Chapter 613

Lucien watched Elain's face for a moment, wondering if she truly intended what he'd thought she intended. When she took one of his hands and brought it up to place gently at the laces of her dress, he supposed that she had. It made sense, he figured. The bond had always felt strongest when they'd been intimate with one another. That was when he could hear her heart as she could hear his.

Working quickly, Lucien undid the laces of Elain's dress, pulling it loose. He met her eyes as he tugged the dress open, one of his hands slipping inside. The small intake of breath from Elain made him smile, and he felt the gentle flaring of the bond between them. "I think this will work…" he breathed, caressing her warm skin with his hand. Elain's eyes drifted closed as he watched her, his hand still on her breast. With his other hand, Lucien pulled her dress open even more until it fell from her shoulders to pool around her waist. "Do you feel it?" he asked, his other hand now tracing low across her stomach.

"Yes." Elain nodded as the bond flared again.

"Good." He replied, "Then, don't hold back in taking what you need." Lucien slid his hand from Elain's stomach around her waist to her lower back. He smiled when he skimmed his fingernails up her spine and she gasped again, leaning forward to brace herself with her hands on his chest. Lucien could do nothing but look up at her, his gaze caught on her dark eyes as she looked silently down at him.

"We should have tried this before," Elain said as her nails scratched at Lucien's shirt, and he got the gist rather quickly that she wanted it removed.

"Tried what?" he asked, lifting himself just a little to allow Elain to pull the shirt from him.

"Experimenting with the bond."

She had a point, and he nodded. It wasn't as if they'd not done anything with it. He had used it to anchor her to himself but, now, feeling the give and take of energy between them, he agreed they should have tested it more than they had. "We will." He said, "we have all the time in the world to learn about it."

"Is that a subtle way of telling me that you trust me to do this right?"

"I've already told you that, haven't I?" Lucien ran his fingernails up Elain's spine again, watching her face as he did so. He enjoyed the way her eyes closed again as her mouth opened in a silent gasp. Even more, he enjoyed the way her hips shifted over him. He'd been hard since the moment he had put her on the bed, but the need to be free of his pants was mounting with every passing moment.

Evidently, Elain felt the same need as her own hands went between her thighs as she began undoing his pants for him. "How…" Lucien asked, his voice breaking just a little into a breathy wheeze, "how do you want to do this?" It would make a difference, he figured, to how she was able to draw the energy she needed from him. He wanted to make sure that it was as effective as possible for her. Flashes went through his mind in the next instant of being in the forest in the Autumn Court with Elain during Mabon, and he couldn't help the flush of heat that moved through him. They'd both felt the call of the Mabon drums that night and it had driven both of them. He thought he heard it now, beating loudly and rhythmically in his head and both of his hands went to Elain's hips, gripping handfuls of her dress which was bunched there. Realising that it was her heart he could hear, Lucien glanced quickly up to her face, the heat in her eyes tugging at something deep within him.

"Can you do both at once?" he asked, wondering if trying to remove the webs of Vassa's spell would take too much of her attention to be able to take care of this aspect of what they were trying to do. Elain lifted herself onto her knees just a little, enough to tug Lucien's pants down out of her way.

"Yes." She said.