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  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