The Huntsman and the Lady by Sulriel

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Chapter 2

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She found she couldn't deny the smile that came through in his eyes.

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He led her to the kitchens where he procured a basket, and then took her a long meandering way through the caverns, past the gardens, through the steaming baths full of scantily dressed Sindar mingled with a smattering of decadent unclad Avari; and down a little used tunnel that brought them up and out of Menegroth into a wild wood of old growth choked in vines.  They followed a winding single track so long her curiosity turned to dismay until a final turn put them out into a meadow that defied description.

 

It was rough and rocky and wild with brambles.  She felt it was wrong, somehow, to be delighted with such disorder.

 

She turned and found Celeborn stood too close to her.  She squared her shoulders and raised her chin.  Of all the arrogance – "If you brought me all this way to steal a kiss – "

 

He shushed her again, this time with his finger touched to her lips.  And in her shock she let him.  The smile she expected didn't come.  He twined a lock of her hair around his finger, but then dropped it as he looked into her eyes.

"I didn't bring you all this way for a kiss."

 

When he turned away, she felt as if he'd dropped her off a precipice and so she only stood and watched as he set out their meal.

 

"…we were expected back…" she finally said.  She'd never stammered or stuttered or been so uncertain in her life, and she didn't like it one bit.  Her cheeks heated as confusion and discomfort fueled her anger.

 

He shrugged and motioned her to come sit beside him.  "They'll know you're safe with me."

 

Where did he find such unshakable arrogant confidence? 

 

"What of my brothers?"

 

"Your brothers can't find us."  He flashed her a dangerous, wicked grin and again motioned her to come.

 

She fought the urge to turn and look down the path behind her … to turn and run back down the path.  But she was no coward, and he was a lord of this land, in spite of his common Avari woods-rat dress; and she'd been entrusted to his care by Elwe himself.

 

Celeborn arranged their meal on the blanket and when he waved her over again, she came and sat beside him.  He filled a wine glass and handed it to her.

 

"Your brothers claim you are looking for a land of your own.  Will you take your people south?"

 

"I wish to learn more of the land before I choose."  She answered carefully, unsure if she should be flattered or offended that he wished to talk politics rather than try to kiss her.  Not that she would let him kiss her, but she had expected him to try.

 

"What of the people?"  He studied his glass rather then her expression as he asked and so it was unclear to her if he asked a real question or if he mocked her.

 

She drained her glass and tipped it upside down on the blanket beside the bottle.  She was done.  She'd been entertained by this intriguing local and found him to be pretty, but otherwise nothing but an arrogant simpleton.  He seemed to lack simple manners and knowledge of courtly protocol.  After her long journey to Menegroth, instead of a grand feast in the great hall itself, he'd traipsed her through the woods to rough seclusion.  And then declined to try to kiss her.  Her cheeks flamed at the thought.  He kept her so off-balance she couldn't even maintain a simple conversation.  It was uncivilized to meander then leap from one discussion to another and she realized now what Finwë, Olwe and Ingwe had chosen to leave behind. 

 

She'd have to speak to Melian privately to avoid being placed in Celeborn's care again.

 

"My mother's people hold the lands south of here," he continued.  "They'll be close-minded to those returned from the West."

 

That subtle smile again.  What did it mean past the heat tingling down from between her thighs?

 

"Is that a warning or a threat?"  She fixed him with her most intimidating gaze.  The one she'd used when Fëanor himself asked for strands of her hair.

 

Celeborn leaned in to tangle his long fingers in her long loose curls.  "It is an offer."

 

Galadriel struggled to breathe with him so close – as if he somehow took all her air.  An offer?  An offer!  Of what?  She gasped a breath only to be filled with the essence of all that was him and these dark, wild, dangerous, exciting lands.  He assumed too much.

 

She slapped his hand away.  She meant to be a queen and had no interest in a rustic huntsman's teachings of the wild.  The tingle of the smack in her palm burned and excited her and she snatched her hand closed.  How did he do that?

 

The flash in his eyes as he lowered his lids, and the twitch in his cheek told her he wasn't unaffected.  She bit her lip before she scoffed at his promise that he hadn't brought her here to steal a kiss.  He shifted his position on the blanket, easing a bend in the long bulge rising from between his legs.

 

Galadriel shot to her feet.  A lord didn't expose a lady to such things!  He rose more slowly to stand beside her.  She pointedly looked away.

"Galadriel?"  He seemed genuinely confused and resigned.  She should have known better than to walk out with a provincial.  He'd been appointed her care by his king she reminded herself.  She struggled to rein in her temper and offense.

 

"I'm ready to return now," she said.

 

Silence.  She finally turned back to him.  Magnificent echoed in her mind before she yanked her gaze back up to his face

 

"Would you have me pretend I find you unappealing?"

 

No, of course, she wouldn't want that.  "It is what a highborn lord would do," she answered.

 

"The people whose land you dream to rule are not shy about such things."

 

"I'm not shy."  She wasn't.  Not at all.  But swimming with her brothers and cousins shriveled and flopping was a far cry from this hard wild hunter she faced.  "I swim with my brothers all the time."

 

That smile quirked the corner of his lips before he suppressed it.  "Then swim with me."