Elfin (14 page)

Cassie folded her arms across her chest as s
he glared at a very pissed off dark elf assassin.

“I think you need to
leave,” Cassie motioned toward the door.

“I’m leaving,” he started to walk past her, but then grabbed her hand at the last minute, “but not without you.” He didn’t break stride as he pulled her behind him and right through the living room window. Cassie heard Elora’s voice behind her and then silence.

They emerged on the other side in a dark, lush bedroom. Candles lit the room and bathed it in a soft glow. She jerked her arm from his grasp and ignored his glare as she looked around at her surroundings.

“Where are we?” She asked as she looked at the large, ornate wood bed with a black comforter and a ridiculous amount of pillows strewn across it. Her eyes continued to roam the room. There was a large fireplace along one wall. A fire suddenly flickered to life in it. Her eyes widened but she refused to be impressed. Along another wall was a large desk and built in above and around the desk was a bookshelf that lined the entire wall and around the rest of the room. The floor was hardwood and a white, fluffy rug lay in front of the large bed. Finally, having no other place to look she met his eyes.

“What do you want Trik?”
She asked trying hard not to slur her words.

“
You. And you want me.” He told her in his usual confidence unbothered by her anger.

“No I don’t. Did you not just see that I was on a date, and it wasn’t with you?”

He took a menacing step towards her but Cassie knew that he would never hurt her.

“It would be wise, if you wish for Todd to live, to not bring him up again.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Can I go now?”

“We are far from done
, Cassie. You called for me.”

She laughed.
“In your dreams.”

Trik smiled.
She could tell that he knew something that she didn’t. Something about his smile told her that she wasn’t going to like it.

“Your soul did no
t like you touching another. It called to me. It called so loudly and with so much pain that it brought me to my knees.” Trik didn’t gloat, he simply stated the facts .
Somehow that made Cassie even angrier.

“Well my soul is a
dumbass who loves to be tortured.” Cassie decided to chalk that off as the alcohol talking but went ahead and went with it.

Trik moved slowly towards her and Cassie began to back away. She was being stalked by a predator, a very patient predator that was used to catching his prey.

Her butt hit something and she turned
, only to realize that he had backed her against his bed. She closed her eyes and chanted to herself, stupid, stupid, stupid.
When she opened her eyes , Trik stood mere inches from her. She felt his warm breath on her face. When he took another step closer, their bodies were touching. She could feel his heart beating against hers. He raised a hand and stroked her cheek gently. Though she tried not to , she leaned into his touch and nearly whimpered when his lips touched her ear.

“I’m sorry,” h
e whispered. The warm breath brought goose bumps to her skin. She shivered.

“I’m so, so sorry,” h
e whispered again. The sincerity in his voice pounded against the floodgates she had so carefully barricaded inside. Like a damn bursting open , a sob wrenched from her chest and the tears began to flow freely. She hit his chest over and over. She knew that the alcohol was probably making her even more emotional but she was beyond caring.

“Why? Why would you do that to me? How could you touch her? How could you let her kiss you?”

“Because I’m an idiot
,
A'maelamin . Please , I beg of you. Forgive me.” Trik pulled back so that he could look into her tear stained face. The pain and betrayal that he saw there tore a hole inside him. He fell to his knees in front of her.

“Please Cassie. P
lease forgive me.”

“How do I ever trust you again?” She wiped tears from her face
, smearing her black mascara while trying to regain her composure. She stared down into his silver eyes and gave in to the urge to touch him. She traced a finger across his forehead and down his cheek. Trik closed his eyes and let out a desperate breath.

“
Arwenamin, I’
ve missed you,” he told her but she only understood the last part.

“You hurt me Trik.”

“I know, baby. I know I did.” He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face to her stomach. He breathed in her scent and pulled her closer. He had tried to do what he thought was right. He had tried to let her go, but he knew now that it was impossible. Neither could live without the other. Their souls would slowly begin to die until they were empty shells, like the leftover skin of a locust.

“I thou
ght I was doing what you needed,” he told her, his voice muffled in her clothes.

She pulled
his face back and looked at him. “You don’t make my decisions for me. It’s my choice if I want to be with you.”

Trik nodded once. “And do you? W
ant to be with me?”

Another tear escaped as he stood and looked down at
her. He took her face in his large hands. As he looked into the face of her broken heart , he felt the first tear he’d shed in over a millennia slide down his own face.

“Yes,” she whispered. That simple word made Trik’s soul sing.

He pulled her to him and took her lips in a kiss that was nearly violent. He swept his tongue against her lips and she whimpered as she opened her mouth. Their tongues met and Trik slowed the kiss, enjoying the way she tasted. He walked her back and continued pressing until she lay on his bed. Cassie felt her fake wings crushed beneath her, but quickly pushed them from her mind as he climbed over her and slowly laid his body on top of hers. He felt her tremble underneath him and he smiled when his soul answered her own. The connection that drew them became so powerful that Trik wasn’t sure where one began and the other ended.

Cassie felt Trik wrap an
arm around her, pulling her body closer to his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on with everything she had, afraid that at any moment she would wake up and discover this had all been a dream. She gasped as his other hand slid down her hip to the back of her thigh and he pulled her leg up, bending it at the knee as he wrapped it around him. Cassie tilted her head back when he pulled away from her lips and began to kiss her jaw and then her neck. She moaned without shame as his tongue traced her collarbone. He nipped it with his teeth and she jumped beneath him drawing a chuckle from Trik. She leaned forward and bit his shoulder in retaliation and smiled to herself when he groaned. He pulled back and looked down at her. His hair falling over his shoulder created a dark curtain around them, closing them into their own private world.

