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THE EMPRESS LUNA

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Luna stared directly into her husband's eyes, which had turned to a rich, exotic shade of Prussian blue, glanced down to the marble floor, then back to his sapphire orbs.

Based on Luna's observation at the past Blood Moon Banquet, she had recognized this flirting signal countless times practiced by the ladies from the Consortium whenever they see a man they were attracted to.

There was nothing wrong with imitating those women if it worked, right?

"I have hidden charms I hadn't shown yet, Your Highness," Luna whispered in a husky invitation.

"Uh-huh." Apollyon drawled in a husky voice and his sensual lips had parted with need.

The Vampire King slowly lifted the black veil which had sheltered most of her face, his hooded gaze settling on Luna's mask.

Swallowing inaudibly, Luna had to pause for a while in the recollection of what she was about to say.

Her mouth had dried up when Apollyon's half-hearted, half-slumbering gaze seared her inside out.

"Especially in bed--" Luna murmured the words as she continued to hold his gaze, her confident sphinx-like smile almost wobbled from extreme shyness, but she managed to blurt out, "I learned from the best of the best."

"About the Masquerade Ball, I think it would be difficult for you." The Vampire King said out of the blue as his gaze fell unto her mouth, which also made her wet her lips without thinking.

As he slowly erased the distance between them, Apollyon lowered his voice when he spoke, "It would be fine for the Empress to stand around and make small talks like a wallflower. I hadn't even seen you perform a royal court dance before."

There was this reluctance to follow through with it every time she decided to seduce Apollyon, wondering if she can do it better.

Luna prayed that it wasn't that obvious to her husband that her fingers were twitching nervously when she caressed his chest with her hand over and over.

She thought that it was a poor attempt on her part because she hadn't elicited the reaction she wanted from his husband.

Instead, Luna was the one who was seduced by his pure masculine beauty that once belonged to a cruel vampire.

Apollyon was an ancient pureblood who had a fallen angel's face—all hard lines and sharp angles.

The Vampire King shut his eyes bit by bit as if savoring the sensations of her fingers brushing over his chest where his beating heart should have been.

Despite Apollyon's stillness, she was vividly conscious of her husband's incredible strength in the air.

It was as if the Vampire King gave danger signs in their vicinity to keep interruptions at bay.

She had lost her High Priestess magic, but if the small hairs on her ivory skin were an unspoken warning, Luna knew that it was an indication of her husband's true power.

Apollyon gave her a little smirk before he grabbed the wrist of the hand that was on his chest, wrapped his other arm around her body, and suddenly turned her around, shifting their positions.

Yelping in surprise, Luna's eyes widened in shock, but then fear took over.

Luna shut them tight right away as she grabbed into his muscular arms.

Everything had happened so fast that Luna was forced to shuffle back a step or two so that she wouldn't stumble.

The next thing she knew, her back had hit the balustrade as her husband caged her in.

"You little minx," The Vampire King raised an eyebrow as he chuckled, "I know what you're doing to me."

Breathing hard, Luna glanced at Apollyon as they stood together at the corner of the balcony.

She had reclined too much at the hand railing and jerked her head back, making the ribbon of her black velvet bonnet lose and detach from its moorings as it slipped out from under her chin, dropping to the rose arbor below the balcony of the Ball Room.

"Ugh. My bonnet!" Luna groaned from the loss of her bonnet due to her negligence as she turned her head to see the black feathers slowly descending as they detached from the top of the bonnet.

Luna had no armor anymore to shield her face from the recognition of Apollyon's guests.

She will surely perish and disintegrate into dust when she met them the second time if they went back to the Ball Room.

Why was Luna so unlucky?

She shook her head and tossed her wavy silver hair back since it got way too messy when she had lost the bonnet because of her carelessness.

"I told you, wife, that you don't need the bonnet," Apollyon whispered in her mouth as he deliciously drove his fingers down her scalp, fixing her hair, while the other hand supported her back, keeping her upright.

"You're Highness." She moaned as Apollyon leaned in and trailed moist kisses from her throat down to her naked collarbone.

Apollyon then pressed his lips over her beating heart.

Shivering at the contact, Luna tangled her hand in his raven hair.

He gazed back into her face and kissed her lips, which set the dormant flames on her stomach ablaze.

Her tense body relaxed as the warmth uncoiled with lazy grace into her bloodstreams, slowing down her pulse.

Luna panted as Apollyon's seduction intensified.

All she could think about was sex, where they could 'do' it, and the ache in her core, her revenge to Apollyon, was forgotten.

If she let him continue, she would fail her mission to put a spell on her husband.

The seducer was the one who was seduced.

Apollyon must be laughing now.

The Vampire King was the epitome of sin and seduction.

When he was in one of these moods, it was hard to resist him.

The Vampire King paused, and his brows furrowed, distracted.

Heart still racing, Luna covered her mouth with a hand because she thought the reason why her husband had stopped with his sensual stimulation was that she was too noisy, but that wasn't the reason at all.