And yet…
I could already see it had worked, because now the king looked ravenous for me.
Lydia cocked a hip. “You filthy scoundrel. Lord of Chaos, you weren’t here then. You don’t know what she was like. And she had the most motive, desperate to be queen. Only Mortana would be cruel enough to leave the Queen Consort in a vat of wine. I don’t care about the trivial issues of marriage, but how do we know Mortana won’t slaughter the rest of us for power?”
I sighed. “You can’t possibly believe I’m the only cruel demon in the City of Thorns. It could have been anyone.”
A gaunt duke with luscious brown curls wrapped his bony fingers around his wineglass as he stared at me. The firelight gleamed off his ivory horns. “You may not remember me, Mortana. I wasn’t a duke when you left, but I am now.” He grimaced at me. “You hardly gave me the time of day back then. A succubus like you was too good for a gluttony demon.”
I realized after a moment that his drink wasn’t wine at all. It looked like blood. He was a glutton for human blood.
Disturbing…
I blinked at him. “Oh, I still think I’m too good for you. That hasn’t changed.”
I was trying to stay in character. The problem was, staying in character meant pissing people off. And how much did I need them to like me in order to get the approval of the Quorum?
With a furious expression, he knocked back the rest of his blood. “Let me just spell this out. If you become duchess of the Asmodean Ward, that means less tax revenue for the rest of us.”
Duchess…right. As the last Lilu, I’d be the automatic leader. They’d be sharing power with me. Of course none of them wanted that.
But the king made the ultimate call, right? If he wanted something enough, I was sure he’d find a way to get it. My goal needed to be getting him on board as much as possible, and jealousy was the key to his heart.
I turned to Orion and brushed my fingertips over his abs. As I did, I felt his muscles clench, which was a strangely delicious feeling. My cheeks were growing hotter.
“Look, if you all decide you don’t want me here, then I can leave, of course. I can live anywhere. And perhaps I can compel Orion to come with me. I think there’s something about him—a very large thing, in fact—that I’m really quite attached to. I can’t imagine any other male coming close.”
Orion grabbed me off my feet. He moved swiftly but gracefully, and the next thing I knew, he was lifting me against a column. I stared into his hypnotizing blue eyes, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. With a wicked, seductive smile, he pinned me against the stone.
When the air hit the top of my thighs, I realized that he’d pulled my dress up nearly to my hips.
Whoa. Hello.
I stared into his eyes. At this point, I was glad for the wine and the cocktail I’d downed, because in normal life, I was never this uninhibited. As Orion had pointed out, I was a bit tightly wound. But it wasn’t just the alcohol, was it? Orion had his own sort of intoxicating powers. His seductive, velvety magic stroked my body. As he held me against the stone, his eyes looked dark, dangerous. I stared into his perfect, masculine features, and the world around me seemed to dim. I wanted him to lower his mouth to mine, to kiss me deeply.
Goddamn it. Terrible taste in men, Rowan. Absolute worst.
A breeze rushed through the hall, skimming over my bare skin. The strap of my gown had fallen, nearly exposing my entire breast. In fact, half my nipple was showing, tightened to a sensitive point against the silky material.
In any normal situation, I’d gasp and rush to cover myself up. But in any normal situation, I wouldn’t be thrown into a fire pit for being self-conscious, so I took deep breath and let the strap fall even more.
I watched Orion’s eyes as they brushed down my chest, and I heard his sharp intake of breath. He pressed in harder between my legs, and I bit my lip. From the feel of him, he wasn’t just faking this desire. And what I’d said before about how I couldn’t imagine any other male coming close to him? Holy moly, I wasn’t wrong.
Orion started to lower his mouth to mine, eyes black as night—
“That’s enough!” The king’s voice boomed through the hall.
I was horrified at how disappointed I felt at the interruption.
Orion lowered me, and the hem of my gown fell to the floor once more.
I knew my cheeks were flushed and my chest heaving as I pulled my strap up again. It was hard for me to focus. Only the sight of the rising flames, now towering several feet above us, sharpened my senses again. When the flames died down, I could see the king on the other side of them, his jaw clenched and muscles tense.