“You’re so wet,” he murmured.“You’re going to drench mewhen you come...”
Pleasure ripped through her, and she came in an explosiveblast that took her by surprise and threw her right out of her ever-lovingmind.She barely noticed how he bent her forward roughly, urgently, and enteredher in a powerful, dominating thrust that banged the headboard into the wall.
She came again before he was fully seated inside her, herwalls pulsating around him, grabbing him.
He ground his hips into her, cursing, shouting, his fingersscoring her hips.
Bucking against him, she begged for more,demandedmore, and he gave it to her.Lifting her hips so her knees came off themattress and limited her control, he drove into her with powerful thrusts,shoving her toward the headboard with every slap of his thighs against hers.Pressure built as each wild stroke of molten friction reduced her to a mass ofquivering need.
She screamed into the pillow as the stinging heat of releasetore at her again.His primal shouts joined hers, and his hot jets filled hereven as her breath left her.
As she collapsed onto the mattress, him on top of her, allshe could think was that he was as perfect and rare and special as an expertlycut, flawless diamond.A girl’s best friend, for sure.
How many girls had considered him a flawless diamond?
Not that it mattered, she supposed, but still, the thoughtmight as well have been a cold shower.
“Hey.”He shifted his weight, rolling onto his side butkeeping one hand on her back, massaging gently.“Youokay?”
How had he known?“Yeah.”She smiled and turned over.“I’mjust wondering what we’re doing.”Her face heated as she glanced at hisfabulously naked body.“I mean, besides the obvious.”
With a heavy sigh, he flopped onto his back and stared atthe wood beams in the ceiling.“I don’t know.I didn’t expect to beso...enamored of you.”
“Enamored?”She grinned, basking in the compliment.Butsomething about the way he said he hadn’texpectedto be enamored withher left her unsettled.Maybe it was nothing.But whathadheexpected?And why had he had any expectations of a stranger at all?
“Enamored,” he agreed, but he didn’t soundtoohappy about it, leaving her with even more misgivings.“It’s strange because I only needed one thing from you...and this wasn’t it.”He turned to her, his gaze locking withherswith suchintensity that it stole her breath.“You’ve taken care of me when you didn’tneed to.You protected me from Shrike when you didn’t have to.You even fed meand trusted me to bring you here.Why?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.“I usually avoid your type,but I was just...drawn to you, I guess.”
Plus, if she was going to get out from under Shrike’s dinnerparty curse, she needed help, and Razr had offered.Granted, it might only bebecause he wanted her to “find” the two remaining Gems of Enoch, but still.Shedidn’t have any other allies at this point, one of the downsides of only havinghuman friends.
“My type?”
“Otherworldly,” she explained.“Demons, shapeshifters,weres, angels, fallen angels.”
He leveled anare-you-kidding lookat her.“Ah, I hate to break it to you, but you’re anotherworldertoo.”
“Elves don’t consider themselves part of your world.Weidentify more with humans.More of us live in the human world than in the elvenone, in fact.”
“Why is that?”
Faintly, from somewhere outside, she heard a whistle andsomeone yell, “Foul!”TheMemitimplaying some sortof sport, she guessed.
“The elven realm is kind of...unreal.It’s like living in amedieval dream.”She reconsidered that.“Well, a clean, cheery medieval dream.”
Razr gasped in mock horror.“Sounds awful.I can see why youguys would rather live in the human realm.”
She laughed, enjoying this exploratory time with him.It waseasy to talk to him, something she’d never been able to do with her humanlovers.“What’s your favorite food?”
“What does that have to do with life in...what?Middle Earth?Shannara?I don’t know...Pandora?”
Torn between annoyance and amusement, she settledfor shakingher head in exasperation.“Just tell me yourfavorite food.Maybe a dessert.Also, Pandora doesn’t have any elves.”
“TheNa’vihave pointed ears,” heshot back with a playful grin that tugged at her heart.“And salted caramelpie.”
That did sound tasty.“Well, imagine your diet consisted ofonly salted caramel pie.That’s it.Every day.And imagine having nothing to dobut look for gemstones.Everything around you is perfect and bright and peoplerarely even argue.”Mostly, elves just vacationed in their realm or lived likeAmerican snowbirds, people who summered in a northern state and wintered in asouthern one.“It’s nice to visit and recharge, but peace is tedious, andliving in the chaos of the human world is, in its own way, more rewarding.”
His expression turned contemplative.Maybea littlesad, and she wanted to hug him.
