Properly used, essence could heal a Blood Kindred’s mate or strengthen the bond between them. Improperly used, however, could cause severe pain and swelling which could only be cured by an application of more essence.
He tried to watch Elaina’s nipples while she fed him the small morsels of food arranged on the small golden table beside her. But though they still looked redder than he remembered, the swinging, swaying fringes of her top obscured them too much for him to tell if one was swollen or not.
Gods, he’d been so careful not to bite her, too! Why had she impaled herself on his fangs? What was the reason behind it? Terex had to believe she had some reason—she was a very intelligent woman, after all. Even with the translation bacteria in her system, learning the hand language so quickly was impressive. But the motives behind her decision to make him lose the wager with Krumf eluded him.
I’ll find out as soon as I get her back to our suite—as soon as I examine her nipples and make sure she’s all right, he told himself.
Don’t you mean after you suck them some more? whispered a sarcastic little voice in his brain. Admit it—you desire her. You want her so badly you can hardly stand it. Maybe it wasn’t her fault—maybe you bit her on purpose to have an excuse to touch her again…to taste her…
But that line of thought led to another mental image—of Elaina on the sleeping platform, her thighs spread wide to let him taste her sweet, hot pussy. Gods, how he would love that! He’d been able to smell how hot she was becoming when he was sucking her sweet buds and she still smelled hot. The idea of getting to lap up all the honey she was making was almost enough to make his shaft burst out of the tight black trousers he was wearing.
No! he told himself sternly. I can’t think of her like that. We’re here on a mission together and that’s all. He absolutely couldn’t allow himself to take advantage of their present situation. He wasn’t that kind of a male, he told himself sternly. He wanted only to protect her—not to harm her, which was one reason he was so distressed that his fangs had pierced her flesh by accident.
I’ll be completely professional, Terex promised himself. I won’t do anything but what’s necessary to make certain she’s all right and not in any pain.
He just hoped he could keep his promise to himself.
It seemed the banquet was about to wrap up when some servants came among them, carrying small, golden pitchers filled with silver fluid.
“What’s this?” Elaina asked, looking at it doubtfully as one servant cleared away the remains of the food on the table and another placed the small vessel in its place. “It looks like some kind of gravy boat—but who ever heard of silver gravy?”
“Who knows?” Terex frowned, wishing they could just get back to their suite. He was getting more worried about Elaina by the minute and he wanted to examine her. “Why don’t you ask the Ambassador’s mate?”
“Good idea.” Looking up until she caught the other female’s eye, Elaina made a series of discrete hand gestures and watched as her friend gestured back. “It’s some kind of dessert,” she told Terex. “Syrup of lanthum fruit, whatever that is.”
“Is it supposed to be served on something or am I expected to drink the whole thing?” Terex eyed the small container of silvery liquid unfavorably. He had never had much of a sweet tooth and the idea of consuming a drinking cup’s worth of syrup of any kind made him feel slightly revolted.
Elaina made more gestures and frowned when Jessa answered back.
“Nope,” she reported. “Apparently you’re not supposed to taste it at all.”
“It’s for you, then?” Terex asked. “I’m sorry, Elaina—this is a sorry excuse for Last Meal. I promise to find you something more substantial when we get back to our suite.”
“No…wait a minute.” She was still looking at the other female. “Jessa says I’m not supposed to drink it…I’m supposed to lick it. Lick it off your…Oh my God!” Her eyes went wide and her hands flew as she conversed with the other girl. Terex caught some of what she was saying, “Are you sure?” she was signing.
“Off my what?” he asked, exasperated. “Off my chest?” At least that would explain the long, open robes he and most of the other male banquet attendees were wearing. But Elaina was shaking her head again.
“No, um… off your…your… Well, just look.” She nodded at the slave girl with the black curly hair and her Master which they had been observing earlier.
“Mmm, time for dessert my little lover,” he was saying, stroking her curly hair away from her face. “Are you ready for what your Master is going to give you?”
