"There was a special reason I have chosen you and not any one of them." The Vampire King shrugged. "At least I had enough mercy not to behead you like one of my past Empresses—I forgot her name already because she never mattered—when she dared to play me when she became an accomplice of one of the power-hungry Dukes in the Vampire Court."

There was a speculative gleam in the Vampire King' eyes which Luna didn't recognize. "It would almost be a pity if I shall once again be without a wife."

"Your mere existence fires up my imagination." The Vampire King threw back his head as he savoured the roar of the wind in his ears blowing outside from the single window of the ivory tower." I'm afraid the other Kings would take notice."

He hoped that the savage uproar of the wind would be enough to drown out the haunting echoes of his wife's pleas as she begged him not to leave her there alone, imprisoning her."This is why I ask you to stay in our bed chamber because that was a lot better than locking you away. But, now, you give me no choice."

"Husband." Luna groaned in despair. "You wanted to lock me away inside this ivory tower?"

The Vampire King was deathly silent, the tension so hot and thick that even the silver dagger on his hand could not slice it.

He had not shared his darkest shame to anyone else, nor would he ever do it.

Apollyon would take this secret to the grave.

He had locked away his wife not to punish her but to protect her from the other Kings who would desire her and take her away from him like what the Feline King had attempted to do.

Apollyon reminded grimly. "If you beg quite prettily for your freedom, maybe I could change my mind."

"Your Highness." Luna moaned through a haze of shock and relief as he became more aware that Apollyon had knelt and settled unto the V of her thighs, his deft hands gently assessing her quim for that juicy wetness, preparing her for penetration.

"Oh, the temptations of having a beauty like you, begging me to take you." The Vampire King taunted as he drove two fingers deeper inside her cervix.

His large fingers filled her with no signs of retreating.

The only thing it did was to push them even further, digging and clawing her insides that it made her scream in pain and pleasure.

"I want you to beg, dear Luna." Apollyon mused in the softest of purrs. "I also love the idea of you on your knees, eager to do my bidding—sucking my cock."

Luna settled back to the bed as she tried to calm down her lust. "Apollyon…."

Her husband can disrespect her but only in bed.

"Apollyon, what my wife?" The Vampire King pulled his long slender fingers from her without warning as Luna watched his mouth closing on those same fingers, licking them clean.

Luna watched Apollyon closed his eyes, savouring her taste.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Luna missed the feeling of being full inside her quim.

She groaned as she struggled to break free from her chains once again, squirming under the weight of her husband.

What did the Vampire King want her to say?

Luna wanted it fast, hard and rough, but that might shock her husband to see his wife act like a whore.

Luna settled for whispering, "I want you inside me."

With his dark hair framing his forehead and his lips twisted into a mocking smirk, Apollyon looked every inch the fallen angel.

Luna watched his fingers play with her quim slowly before she glanced upwards at his exposed forearms, admiring how his cuffs were all pushed up.

At the same time, his cravat hung loosely around the throat of his half-unbuttoned shirt, which only enhanced the devil-may-care attitude around him.

The Vampire King caressed the tiny hairs at the juncture of her thighs with the silver dagger in his other hand before he brought his eyes back to hers. "Call me. Your Highness."

"What?" Luna glanced at his arrogantly handsome face and asked incredulously, her brows knitting together furiously.

"I said," The Vampire King shook his head and repeated the magic words, "You must address me as your Highness."

Was this some power-play type of thing her husband was getting a kick out of?

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Luna's hips shot upward as she attempted to jump from the bed in annoyance, but the chains prevented her from doing so, no longer able to bear her husband's taunting. "Are we seriously doing this now?"

Apollyon's icy indifference shattered with a roar. "You have to ask what you want from me with the utmost respect."

"Please." Luna's pulse didn't cease its expectant thundering as she forced herself to say it.

"Please what, Luna?" The Vampire King's voice was deceptively light. "You must beg, or you will just have to settle with nothing but a finger."

