“But if you love me like you think you do, you should set me free.”
Eldrin laughs. “Then you will run and tell all the other humans about me, and you may never come back. That scenario is unacceptable. I will just have to work harder to make you fall in love with me.”
His black eyes change. Somehow, they grow darker, more intense. The stars in them have gone out, and now he takes on the look that is less elfish and dignified, and more wolfish. He’s another species, I remind myself. A wild thing. Be careful.
His primal, singularly focused expression sends a shiver down my back, and I can’t decide if it’s a fearful shiver or an aroused kind.
“Fall in love with you? You are a trip.”
Eldrin cups my face in his two large, glowing hands and angles his face toward me without another word.
The excellent food has given me enough mental fortitude that I could pull myself away and send him flying with a roundhouse kick to his sugar plums and candy cane. Maybe.
Except that I’m not sure I want to. My mind and body have stopped fighting each other, and I am starting to accept that I contain worlds of contradictions. I’ll forgive myself tomorrow. Will I be forgiving myself for losing my virginity to a cosplayer? Is there a worse-case scenario? It’s all very fuzzy, and the cosplayer scenario now seems to be the most unlikely. Also, a hallucination is not likely. I now remember everything that happened to the point of passing out, and I know I hadn’t consumed anything other than water this morning before the trip to the farm. I neither drank from Daren’s flask nor consumed mushrooms in these woods.
So what does this mean? Those ears don’t look like prosthetics. There’s no device or phenomenon that I know of that could make a human’s skin glow like that. Plus, the healing hands, how he knew about my books, and my lonely childhood.
It doesn’t seem like it could be true, but there’s no other explanation. I’m in the arms of a bona fide Christmas elf.
Eldrin’s smooth, angular lips are so close to mine I can feel his breath against them. He says, “This is how I’ve seen human beings kiss. Tell me, is the kissing more enticing now that you’ve been fed and entertained?”
My lashes flutter. Here’s my chance. If I say no, his principles might let me leave. But instead, I say, “Only if you stop talking like an alien.”
Logic, reason, and self-preservation have flown out the window.
“I am happy to talk to you however you wish,” he says, his voice now sounding less prideful and condescending and more…hungry.
I like it.
I reach up and touch his face. I swallow hard and debate with myself. Demand him to let me leave or give in to what he wants…and to what my body wants.
I always said I wanted to lose my virginity to Legolas.
Whether or not this is real, I’m going to make the most of it.
Chapter Six
Eldrin
“There’s something you need to know first,” my queen says to me. “I’m a virgin, and I’ve seen what’s under th
at kilt. It’s going to take a lot of foreplay to—ah—do the bonding ritual, as you say.”
“Foreplay,” I say the word out loud, recalling my limited knowledge of that aspect. I hadn’t read enough about that.
“What does that require?”
She smiles up at me flirtatiously, fluttering her lashes in a very pleasing way. “Well. It depends on the person. For me, I really like for someone to make me feel safe.”
I nod. “Very well. What or who shall I kill for you?”
She snorts, and it’s a strange sound that squeezes my heart.
“No, Eldrin. We start with you holding me.”
From what I had read at one time. I thought kissing was a precursor for the sex ritual, but this human seems different. She seems to require that I hold her first, much like I did after she had fainted.
“Oh, I…” I trail off as Clara makes herself comfortable against me, leaning her cheek against my chest. The sitting and holding seem unnecessary, as I’m already quite aroused, and my shaft is indeed pressing into her leg. And I can smell her pheromones. She’s quite ready.