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“Yeah, but anyone could’ve found it. It didn’t have to be me.”
“But the blood has to be willingly given. We think that is one of the main reasons.”
“And the others?”
He shifted slightly as she stared at him. She didn’t sense any untruth from him. In fact, she didn’t sense anything at all. But she didn’t know how to tune into the bond, so that was probably expected.
“We don’t know yet. Our trusted advisors are searching for more clues, anything that may shed a bit more light on this. It may be that all we need is your blood. Nothing more, nothing less.”
As if afraid she’d escape, he banded his arms around her, his hands resting on her stomach. Though it was crazy at a time like this, she stared at his hands, imagining them roaming over her. She shuddered as his long fingers started a trail of lazy circles that soon migrated to the underside of her breasts before wandering down low on her stomach. Her breath caught. Luckily or maybe unluckily—she couldn’t decide—he didn’t go any farther.
His husky voice, along with his fluid and sensual movements, almost caused her to miss his explanation. The aroused length poking into her backside didn’t help, either. She stilled his hands and scooted over to one side of his lap. “Okay, I’m trying to understand, but I can’t think while your hands are on me. Or while you’re prodding me in the back with your mighty sword. Don’t think you’re off the hook yet, mister.”
He chuckled but behaved himself. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and exhaled slowly, trying to settle her body. “I’d expect nothing less.”
He tugged her back to rest against him, this time so she sat sideways. She melted inside as he placed kisses on her hair and just held her, nothing else.
Relian had said he’d be honest with her from now on, so that was something. Now that she fully knew and understood what rested between them, she could start making informed choices.
***
“Where were you?” Maggie whispered over the din at the huge feast.
“Talking to Relian about you know what,” Cal answered back quietly, aware of the stares they engendered by whispering at the table. She’d been preoccupied the whole time, though, barely paying the others any attention. Something felt off but what?
“You’ll have to tell me later how that went.”
“Oh, I will.”
“Oooh, this promises to be good. It better be.” Maggie’s previous decorum went right out the window, along with the wine that went down her throat. “That pompous yellow-haired faerie showed me off like a pampered pet. Do you think humans are coming in favor now? Ha, every fashionable elf will want one. Will we get a jeweled pillow along with a matching collar?”
Next to her, Relian tensed. She shot Maggie a chiding look before turning back to him. What she saw dismayed her. His shoulders shook fractionally, and he coughed discreetly in the hand covering his mouth.
Relian laughed at his father’s expense? She glanced toward the king. A visiting dignitary sitting to his left had him engaged in conversation. Her relief soon took a nosedive in the form of Lord Avrin, who was seated on the other side of Maggie. The appraising look he directed at her friend spelled trouble.
Avrin’s light voice carried an amused tone. “I can’t speak for the king, but if every human is like you, Lady Maggie, I could see humans becoming a very popular fixture in our world.” His voice lowered. “As a fashionable elf myself, I think you would look striking clothed in a jeweled collar, reclining on a pillow.”
Maggie’s eyes flew to Lord Avrin, and her spoon dropped back into her bowl of soup. Her mouth wordlessly opened and closed.
Cal blinked, her own concerns fading to the background for a bit. Had Avrin just propositioned her friend? Well, it seemed he liked Maggie but maybe not in the way she first supposed. He was not only serving as her dinner companion, but he popped up more frequently than she could ever remember. Maybe elves weren’t so different from humans after all.
This was the first time she’d heard anything so overtly sexual in a public setting. Relian had said some very risqué things in private. She shivered. His sexy words always sounded so sensual. Goose bumps covered her arms, drawing her attention to the fact that it probably wasn’t a good time to think about that kind of thing right now.
She focused back on Maggie and Avrin. Maggie was in the process of stuttering her way through something that resembled a response. “O...oh? I wasn’t really volunteering, thank you very much. I mean, I was just... Yeah. I mean no. Definitely not volunteering.”
Thankfully, Maggie finished there, not saying anything else. Cal wanted to bury her face in her hands. Her friend had to run her mouth, and now look where it got her.
Still, the sight of the very proper lord stumping her forward friend marveled her. She nearly smiled in heady relief because she’d actually begun to wonder if all elvin men were abnormally stiff in public when it came to teasing and the like. Well, except for Kenhel. No one could ever call him so. The king, either. He did so like baiting Maggie.
Relian also certainly said things to make her go pink and turn her into a puddle of sexually frustrated goo. She shifted in her chair to relieve the heated pressure building up between her legs. No, so not going there right now, though she wouldn’t mind if he did.
Stupid feast and stupid Relian for making her wait until their maybe bonding, never mind she’d agreed with him on that choice. But how could he be reserved one moment and so uninhabited the next? He had more effing personas than an actor, and elves claimed that humans were flighty with their emotions. What a double standard. It was so familiar and human.
A moment of realization dawned. The full spectrum of emotion had been there all along. It was as Relian mentioned: his people merely hid their feelings more carefully and probably didn’t show them to strangers overmuch. Though elves were often formal and refined, they could let loose with the same aplomb as humanity. For all their differences, elves were surprisingly similar to the people she’d known all her life.
What other wonders would the rest of the evening hold? She was kind of afraid to find out. Well, any other surprises wanting to make an appearance could calmly wait their turn until tomorrow.
