Chapter 285

Lucien was warm and comfortable. He was happy and felt as if he were floating in the clouds. Softness moved over him, caressing him and he smiled. A pleasant weight enveloped him and he opened his eyes. The sun was shining and it was definitely morning. The blanket rose up above him a bit and then Lucien realised that Elain was beneath it, kneeling over him. Gingerly, he lifted the blanket so that he could look beneath it and see her and was met with her smiling face, her golden brown hair a mess about that perfect face, and he couldn't help but smile in return.

"Petal…"

"You're awake…" she purred, and Lucien's heart leaped into his throat when she carefully dragged her nails down his chest. "Good… I was waiting…"

"Waiting?" he asked, "For me to wake up?"

Her smile grew a little wicked, and he thought his heart might stop altogether. He remembered then that she could hear it, and then her wicked smile grew even wider when she read that realisation in him. "Couldn't start until you were awake…" she said softly, and he wanted to ask her what she was going to start, but he just couldn't make the words come out. Elain blinked, her eyes on his face and he figured she must have misunderstood his silence as confusion for why she had waited because she shook her head. "I… I wouldn't do… if you were asleep… you might not want…" she broke off and he felt a wave of uncertainty from her.

Lucien quickly slipped a hand beneath the blanket to Elain's cheek, bringing her eyes back up to meet his. "I'm certain, Petal, that I will very much want whatever it is you were going to do…"

He watched as she blinked, her eyes flicking back and forth across his face and then she smiled, taking his words to heart. "I'm certain that you will." She said, and he reached for her down the bond, trying to do what she had done before when she had stroked his cheek. Lucien could see her in his mind, that golden thread between them, and that strong cord wrapped around Elain where she had anchored herself to him. He reached out to her, tracing his fingers along her jaw slipping them beneath her chin and lifting it so that he could see her face more clearly. Satisfaction moved through him when he realised he had done it, and when he blinked and was looking at Elain again beneath the blanket, the smile on her face said that she was pleased with him too. "Getting clever with that, aren't you."

"Learning from you." He breathed, his breath then catching when Elain pushed herself up on her arms, leaning up to him and he moved to meet her, kissing her gently.

"I don't think you need to learn from me." She whispered, and he slid a hand up the back of her neck into her hair. He didn't think that was true, all of it seemed almost instinctual to her.

"I didn't even know that was possible until you did it."

She smiled again at him in a way that suggested she knew things that he did not. "What you did yesterday seemed pretty instinctual." She said, and Lucien wondered if she wasn't straight up reading his mind down the bond. "You will be able to do anything you can even dream of."

He wondered if that were true, and he threaded his hand more firmly into her hair, bringing her closer to kiss her again. "This is already a dream." He said softly when she pushed herself higher on her arms again and looked at him.

"I'm pleased you think so." She whispered, moving down his body again, one hand trailing down his skin, her nails raising goosebumps which spread across his chest and made their way along his arms. "Do you dream about this?" Elain's voice had turned into a purr once more as she carefully took him in her hand. Those dark eyes lifted to meet his gaze and Lucien couldn't so much as make a whimper of a sound in response. He knew that his heart was racing, and he knew that she had noticed.

When she licked her lips, the tip of that pink tongue moistening them, Lucien thought he might die. He was unable to so much as move as his eyes followed Elain lowering herself to him. Her eyes remained on his face, holding his gaze, and Lucien's heart was beating so quickly and so forcefully that he thought it might actually break its way out of his chest, as she parted those moist lips and took the length of him into her mouth. He couldn't help the sound he made then, the low guttural noise breaking from him as his left hand clenched a handful of the sheet beneath him and his right slid into Elain's hair. He groaned then, his head tilting back against the headboard when she began to move and he could feel her hot tongue on him. Fingers sliding carefully through Elain's silky hair, Lucien tried to control his breathing, making sure to take slow deep breaths and then exhale them completely before drawing another. He thought he might not be able to last all that long if he allowed his breath to get away from him, and he definitely wanted this to last.