“Yes, Master.” The girl nodded hungrily and Terex saw she was already opening the fastening of his trousers. At once, his shaft burst free and the slave girl took it in her hand as though she’s just won a fabulous prize. “Oh, Master—you’re so big and hard,” she cooed. “I can’t wait to taste you all covered in that sweet, sticky lanthum syrup!”
“Go ahead then, my darling,” he murmured. “Drizzle some on me and then taste your fill.”
As Terex and Elaina watched, the slave girl did exactly that. Picking up the little golden pitcher of silver syrup, she drizzled a generous helping of it over his shaft and then proceeded to lick it off with long strokes of her little pink tongue.
“Oh my God,” Elaina whispered, sounding breathless. “So that’s what the syrup is for. Jessa wasn’t just kidding.”
Indeed, all around the room it could be seen that Elaina’s friend had been telling the truth. Slave girls at every reclining couch were pouring silvery threads of syrup over their Masters’ equipment and licking it off with great enthusiasm.
The Supreme Leader himself had the three females who had come with him licking all over his body but Terex found he couldn’t watch that—the sight sickened him. Instead, he looked back at Elaina, wondering what in the Seven Hells they were going to do.
“Elaina,” he said in a low voice. “We don’t have to do this—you don’t have to. We can just pretend.”
“But what if I don’t want to pretend, Master?” she murmured. “What if I want to taste you, like all the other slave girls are tasting their masters?”
“Elaina, you don’t have to—” he began, but she shook her head.
“Yes, we do—it has to look real. It’s probably a huge offense against the Supreme Leader if you don’t let me do it.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of you!” Terex muttered in a low, savage voice. “This isn’t right—the idea that you should get on your knees and service me! If anything, I ought to service you—it’s the Kindred way.”
“I’m sure you won’t be the only Kindred who ever got a blow job,” she said dryly. “Look, people are beginning to look at us and wonder why we aren’t following protocol. “Do you want to cause a huge scene…or do you want to let me suck your cock?”
Those dirty words in her sweet, feminine mouth made his shaft ache and his fangs throb with the need to pierce her again—deliberately this time.
“Gods, Elaina,” he growled. He felt guilty as hell but he knew she was right—they needed to do what everyone else was doing if they wanted to keep their cover identities intact. “All right,” he said at last. “But just…make it fast.”
“As my Master wishes,” she murmured and was there a naughty sparkle in her eyes?
Is she enjoying this? Enjoying teasing me? Terex asked himself. Is she—
And then he couldn’t think anymore because Elaina was tugging his trousers open to bare his shaft.
“Mmm—you’re very large, Master,” she murmured, taking him in both hands and stroking up and down.
Terex tried to hold back a groan and couldn’t quite manage it.
“Gods, sweetheart…lavana,” he groaned. The words slipped from his lips before he could call them back. It was a Kindred love name—the heart of my heart—and he knew he shouldn’t call Elaina by it. But just at that moment he couldn’t help himself.
“You like that, Master?” She looked
up at him from under lowered eyelashes. “Like to feel my hands on you?”
“Gods, yes!” Terex assured her hoarsely. “Elaina, this is enough for me. Just…just touch me. You don’t have to…to use the syrup.”
“Yes, I do,” she murmured. “Jessa says it’s mandatory. She told me I have to use the syrup on my Master and lick off every bit until…” She stopped, biting her lip as though she didn’t want to tell him the rest.
“Until what?” Terex demanded.
Elaina looked up at him, both her small hands still busy stroking his aching shaft.
“Until you give me your cream and I swallow every drop,” she murmured at last.
“What? But that’s—”
“Not the Kindred way, I know. But it’s what I’m supposed to do.” Ducking her head, she rubbed one soft cheek against his throbbing length and looked up at him. “It’s all right, Master—I don’t mind,” she whispered.