She gazed up at him, her eyes brimming with both unshed tears and defiance. "Fuck you, Your Highness."

With her tiny waist in the Vampire King's grasp, he lifted her from the bed as he squeezed her butt hard and demanded, "Come again?"

Turning her face away from him in embarrassment and frustration, Luna's knuckles whitened as she brought up enough courage just for her to repeat it.

Luna spat out every word with impatience mixed with hatred. "I said, Please. Fuck. Me, Your Highness."

The Vampire King went utterly still, not even breathing.

Then he shook his head and smirked at her helplessness, "That's better."

"Where did that bastard Phorcys touched you?" The Vampire King gritted his teeth against the primal urge to howl with possession--to bite her from every part of her flesh where other males' skin had come in contact with hers.

"Let me replace his dirty touch with mine." Apollyon wanted her to forget what happened to her at the Harem Auction.

The experience was too degrading for a female—an Empress—of her stature. "You are only allowed to remember my touch, not anyone else."

Luna lowered her eyes, ashamed of her own mistakes at the Acquaintance Affairs, which involved the Sea King and the Feline King, however unwitting.

She bit her lip as she struggled to meet the Vampire King's intense gaze.

Luna had let these strangers touch her even if she hated it.

It was her fault that her husband was acting like this.

"You disappoint me, my dear Luna." Apollyon frowned at her quietness. "I had rather hoped you would plead prettily for my forgiveness because of that incident, too."

The Vampire King stared down at her eyes, her face, her chest, her stomach and that secret spot between her thighs, appearing like a thirsty vampire who hadn't drunk blood and had sex for a long time--a vampire who was about to draw an innocent maiden beneath him and rut her like a ravening beast.

Luna was chained to the four corners of the bedposts.

There was nowhere she could hide from his intense scrutiny.

It still made her shy even if they did this a couple of times already.

"Tell me where he had touched you, Luna," Apollyon said as he palmed her breast. He rubbed one nipple between his thumb and forefinger as it moved down to caress her stomach.

She moaned.

"Hmm." Her husband had lain beside her with one hand cradling his head without removing his gaze from the twins. "I swear I saw the Sea King touched your breasts like they were his goods."

Apollyon proceeded to put one nipple inside his mouth and sucked hard that she felt the throbbing ache all the way down to her core.

"I wonder if you could come with just me sucking your nipples and playing with your breasts, nothing else." He slanted her seductive glance from beneath his lashes. "We could try, shall we?"

Whimpering at the pleasure, Apollyon continued doing it--a signal itself that she had revelled in the gratifying sensations he had brought up.

This must be the situation where the saying had transpired from.

Luna had sold her soul to the devil through the blood bond, and it would only be a matter of time before that same devil would collect.

Nobody had told her beforehand that the devil would be so beautiful—in the form of her husband—that she would be tempted to surrender without a fight.

"Apollyon." Luna snapped as her frustration made her more reckless. "Don't make me wait any longer."

"I see my Empress is very much acting like a Queen at the moment." The Vampire King said crisply as if he disliked her conduct from ordering him around.

"Hurry up and just get on with it." Luna closed her eyes briefly as Apollyon's own words came back to haunt her. "Your Highness."

"You may scream if you like," Her husband suggested pleasantly as his eyes flicked down to her breasts.

"I wouldn't." Luna had no intention of screaming because she would not give his husband satisfaction.

She was brave enough to handle this.

"Suit yourself, then." He shrugged as if he didn't care. "Just don't forget, I gave you a chance."

Apollyon raised his silver dagger and stabbed her one bare and creamy shoulder.

Closing her eyelids shut, she fought the urge to scream from the punctured wound her husband inflicted on her.

Inhaling sharply, Luna clenched her teeth as she bit her lip to keep herself from moaning.

Gritting her teeth, she exhaled as the pain from the stab wound pestered through her system while Apollyon stimulated her clit and her breasts at the same time."Are you. Going to pull. This dagger. From my shoulder or. Not?"