“
I don’t deserve a second chance,” he told her as he traced her brow.

“No, you don’t,” she agreed.
“But I’m giving you one. Don’t screw it up.”

Trik grinned and Cassie’s heart jumped at the innocence that she saw there
, an innocence she’d not seen in Trik before.

When he spoke again his words were in his own tongue and the beauty of it took her breath away.

“What did you just say?”

Trik
blushed. He actually blushed. “You are my everything, the very breath I breathe, the water I drink, the food I eat; you are all that I need, all that I want and all that I am is yours.”

Cassie’s heart constricted in her chest and she felt something deep inside her burst forward and she knew what it was—her soul.

“I feel like I want to crawl inside of you
, Trik, like I can’t get close enough,” she confessed.

Trik stroked her face
, unable to keep from touching her. “I know the feeling,” he murmured.

“Will it always be like this, so intense?”

Trik's
eyes continued to roam over her face as his fingers ran through her hair. He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips and whispered against them. “Hmmm, some of that might be the liquor.” Cassie slapped his arm and he chuckled but then sobered and added. “From what I understand it grows deeper and stronger.”

Cassie groaned.
“I can’t imagine feeling any stronger than I do now.”

Trik smiled.
“I can.”

Cassie saw a wicked gleam in his silver eyes. “Do I want to know?”

He chuckled. “Well I imagine it’s something that we are going to have to talk about at some point.”

Cassie’s brow furrowed, “What are you talking about?”

He leaned forward until his lips were against her ear. He let out a slow breath and the warmth caressed her skin. She trembled and Trik pulled her closer to him.

“A bed is not made only for sleeping
, Cassandra,” he whispered and then she felt his tongue dart out and flick across her ear.

She was dazed for a moment and the meaning behind his words hit her. She couldn’t breathe as she considered what he was saying.

Trik pulled back so that he could look at her face. He had to admit he was enjoying the fact that he had shocked her, probably a little more than he should be enjoying it.

“Breathe
Cassie,” he told her gently. “We don’t have to go there until you are ready and sober.”

“I um, well that is that, you see
it’s like,” she stumbled over her words, as she tried not to be embarrassed by the topic.

“I never intended to go
there until I was married,” she finally told him with only a moderate amount of blushing.

The smile that spread across his lips was dazzling and made her momentarily
lose her train of thought.

“So you’ve never lain with another male?”

“If by
lain
you are speaking in the Biblical sense, then no, I have not.”

Trik watched her carefully. Relief he hadn’t realize
d he would feel at the information bloomed in his chest.

“Ju
st to be clear,” he began again. “You’ve never…”.

Cassie groaned.
“Good grief Trik, do I need to spell it out?”

He nodded.

“I’ve never had sex. Are you happy now?”

“Unbelieva
bly so,” he told her as he nuzzled her neck.

She pushed at his shoulder. “What about you?” She asked
as his eyes met hers. She saw them darken and was surprised to see shame in them. Her heart fell, though she didn’t know why she had been expecting a different answer. The guy was possibly so old that he had a dinosaur for a pet.

She looked away and tried not to be hurt.

“I’m sorry, baby.” Trik gently took her chin and turned her face back towards him. “I never even considered that I would ever have a Chosen.”

“It’s fine, really. I don’t know why I expected any other answer.”

“They meant nothing,” Trik told her desperately imploring her to understand. He didn’t want to hurt her but he could see that he had.

Cassie wondered as she looked up at him, the worry in his eyes, if maybe she was rushing into something that she would later regret. Maybe she should date more before she committed to something so permanent. Maybe she needed to have other experiences with other guys.
Trik’s fingers brushed her skin and when his face darkened , she knew he had seen what she had been thinking.

“I will give you any experience you are curious about.” His words were harsh but his hands continued to be gentle. His voice softened as he continued. “Besides, I assure you that any experience with another would never hold a candle to what I can give you.”

Cassie blushed again kno
wing what he was talking about—pleasure.

“Awe my
sweet
lótë , you are correct. I will one day, when we are, what did you say? Married? Yes, when we are married I will give you such pleasure that you will never want to leave our bed.”

Cassie gasped as she slapped his shoulder. “You can’t say things like that.”

“Why, I speak only truth,” he told her matter of fact like. He rolled over quickly, pulling her with him so that she was on top of him. “So when do we get married? Soon I hope.”

Cassie laughed.
“Hold on there, tiger. I haven’t even graduated from high school.”

“What does that have to do with us getting married?” He asked genuinely confused.

“Well, most girls don’t get married in high school unless they get knocked up, and to get knocked up you have to do the deed, which we are not.”

“
Knocked up?” Trik trailed his fingertips across her back causing her to arch into them. “What does that mean?”

Cassie had closed her eyes as she enjoyed the sensation of his touch.

“Cassie.”

“Hmm,” she answered as she continued to relish his fingers. Her eyes flew open when his hands pulled the back of her shirt up and began to trail his fingers over her again, only this time they were against her flesh.