His hand wrapped around my throat and then lifted me off my feet until our eyes were level. Then he growled. “Not. Me.”

I bit my bottom lip. “You taste good.”

He closed his eyes and dropped me to my feet. A soft, mumbled curse left his lips, but I did not catch the words. Before I could ask, he gripped my waist and spun me back around. “Focus, Francelina. If you consume too much blood, it will make you sick. You are not a vampire. You must perform. You must make Sweyn think you are draining him while you take no more than four sips. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“While you drink, I will get the page from the throne,” even his telepathic thoughts were barely audible now, which was probably a paranoid precaution. “Once I have it in the bag, I will discreetly excuse us from the room so you may finish the decoy. Then we will return here to make that switch.”

I nodded again. “Preparado.”

He squeezed my waist, and it was such an affectionate gesture I had to bite my cheek to stop from giggling and smiling like a swooning love-sick teenager. Even if I was one. With my bag in one hand, he pressed the other to the small of my back and led me across the room and around the far side of the bed so that we stood between it and the throne. Right where we needed to be. My pulse quickened. This could be it. We had the opportunity to actually get this done right now. The adrenaline of that thought gave me the courage to kneel on the edge of the bed with my knees at the human man’s thighs. I leaned forward to brace my hands on either side of his head then lowered my lips to his throat. Once I found the spot Everest had taught me to find, I sank my teeth into his skin.

Blood pooled in my mouth.

It tasted so violently bitter like metal that my gag reflex immediately raged and all of the blood in my mouth poured out of my mouth and down the man’s neck. But I did not stop. I had to do this. I took a deep breath through my nose and sucked on the wound I’d made on his skin. The blood did not taste any better. My stomach was rolling so hard I felt the acids forcing everything back up my throat. I paused drinking without taking my lips off his skin so Sweyn might think I was still drinking. Everest’s instructions to perform echoed in my mind. I just prayed I was succeeding.

“María,” Sweyn purred.

I licked the man’s wound then lifted my head and met Sweyn’s red gaze. “Mi reina?”

She hooked her finger and wagged her eyebrows. “Come join me.”