The Huntsman and the Lady by Sulriel

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Chapter 4

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"Go on," he snarled.  He spun around to face her when she stayed still, then he advanced on her, dark and threatening.  "You push me too far.  I won't take a virgin lover.  Now go."

 

Galadriel gathered the fragments of her being, catching her swirling thoughts and patching them together.  She dredged courage up from behind herself and stiffened her back.  She wanted to blink and shake her head but refused to give him the satisfaction.  She wanted to sit down and cry and scream, she wanted to cup her own breasts and hold them warm and tight and roll her nipples between her fingers to try to ease their ache.  She wanted to slip her fingers… no, she wanted him, she wanted him inside her… coherent thought failed her.  Did he think her not good enough?  Inexperienced?  Did she fail some test in some way?

 

Slowly, so very slowly, what they had done, what they had almost done, what he had said sank in. 

 

"Did… did you expect I was not?"

 

It struck her that nothing had been said of vows, nothing was yet being said.

 

He stared at her for a long while.  "Your brothers are not," he finally said.

 

They weren't?  "Orodreth is married…"  Her mind balked when she considered the others.

 

He pursed his lips and shrugged.

 

"You…" She snapped her mouth shut before she made a fool … made more of a fool of herself.  "You brought me up here because you thought…"  She didn't have words for the concept of intimacy without bonds.

 

Celeborn grimaced.  "No, Galadriel.  I only brought you here for the seclusion so that if you were amiable we would be uninterrupted."  He glared at her as if offended that she would be offended.

 

She opened her mouth and then shut it.

"You leapt on me, if you recall."  He pointed to the center of the pond behind them.  "You mounted me and meant to ride – "

 

"Enough."  Her belly still quivered for his touch and she fought to make her voice stern.  Walk away her common sense echoed in the far distant reaches of her mind.  She'd walked away from the Valar and walked over the grinding ice – for what, to continue being a slave to their restrictions and ideals?

 

No.  She'd returned to this wild land of her forefathers so that she could make her own choices, so that she wouldn't be bound by other's thoughts and ways and unfathomable decisions.

 

She raised her chin, letting him have no doubt of her offense as she waved her own hand to the abandoned center of the pond.  "Do you think I don't know my own mind and body?"  She spoke in her haughtiest and most arrogant tone.

 

A flash of surprise crossed Celeborn's face and tickled in her belly.

 

"Your king," she sneered, "put you in my service, did he not?"

 

"He did, my lady."  Celeborn bowed.  He might have appeared contrite if he'd managed to hide his smile.  "And I have been a poor servant to leave the lady in distress."

 

He strode toward her as he spoke and scooped her up to carry her out of the water – the air chilled her where it touched her bare skin, where his skin touched hers seemed fevered – and deposited her on their blanket on her back, bracing on his hands and knees over her.  Her heartbeat rushed in her ears; he made her dizzy.  She thought the water that dripped from him should sizzle when it touched her skin.

 

What was he waiting for?

 

"This is common… among your people?" she whispered.

 

"Mmmm."  Celeborn lowered his head to nuzzle between her breasts. 

 

She thought he murmured something about his mother's people.

 

"But what of Melian and – "

 

He nipped her and slipped a finger up her thigh and between her slick lips to circle her nub.  "What about Melian?"  A second finger joined the first one.  Incredible, delicious pressure and longing burst between her thighs. 

 

Coils of pleasure spiraled up in her.  Why was he talking about Melian?  Her hips rose – he was giving her more than she'd ever known she wanted, but it wasn't enough.

 

Wait.  "Wait."

 

He sighed and sat back.  "Wait, what?"  He licked her juices from the tips of his fingers.  His nostrils flared as he fixed her with a heated stare.

 

"Elwe and Melian uphold the ways of the Valar."

 

Celeborn grimaced again.  "Yes, they do."  He sighed, resting his sticky fingers high on her thighs.  "The Nandor and Laiquendi are divided.  The Avari," he shrugged, "life is shorter and more precious in the wilds.  They share their pleasure without bonds."  He traced his hand back up her thighs and through her tight curls to dabble his fingers until they were wet and slick and brought them up to paint her lips and touch her tongue with the taste of herself.  "Did you come here to rule under the laws of the Valar?"

