Becoming Aredhel

Chapter Twenty One- The Study

I climb out of my bed and pull on my nightrobe. Tonight, I did not drink my sleeping draught. I wanted to see my family in my dreams. I wanted to see their faces and feel that familiar warmth of love and happiness in my chest again.

I dreamt of Lorien. My parents, Elas, Aunt, Uncle, and I were eating a picnic lunch together underneath the giant trees that dropped their golden leaves upon us with each sigh of the wind. Uncle was making faces at Elas, making him erupt into giggles everytime. Nana and my aunt were deep in discussion of how Haldir followed me around like a lost puppy. Papa and I took turns throwing berries at one another, trying to catch them in our mouths, and we laughed gaily everytime a berry bounced off our cheeks or our noses.

The dream brought me peace, and I shed only tears of melancholy tonight.

My bare feet pad across the hallway quietly. I open the door to Elladan's chamber. I expect him to be asleep, but the door to his study is open with golden candlelight casting its glow across the floor. I walk towards his study with crossed arms, holding my blush pink robe around me shyly as I catch sight of him at his desk. The memory of his eyes gazing at me sensuously as he spoke of carrying me to his study makes my stomach fill with nervous butterflies.

His dark hair falls around his face as his quill moves across the parchment swiftly, dipping and looping his letters with graceful ease. The candlelight makes his skin appear to be golden as he sits there with his sapphire tunic unbuttoned and hanging loosely over his arms, exposing every well-defined muscle in his chest and stomach to my eyes. The tips of his ears poke out from beneath his silky hair, and I long to brush my lips over them.

Without looking up from his work, he asks me quietly, "Did you have a nightmare?"

His sincere worry makes my lips turn up into a sleepy smile. "No. I had a wonderful dream, but I could not fall back asleep," I explain, leaning against the doorframe as I continue to admire him. "You should be sleeping."

His lips lift into an amused smile for a moment. "You have been distracting me from my duties during the day. I have to get things done at some point," he teases softly.

"If you would rather I distract you at night, I would have no objections."

The response gives me the exact reaction I was hoping for. His quill freezes in place, and those silver eyes of his find me standing at the door, swallowing me in their beauty and toe-curling desire. He places his quill in the ink pot and leans back in his chair, giving me his full attention now. Those eyes caress me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, not missing a single detail of my untamed curls or my legs that are beginning to tone up from Glorfindel making me run with him every morning. And of course I am wearing one of the short nightgowns Elladan gave me that has innocent lace details that he always admires when he thinks I am not paying attention.

"You already possess my dreams. Is that not enough distraction?"

"What do you dream of?" I ask him. Our game of teasing carries desire with it, and it makes my heart race in my chest in anticipation.

His eyes darken at the question, and my legs feel weak just from the look he gives me. "Things that I should not," he says lowly.

"You see my dreams through the bond sometimes, yet I never get to see yours," I mention, looking around his study to distract myself from his powerful gaze.

"I will show you exactly what I dream of one day, and I will not need the bond to do so."

My gaze flies back to his, surprised by how open he is being. He is not holding back his thoughts from me. Instead he is laying them out for me, piece by piece. "Oh."