all!”
“Um, of course.” Elli nodded. “Thank you for the clarification.”
The Grand Vizier simply shook his head and muttered something under his breath about, “foreigners.” But the next moment he was ushering them through the wooden archway.
They walked forward about fifty feet and then stopped where the Grand Vizier indicated to bow low before the thRoke. Elli performed a kind of curtsey, as she had seen some of the other women doing, as Roke bowed at the waist.
They rose from the bow and then the big warrior was sinking to his knees before her. He was so tall that this new position still put them almost eye to eye and Elli found that their gazes were locked as Roke bent his head to place a hot, gentle kiss on her right breast.
“So beautiful, my little priestess,” he murmured and she shivered as his warm breath penetrated the crimson fabric and made her right nipple tighten in response.
Roke repeated the kiss on her left breast—again somehow unerringly finding her nipple—and then ducked lower and pressed his face into her skirts.
Elli swallowed a gasp as she felt his hot breath right at the apex of her sex, bathing her secret spot in a way she knew was wrong, and yet somehow felt incredibly good and right.
It seemed to her that Roke spent more time there than he really ought to, but she couldn’t exactly ask him to stop. Besides, if she was honest with herself, she didn’t really want him to stop. His warm breath and the way the big warrior was nuzzling against her was giving her all kinds of forbidden shivers and tingles that ran all through her body.
But nothing lasts forever. At last Roke rose smoothly to tower over her again. Looking down, he took Elli in his arms and pulled her close.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured and slanted his mouth over hers, stealing Elli’s breath with a long, slow kiss.
She could still taste the sweet honey cakes on his tongue, which slipped between her lips before she could stop it. And then she found she didn’t want to stop it—she wanted to kiss him back, to taste him as thoroughly as the big warrior was tasting her. Eagerly, she met his tongue with her own, exploring him as he had explored her, learning his hot, spicy-sweet taste as intimately as he had learned hers.
“Mmm…” Roke growled approvingly and pulled her even closer, sucking gently at her tongue as his big hands roved over her back and sides.
The slow, deliberate kiss made Elli remember their brief time together in the storage closet at the humans’ Christmas party. Once again, she found herself nearly panting with desire, her breasts and secret spot tingling and hot, her whole body alight with sexual need…
But I thought that was only because I was drugged last time, she thought, feeling dazed. I shouldn’t be acting like this right now—shouldn’t be reacting to his kiss the same way I was when the aphrodisiac was in my system…should I?
Before she could answer that question, someone cleared their throat loudly and Roke reluctantly pulled away from her, breaking the kiss.
“Ahem.” The Duke cleared his throat again. “Your Majesty, may I present Lady Ellilah and her Heart’s Companion, Roke. Lady Ellilah is the Zorel Entrancer I was telling Your Highness about earlier,” he added.
“Well, well—yes, indeed!” The high, fruity voice came from the Tenebrian Crown Prince sitting on the golden thRoke.
Earlier, when they’d been bowing and then observing the Introduction custom, Elli hadn’t had a chance to really look at him. Now she glanced carefully up through her lashes, trying to study the Tenebrian monarch’s face surreptitiously.
The Tenebrian prince was a bit odd compared to his people, she thought. For one thing, he wasn’t nearly as tall as the other Tenebrian males. Also, his skin was almost as white as one of their female’s, with only a hint of pale blue. He had slightly bulging eyes set in a broad, frog-like face and a little round pot belly which strained the rich fabric of his golden brocade waistcoat. He had tiny eyes which were a pale, watery blue—altogether, a rather ugly specimen of the Tenebrian race, Elli thought.
But she knew better than to judge someone on their looks alone. Maybe the Crown Prince was a lovely person and she just needed to get to know him.
“I have heard much of you, my dear,” he said to Elli. “The Duke here tells me you had that brute of his, Wind Chaser, eating