Purring.
A rumbling sound deep in her throat, setting her whole body to vibrating.
He kissed her lightly, careful not to abrade her tender skin any more than he already had with his beard. Then, he licked inside. And growled his own lustfulness when he tasted himself on her tongue, mingled with her unique sweetness.
With a mind of its own, his hips rocked against her, his buttocks clenching as he drove his hardness along her core, his thighs spreading hers open before his conscience belatedly kicked in.
Forcibly, he stilled his body.
“No,” she protested when he stopped, her hands clawing into his hair. “Don’t—”
“Sleep, little one,” he commanded against her lips, placing one last chaste kiss upon them. “We both need to rest.”
“But—”
He kissed her harder this time, effectively silencing her.
She tried to wriggle against him, tempt him into giving her what she wanted. But his will was strong, his weight too heavy to move.
And she was too exhausted to make a real effort, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand.
“Tomorrow…” she murmured against his throat, her eyes slipping closed.
“Aye,” he answered.
But whereas the way she said the word bespoke of hope, he only knew despair.
Tomorrow, they might face each other in the tournament.
Tomorrow would bring them closer to her departure from these lands.
From his life.
Tomorrow, if he wasn’t careful, he might lose the rest of his heart to this small, silver-haired elf.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Tomorrow came too soon, as far as Rui was concerned.
“Rise and shine, porcupine!”
Ere’s sarcastically cheerful chirp only made Rui burrow further into her cloak. If she had her dragon scales, they would truly be spiked up like a porcupine’s as she curled even tighter into a ball.
“All contestants must report to the lists at the crack of dawn. That crack is now a veritable canyon. You’re sooo late. Come on!”
Rui shuffled into a sitting position while Ere bustled about the tent the three travelers shared, getting things in order, dabbing her face and hair with what she assumed was her “makeup,” to dull her looks.
She didn’t recall how she returned to their tent, but she dreamed about Wolfe’s strong arms carrying her. Cradled against his chest like a babe, bundled cozily in her cloak. He must have carried her all the way from the lake back to camp sometime during the night. She would have thought she’d dreamed the whole experience, and what happenedbefore, but for one clue—
The cloak smelled like him.
She buried her nose in its folds and inhaled deeply, like the truffle pig Ere always likened her to, snorting for truffles.
“Yeah,yousmell like him too,” he said as he wrinkled his nose.
“Maybe that’s a good thing. At least now you smell like a man. One who had a helluva night.”
She paid him no heed. He was probably teasing her again, trying to get a rise out of her. But she was too happy and blissed out to care.