Daughter of Stars of Earth

Chapter Sixteen-Darling

"You never answered my question," Thranduil mentions and I'm glad to hear the strain in his voice. It takes me two tries to speak.

"What question?" I return and feel his finger graze my lower back as he pulls out the sash from the final loop, then lets the fabric cascade quietly to the floor. I don't dare turn around for his body heat is searing up and down the back of my body. He can't be more than an inch away. Fingers brush over the fabric hanging open to reveal my back and I just can't resist leaning into him. His fingers give way and instead find better purchase under the dress, sliding over the silk of my slip over my waist. I can scarcely breathe and my eyes are shut so I may soak in his touch. My hands on the front are the only thing holding the dress up now.

"Have I satisfied you?" His lips are at my ear and my blood is no longer frozen, it's boiling.

"I've...I've not been satisfied in a long time." I breathe, barely believing that this is reality when it feels more akin to a dream. Carefully, I turn my head to the side and those eyes catch me, just as they always have.

"Neither have I." He responds, lips so close I nearly believe they've touched mine but truly it was only breath. Never have I wanted to be wrong so badly before.

"Perhaps I'd try. If you'd let me." His hands squeeze my waist tighter and I've almost lost the sense to breathe.

"When have you ever waited for permission?" He responds and now there's a tilt to those pretty pink lips of his.

"So now you want me to break the rules?" I tease and dare and by the Valar I'm losing my sanity. Thranduil's eyes burn as he tugs me inexplicably closer.

"Damn the rules." And then his lips are on mine and I've finally tasted fresh air again. His kiss is hard, but I wish it harder still. I wish for him to give everything to me as he has slowly won everything from me. I turn in his arms and my dress pools at our feet as my hands instead slide over the hills of his firm arms, the hard plains of his chest, the supple falls of his silken hair only to rest on the marble cuts of his jaw. Our lips are caught up with one another, battling just as our words often do, but never do they leave one another. Even when Thranduil picks me up out of my dress and my legs wrap around his waist. With my arms locked around his neck, his hands are free. They slide up and down my spine, tangle in my hair, then smooth over my ass before he sets me on the edge of my bed.

I fall backward with a smile, letting my hands fall to the sides while keeping a tight hold of him with my legs. My hands hit something and there's a soft clinking that has us both pausing. My fingers twist and lift my silver crown I must have lost in the night as reality comes crashing down on both of us. Slowly, I release him from my hold and he steps back as I release the crown to sit up. Both breathing hard, we take a moment while not looking at one another.

"I..." He speaks and my eyes snap to his face, but he has yet to look up. "I apologize." The king straightens, that façade falling into his eyes while my brows furrow.

"You needn't ever apologize for being genuine with me, Thranduil." My voice is gentle, but his head jerks up as if I'd yelled.

"Sincerity that nearly led me to take..." His eyes rake over me before he looks away and takes a deep breath with his hands held securely behind his back.

"You took nothing that wasn't given," I assure him and he rolls his eyes.

"We should have decorum. As royals..."

"You could say damn decorum." I paraphrase him with a smirk and his eyes once again find mine and the burning is back. His head shakes.

"Have you lost all sense?"

"Perhaps, but it's never felt so good to lose my sanity. Do I speak wrongly?" I ask rhetorically, for we both know the answer. Gingerly, I slide from the bed as he eyes me warily as if I'll pounce on him. "Thranduil, it is not wrong for us." My hand reaches out and takes his. "Those who once held our hearts in their hands have gone and we now hold our hearts again. It is once again our choice who to bestow them on and it is not a betrayal to do so." My eyes plead with him to understand and although I can understand, it still hurts when he snatches his hand away from me.

"Not to you, perhaps, but then again perhaps you did not know love as I did." I blink with shock as he walks out of my rooms leaving me to stare at the doors after him.

*Thranduil's POV*

My body still sings from touching her, holding her, kissing her, but my body is not the deepest betrayal. The body is whipped into shape by the mind, the mind sometimes better harnessed through the body, but what has no business in either is the heart. Yet sometimes the heart rules overall with a cruel and unyielding hand. Emotions I haven't felt for an age dwell there, fresh and new, and it is the worst betrayal of all. I've not only betrayed myself but the elleth I'd once loved.

I tear into my rooms and bolt the door before pacing the width. My lips still tingle with her passion, my body is still seared from her heat, my hands still ache to touch her, along with other things. I pour myself four cups of wine and all of them vanish beyond my lips before I slide everything off the table and relish in the loud crash. There's an insistent knock at the door afterward.

"LEAVE ME!" I bellow and can hear footsteps scurrying away. What a fool I am to allow myself to be baited so far. What a scoundrel I am for nearly taking everything she offered me. What kind of husband am I to still want her. A moment passes before I take my sword and storm out of my rooms. There is more I must do if I'm to rid myself of all this roiling and more wine will not do. I pause in the shadows before her courtyard as she spars Legolas with a fiercer look on her face than I've ever seen. That is until she looks over and sees me.