithia.

I started toward the wine table, but I couldn’t shake the question of why? Why was he here? In all my years, I’d never even heard of such a thing. They had whole systems of clergy and runners to select royal concubines. The king himself did not visit tiny brothels, would surely find such tasks beneath him.

I filled the metal goblet with a rich pour of burgundy red wine as he settled into a seat in the formal wooden dinner chair Jaxlyn kept in here for himself. His every movement was so quiet that it was nearly undetectable, like a desert cat.

I carefully approached, trying to keep my hand steady as I extended the goblet forward. He didn’t move to take it, his attention glued to my body instead.

There was something so intimate about stepping even closer into his space, positioning the goblet into his perched fingers while he barely acknowledged it, like this was our evening routine.

He twisted it around in his fingers, giving it a sniff, crinkling his nose a little. “Your keeper says you are a favorite among the vultae that frequent this brothel. Is that true?”

I had the unsettling awareness of my Adam’s apple bobbing. “Yes, Your Grace. That is correct.”

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.