236- A Blade Between Hunger and Desire
POV Elowen Grimwald:
What was left of my heart shattered into even smaller pieces.
Nerin arrived and didn’t want to speak to me, only went upstairs. Aldren passed through the door right after her. I ran toward him smiling, but I was pushed away with a dark look and a single sentence:
“I need a shower.”
What I wanted was to grab the dish of potato cream with meat—the one I bent over backward to make—and throw it out the window. To grab and discard the entire table too, decorated with the golden dinner set Aldren had won and never used, according to Nerin.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Why did I fool myself so easily?
Alright, it wasn’t that easy.
He killed for me, we had devastating sex, I was forgiven for my attempted murder with the bonus of being allowed to walk around the village, and he seemed jealous.
He seemed to care!
In my reading, those were obvious signs that he was tied to me too, even if only physically.
I was terribly wrong in my judgment.
Defeated, I leaned over the table and rested my head on the back of my hand. I closed my eyes, begging the gods to illuminate me with some way out.
I wouldn’t be able to kill him, and he also didn’t seem interested in setting me free. How was I supposed to go on with my life?
My misery unfolded even further: I didn’t want to leave Valmorin. Something inside me insisted that my place was there, in that house, with those people.
Once again, Elowen Grimwald wishing to be where she wasn’t wanted.
How much rejection can a shapeshifter endure?
I inhaled deeply and…
He came accompanied by the most delicious natural scent on Earth.
My mind had to be betraying me, playing a trick on me.
That was what I believed, until the smell became far too strong to be a hallucination.
My heartbeat jumped, but I controlled myself so I wouldn’t lift my head.
What if he pushed me away again?
“Elowen.” His deep voice cut through the silence.
I raised my head slowly and shifted my ass on the bench, turning toward the kitchen entrance.
I almost choked on the image painted before me.
More delicious than all the delicious men in the world combined, he stood shirtless, dressed only in sweatpants.
A short strand of wet hair fell across his forehead, and droplets of water traced a dangerous path down his sculpted abdomen.
I realized I was making a fool of myself staring when he moved, coming toward me.
In the blink of an eye, I stood up in a rush, afraid I might have drooled while admiring him.
“I… uh…” I couldn’t form a single sentence.
Aldren walked to the table and внимательно observed the setup for two and the dish in the center. There was a dining room in the house, in the adjoining room to the kitchen, but I’d never seen anyone use it, so I ignored it.
“Nerin made it?” He surprised me with the question. Hadn’t she told him?
The two of them were so close it was hard to predict.
“No… I did.”
Suddenly, my face grew hot.
“What is it?” He pointed at the dish and lifted those deep seductive green eyes toward me, sending a shiver through my entire body.
“It’s three layers: potato cream, meat in sauce, and cheese. They served it at the bar where I worked, and the customers loved it. I wanted you to try it…”
“How do I know it isn’t poisoned?”
“Aldren…” I murmured, disappointed.
“It’s a joke,” he revealed, giving a restrained half-smile.
And then the discouragement vanished from my body as if by magic.
I gathered courage to take two steps closer and touch his bare arm.
“Have dinner with me…?” His forest-colored irises flickered from my eyes to my mouth. Twice. Temptingly. “Or… you can kiss me too, I’d love that,” I teased.
Aldren moistened his lips and smiled, showing his beautiful white teeth. A rarity.
“I’m hungry. Very hungry.”
“Then sit down.” I agreed, and he chose to sit, majestic with that bare chest, his back to the window.
I held his hand when he grabbed the spatula, ready to serve himself.
“It must be cold. I’ll put it in the oven for about ten minutes.” I gripped the handles of the rounded dish with its glass lid.
“Do you need help?”
“No. I can do it.”
I carried it to the built-in oven in the counter and set it for ten minutes. That should be enough to warm it up.
Returning to the table, seeing those strong exposed shoulders gave me a tempting idea.
I came up behind him and slid my palms along his biceps, moving upward to the line of his trapezius, where I squeezed, beginning a massage.
I could feel his accumulated tension, and I wanted to be his relief.
You don’t need anyone else, Aldren. You only need me.
“You can be surprising, bitch.” I spread my fingers and pressed into his tension points, making a rough groan escape his throat. “Fuck, that’s good.”
“You still haven’t changed your mind about calling me bitch…?”
“Don’t you like it? I believe I’m the only one who nicknames you so affectionately.”
“Oh, yes you are, of course you are…” I slid the tips of my thumbs along his neck and drew another satisfied groan from him. “How was your day? You’re so tense.”
I let my fingers glide down his spine and began massaging his shoulder blades with open hands in circular motions.
“Do you really want to know?” He sounded doubtful.
“Yes, I do. I care.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Following that line of reasoning, you also shouldn’t be here.”
I applied more pressure and he exhaled, clearly loving it.
“You’re right, Elowen. This is a rare moment in which we agree.”
I let out a small laugh.
“Tell me…” I insisted.
“Besides the usual things, I’m investigating a situation. I suspect there’s a traitor among my guards.”
I was shocked by the revelation.
Was Aldren really opening up to me?
“Why would someone be so stupid as to betray you? Betray Valmorin? Everything here seems so organized and prosperous.”
“Elowen, you will still learn that some people will have everything many would kill to have, and yet they will insist on craving what belongs to someone else.”
“I don’t have those feelings inside me. That thing called envy. Unless…” I paused when I realized what I was about to reveal.
“Continue.”
I slid my hands down his back and shoulders until I found his sculpted abdomen. I leaned over him to speak close to his ear.
“Unless someone has you… and that someone isn’t me,” I whispered, leaving a wet kiss on the curve of his neck.
I watched his Adam’s apple strain.
“Elowen, don’t make me play this game, because if I enter it, I guarantee you’ll come out hurt… and you’ll lose.”
“It’s not a game.” I circled him, lifted my skirt, and sat on his lap, my bare feet on the floor, my back pressed against the tabletop. I rested my hands on his strong shoulders and was met with a hungry gaze. “It’s the realest thing I’ve ever felt since I can remember.”
“You haven’t lived long enough to have so many certainties,” he snapped, blowing minty, slightly alcoholic breath across my face.