All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,69

in the palace. Can I touch it?”

Chapter 6

The bulge in his pants fascinates me. I can see it snake and uncoil like a viper against the dark fabric. He hisses in a gasp as I take a step. His body tenses, as though preparing to strike. Can he sense that I will bare my flesh for his bite?

I take another step, enthralled by the danger pulsating between his thighs. It pulses, like a drum, against the front of his pants. My body begins to sway in time to its beat. I reach my hand to him, but he grasps my wrist. I glance up into his face.

There’s a mix of desire and shock there. His gaze is narrowed on me, but his dark eyes gleam in the dimly lit room. His lips are pulled back from his teeth, but his teeth are clenched. His skin is flushed, a redness touches his strong cheekbones. He must have eaten recently.

That thought bothers me. I hear that male vampires bite their lovers during the sexual act. I have only ever been bitten by the Queen Mother during my turning. It was an experience that I would be happy to forget.

“I don’t understand why you’re so surprised,” I say. “Your reputation precedes you. Serranos are known for their sexual exploits.”

“I’m not—”

His voice is choked as he tries to speak. It sounds dry, as though he is thirsty. I step closer, tilting my head to the side and baring the column of my throat. But when he looks at my offering, his expression is pained.

I snatch my hand out of his grasp and take a step back. A flush creeps across my cheeks. “You’re not interested in me?”

The thought hadn’t even entered my brain before this very moment. In the palace, the jewel-less males all avert their gazes from my sisters and me. In the village beyond the castle, I know the males look at my form. But only under the cover of their lashes, and from a distance, never up close and directly.

There were plenty of people who looked like me at the time he was born in Rome, as well as during his escapades during the Spanish Inquisition. But perhaps my looks are not to his tastes?

I look nothing like the wispy, pale-skinned women on the streets. Or the one who is on her knees on the other side of the glass between the two males, as one kisses her mouth and the other kisses her breasts. I don’t have the experience of being kissed, let alone the knowledge of what it’s like to be with one man.

I should probably get out of this room and have my first experience with a human instead of a half-millennium-old vampire. I must look like a child at play to him.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he says.

“What did you say?”

His voice still sounds hoarse, so I’m not entirely sure I heard him correctly. That’s not true. My hearing is superior. I know what he said; I just want him to say it again.

He opens his mouth to speak. My body sways towards him, eager to gulp down a second helping of his words. Of their own accord, my fingers uncoil and, quick as a snake, they strike out and cup his manhood.

Instead of saying the words I long to hear, he hisses again. His breath is a spicy mist that hits my nostrils. His eyes slide closed, and his lips spread into a grimace of ecstasy.

“I have never felt such power,” I say as I handle him. He is thick in my palm. I cannot gather the fullness of his length in my hand. He spills over the edges of my thumb and pinky finger. “I wonder if this is why the queen cuts them off?”

My back is flung against a wall. With one hand, he moves my hand from the front of his pants and presses it over my head. The fingers of his other hand weave into the laces of my corset, and he cups my breasts. I hiss out a breath of pure pleasure. No one has ever touched me there.

“I must be out of my mind,” he says. His lips hover just over mine. “This is not what I came here for.”

“This is exactly what I came here for,” I say. “To meet you.”

His gaze travels over my face. Those dark eyes linger on my lips, and I can feel their heat. “I’m not who you