Claimed by the Elven King: Part Four (4 page)

I felt Sethian suddenly stiffen. “Did she berate you because you are
human?” he demanded, his voice tinged with anger.

I looked up at him and was a little shocked at the level of anger that
smoldered in his eyes. They were practically glowing with it, and the effect
was more than a little unnerving. It made me wonder if they had argued about me
concerning the very issues the queen had ruthlessly shoved in my face earlier.

“Actually, she seemed more concerned with you,” I said hesitantly. It
was probably a very bad idea to bring up the question of his mother’s true
identity right now when he was already so angry, but for the sake of our baby,
I needed to know the truth before he or she was born. “She mentioned your
mother, that a lot of people suspected that she was like me, a human who had
been transmuted. Only—your father went one step farther and had the mage change
her to look completely like an elf and then lied about her being a member of
the Nalldir royal family.”

Sethian’s arms tightened around my waist in reaction to my words, but
his expression remained angry and unchanged. “Yes, I have heard that particular
tale many times. Limira is hardly the first person to think me a half-blood
because of my facial features, and she certainly won’t be the last. What she
probably failed to mention is that it is not unheard of for an elven child to
exhibit a purely human trait. For me, it is the wider dimensions of my face,
for others, it has been brown eyes or a more rounded ear tip. After all, we all
possess at least a few human genes.”

“She made it seem like half-bloods were looked down on by a lot of
people.” His eyes seemed to darken with every word I spoke. I swallowed
nervously and forced myself to go on, “She was worried that the people wouldn’t
accept our baby as heir because he might just be more human than elf.”

For one long, seemingly eternal moment, I forgot to breathe as
Sethian’s eyes literally flashed brightly with what looked like rage. However,
before my mind could really start to freak out about just how scary he now
looked, he shut his eyes tightly and took a slow, deep breath in an obvious
attempt to calm down.

“No—I shall not play this game with her,” he said quietly, the anger
gone from his voice. He took another deep breath and opened his eyes, looking
down at me with an expression that was less angry and more grim. “Do not let
what she has told you upset you any longer. Although what she has told you concerning
the prejudices among the
Sidhe
in regards to humans is true enough, she
has inflated the views of a very small portion of my people and hers completely
out of proportion. They are deep-seated prejudices these individuals have held
for longer than I have been alive and have nothing to do with your appearance
here in the realm. The vast majority of the realm will accept our child as their
future king with open arms and much joy. Your ladies-in-waiting reflect this
attitude well.”

I knew very well that he was just telling me what I wanted to hear,
that the issue was nowhere near so simple. Had that been the case, he wouldn’t
have gotten so angry at the mere mention of it. However, after the emotional
upheaval the queen had put me through earlier, I was just too worn out to
pursue it any further right now.

“Yes, they were pretty ecstatic when I told them I was pregnant. I
think it’ll be very hard for them to keep the news to themselves until you
announce it. Saeria and Rinwen have been telling me for days how anxious some
of their relatives are for the chance to have children of their own. I imagine
they thought they would have to wait decades.”

“For some of them, it may in fact be decades. The process of bringing
human brides to the realm can be a long, complicated affair, and conceiving a
child, even more so.”

Sethian loosened his arms around me and pulled away just enough to grab
one of my hands. “Come. I ordered dinner be brought to us before heading to the
suite. I suspect you have several days of illness to make up for.”

I was picking up the nightgown one of the girls had left folded at the
foot of the bed when I abruptly felt Sethian walk up behind me and rest a hand
on my upper arm. I paused and turned to look back at him over my shoulder
quizzically.

“Leave it,” he said. “Tonight I wish to feel the bareness of your skin
all night. Undress for me?”

That he had made it a request this time rather than a command was
somehow more embarrassing. I could feel the fire in my cheeks before I could
even turn my head back towards the bed. I had been feeling somewhat bummed out
all evening since he hadn’t kissed me once, not even on my forehead, and now he
suddenly wanted me to strip without any kind of foreplay!

Feeling as awkward as I had the first time, I slowly pulled down the
left sleeve of my dress off my shoulder, my mind going a mile-a-minute. I had
no idea how to make taking off my clothes look sexy, but you were supposed to
slide everything off slowly, weren’t you?

I pulled my arm free of the sleeve, getting my elbow caught in it along
the way which was definitely
not
sexy, and started on my right. By now,
it was all I could do to keep myself from hyperventilating, and I knew if I had
not started this with my back turned to him, my head would have either exploded
or I would have been unable to begin, period.

My right arm was now out, and I started on unlacing the bodice. This
part I knew I should turn around for, the revealing of one of the “main
courses” in the feast for his eyes, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. I
would definitely make the world’s worst exhibitionist, and I was certain that,
at this point, Sethian was getting more than a little irritated with my
performance so far if the dead silence coming from behind me was any
indication.

With my bodice unlaced, it became a simple matter of pulling the
material apart and then either pulling the dress over my head or letting it
fall to the ground. Knowing that hell would freeze over before I could make
pulling the dress over my head into something erotic and appealing,

As I clutched the edges of the material that was opened on either side
of my boobs and prepared to allow them to spill out, I had a sudden epiphany.
Maybe if I looked ridiculous enough, he would never ask me to do this again. I
just had to turn around and convince him what a bad idea this had been.

Taking a deep breath, made much more difficult by the huge knot of nervousness
in my throat, I slowly turned around. At first, I couldn’t meet his eyes,
looking at a point just over his shoulder when I took the plunge and pushed the
material slowly down to my waist. You could have heard a pin drop in that
room—well, in the space of time between each of my ragged breaths, I mean. The
silence stretched on, to the point where my breaths were starting to sound a
little panicky and I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to look at him.

