Surrender, Book 3 The Elfin Series (30 page)

“I am honored to be your mate, your husband. I promise to cherish you.” His hands left hers as he spoke and cupped her face as he took a step closer to her. “I promise to protect you and provide for you. I pledge to you my heart, my body, my affection, and my love. All of it is yours alone. I take you into my keeping, a precious treasure, and I forsake all others.”

Elora couldn’t speak. No air would leave her lungs as his thumbs caressed her cheeks where he held her. She was captivated by his words and the emotions flooding into her through his thoughts.

“Elora, do you take Cush to be your husband, your mate?” Tamsin’s asked.

Elora’s hands clenched in Cush’s shirt where she held it fisted against his chest. She hadn’t even realized she’d grabbed onto him. She was finding it hard to form her own words when his were saturating her thoughts. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to top that,” she said looking up into his intense gaze.

Cush gave her a crooked smile. “You don’t have to top it, just say yes.” His warm breath blew against her face as he spoke.

“Yes,” she whispered. “With every fiber of my being, yes.”

“The rings now,” Tamsin said and Cush released her face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out two platinum rings. One was a band that looked as though three strands of rope had been braided together and then wrapped into a circle. The other was a thin band with a black gem positioned on the top, with two smaller purple gems on either side. Her warrior had good taste in jewelry, she grinned to herself.

Cush’s hands were steady as he reached for her hand and placed the larger ring in her palm. Elora wrapped her fist around it, afraid of dropping it while he took her other hand and slipped the ring with the three gems onto her left ring finger.

“With this ring, I thee wed.”

It was her turn next. Elora’s hands were not steady. She shook like a junky as she took his larger hand in hers and began to slip the ring onto his finger. “With this ring, I thee wed,” she repeated as she stared at the ring wrapped lovingly around his finger. A symbol for all to see that he was spoken for.

“You may kiss your bride.”

Tamsin had barely gotten the words out when Cush had her wrapped in his strong arms, his lips moving against hers. There was clapping and maybe some whistles but neither of them heard it clearly. They were too lost in one another.

Somehow they made it back to their room. She was in Cush’s arms the whole way, and her lips roamed over his and his jaw and neck as he walked. She heard a door open and close and then felt a soft mattress beneath her. His body covered hers and it was as if they’d never left the room. Just as Syndra had said, they were picking back up right where they’d left off before they’d gotten married.

“We’re married,” Elora breathed suddenly as Cush’s mouth did wicked things to her neck and collar bone. She gasped and gripped his shoulders catching a glimpse of her new ring. “By the way, totally good job on my ring.” Elora was pretty sure he heard her despite the breathlessness of her voice. He grunted something but his mouth seemed quite content to remain busy on other things besides talking.

“You’re in control, Little Raven, you tell me when to stop and I will.”

Elora was surprised to hear his voice sounding so gruff in her mind. It was filled with the passion that he was showing her through his touch and kiss, and frankly, it was doing tantalizing things to her. She wanted to throw herself at him, and, well, she wasn’t even going to entertain the ideas her dark elf side wanted. So, instead of overthinking it, Elora relaxed into her husband’s care. He had said she was in control and she trusted him to stop if she got to that point.

“Let me take care of you, beautiful,”
he whispered to her.
“It is my privilege to love you.”

Elora let out a shaky breath. The room grew dim as the candles around them began to burn out but still he loved her, never pausing in his pursuit of her. He talked to her, laughed with her, and made her his sole focus.

Hours later they lay wrapped in each other’s arms, the sheets tangled around their bodies, and all of the candles had long gone out. Cush had kept his word, slowing down when she asked him to. She never once told him to stop, but she’d been nervous, and a tad self-conscious. But passion had eventually overshadowed all of that and the need to be a part of him had won over the fear and insecurities.

“I love you, Elora,” Cush whispered against her hair as his fingertips trailed along her bare spine.

“Of that I have no doubt,” she teased but then looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest. “I love you back,” she said meeting his eyes. They laid there quietly, staring at one another both overwhelmed by what the night had brought and excited about what the future held. Whatever it was, they would face it together. 

“I can’t believe my best friend is married,” Cassie said as she sat on their bed while Trik brushed her hair as he did every night before they went to bed.

“We’ve been married for a while now, beautiful,” Trik said from behind her.

Cassie rolled her eyes. “You know who I mean.”

“If you mean your best
girl
friend, then yes. But since I am your best friend, I was a little confused as to why you’d still be surprised.”

“Glad to see that being king of an entire race hasn’t made you humble,” she said dryly.

“I’m confident. You can be humble and confident at the same time,” he pointed out as the brush was replaced by his fingers. The gentle tug against her strands was sensual and he knew what it did to her.

“Don’t try to distract me,” she scolded and attempted to move out of his reach but he was much faster than her. His arms wrapped around her waist from behind as he rested his chin on her shoulder next to her ear.

“I don’t want to talk about Elora and Cush. I want to talk about us.”

Cassie turned her head so she could see him from the corner of her eye. “What about us?”

“Are you happy?” He paused and turned her more toward him. “I mean here, in this realm.”

