“I must have found this one to be unimportant which leaves me more confused than ever. Why would they take the time to tie a parasite up with ribbon?”
I blushed furiously. This was all so new, this love, so…exciting and frightening all at the same time. “You hang it up, and if you happen to meet under the mistletoe, you are to give them a kiss.”
“A kiss?” Elden smiled, golden eyes twinkling by the great fire. He nodded as if appeased, then said, “That’s quite a nice tradition. We shall keep that one.”
I pushed Elden playfully. “You don’t get to pick and choose!”
“Certainly, I do,” Elden quipped. “If I am to celebrate Christmas for love, then I must have some say in the affair.”
My heart warmed. “So, you will celebrate Christmas? With me?”
“It’s crazy the things you’ll do for the one you love.” Elden copied Rowan’s saying from a few nights before. “Though it does help that kisses are involved.”
“Kisses?” I laughed.
“The more the merrier. And aren’t we to be very merry at Christmas?” Elden asked, pulling me close to him, the smell of warm pine and cloves encircling me.
“Yes, the very merriest.”
Elden pulled me close to him and pressed his beautiful lips to mine. He was slow at first, tender, but I felt a true hunger under the gentle restraint. I pressed into him and he pulled me closer. I did not want him to ever let me go.
30
HOME
Not wanting to leave each other’s sight, we opted to sleep out on the couches in the Christmas Room. Elden and I pulled some hand-embroidered blankets from the queen’s chamber closet. My blanket was covered in stitched mushrooms and flowers, all labeled with their names. Elden appreciated the faithfully embroidered realism. It was the most beautiful blanket I’d ever beheld, though a part of my heart longed for my grandmother’s hand-crocheted piece. Elden’s velvet blanket was covered in tall fir trees.
We’d moved the couches to better suit us, facing each other. The fire crackled, and I stared at Elden’s handsome face as he lay an arm-length away.
“You are radiant, Little Baker,” the Elf King said with a slow blink.
My toes curled at the compliment; my cheeks heated by more than just the fire. How had I come to love the king’s ridiculous nickname for me? “As are you.”
So many worries and excitements whirled through my mind, it was hard to settle on a single thread. “So, what will becomeof Winterthorn, now that spring will eventually come again? The castle is a stunning masterpiece that deserves to be lived in.” I paused. “Of course, something will have to be done about those pillars you destroyed.”
Elden raised a thick white eyebrow. “Would you rather I hadn’t flipped out and wrecked those pillars? It may have very well saved your life.”
I smiled widely.
“What?”
“You said ‘flipped out’.” I giggled.
“Trust me,” Elden’s eyes twinkled, “It will be the first and the last time I ever use such mundane language.”
I giggled.
Elden tried not to smile as he continued on. “But the castle, yes, it does prove a new problem. It was the first home of the elves here in the human realm. The home of my ancestors one thousand years ago. The first home of the human queen. It must be reopened.”
I nodded. Yes, something must be done. Every inch of this castle was a stunning masterpiece of craft. An icicle of beauty among a snow-covered winter wonderland. I felt a connection to the place. A kinship to the first queen. As if she saw me as easily as I now looked across to find the king’s golden eyes on mine. There was a heat in his stare.
“What?” I squirmed down into my blanket at the intensity of his eyes, my toes twisting.
“I was just thinking.” Elden’s deep voice rumbled through me.
“What were you thinking?” I was all too aware of how close we lay. Of the king’s heated stare.
Just then, Elden’s cheek lifted in a smirk as he cleared his throat. “I was just thinking of the time I beat you in a snowball fight.”