I don’t know what I really expected to see when I looked at his face.
Irritation? Amusement? Bewilderment? Stunned at how stupid I looked? That’s why
when my eyes met green eyes that were almost—spellbound as they stared at my
semi-nude body, I was the one left stunned.

Sethian watched with that same intense interest for a few more seconds
before he reached over both hands and yanked the dress the rest of the way down
over my hips until it fell to a heap at my feet. He then stepped back as I
stood frozen, his eyes slowly running down the entire length of my body and
then just as slowly back up again. It was almost as if he was licking me with
his eyeballs the way my groan suddenly began to throb with arousal.

He reached out a hand again, and my stomach clenched in anticipation of
his touch. However, instead of caressing a breast or even tweaking a nipple as
I had expected, his hand touched my breast bone lightly, as though afraid that
my skin would shatter.

“So lovely,” he said almost to himself. He ran the pads of his
fingertips lightly across my chest, then moved his hands up to cup the side of
my face. “It’s as though your skin is glowing from within now that you are with
child.”

He tilted my chin up and finally delivered the kiss I had been waiting
for all evening. It was soft, and gentle, but did not go beyond a brief,
pleasurable caress of the lips.

“Although I enjoyed your efforts to please me just now, immensely, I
did not mean to imply that we would make love tonight when I asked you to
undress. I wish you to rest for tonight. The feel of your skin against my own
will be pleasure enough for the moment.”

If the floor suddenly opened up under me right now and swallowed me
whole, I would have been grateful to the fates for saving me from the utter
mortification I was feeling at the moment. Why,
why
did I keep turning
every innocent thing from Sethian’s mouth into something dirty lately? I wasn’t
so sure that I could blame my messed up hormones on sexing up my thoughts,
either.

Sethian released my chin and gestured for me to get into bed. I was
beneath the blankets in record time, curled up on my side and my face buried
into my pillow in a lame effort to hide from the world. I wondered if my face
would ever lose its red tint of humiliation tonight.

A few minutes later, I felt the mattress dip as Sethian slipped into
bed beside me, as naked as I was, but I did not turn to face him until I felt
his hand on my shoulder.

“Lie on your back and draw the blankets down to your waist,” he
instructed.

Curious as to what he was up to, despite myself, I rolled onto my back
as asked and looked up at him questionably. Sethian flashed me a smile before
arranging himself on his side next to me and then laying his head carefully
between my bare breasts.

“This way I can hear you both,” he explained once he was settled.

His words made something in my chest tighten almost painfully. That he
wanted to hear my heart as well was just…

I tentatively threaded my fingers into his hair and felt him sigh in
pleasure against my skin. I had to say, this certainly was a pleasant way to
end such a disquieting day.

The way Sethian was currently scrutinizing my bare stomach this morning
was a clear sign that the day I had been secretly dreading had finally come. I
was now nearly five months along in the pregnancy, and my belly had grown to
the point that my pregnancy was obvious.

“Today is the first day of spring,” Sethian said with a grin. “I can
think of no more appropriate day than this to announce the imminent birth of
the first elven child in over five centuries.”

“Then maybe now you will
finally
take me into Talloth like you
promised,” I scolded in an attempt to hide the fact that my anxiety levels had
just shot through the roof.

“My people will probably wish to see you as well once the announcement
is made,” he replied amicably. “Tomorrow, we shall make a day of it.”

I blinked at him in surprise, not expecting him to give in so readily.
Yes he had promised, but as the days turned into months and I still hadn’t been
allowed to go anywhere outside the palace other than my garden, I had begun to
think that it would never happen.

“Now, I will leave you to your ladies to prepare. Make certain to wear
a gown that accents your waist. I want there to be no question as to the
authenticity of your pregnancy.”

A few elven-marks later, I found myself standing outside the enormous
double doors leading into the throne room on the verge of a panic attack. My
friends had dressed and groomed me within an inch of my life, making me feel
like a princess in a pageant—or more accurately, a princess
doll
in a
pageant. I had never seen three women looking more gleeful than when they had
been stuffing me into this convoluted piece of white cloth they called a dress I
was currently wearing. I swear there had been at least a thousand ties
and
buttons that needed to be done up in the right order and/or configuration or it
would not fit as intended. I never in a million years would have been able to
put it on by myself.

The least said about my hairstyle the better as far as I was concerned.
I was sure that my scalp was going to ache for weeks after all the pins and
clips were removed.

It was utterly unsettling how much I had looked like an elf after they
were done with me. Had I had the pointed ears and blonde hair, I don’t think
anyone would have known I was actually human. Maybe that had always been their
intention, to make it easier for the court to accept a human in their midst and
thus easier on
me
, but to see myself unexpectedly looking so vastly
different
yet again
was more than a little upsetting.

I could tell that some of the guards that lined the walls on either
side of the doors and along both sides of the wide corridor leading up to the
entrance were staring at me, or rather my protruding belly, hard. The back of
my neck practically itched with the feel of all those eyes fixed on me. It made
me feel like a strange animal being paraded before a gawking crowd. To some in
this crowd, the animal analogy might not be an analogy at all, I suddenly
realized with some dismay.

When the herald finally announced me, I grimaced at the long list of
pretentious titles attached to my very mundane name.

“Emily Ford, now of the Royal House of Elerren, Probationary Royal
Wife of His Majesty Sethian of the Royal House of Elerren, King of the Second
Realm!”

Even with Lariel, Saeria, and Rinwen at my back, I felt horribly
exposed the moment I stepped through those double doors and walked up the
ridiculously long, center aisle that led up to the dais where Sethian sat on
his throne looking every inch the regal and powerful elven king. The queen sat
on the throne-seat to his left, her posture stiff and formal. The dais was too
far away for me to see her face properly, but I swear I could feel her eyes
trying to bore holes into my forehead.