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"Anyone," I said, my hands now holding onto Conall's so tightly, I wondered that he didn't beg me to release him. "He could've touched anyone, if I was near enough."
"It's not just yourownpleasure that sates you?" Dr. Underwood asked, eyes bright and eager with curiosity, leaning forward to crane around Esther to look at me.
I flushed and shook my head. "It's like… It's somewhat like…humidity? When the air is heavy before rain. Only more tangible, I suppose. I can taste it. It's like drinking pleasure when I breathe."
"Oh," Esther mused, blushing. Her lips wobbled, and then she burst out with a laugh. "Oh, dear. Not so sneaky now, are we?" she asked her lovers, blushing cheerfully.
"And there's a…" Dr. Underwood hesitated, hand fluttering in the air as he thought. "A sense of measurement?"
I nodded and shrugged. "Monsters are much stronger than humans, of course. And within monsters, there's…all sorts of levels," I said, hoping that was tactful enough. Monsters seemed to be eager to point out the hierarchy as long as it was in their favor, but I imagined they'd be less pleased to know I couldtasteit too.
"And thekindof pleasure?" the doctor pressed.
"Jonathon, darling," Auguste murmured, glancing at me apologetically.
But I didn't mind the questions, actually.
"There is variation, yes," I said, voice slightly rough as I considered the corrosive feedings I'd received by some of the clients at The Seven Veils, ones who only took pleasure in another's suffering.
Dr. Underwood pursed his lips like he wanted to ask but knew better than to press there, at least. Across from me, the imp Ronan rolled his eyes and nudged Hazel's side.
"Our good doctor wants a demonstration, if you aren't too shy, nut."
Dr. Underwood blushed and retreated at this, sputtering out a faint objection, but Hazel just laughed.
"When have I ever been too shy for a demonstration? Do you mind, love?" she asked Constantine, whose eyes shimmered like the surface of a brightly polished coin.
"Not at all," Constantine said, and then he wavered and stretched strangely, and I had to squint to sort out the confusion of my stare as he had two faces in opposing shades of red and blue turning away from one another. Their bodies were not entirely separate, but the red demon, with full lips and a flat plane of skin where his eyes should have been, reached for Hazel's cheek.
Her eyes fluttered up, lips pressed shut to withhold the cry of ecstasy, and she crumpled into the touch. I flushed asnéktarburst into the air, a sudden wave and boom that was almost stifling. Conall caught me around the waist before I could swoon, and I tried to hide my response, tucking my face slightly into his shoulder.
Constantine—or Antin, as this aspect was named—drew Hazel's mouth to his for a kiss, and there was no disguise for her moan or the shudder of her body against his and the way she melted into the spiraling relief he offered.
I laughed into Conall's neck and closed my eyes, taking shallow breaths and letting thenéktarsoak into the room as Antin released his lover and fused back into the gleaming bronze demon. Hazel gasped roughly and sagged in his embrace, catching her breath and laughing with me.
"Far too powerful," I said, my own voice not quite even.Néktarwas pleasant fuel more often than not, but the sheer amount Antin was able to produce from those he touched was aphrodisiacal to me. Perhaps not just to me. Everyone around the table was looking inspired in that moment, Conall's fingers digging into my hips like he was resisting the urge to tug me onto his lap.
"That—" Dr. Underwood cleared a rough, low rasp from his voice and started again. "That display would've restored you?"
I licked my lips and tried to straighten, but Conall wouldn't release me. "Not…restored," I said, thinking of the incredible hollow that had formed in me in my centuries of captivity. "But certainly strengthened."
Constantine seemed almost to preen at this, and I wondered if he didn't often receive praise regarding his abilities.
Hywel cleared his throat at the head of the table, able to catch everyone's attention with a single note. I glanced up to find his gaze hot on me, eyes smiling with wicked intent. "We have just finished our final course, but I wonder,blodyn bach, if you might still be hungry?"
CHAPTER39
AN EVENING INTERLUDE
“Did you—" I squirmed against thick fingers, trying to catch one at my opening, whining when it skirted away. "Did you know this would happen?"
Asterion chuckled in my ear, tracing another slow, uneven circle over my glossy lower lips, his heavy jaw tucked over my shoulder as we watched the others. Everywhere in the room, tableaus of entwining flesh glittered by candlelight. The air wavered in my vision, as hazy and heavy as a summer day before a storm, the room so thick withnéktar, it seemed to pool in little droplets on my mouth, licked away with each breath.
Two hearty cries broke out from the chorus of gasps and moans, and my eyes darted to the left, where Auguste and the enormous Mr. Tanner—what a fascinating surprise he had been—had Esther fastened between them, their tangled shapes boldly illuminated by the firelight.
"Perhaps not so…explicitly," Asterion said, chuckling as my breath hitched and my hips chased his fingers. "But I did think these friends might suit your nature."
I hummed my agreement and turned my head, gaping at the cluster of my other lovers. Conall was trapped between Hywel and Laszlo, their attention lavished over his chest in licks and bites, Hywel's hand deep in Conall's barely opened trousers.
