I can’t stop the laughter from spilling from my mouth and Bran’s eyes glow brighter as my pleasure grows.

“You’re really good at this!” I shout as we spin nearer the band.

“I’ve had hundreds of years of practice,” he answers and twirls us back to the center of the room.

Never once does my dress get tangled. I don’t know how Bran manages it.

And when the tune ends and the crowd stops to applaud, my head keeps spinning, that fizzy warmth spreading through my limbs, then up, up to my belly and chest.

Beside me, a short woman with pink hair lowers her voice to her friend and says, “I just heard the decorating party started.”

The friend, a woman with dark skin and emerald green hair, waggles her eyebrows. “Ohhh, let’s go watch.”

“What’s the decorating party?” I ask Bran. He snatches another glass from a passing tray and drinks half of it before handing it off to me.

“Sounds like an orgy,” he answers.

“What?!” I giggle around the goblet. Several beads of wine dribble down my mouth and Bran reaches over with his thumb, swiping them away before sucking them off.

I am bright with need for something…anything that feels pleasing. More wine. Food. Sex.

“It can’t be an orgy,” I say, hoping I’m wrong. What a way to begin this night.

I track the women as they navigate through the crowd and then down the next hallway.

Bran gets in close to me. “If ‘decorating party’ isn’t an orgy, I’ll eat my hand.”

“Okay. If the decorating thing is not an orgy, you’ll eat your hand.”

“Okay.” He smiles at me with a closed-mouth smile, all eyes and bravado. “And if it is an orgy, we fuck in it.”

I giggle and then clamp my hand over my mouth to stop the high-pitched glee from filling the air around us.

Bran has pushed me outside of my safe bubble, but to partake in a fae orgy? No way. But he seems so sure and quite honestly, I’m not.

I don’t know why a fae party would include decorating. That seems odd. But a fae orgy? Far more likely.

I grab Bran’s hand and pull him through the crowd in the direction the women disappeared.

The music fades and when we reach the hallway, different music fills the empty spaces. This is softer though, more sensual, more languid.

Oh shit.

There’s a smaller arched door at the end of the hall. It’s cracked just enough to see flickering blue and pink and golden light inside. I can smell the debauchery, even from a distance. Sweat and musk and the earthy scent of oil.

When we reach the door, I stop. This entire night is starting to feel like one giant carnival ride.

Bran puts his hand on the back of my neck and leans in, his mouth at my ear, his breath tickling down my exposed neck. “Go on, little mouse. What’s inside?”

I can hear the moaning, the pumping, the reedy whines.

I give the door a push and reveal dozens of naked fae fucking and sucking and locked in ecstasy inside.

Episode 69

Blood and Wine

I get why it’s called a decorating party now.