Gods! Terex had to bite back a groan. Why was she acting like this? Did she really not mind taking him in her mouth? And did she really not mind swallowing his seed? He wished she would stop stroking him and calling him “Master” for a moment—the erotic activities made it too damn hard to think straight.
“Elaina—” he began but before he could say anything else, she’d picked up the little pitcher of syrup and was pouring a thin drizzle along the length of his cock. Then, her eyes fixed on his, she leaned down and ran her tongue slowly from the base of his shaft all the way up to the flaring crown.
“Hmm,” she murmured, licking her lips and smiling. “Not bad. It looks like liquid mercury but it tastes kind of like the filling in a raspberry Krispy Kreme donut.”
“Elaina—” he tried again but she was already pouring more of the syrup over him and lapping it up. Terex thought the sensation of her soft pink tongue caressing his aching shaft would drive him insane. He had an urgent desire to thrust between her lips and fuck her sweet pink mouth but he suppressed it almost at once.
No, I can’t! Just have to hold still and let her go at her own pace. Do what she wants.
And what Elaina appeared to want was to suck him deep into her mouth. After circling the broad head of his cock with her pink tongue, she took him between her lips, sucking and lapping eagerly, as though she really wanted this. As though she wasn’t just playing a part.
Until the day he died, Terex thought he would never forget this moment. The sight of her kneeling at his feet, her lovely full breasts thrusting out from the brief top she wore, her long, silky brown hair tousled around her flushed cheeks and her gorgeous pink mouth lapping and sucking his aching shaft as she went down on him was burned into his memory forever. It seemed to go on and on but at last, he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Elaina… lavana,” he groaned as he felt the pressure begin to build in his balls. Gods, he needed to come—wanted to shoot. But it still didn’t feel right to come in her mouth. “Sweetheart,” he tried to warn her in a low, hoarse voice. “You should…should pull back. Going to…”
Elaina stopped sucking for just a moment.
“Going to come, are you, Master?” she murmured. Her lovely brown eyes were dilated with what looked like genuine lust and Terex found he was thrusting in her hands, though he was trying not to.
“Yes,” he growled. “So you’d better stay clear.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she purred. “I’m supposed to suck you until you come, Master—come in my mouth.” With a single burning look, she ducked her head again and fastened her lips over the head of his cock.
“Elaina!” he gasped but then she reached between his thighs to fondle his balls, caressing them with a light, almost feathery touch and suddenly it was too much—Terex found himself coming.
“Gods!” he groaned as he felt the first spurt come jetting from the tip of his cock. Elaina took him deeper into her mouth and swallowed almost thirstily. She swallowed the next and the next too.
Terex was worried about her—as worried as he could be while being wracked with pleasure and lust, that was. He hadn’t been with a female in literally years and his body was very attuned to Elaina, which meant that he was making a lot of come. But though he tried several times to pull away lest he choke her, she kept a firm grip on his shaft and kept swallowing, taking every last drop until he felt almost completely spent.
Only when he’d spurted his last and she’d licked him clean, did she finally pull back.
“Are…are you all right?” he asked hoarsely.
“I’m fine—thank you, Master,” she said demurely. “Are you all right, though?”
“Better than I have any right to be.” Terex sighed and tucked his shaft—which was still mostly hard—back into his trousers. “You didn’t have to do that,” he murmured, reaching out to stroke her cheek. “But it was…incredible. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Master. But maybe I wanted to do it—did you think of that?” She arched an eyebrow at him and started to cross her arms over her chest. “Maybe I—ouch!”
She pulled her arms back abruptly and Terex saw her look down at her left nipple—the one he’d accidentally bitten.
He cursed under his breath. Damn it—he’d been so caught up in the pleasure she’d been giving him, he’d almost completely forgotten about the pain he had caused her.
Well, he would see to it as soon as they left the banquet hall and got back to their suite. He just hoped that would be soon.
