For a moment, I simply blinked.
I had never heard him laugh like that.
His head tipped back slightly, one hand lifting toward his brow as though the sheer absurdity of the question had caught him completely off guard. The deep sound of his amusement rumbling through his chest, where my body was still pressed against him.
And judging by the sudden shift in the room around us, I was not the only one shocked by it.
My eyes instinctively darted toward Torin.
He stood near one of the pillars that framed the edge of the VIP floor, his usual vigilant posture still perfectly in place. Yet the moment his gaze landed on Wye, something in his expression cracked.
Surprise.
Real, unmistakable surprise. The kind that appeared only when someone witnessed something they had never expected to see. Which made my attention drift further across the room. Slowly, almost cautiously, my gaze moved over the surrounding tables and velvet booths. It then didn’t take long to realize that Torin was far from the only one reacting.
Everyone was now staring.
Not openly enough to be considered rude, but enough that once I noticed it, I couldn’t unsee it. Conversations had paused. Curious glances slid toward the throne before quickly flicking away again. Whispers moved quietly through the nearby groups, as if the entire VIP floor had collectively realized that something very unusual was happening tonight.
Their lord was laughing.
And judging by the stunned looks scattered throughout the room, it was not something they witnessed often. Which meant, of course, that the source of that miracle was currently sitting in his lap.
Me.
The realization made my face burn hotter.
“Look at me.” The command was soft, but there was no mistaking the authority threaded quietly through it. My hands slowly lowered from where I cradled the lower half of my face.
When my eyes lifted to meet his, the laughter was still lingering there. Warm amusement softening the sharp lines of his expression as though my ridiculous question had genuinely delighted him.
“Ignore them,” he said gently, his gaze flicking briefly toward the room before returning to me again with quiet ease. Which was easy for him to say. He was not the one currently dying of embarrassment.
Still, his fingers lifted, brushing lightly beneath my chin in a touch that guided my attention firmly back to him. And just like that, the rest of the club seemed to fall away.
Then the faintest smirk curved his mouth.
“And to answer your question,” he continued calmly, as though we were discussing something perfectly ordinary rather than my spectacular social disaster,
“No. I am not a virgin.” His silver eyes gleamed faintly.
“Oh.” The sound escaped me before I could stop it.
“Right, erm… well…” I stammered, not really knowing what to say to that, as heat crept back into my face, and my brain scrambled to recover from the moment,
“You just don’t… date.”
His brow lifted slightly.
“You sound surprised.”
“Well…” I hesitated, gesturing vaguely toward the rest of the club where several strikingly beautiful demonesses were still very obviously watching the throne from across the room.
“Surely you have… you know…”
“Have sex, yes,” he said dryly, amusement still lingering in his voice.
“I still have sex, Eliza. I simply do not date.” Even more heat invaded, moving slowly up my neck as the bluntness of that answer settled over me.
