To that end, she tightened her fists around his robes, and pulled him closer. It was as if she had touched a match to a tinderbox, the elf went up inflames.
His hands clutched at her waist, tugging their bodies together from chest to hip. Ella wasn’t quite sure why she was tumbling headlong into passion, but the part of her mind that was shouting warnings at her was being drowned out by the demands of her increasingly hungry body.
A knock at the door had them springing apart. Ella hurriedly turned away from the Elf, trying to calm her pounding heart.
“Enter,” Ryu called, clearing his throat as if to dispel the huskiness from his voice.
The door slid open, and Ella saw a female Elf kneeling with bowed head.
“I have brought Lady Ella’s tea, Ryu-sama,” she said, lifting her head to look at him, her eyes darting for a second to Ella in unconcealed curiosity.
Clearly, she was wondering why the heir to the Twilight Throne was in the room of hishumanward.
Ella felt ill at the thought that the Elf girl would be able to guess what had been going in the room before her arrival. Turning away, she wiped at her mouth, blinking rapidly to clear her head of the lust that still clouded her mind.
Ryu must have directed the Elf girl in some manner, because Ella could hear the clink of tea set behind her, and then the sliding of the door again, which meant that the Elf girl had left the room.
“I shall leave you to your meal,” he said tersely, and Ella said nothing, not trusting herself to reply.
Only when the door had slid shut behind him, and the echo of his footsteps moving down the hall had died away, did she move from her position. Unable to stand upright any longer, Ella slumped onto her bed, hiding her flaming face in her hands.
What had just happened?
And why did she wish it would happen again?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ryu sat at the breakfast table; his gaze fixed on his plate as he pushed his food around without thought.
The morning sun cast a warm glow on the room, but his mind was clouded with conflicting thoughts and emotions. He had spent the night trying to convince himself that his attraction to Ella was nothing more than a fleeting aberration, a consequence of the bond that linked them.
She’s just a means to an end, he told himself. Once he broke the bond, they would both be free.
He took a sip of his tea, trying to wash away the lingering unease that gnawed at his insides. The taste offered little solace, leaving a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.
Ryu’s gaze flickered towards the empty seat across from him, the place where Ella would usually sit. But today, she had requested her meal be brought to her room.
Was she as affected by what had happened between them last night as he was?
Well, avoiding each other was the wisest course, then.
It was for the best. Ella was here only so that he could break the bond between them and become worthy of the Twilight Throne.
As soon as he broke the bond between them, both of them would be free of its affects, like this unwanted attraction that had sprung up between them.
Avoiding Ella in the meantime would make it easier when the time came to sever the bond between them.
The sooner they were free from its effects, the sooner things would go back to the way they should be.
“Ryu-kun, what are you brooding about?”
He looked up, shooting his mother a quick smile. Her eyebrow was raised playfully as she looked at him over her tea.
“Nothing much,Haha ue,” he lied easily, proud of himself for the way his gaze didn’t flick to Ella’s empty seat, as it wanted to.
“Well, Ryu-kun, I have news for you. I have received word that an ambassador from the Sunvaaran Empire would like to visit us, to discuss a potential alliance with the Twilight Court.” She smiled. “This is all thanks to you! You and Erlan have been successful in building a relationship with the Drakazov Kingdom, and now the other human kingdoms want to follow suit.” She sighed happily as she took a sip of her tea. “Your father’s ambitions of coming out of our isolationist past is finally seeing fruition.”
Ryu’s brows furrowed as he processed his mother’s words. An ambassador from the Sunvaaran Empire. He couldn’t help but feel a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. This was an opportunity to establish diplomatic relations, but it also meant he had to navigate the complexities of human interaction. Again.