 

She'd never imagined such a thing.  Of course, she had – she'd seen her fathers stallions lick and nip the mares to test their readiness before they mounted.  Heat flooded her with the thought and she opened her lips, drawing Celeborn's fingers in between them for a better taste of her own sweet juices.

 

His eyes deepened and darkened – he tensed and quivered against her and she ran her hands down his sides, down his hard thighs and back up to take his shaft in hand.  He sucked in a breath and held it as she explored him.  She shifted and sat so up so she could cup his heavy sac in her hands before she tickled up his shaft to close both hands around him.  How could he be so hard and strong and velvet at the same time?  When she leaned down and licked the glistening drop from his broad head, thick and woodland sweet, he groaned and grabbed at her arms… but he just held her – just held her and held his breath while she licked and nipped and nuzzled him the way he'd done her breasts.  She took a deep breath of uniquely him and held it as her own body surged with heat and tension.  The scent and taste of him filled her with moisture and empty, aching need.

 

When she hesitated, he lifted her and laid her beneath him, parting her knees with his. 

 

He leaned down to her.  "I'll have a kiss now," he whispered. 

 

Galadriel reached up and wrapped her arms around, pulling Celeborn down to her, testing, tasting his lips and his tongue.  As she opened to him, he pressed his broad tip into her, just parting her curls, and resting – hard, hot and pulsing – asking a final time before he pierced her barrier and when she pulled him to her, he pressed in, shaking as if he held a great weight.  Hot and hard - he stretched her inside until she thought she would burst.  She held still with an intensity of wonderment, savoring just having him in her.

 

Sweat dripped from his forehead and ran down her temple as he slowly filled her in ways she hadn't know were empty.  He finally gasped her name and thrust completely in, fulfilling her, withdrew and thrust again, and again.  The delicious fullness between her legs and up inside her threatened to burst through her mind.  Taking her, claiming her in ancient ways as he moved in her, sending hard ripples of pleasure from her center in strong sweeping waves that melted her bones.  He moved slowly at first, soft, subtle movements that teased her until she arched up beneath him.  Her hips rose to meet him, her body clenched around him, holding and demanding all that he was, as she gave herself fully to him.  For all her dreams of rule, for all her anger at his arrogance, she found exotic delight in yielding completely and giving herself up to him while he was completely hers, giving himself to her, bursting in great pulsing, pounding waves as she rode the answering waves of pleasure that racked through her and sent her soaring.

 

Celeborn collapsed on her and she took his weight gladly, but he wrapped her in his arms and rolled with her so she rested atop him as the world slowly came back to her.  Her heart slowed, and her breathing.  He reached out to snatch the edge of the blanket and wrap them together in it.  He tucked her tenderly against him so her head rested on his shoulder.  He pressed her with tender kisses but when she looked up, he frowned.

 

"Are you unhappy?"  Her heart stuttered with the thought.  She'd feared to see the smug self-satisfaction that would have cut her to the core, but this sober, serious look frightened her in a deeply uneasy way.

 

He shook his head.  "I only wish now that I had wrested vows from you beforehand, but there will be time for that when we will."  His hand moved up to cup her breast.  "And we will not suffer the waiting during our engagement."

 

Galadriel bit her lip to keep from snapping or laughing.  Arrogance, your name is Celeborn.  …after all they had just shared, by her choice, when she had invited him in – and with his seed still warm on her thighs… to think of all the great lords of Valinor she'd turned away, only to have this arrogant fool of a huntsman entice her to flaunt her customs then decide they would marry without asking if she wished to exchange the vows.

 

I will surprise you.  He had certainly done that.  She stretched up alongside him, rubbing her thigh on his thickening shaft and tilted her lips up to his.  She liked this wild, lawless land, she had decided, and having escaped the Valar she was unready to bind herself elsewhere.  Perhaps she would take the vows with him, but not yet