Page 108 of A Serenade To The Elf Queen
Her nose nuzzles on the bare skin of my neck. I feel the rapid beat of her heart thudding against her ribcage. The poor thing is afraid. I stroke her hair. “It’s just a shadow—”
A deep-throated groan rips from my throat the moment she sinks her teeth into my flesh. I don’t understand what the hell she’s doing. Whatever it is, she’s summoning the worst of my innermost desires. I’m suddenly all too aware of her perfect ass settling on my thigh. My thoughts spiral to the way her spinearches to meet every savage thrust—I close my eyes, summoning whatever control I can find.
“Rhianelle.”
She still won’t let go of me.
Any chance of suppressing the beast in me obliterates at the first stroke of her tongue against my skin. She’s licking and sucking my neck like a little vampire.
“Keep at that if you want to be fucked against this tree,” I growl.
I feel her body flinch. She pushes my chest and pulls away. Horror surges into her when she finally comes to her senses. “I’m—I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
That tremor in her voice forces me to calm down any carnal lust and focus on her. I try looking into her eyes.
A chaotic swirl of emotions fills that gaze; fear, hate, hurt, and strange enough; desire. I thought she was scared but I get it now. Rhianelle is suffering from this weird attraction too. Her soft hand touches the mark she made on my neck.
“I’ve hurt you,” she mutters with a brittle voice.
“You’ve stabbed me multiple times. I think I’ll survive a little bite.” I rasp a low chuckle. My attempt at comforting her just makes her more miserable. Sorrow covers her entire features and her ears droops.
“It’s fine,” I breathe.
“No, it’s not,” she insists, burying her fingers into her silver hair, tugging the roots. The sadness in her face turns into hopeless confusion.
“Something is wrong with me.” Her voice sounds so small that it cuts me.
I hate to see her this way.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is run my hand on your skin from that first morning,” I confess some of my tamer thoughts.
“It’s the same for you?” she asks quietly.
Worse.But I just nod at her.
It’s not like I can tell her the number of times I’ve fantasized about having my cock between her parted lips.
“Can I just hold you? I promise I won’t bite again.” Her cheeks turn bright red.
“Come here,” I say, pulling her closer to me.
Waves of her silver hair spill down my chest as she rests her head on my shoulder. She feels so perfect and right in my arms.
“Somehow I just feel so much better like this,” she whispers, her shallow breaths brushing my skin. Life seems to return to her face. This proximity and the touch, it’s good for both of us.
“Maybe this strange link has something to do with the Arawynn bond,” she suggests.
It has nothing to do with the strange Elven contract on our wrist or the Rhunhraefn. This is something else entirely.
A strange sense of contentment courses through me. It would have been easy if this connection was just pure lust, but I missed her. It’s been three days, four nights. Too fucking long. I’m not letting her out of my sight again. We remain like that for what seems like forever. Neither of us willing to part from one another.
The weak sunlight fails to penetrate the denseness of this forest. There’s still dew clinging to the spiderwebs and branches.
This is what I’ve been waiting for, isn’t it? The perfect opportunity to kill her. There will be no interference from the demons or her knights.
Rhianelle is still nestling comfortably in my arms, soaking in my warmth. I remind myself she is the Rhunhraefn’s vessel. Taking her life is the only certain way I can escape the clutches of the evil witch. I’ve killed people for far less, burned down villages, and tore down cities to ruin.
Why should this one matter? She’s just another girl. My hand morphs into sharpened claws, as hideous as the thought running through my head.
