Forget the Cucumber
Ipaused with a walnut halfway to my mouth.I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Karim’s powerful back, marked by battle scars here and there.His tapered waist.His tight ass flexing.Those long, muscular legs that carried him down the stone steps of the pool–and all that raw, silvery perfection shimmering in the blue-green light of the crystals.He looked divine.
Never had I been jealous of water before.Ahhh.To be the liquid sliding up Karim’s thighs inch by delicious inch, in a slow dance of seduction.To lap at his abs and the sharp V below–
Karim turned to face me.I threw that walnut in my gaping mouth so fast I nearly choked on it.I didn’t know why I felt the need to fake innocence, when he had brought me here to watch, but I wasn’t ready to admit my pervy ways just yet.
I bit into a cucumber stick to cover up my disappointment at the water hiding my Prince from the waist down.Though, the view was still enticing.Particularly when he swept his hair back to reveal the broad expanse of his smooth chest.Add to that the black infinity of his hair cascading down his broad shoulders and floating around him in the water, and I was officially mesmerized.
Given the smoldering look he cast my way, my interest in eating him for dinner didn’t go unnoticed.If I kept this up, he might be out of the water and on top of me before I could finish my meal.I squeezed my legs together at the image of Karim prowling my way in all his naked, wet glory–
We were expected on the surface!A quickie was not what I wanted for my first time with Karim.I had to kill the mood, fast.“You and your half-sister–you have different mothers?”
He looked away, breaking our heated eye contact.He took the green soap bar and the algae-based sponge from the wall niche by the pool as he explained.“Mesia’s mother was braid-linked to our father before he fell for my human mother.”
I could imagine how well that had gone.“Is your mother still alive?”
“She died an hour before my father did.”
Forget the cucumber.“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring back such dark memories.”I should have anticipated it but, in my defense, my brain had turned to mush the moment Karim had lost his clothes.
He shook his head.“It’s all right.This happened months ago, at the very start of the war, but I hadn’t seen either of them for a long time before that day.”Scrubbing at his chest with the soapy sponge, he elaborated.“My father moved away to live with my mother on the edge of the forest years ago.I stopped visiting them when I turned sixteen, the age of maturity for an elf.My position required me to distance myself.”
“Oh.”That sounded so harsh.
“I had experienced years of my mother’s love already,” heassured me.
“I’m glad.”
“She and my father were blessed with a long relationship, unlike the majority of braid linkages among my kind.Maybe it had something to do with one of them being human, because Deidre’s parents were linked until her mother’s death, too.Whatever the reason, my mother and father both cared for me until my coming of age.”
“But you said your mother lived on the edge of the forest?”
“She lived here only until I turned nine.Then she had to move to the surface, because her presence beyond the immediate need for my upbringing was threatening my father’s position.If he hadn’t had a pure-blooded daughter from his previous braid linkage, he might have been dethroned.”
“He and your mom had to separate?”And the Queen was wondering why I didn’t want to take her place?No, thank you.
Karim sighed and put the sponge away.“He didn’t want to let her leave.He was ready to face the consequences for being with her, but she wouldn’t allow it.She bought land on the edge of the forest and had a cabin built there.She met with my father and me there under the cover of darkness.
“It worked for several years until my father grew tired of all the hiding.As I turned 14, he passed the crown to my sister.She was already of age, braid-linked, and awaiting her first child.My father moved to live permanently with my mother.He still had to hide from human eyes, but as he often told me, he had no trouble spending the daylight hours at home when my mother was on the moss with him.”
I smiled.Despite all the obstacles, they’d gotten their happy ending.Well, sort of.
“Then the war started.”He sighed again and rested his arms on the edge of the pool.
I had the sudden urge to go hug him.He might claim he’d had the elves’ typical distant relationship with his parents and he’dgotten over the loss, but I could see the pain in those black eyes of his.Still, I stayed where I was because in his culture, hugging was probably not how elves comforted each other.If they even let others comfort them.
“Hundreds of zombies came our way from the nearby human city,” he went on.“We took arms as soon as we received the report of our surface guards, but my parents’ house had already been overrun.”
“I’m so sorry!You don’t have to tell me more, it was cruel of me to ask–”
“You wish to know me better, to understand our ways.”His eyes bore into mine.“I will share my past with you now, in the hopes of destroying any remaining wariness of me in your heart.”
I frowned.“I’m not wary–”
He held up a hand.“Do not deny it.I’ve seen it in your eyes.I’ve smelled it on your skin.I’ve heard it in your questions.It is but natural when you don’t know me and my kind well.”
I bit my lip.He did have a point… I nodded.
