Chapter 303
Lucien enjoyed these quiet moments in this place. He liked that those he was currently surrounded by were able to sit with one another and be content to just share in one another's company. This was not something that he had grown up with. Nobody in the Autumn Court had been this way when he had lived there. His brothers had always been moving and fighting and bickering and jostling to get noticed by their father. Lucien had tried to slip away unnoticed into the corner, hidden in the window by the curtains so that he might read his books, but he had so very rarely gotten away with that. Now, however, he smiled as he let the peace and comfort of this wash over him.
His eyes sweeping the room, that metallic eye clicking and whirring as it did so, Lucien took it all in. Helion was sitting at one end of the comfortable couch nearby, a book in his lap and the ends of his elegant fingers tapping against his chin as he read. Ashk was seated at the other end of the couch, twisting the ends of her red hair as she read her own book. Looking at her, Lucien didn't think he had ever seen his mother so serene. He could tell that she was at peace here, and it really did show in her face and the expressions she made, as well as the way she held herself. Ashk had told Lucien that she belonged in the Autumn Court, that Autumn was in her blood, but Lucien could see that she appeared more herself here than she ever had at the Forest House. Beron had crushed her, that was evident. Helion set her free.
Smiling, Lucien allowed his eyes to shift to his own mate. Elain sat at the other end of his couch, turned toward him with her feet in his lap. She looked free and happy, and he enjoyed the light blush that he could see moving up her throat to her cheeks. Elain's eyes flicked back and forth across the pages of the book she held in one hand, and Lucien could tell that she had stopped breathing. He watched the way that she lifted one hand and gently traced it along the neckline of her pretty dress, her teeth coming down on her lower lip. He knew what she was reading, he could smell the change in her and he set one hand on her foot. When he had first met her, Lucien would not have thought that Elain would dare to read something like that while in the company of others, and it pleased him thoroughly that she would do it now. He liked that she had grown and was becoming more and more daring, and he loved that she was comfortable enough to do that here where they had decided to make their home.
He felt Elain's eyes on him before he had looked up again to meet her gaze. She turned even more red when she realised that he knew what she was doing. "Ah…" she blinked and her saw her hands tighten on the book.
"Good is it, Petal?" he tried to keep his voice normal, but he could hear the teasing note in it. Elain flushed scarlet when Helion looked up at that tone in his voice. The High Lord's amber eyes flicked to the book Elain was holding as if he were about to ask what he had chosen. Those amber eyes flared in recognition before flicking quickly back to his own book and Lucien tried hard to swallow a chuckle.
"It is."
Lucien pressed his thumb into the bottom of Elain's foot, feeling the rush of pleasure and appreciation down the bond toward him. He gave her a smile as he returned his attention to his book, still working that thumb in small circles.
Trying not to groan, Elain forced herself to maintain focus on what she was reading. She hadn't thought that the book would get smutty quite so quickly, and what Lucien was currently doing to her foot was nearly too much. When everybody had settled down to read a little, she had thought that she would be safe enough beginning a new book. Usually there was all of the setup and the backstory, and the characters had to get to know one another and build the sexual tension. This had not been the case and, by the third chapter, they were having sex in a very public library.
The writing was good. The characterisation was good. The detail was very good, and Elain was almost certain that everybody in the room knew what she was reading. She looked up, wondering if a glass of water would help. Glancing at Helion and Ashk who were both reading on the couch nearby, she would almost think they had no idea what she had been reading, but Helion had looked at the book she had chosen and she knew that he had read it. Smiling then, when she saw Sheera sitting on the floor by the bookshelf, several flower encyclopaedias open before her, Elain decided that a glass of water would be exactly what she needed.