By the Lake (Brave New World Book 3)

Chapter 11

This was a horrible night! Both the night and the week leading to it.

The week had begun promisingly. Ris had arrived along with several gargoyles for a delivery of cloud-produced fruit and vegetables. But then my tiger and I had had only a moment to ourselves while the other elf warriors were unloading the boxes of produce. After seven days of no see, all I'd gotten to keep me going until our next meeting had been a single kiss behind the cover of a tree. One heart-melting kiss to get me through a second excruciating week of no Ris in my life.

And tonight, I had him right next to me for the entire feast, the length of one arrow away from my Ris-starved body. But I couldn't even touch him. Curses!

It was all the Queen's fault. Sure, her order that I keep the gargoyles' special emissary company throughout the Prince's braid linkage feast, sounded great. As long as you didn't consider the itsy-bitsy detail where Ris was not allowed to leave the Great Cavern until his very departure. The Great Cavern which was packed from wall to wall with elves, someone's eyes always on us, assessing, judging...

Even for Ris' departure we wouldn't be alone. Seven elf guards were to accompany us to the surface to ensure the emissary truly left the kingdom. Double curses!

Having my tiger beside me and not being able to actually be with him was torture. A single caress along his so temptingly bare thigh under a table would feel as amazing as a drop of water on a parched elf's tongue. However, there were no tables to sit at tonight. The cocktail table we were currently standing next to provided no cover even for a hand squeeze. Cursed transparent mountain-crystal-made table!

Ris was even tenser than me. His body was radiating not just the usual heat but also frustration while we were pretending to enjoy the food in the suffocating company of pure-blooded aristocrats.

"How do you find our plums, Emissary Ris?" Kinkareli asked.

The blond vixen was braid-linked to the richest elf in the kingdom and could thus afford any exotic fruit and nuts from our farmlands. Yet, she always stuck to prunes like a slug on a lettuce.

"Sweet," Ris replied to my right and I watched him swallow an entire prune, pit included. Mmmm, that carnal mouth of his... "But two weeks ago I tasted something sweeter."

A shocked gasp. "Really? What could be sweeter than prunes? I know no such fruit."

"Honey. Straight from the pot."

I nearly spat the pit of my prune onto Kinkareli's ivory-white dress.

"You all right, Deidre?" she feigned care for my well-being. If it weren't for Ris' intriguing presence by my side, she wouldn't be talking to me at all.

I waved my hand dismissively, hoping she hadn't noticed my ears twitching. I shot my tiger a look.

The big boy was laughing with his eyes, of course.

"Don't mind Deidre, Emissary Ris," Rimi noted, elegantly shoving her frenemy Kinkareli away to take her place next to us.

Tonight the head of the fashion underground world had silver threads, pink flowers and golden-yellow leaves in her loose ankle-length hair. Yellow vines on her chain belt were flowing down her long silvery dress. A vine necklace adorned her neck, the pink flower serving as pendant poised between the slopes of her daringly exposed bosom.

Someone had outdone themselves tonight.

"As the elf in charge of clothing in this kingdom and several others, I wish to inform you that what Deidre is wearing is not traditional formal attire," Rimi continued with a fake professional tone.