Page 40 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

King Bring tried again. “Y-y-you look the same.”

The princess peered down at her gown. “Thank you?”

“What I mean—You have always—I did not—Before when we?—”

I blew out a breath. “My, but how painful.”

The princess was the gentlest monster for a reason. “Sir, you are quite undone by the sight of me. ’Tis nothing to be so nervous of. I feel already sure that we are meant for one another, and I anticipate sharing great pleasure with you.”

She swayed closer, and that only appeared to undo King Bring further.

They fell into conversation, which was to say that Princess Bring was very kind about his stammering and nonsensical half-sentences while she filled the silence.

“Mother, please give him wine,” I muttered, then grinned at See’s chuckle.

Hellebores were just what King Bring needed. Perhaps all monsters had needed them tonight, to be free of the burden of The Real End.

I felt the fuzziness at the edges of my mind as relaxation permeated through me, though I cast a concerned look at Duke Raise.

But the duke was sitting in a chair drinking wine, too, his face a mask of determination.

I had worried that he would be sunk in despair that his duchess was not here with us.

I sighed and fidgeted. “See, I cannot be endlessly seduced.”

Such heat filled me.

“I know” was his reply.

I pulled my hand from his circling finger and stood.

He said lazily, “Where will you try to run from me, my darkness?”

Amusement spread through my chest, but the agitation in my body did not allow for a smile. I crossed to the refreshments table across the room and faced monsters.

King Bring was loosening up and talking with his princess. My, at last. I giggled at the idea of their union failing after everything we had done so far to ensure its success.

I covered my mouth on another giggle. A giggle , no less, and from a mighty queen.

Half of the monsters danced around the hovering violin, and the rest enjoyed merry and engrossed conversation or the delights of their own reflection. What a gift of hellebores to see these precious beings engrossed in the pursuit of pleasure. Absorbed without a care.

Large hands gripped my ankles.

My gaze swept to the empty thrones.

I could assume the hands were chalky white.

“See,” I warned. “What are you doing?”

He was under the refreshments table .

And then under my dress.

I gripped the table behind me, my stance widened by his head between my legs. I could not help glancing behind, but he had twitched my long train over his frame. Surely other monsters could tell, though. Surely my stance appeared unusual.

See hummed against my thigh.

That was all it took to freeze me in place. I scanned the room and no eyes fixed upon me or See. I wanted him so badly.

See kissed my entrance, and heat pooled in response to his promise. He gripped my calves and pulled me firmly against his face.

There were no laving sweeps to cover me completely like yesterday’s dusk. He flicked his tongue with monstrous, blurring speed over my core. A scream rose in my throat that I somehow managed to cage behind my lips. His growl rose against my flesh, and I choked out a wordless reprimand.

My grip tightened on the table behind me. My knees were buckling. His pressure was so fast. So light.

A moan fell from my lips.

Heat hit my cheeks, and anyone who looked would surely glimpse my midnight blush. Anyone looking must note how tightly my body was held, or how much my hips jerked, or how my hips pressed forward so I could better arch against his face.

But they did not look. They did not see or sense anything but their own bliss and happiness.

“Please, See. More. Quickly.”

His tongue stopped moving. His head retreated from between my thighs.

“Take it yourself.” His silken voice rose. I cried out when he replied, “I will give you all, my darkness. I will do this across immortality. But tonight I wish for a queen to be robbed of reason. All for me. I am weak with the need for reassurance.”

I would because there was no option not to satisfy all he had awakened .

I lowered, expecting to find his face. When his tongue did not flick against me, I bent my knees more.

And more.

Goodness, he was lying on the floor. And I was apparently following him there. I straddled his face, to all outward appearances sitting on the floor in a puff of dress.

My breath hitched, and surrounded by my subjects—and subject to my own lust—I started to rock against his face. “Tongue out.”

He did so, and I cried out.

No one turned. No one looked up. Or was I beyond noticing? Was I seeing the oblivion that I wished to see?

So this could continue.

I did not care to know the answer.

He groaned, and low pleas fell freely from my lips.

I rocked faster, and felt the deep stirrings of promise. “My prince!”

My pleasure was pain. A throbbing. A cruel demand.

My dress pooled and puffed around me as I lowered my entire weight onto See’s face. I used his tongue as I never had, and his snapped and muffled growl sounded before he lost the fight to remain aloof of our exchange.

He gripped my ass and moved his mouth in tandem with my mindless chase of pleasure.

Slickness covered him and my thighs. The stirring was aflame, and flames climbed higher, and when they licked my insides and my mind, too, the heat could only free itself through my shout.

See was a rapid creature, still feasting and groaning. He kept rocking me until the last of the flames was drawn from me and into his eager mouth.

Before my blurring eyes, hellebore petals were sinking into stone. I smiled sleepily at their beautiful disappearance before fresh awareness seeped into me .

Fresh awareness of where I was.

What I was doing.

What I had done.

See laughed under his breath as I struggled to stand. When my dress tangled around my slick thighs, I used my power to stand. As soon as I stood, the first gazes of monsters turned to me. They were awaking, too, as hellebores disappeared from the ballroom.

Midnight must have flushed my face.

The violin swept its final notes, and then disappeared into stone too.

The ball was over. “The ball is over,” I said huskily.

See smirked against my ankle, still hidden beneath my dress and train and the table. I hoped. But I could not move or the truth would be out.

I cleared my throat. “Champions, meet in the courtyard. Pawns, return to a clamor of humans.” The rest of my thoughts cleared, and I added, “I have given orders to my mothers to allow monsters access through the grave. There is every possibility that if Marquis Take is lost to us, then another force will rise against this queendom. If that happens before I return, then you must all pass through the grave. Do you heed me?”

“We heed you,” most chimed in unison. All but King No Change, and he would not have a choice.

“You may all leave,” I told monsters.

They glanced at each other. Usually I departed first. See’s smirk against my inner thigh grew larger.

“Now,” I said firmly.

After curtsies and bows, monsters started to trail out, and only when King Bring was wheeled out, did I walk forward so that my train might reveal the hidden prince consort.

His face shone, and now that the room was empty, there was the thought to sink onto his length and reenter the oblivion of pleasure .

“I am ready if you are,” he taunted, rising to his feet.

My heart hammered with his.

I pursed my lips. “My readiness is not in question, thanks to your tongue. But my lust will save for another time.”

We had both needed this exchange that was not him embedding inside me. There were still words to speak to him. There was still something in the way of us.

See walked forward, his cock straining against his pants. But he bowed over my hand. “I will see you at dawn.”

“At dawn,” I replied quietly.

The Takes’ turn had arrived.