May Death Do Us Part

105 Chapter 105 : No Romance Here

Queen Tauriel twirled the blouse in front of her and then gazed at her soon suspiciously. “Gareth..”

“Yes..”

“This is a woman’s blouse is it not?” The beautiful woman repeated her question.

The handsome elf pursed his lips together and and quickly averted his mother’s gaze. He didn’t want to put Melissa in trouble especially considering the fact that the queen was already not too fond of her to begin with. But how? How was he going to get himself out of this situation?

Gareth had thought of lying that the shirt was his but not even his hand could fit in those tiny little sleeves.

“I um...”

Before the prince could fully fabricate his lie, his door swung open and Ronda walked into the room. The woman’s brown eyes fell on the blouse in the queen’s hands and her face was immediately painted with dread.

“Your majesty..” Ronda spoke shakily with a curtsy, “please forgive me your majesty but I forgot some of my clothing here.”

Queen Tauriel arched one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows at the woman who looked nervous and a little flustered. “Are you trying to tell me that this is yours Ronda?”

.....

The woman nodded slowly and bowed her head, “I am so embarrassed your majesty, but I’m afraid I forgot it and few other items in the prince’s chambers.”

“Why are your clothes in-” the queen cut her statement short as her eyes darted between Gareth and Ronda, had the two of them gotten involved?

“She accidentally got herself soaked when she was filling up the tub,” Gareth blurted out as if knowing what his mother was thinking and not wanting that thought to linger any longer.

“Yes your majesty, I slipped and fell and forgot to retrieve my clothes after I had dried them out.”

The queen narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the two before putting the blouse on the bed. “Very well,” she spoke calmly, “your meal is getting cold down stairs darling, please dress up and join your brother and I, it will be nice to eat together as a family.”

“Sure, I’ll be right down,” the prince responded. He watched his mother exist the room and then rushed to close his door. Gareth sighed in relief as his eyes fell on Ronda who was placing some fresh clothes on his bed. “I owe you one Ronda, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it your grace,” Ronda responded with a sweet smile, “you put your trust in me so it’s my job to help you whenever I can.” The woman finished placing the clean clothes on the bed and curtain, “some clean clothes for you your grace, and some for princess Melissa as well.”

“Thank you,” the prince walked to the elf woman and gave her a pat on the shoulder. Ronda nodded and then made her way out of the room.

Not long after, Melissa existed the bathing room in a robe. Her hair was dripping wet and tasseled up, and her skin was soft and moist from the prolonged soak in the tub. Gareth walked to her and gazed down at her thick damp lashes before cupping her cheek in the palm of his hand.

“I told you we were going to get caught,” the beautiful blue eyed woman scolded him.

“But we weren’t,” Gareth responded as he pushed strands of wet hair away from her face. “Lucky for us Ronda walked in at just at the right moment.”

“The elf girl?” Melissa walked passed the prince and grabbed a towel from the bed that she used to dry her hair. “What’s her deal anyway?”

Prince Gareth took the towel from Melissa and began drying her hair himself. He dried it in small bunches and was painfully careful about it as if he would rip it off if he tugged too hard. “Her deal?” He questioned Melissa with his brows raised.

“She’s unusually close to you,” Melissa explained, trying very hard to not sound jealous or possessive.

“She’s just a nice woman,” Gareth responded, he was still very much focused on his task of drying her hair.

“Women aren’t just ‘nice’ Gary she’s up to something.”

The man finished drying Melissa’s beautiful red locs and tossed the towel aside. “Is my little nosferatu princess a little jealous?”

“I’m not jealous,” the redhead replied almost immediately, “I’m just concerned. The last time a woman had a crush on you she tried to kill me.”

Gareth grabbed another clean towel, threw it over his shoulder and inched closer to Melissa, “well the last time a man had a crush on you he married you,” he spoke with a grin on his handsome face. “Now stop worrying and let me dry you up so we can get ready for lunch.

