Page 43 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

Our bodies never touched apart from my fingers on his shoulder and his hand on my waist, but I could feel the very essence of him. The heat of his body. The scent of his skin. Sandalwood and incense and his own indescribable scent, the one I went to sleep with last night.

“Were you always so good at this?” I asked, a bit breathless as he swayed us faster now, in perfect harmony with the undulating melody.

“I’ve had some practice,” he said with another tiny smile. I loved his smiles. They were like secrets. Something that looked like a shell but inside was a pearl.

“Your mystery woman again?”

He rolled his eyes before rolling me too, unraveling our embrace only to pull me close again, so close that our bodies fell in perfect alignment. His chest pressed against mine. Hisknee slipped between the folds of my skirt. I could feel him everywhere.

“Will you let that go already?” he sighed. “They can’t see us grumbling like a cranky old couple. We’re supposed to be newlyweds.”

“They can’t see or hear us. The Castle is covering us. Besides, we’re also supposed to be separating soon,” I reminded him sweetly.

“Why do you always have to be so disagreeable?”

“Because you love it.”

He spun me again, and our breaths came in unison. “You’re as delusional as ever, I see.”

“Why won’t you admit it?”

“Admit what?”

“That this would have been torture without me here.”

His fingers twisted into the fabric of my dress. He nudged me forward, slanting his face over mine until our noses touched. “It is torture with you here too.”

My lips parted. His eyes followed them. I was seized with the certainty that if he tried to kiss me now, I would let him. I would forgive him for everything. For the things he said. For the things he didn’t say. I would give us both another chance. The heart, after all, was a brave thing. It took risks the mind wouldn’t.

But just as I began to taste him in that minuscule space between our lips—hot and sweet with the figs he ate at dinner—Hector plunged us into the rhythm again, our twined silhouettes speeding past the mirrors.

A strange white light seemed to waver inside the watery facades, following us, chasing our movements. Head whirling, I tried to focus on it, to decipher its origins. Where was it coming from? Inside the glass? Or was it a reflection of something else entirely?

Suddenly, an invisible force struck my shoulder and made me stumble out of Hector’s hold. My feet caught in the frilly hem of my skirt, and I pitched backward. I was about to fall on one of the freestanding benches that circled the room when Hector brought his hand around my waist and slipped behind me to break the impact, which resulted in me slumping on his lap.

Panting, I glared at the ceiling. “I swear the old bastard pushed us.”

The chandeliers twinkled. The Castle was laughing at us.

I started to get up, but Hector’s hand pressed down on my stomach, pulling me more firmly against him. The touch was a command. It lit a fire in my bones.

“What are you doing?”

“Give me a second,” he rasped, his labored breath dampening the skin at the nape of my neck. “I’d rather not make a spectacle of myself.”

“What? Why?”

He shifted under me, our legs tangling. As I felt his hardness pressing against my backside, droplets of pleasure trickled beneath my skin.More, I thought. “Oh,” was all I said.

His forehead fell against the knuckle at the top of my spine. Hot. Damp. I knew exactly how he’d look if I turned now. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I muttered hoarsely. “It happens.”

“Does it?” he whispered, his lips moving right up against my skin, sending waves of mind-numbing want through me. “Because I only seem to get like this when I’m with you.”

I squirmed in his arms, not because I wanted him to release me but because I wanted desperately to feel him through the layers of our clothes. The more I stirred, the more restless he grew in response, until a low, guttural sound escaped him, something between a grunt of agony and a groan of pleasure.Either way, it was a strike to my nerve endings. I began to tremble, my palms pressing down upon his thighs. “Hector, I—”

“I know,” he said. “I know. But try to stay still for me, yes?”

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