Cassie’s brow bunched together as she attempted to understand why he was asking her such a silly question. “Of course, I’m happy. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

“I know, but I just don’t want you to feel like we have to stay here. If you want to live in the human realm with your family, we can.”

“Trik, we’ve had this conversation before. You are needed here and I belong with you so the simple answer is we live in the elfin realm and visit my parents when we can. I promise you that if I―at any point―become unhappy, you will be the first to know.”

Trik stared at her for a few minutes longer before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

“Now can we talk about Elora?” Cassie asked attempting to hide her smile.

“No, now you will tend to your mate.” Trik tugged her down until she was splayed across his chest.

“Tend to my mate?” Cassie asked laughing as he smacked her bottom.

“Most definitely,” he purred as he rubbed his face into her long locks. “I’m very deprived this evening. I had to go and watch my warrior get hitched to that dark little ball of trouble you call a friend and then I had to wait while you and Syndra chatted about throwing her an after wedding shower and then—”

Cassie placed a finger over his lips effectively halting his rant. “You poor, poor neglected quiver boy.”

“Finally, we’re getting somewhere,” he said around her finger. “You understand that I have a neglected quiver.”

Cassie threw her head back and laughed. “You will be the death of me, Triktapic,” she teased.

“Hmm,” Trik moaned into her neck. “But what a sweet death it will be.”

Epilogue

“Often people think that a second chance means you did something bad on your first try. What they don’t realize is that sometimes a second chance is just a different kind of good than the first chance. I like the idea of a different kind of good and I’d like to believe that just maybe my different kind of good is coming.” ~Lisa Scott

6 months later…

“
A
little birdy told me that you turned Tony down, again.” Syndra stepped out of the mirror and into Lisa’s storeroom, like she’d done a thousand times before. And like a thousand times before, Lisa gave her a glare that said, stay out of my business. Syndra wondered if she’d ever realize that glares didn’t work on her.

“He’s practically a kid,” Lisa said as she flipped the page on the clipboard she was holding.

“All you have to do is wait a decade and he’ll be your age,” Syndra pointed out.

Lisa snorted. “And then a decade later he would be older and then several decades later he would die and I would not. Been there, done that. I don’t do reruns.”

“Apparently you don’t do anyone,” Syndra muttered under her breath, but loud enough that her friend would hear.

Lisa dropped the clipboard on the counter with a loud clap and crossed her arms in front of her. “Did you come for a reason or were you just hoping I’d poison your tea and put Tamsin out of his misery?”

Syndra laughed. “Wow, you are prickly.” She walked casually around the storeroom ignoring Lisa’s scowl. “Why exactly are you prickly like a cactus these days? Oh and,” ―she tapped her lips with a finger as she turned back to face her― “why can’t you come to dinner tomorrow? Elora said that you canceled, again.”

“I’m busy,” Lisa huffed. “If you didn’t know, I sort of run a business when I’m not in your realm. I still have a life out here apart from the rest of you.”

“Hmm, hmm, I see. Okay, so that still doesn’t answer why you’re cancelling dinner? You have six other nights to, as you call it, run your business.”

Lisa stared at her eyes wide like a cornered rabbit. Syndra could have backed off, but she cared too much for her longtime friend to let it lie. “Or, perhaps, your business can’t change his plans to a different night?”

“Why are you so obsessed with me having a love life? First Tony, and now you think I have some mystery guy on the side. Maybe I just need a break, Syndra.”

Syndra shook her head. “I’m not buying it. You’ve never needed a break from me before.” Lisa didn’t respond and when she picked up her clipboard again, Syndra knew that she wouldn’t get any further with her.

“Okay, fine, new topic,” she said as she leaned against the wall. “Elora and Cassie told me that you are making them get their GEDs. I’ll have you know that anytime you do something that ticks them off I get an earful for days. It’s annoying.”

Lisa grinned and eyed her. “So it’s annoying for them to bug you repeatedly about something that you don’t want to talk about?”

“Touché,” Syndra conceded. “Fine, I’ll leave you to your business. But you better be at dinner next week or I shall be very put out.”

Lisa saluted her but didn’t look up from her clipboard. Syndra let out a sigh as she walked back over to the mirror. She glanced back one more time wondering, not for the first time, if she should ask Trik to put his spy experience to good use.

L
isa let out the breath she’d been holding as soon as Syndra disappeared through the mirror. She set down the clipboard and pen and rubbed her sweaty hands on her jeans. Syndra was like a bloodhound when she got a scent, and at the moment the scent she was chasing just happened to be Lisa and the secret she was keeping.

Truth be told, it really wasn’t much of a secret because there was nothing to tell, not yet. At the moment it was just half a dozen handwritten notes left in her mailbox at the store. When she’d gotten the first one, she didn’t even recognize the name. It wasn’t until the second note that she realized who had left it. And that was when she decided to keep the notes to herself. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t hurry to work each day just to see if there was another one waiting on her. A grin formed on her lips as she thought about the last one she’d gotten.

She walked over to her desk and opened the middle drawer and picked up the first piece of black folded paper in a stack. Her hands shook, just like the first time she’d opened it, as she unfolded it. And just like the first time she read it, her heart started galloping in her chest.