The prince reached for the knot holding Melissa’s robe but the woman stopped him and grabbed the towel from him, “I’m capable of drying myself,” she spoke a little coldly, “why don’t you focus on wearing the clean clothes Ronda has prepared for you.”

Gereth sighed and chuckled lightly at Melissa’s expression. It was evident that she had not found the marriage joke funny. He walked up to her as she took off her robe and cupped both her breasts from behind with his slightly calloused hands. Melissa gasped and tried to yank his hands away but to no avail.

The prince leaned towards her ear slowly, his warm breath fanning her jawline, “if you keep pouting like that you’ll awaken the sleeping beast.” The horseness of his voice made the redhead a little weak at the knees.

“Gareth have a little shame, haven’t you had enough?” Melissa rasped. Her mouth was saying one thing but the rate at which her body was responding to his touch told a different story.

“With you I can never have enough,” Gareth whispered. He dropped Melissa’s robe to the floor, took the towel from her hands and proceeded to wiping her curvy body dry. After he was done he held her by the shoulders and led her to where her clothes were spread out. With a soft kiss on her shoulder he asked her to get dressed.

“Unless you want me to help you dress up?” The man spoke with a sly smile on his face.

“I’m very capable of doing it myself thank you very much,” Melissa responded. It took a lot of effort for her to maintain her serious tone because deep down she had already melted. Curse this man and his mind numbing touch, no wonder women were throwing themselves at him left, right and center.

*

Vivian rode alongside Zander quietly, he seemed a bit more distant than usual and for some reason it was bothering her. Was it because of the incident at the lake the other night? Maybe she shouldn’t have teased him like that. She looked up at the man and instantly a blush tinted her cheeks, he looked really attractive when he was all serious like that. She trailed her eyes down to his lips and gulped, gosh.. was she really falling for this elf?

When Zander turned to Vivian she quickly whipped her head away and lowered her eyes. She hoped he didn’t notice how completely flashed she was. The woman tightened her grip on the reins of her horse and drew in a shaky breath, she needed to say something to him, anything.

“Hey Zander I-”

“Stop!” Zander yelled to the rest of the group and everyone abruptly halted in their tracks.

Roland who was at the back of the group rode to the Zande’s side, “what’s goin o-” he cut his statement short when his gaze fell on the bright portal of white light in front of them.

“That’s an elven poetal,” Zander explained as he dismounted his steed. “Someone must have created it here and forgot to close it.”

“Where do you think it leads?” Roland questioned the blond elf who was inching closer to the portal.

“Only one way to find out..”

“Zander wait!” Vivian shrieked as the elf walked into the portal, what if something happened to him? Wait why was she even concerned? She jumped off her horse and jogged towards the portal. But as soon as she reached near it Zander walked out, almost bumping into him.

Zander held Vivian’s shoulders and gently pulled her to stand by his side as he spoke to the group. “We’re in luck, this is a portal leading to directly to Ervelon.”

The group gasped.

“We’ve just cut our journey short by a whole week,” Zander added on.

On his side, Vivian’s face was crimson red. Zander was unconsciously holding her hand as he spoke, his fingers intertwined with hers.

“Well then what are we waiting for?” Ozias spoke, “our prince and princess await us.”

“Let’s move out!” Odran yelled enthusiastically.

The men all mounted their horses and braced themselves for what lay ahead.

“Umm Zander...?”

The blond elf looked down at Vivian who was as red as a cherry in spring and arched he brows. “What’s the matter? Are you getting cold feet?”

“No it’s just...” Vivian shifted nervously in place, “could you let go of my hand now?”

“let go of your-” the man looked down at his hand that was intertwined with Vivian’s and quickly released it. He took a step back and covered his blush with his hand. “Sorry I didn’t realize I-”

“It’s fine..” Vivian responded in a low tone.

“Could you two save the romance for when we reach Ervelon,” Ivan grumbled. He was still holding Maria in his arms because she had not yet women up.

“Shut up Ivan there’s no romance here,” Zander responded. As he walked to his horse he couldn’t see the slight heartbreak on Vivian’s face.

“Alright, follow me..”