Chapter Fifteen
Elaina was a little shocked at herself as the banquet concluded.
Can’t believe I just did that! Can’t believe I just went down on him like it was no big deal! She’d always considered herself a sexually liberated woman—she’d just never acted quite that liberated before.
I wanted to do it, she admitted to herself. Why was I so eager? So eager to please my Master?
Just the memory of his long, hard length in her mouth made her feel wet and hot between her legs. And the way he’d stroked her cheek as he murmured his thanks afterward…
God, I want to do it again, Elaina suddenly realized. I’d be happy to get on my knees this minute and go for round two if I thought it would please him.
The realization gave her pause and she frowned. What was going on with her? Why was she acting like this? Why was she craving her “Master’s” approval so desperately? She didn’t know but it was time to go now—she would have to leave the soul-searching until later.
She could tell Terex was eager to leave the banquet and get back to their suite. But the moment everyone started rising and getting ready to go, one of the male attendants standing beside Krumf’s golden couch made an announcement.
“If it please you, my Lords, his Supreme Excellency has decided to call a meeting of his Private Council to be held immediately in the blue council room at the end of the main palace hallway. Those of you who are on the Council, please report there immediately.”
“Well, that doesn’t affect us,” Terex muttered to her. “There’s one good thing to come of my losing the wager, at least.”
But as they were about to exit through the vast, arching doorway of the banquet hall, one of the male attendants—the same one who had made the announcement—came rushing up to Terex.
“Master Valdor, his Supreme Excellency Krumf requests your presence at his Private Council.”
“What?” Terex frowned. “But I lost our wager and I’m not on his Council.”
“But I wish you to come anyway—as a gesture of good faith, my dear Valdor.” Krumf himself came strolling up, surrounded by the females who had been licking him and the male attendants who helped him get up and down.
“That is very kind of you, your Majesty,” Terex said calmly, although Elaina thought she could see impatience burning in his eyes. “I would be most honored to attend. But what of my slave, Elaina?”
“Oh, females are not allowed in the Private Council.” Krumf laughed, as though he’d made a joke. “It is a purely male function. Besides,
even if they were allowed to attend, they would only get bored. They have limited brain function, you know—they can’t understand affairs of state.”
From the first moment they had met him, Krumf had been objectifying and belittling her and now it took all of Elaina’s willpower to stand still and listen to the crap coming out of the horrible man’s mouth. For a moment she felt like she might vomit a torrent of words at him—tell him he was a sexist pig, not to mention a racist Nazi since he and his ancestors had personally seen to the destruction and murder of the entire race of Lost Kindred that had been unlucky enough to try and make a genetic trade with the Nix.
But she knew it wouldn’t help. Men like Krumf were never going to understand how horrible they were and even if they did, they wouldn’t care. The only thing that mattered to the disgusting dictator was his own interests. He was completely self-centered, a narcissistic asshole who would do whatever he wanted as long as he could get away with it. And unfortunately, right now he was in a position of power so there was nothing she could do to stop or correct him.
Hang in there, Elaina, she told herself. He’ll get what’s coming to him eventually. In the meantime just keep your head down and focus on why you came here in the first place. All that matters is getting a cure for Gina.
So she pasted a pleasantly blank expression her face, as though she wasn’t very smart, and somehow managed to keep it there.
“Let me see Elaina back to our suite and I’ll come straight to the Council Chamber,” Terex said.
“No—I’m afraid not. We’re meeting right now.” The dictator frowned, his face wrinkling in a way that reminded Elaina of a shar pei. “Just scamper along back to your rooms, my dear,” he said to Elaina. “There’s a good girl.” He leered at her. “And you can keep the breast jewelry. I’ll want to see you wearing it again—it compliments your little pink nipples so perfectly.”
Think I just threw up in my mouth!
But Elaina only smiled and bowed gracefully.
“Thank you, your Supreme Excellence. You’re too kind to me.”