Page 48 of Court of Lies and Deceit

“Girl, have you ever even sucked a cock before?” Jocasta says from where she is still standing a couple of steps away. Amusement laces her voice. “You’re supposed to suck it. Not lick it like an icicle.”

Embarrassment crashes over me like a tidal wave. My entire face flushes bright red. It’s so intense that I feel like I’m going to catch fire any second. Whipping my head around, I stare at Jocasta with my cheeks burning with mortification. She just grins down at me, her eyes sparkling with satisfaction.

And that’s when my stunned mind finally catches up with what happened these past couple of minutes. Jocasta created lust in my chest. In Draven’s too. Since I can’t manipulate my own emotions, I have never known what it feels like from the other side. And since I know that I’m changing someone’s emotions, I’ve always thought that there was something about it that would feel artificial. I had no idea that it felt this… organic. When she created the lust inside me, I had no idea that it wasn’t my own emotion. I truly believed that it was all me.

That thought sends another shockwave through me, because it leads me to the most mind-blowing realization of all.

Jocastacreatedlust inside me.

If it had happened when I turned and looked at Draven, I would have doubted her word. I would have thought she just manipulated the spark of lust that is always present when I look at Draven. But it began before that. That all-consuming sense of lust began before I even laid eyes on him. Which means that it was created out of nothing.

And that should not be possible.

“Uhm… What’s going on here?” Galen’s voice suddenly echoes through the room.

I whip my head towards the door to find Galen, Lyra, Isera, and Alistair standing there frozen on the sand, staring at the three of us in stunned silence. The practice dummies they have brought stand motionlessly beside them.

Draven quickly pulls his pants all the way back up and fastens his belt again while I scramble off my knees and take a few steps back. Heat once more sears my cheeks.

“No need to hide it,” Jocasta says, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she nods towards Draven’s crotch. “It’s a very impressive cock.”

In a heartbeat, Draven has closed the distance between them. Lightning crackles down his arms and storm clouds churn around him as he grips her by the collar and yanks her up on her toes.

“If you ever do something like that again, I will fucking kill you,” Draven growls in her face.

“Oh, come now,” Jocasta replies, smirking back at him. “It was very educational. Or at least, it will be. Because now you can start teaching her how to suck cock properly.”

“Watch your mouth.” His fist tightens in her black shirt. “And for your information, her technique is fucking excellent.”

Heat once again flushes my entire face, turning it bright red, and I send a desperate prayer to Mabona that the ground will open up and swallow me.

Jocasta just gives Draven a knowing smirk. “Uh-huh.”

He shoves her backwards and releases her shirt.

Our four companions, who have now reached us, come to a halt on the sand two steps away while glancing between the three of us.

“Did we… miss something?” Lyra asks, looking genuinely bewildered.

“Yeah, what’s going on?” Alistair adds as he meets my gaze.

I drawn my eyebrows down into a scowl, desperately trying to force the searing heat out of my cheeks. “Don’t ask.”

A few steps away, Jocasta chuckles and brushes her hands down her shirt to smoothen it after Draven’s manhandling. Amusement glitters in her eyes and she wiggles her eyebrows at us. I shoot her a glare.

“And what even is this court’s obsession with sucking cock?” I huff, remembering how Orion threatened Isera earlier.

Alistair raises his eyebrows. “You sucked his cock?”

“I said, don’t ask,” I mutter, embarrassment heating my cheeks once more.

“It’s the ultimate power exchange,” Jocasta replies with a hungry look in her eyes.

At first, I think that hunger in her eyes is directed at Draven, and the urge to ram a knife through her ribs hits me like a landslide. That violent urge to kill her just for thinking about Draven shocks me a little, which in turn dampens the murderous rage enough for me to see that her eyes aren’t focused on Draven at all. Quite the opposite. She’s staring out across the room, as if looking through the wall and towards whoever she’s fantasizing about.

“One person is kneeling at the other’s feet, sucking his cock,” she says, her tone laced with deep craving. “An act of absolute submission.” Her gaze remains on the pale stone wall across the room as she slides her tongue along her teeth. “While at the same time, she has the most vulnerable part of his body in her mouth. Right between her teeth.” Her eyes gleam and a sigh escapes her chest as she repeats, “The ultimate power exchange.”

The six of us just stare at her in silence, unsure of how to reply to that. My question had been more a comment of frustration. I hadn’t expected her to actually answer it.

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