Chapter 171

Her head was in his lap and Lucien idly combed his fingers through Elain's hair as they lay on a rug outside under the tree. This felt familiar, and he thought back to when they had used to spend time together in Rhysand's garden in the Night Court. Elain turned the page of her book, and Lucien smiled as he watched her. If he could have seen how they would end up back then, Lucien didn't think he would have believed it. When they had first begun spending time together, talking and getting to know one another, Lucien would have dearly loved to have been able to touch her. Now, she was resting her head in his lap while she read, and he couldn't have been happier.

After they had finished with their breakfast, and other activities, they had spend some time cleaning the mess of fruit and juice they had spilled all over the floor, and then spent the rest of the morning napping. Lucien had been more than a little amused by Elain's reaction earlier. It had tickled him to see her so openly and desperately want him, with a need that she clearly couldn't control. He hoped that he got to see that more often, and he had every intention of giving her exactly what she wanted each and every time.

He combed his fingers through her hair again, smiling at Elain when she looked up at him. "Are you not reading your own book?" she asked, and Lucien shook his head. His own book sat on the rug upon which they lay.

"No, I've been looking at you…" Elain's mouth opened in shock, and Lucien smiled more widely. With his free hand he gestured around them, at the tree and the garden and the sky. "… you are the most stunning thing out here."

"Court-trained charmer." She murmured, looking at her book again. Lucien's grin turned wicked when he heard her heart quicken nonetheless. He had so much more insight into her now that he could hear hers like she had always been able to hear his. "…what are you doing?" her voice was curious and amused, as Lucien let his hand shift down to her shoulder, and then trace down one of her arms.

"Listening to your heart…"

"Oh…" She sat up then, turning to face him. "Do you like it?"

"Being able to hear your heart?" he asked, and she nodded, her pretty eyes on his face. "I do." He replied, sliding closer to her and lifting a hand to her cheek. "It is comforting. Like you once said…"

"It is." Elain brought one of her own hands up to rest against his chest, and he knew that she wanted to feel his heartbeat while she could hear it. "I love it." He leaned forward to kiss her gently, his own heart quickening when Elain's arms came up to wrap around his neck, and he slid his free around her waist to pull her into his lap. "You know…" Elain breathed, pulling back just enough to meet his eyes. One of her gentle hands came up to his cheek, and Lucien held her gaze, "Your face… is my very favourite face."

He laughed. "That… is not what I expected you to say." He told her, and Elain was smiling at him in a way that heated his blood. She looked as if she were about to say something, but she laughed instead, her eyes moving across his face again and he felt her fingers carefully moving across his scar. "I… don't know how you can love it."

Elain scrunched her nose as she looked at him. "I… don't love that this was done to you." Her fingers moved over his scar again from his brow to his jaw, "But it is part of you now. And, this face…" she smiled at him, "Is the face of my mate." She leaned into him, pressing a kiss to his nose, "It's the face I see in my dreams… and it's the face that I want to see every morning when I wake up…" She wrapped her arms around his neck again, "And it is my favourite."

Lucien didn't know what to say to her in response so he just kissed her, enjoying the way that she opened to him, inviting him to push further, and he did. Laying her carefully back against the rug, Lucien moved over Elain, his hands skimming over her skin lightly, and he greatly enjoyed listening to the way that her heart had begun to race. "You know…" he murmured, his hands sliding up her thighs, bringing her dress with them. "I once had a dream about making love to you under that tree in Rhys' garden…"

"I know." Elain's reply was a soft as the breath she released, and Lucien raised an eyebrow at her. How had she known? He didn't think he had told her. "It was while you were gone…" she went on. "The dream woke me one night."

"Oh…"

"I found it strangely comforting." She smiled, "I liked knowing that you were still dreaming about me, because I hadn't been able to feel you while you were so far away, and I had only been able to hear your heart when I really listened…"

Lucien was desperately trying to remember the details of that dream. It had been well before she had admitted that she loved him. He wondered if there had been anything in the dream he should have apologised for. From what he could remember, however, it had been pretty simple. He'd had a fantasy that Elain had wanted him, had loved him. "What did you think?" he asked, "about the dream?"

"You wanted me to want you." She said softly, "That seemed to be the point." He nodded and she smiled up at him as he felt her hook her legs around him. "… and I do."

"I know." He brushed his lips across her cheek. "I can feel you do."

"You dream has literally come true…" he could hear the teasing note in her voice as one of her hands moved up his back.

"I don't know…" he murmured into her ear as his own hands went down to begin undoing his pants, "I think part of the excitement of the dream was that anyone might have returned from the House of Wind and come across us…"

"I'm glad that's not a possibility out here." He felt her laugh as her grip tightened on him.

"It might be…" he shifted into the correct position over her, his lips still at her ear, "If I make you scream loud enough, someone might just come to check…"

"Why don't you try…"

Lucien needed no further encouragement than those words, and pushed himself as deeply into her as he could. His hands lifted to clutch at her, one at Elain's shoulder, the other at her waist. The soft grunt she made urged him on, and he set about a quick rhythm, wondering just how loudly he could make her scream. He followed the beating of her heart as a guide, pushing further and further until Elain took hold of a handful of his hair and tugged.

Before he could ask her what she wanted, she had pulled him down and rolled them until she sat atop him, grinning down at him as she adjusted herself. He could do nothing but stare up at her in awe as she braced herself with a hand pressed to his chest as she moved over him. Her eyes slid closed as her honey-brown hair cascaded down over one shoulder, moving as she did, like a wild thing, and Lucien found himself unable to keep his hands off of her. One went directly into that hair, the other sliding up her side to her breast. Elain's eyes opened then, holding his for a moment, before they shifted and looked up and past him. She continued to move on him, fast and determined, and Lucien realised that's she was looking at the flowerbeds. He watched her bite her lower lip, trying to maintain her focus, but then he couldn't pay attention to anything other than what she was doing to him, and he wondered if he wouldn't be the one to scream loud enough to bring someone down on them to check if anything was wrong.