Life is Too Short

Life is Too Short

Chapter Four – Games and More Games

I worked on the story for a while that night, making corrections in the current chapter before finally getting tired and giving it up. As he had done on the first night, Haldir showed up in the shower and took me right there. There’s just nothing in the world like a wet elf and I think I could have stayed in the shower with him all night. I wondered if elven skin turns prune-like when they’ve been in the water too long and decided that it sounded like a good research project.

After moving to the bed, we went at it, hot and heavy, for a good two hours before slowing down and just holding each other for a while as we talked. That was something I had never done with Thranduil except for our short conversation on the previous night and I suspected now that the only reason it had happened had been because he had wanted the chance to talk to me about making a decision. Haldir, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy it as much as I did when we just lay together and talked. After a while, I got up the nerve to bring up what Thranduil had told me.

“I was told that I was going to have to make a decision between you and Thranduil,” I finally announced.

“Is that right?” Haldir asked, but didn’t seem too surprised. “I told you that he would want you for himself.”

“Then this is not what you want? You wish for me to continue with both of you?” I asked.

He rolled onto his stomach next to me and leaned over to kiss me, his long hair lightly grazing my body.

“What I want is to have you all to myself, but I do not think that it would be fair, unless I give up my other women. I have visited some of them and told them that it would be the last time. It will give me more time to spend with you, but I cannot give them all up.”

“Is it your job to go around pleasuring stressed-out women or something?” I asked, playing with a strand of his hair.

“No, Sinda, but it is safer for me to have several women than to get too attached to just one,” he told me pointedly. He took my lower lip lightly between his teeth and bit down gently.

I understood. Having several women would help to keep him from falling in love with any one person. Yet I was supposed to choose one elf? That hardly seemed fair to me.

“Haldir, if I have to choose between you, I need to know why you want to be with me. Is this just part of the competition?”

“No, it is not,” he assured me. “I want to be with you because I enjoy you, and not just for physical reasons. I like talking to you, too. I enjoy your sense of humor.”

“For how long?” Why did I feel like I was interviewing elves for the job of Gigolo?

“I cannot say, Sinda,” he told me, not looking at me.

“It’s exactly what Thranduil has promised me,” I told him, ignoring the lump in my throat. “Maybe six months, maybe ten years.”

He frowned at that and started to say something, but closed his mouth for a moment before speaking. “Stay with me, Sinda, please?” he asked, holding my eyes with his.

I reached up and traced a finger across one of his dark brows. Yes, that was what I wanted. No matter what Thranduil had told me, I suspected that Haldir honestly had feelings for me, while Thranduil was mainly in this for the competition. It was Haldir that I wanted to be with but I hated the thought of having to share him while not having the same privilege myself.

“How often would we be together?” I asked.

“If you could move closer to me, perhaps three or four times a week,” he promised. “With you living in Nevada, I can visit you from time to time, and stay for several days each time but I could not be there on a regular basis.”

“You would like me to live closer?” I asked, my heart beating rapidly. I had considered leaving Nevada, but it had never happened.

“I would like it very much,” he assured me. “I will even help you move.”

I told Haldir that I would have to think about it because I wasn’t ready to be forced into a decision until it became necessary. Snuggling up next to him, I fell asleep, safe and secure in his strong arms.

~~~

Getting the Game Boy away from the Princess the next day was like pulling teeth. I finally had Glen take me to a store selling used electronics so that I could buy my own and I was lucky enough to find a used copy of Pokemon Gold at the same store. The Princess hadn’t touched her game since then, of course. She didn’t want to play it but simply hadn’t wanted me to, either.

Growing frustrated with the game, I asked Dex now, “Doesn’t Eevee have any evolved forms?”

“Yeah, five,” he answered, thumbing the controls to his own game.

“What are they and how do I get them?” I asked, confused. Apparently it was different than with the other Pokemon.

“Well, there are Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon, who evolve using the stones of their respective types.”

“Okay,” I told him. That made sense.

“And then there are Espeon and Umbreon who evolve by tameness during daytime or nighttime, respectively.”

“What do you mean? I can only evolve Umbreon at night and Espeon during the day?”

“That’s right,” he replied.

“And what do you mean by tameness?” I hadn’t come across this yet.

“Your Eevee has to really like you before it’ll evolve. You get it haircuts, get Gary’s sister to groom it in the afternoon and you spend time walking around with it,” he explained.

I looked at him. “Haircuts?”

“Yes.”

“Where’s Gary’s sister?”

“In Pallet Town, in Kanto,” he replied.

“Oh, right, right, I remember seeing her now,” I left him alone for a while and worked on taming my Eevee. I had spent the whole morning thinking about Haldir and Thranduil and had come no closer to any sort of a resolution. If I couldn’t have Haldir in a monogamous relationship, I wanted to keep them both. I just hadn’t figured out how to pull that off yet. I finally decided that it would be best to keep my mind off of the whole thing until I could come up with a plan. The Game Boy helped tremendously and I found that I could easily lose myself in it for hours. It wasn’t as fun as the Sims, but I hadn’t thought to bring that on my laptop. Huge mistake.

Upset because their father made the kids order juice at lunchtime, the Witch managed to dump my iced tea on my lap for the second time, once again smiling as she did so. This time I saw it coming and managed to return the favor while looking like I was trying to save the tea. It was worth getting wet just to see the look on her face. My tea was sugarless and would not be anywhere near as sticky as her apple juice would be. My guess was that she wouldn’t try that stunt again.

We toured the Hershey factory that day in Hershey, Pennsylvania and I thought I was going to scream. What’s worse than shoving hundreds of shrieking children into the same building? Shoving hundreds of shrieking children into the same building and giving them chocolate of every sort imaginable. Flashes of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” drifted through my head more than once. I kept waiting to see the Princess start blowing up like a blueberry or something. The kids were more wired than usual after sampling the candy and each having a large ice cream. It was extremely difficult to be around them and I desperately craved some peace and quiet. The two hours and eight minutes that we spent there was apparently not enough for them and Glen decided to stay the night in Hershey so that he could let the kids spend the next day at the amusement park. That was fine with me. I’d be able to sleep in for the first time since we started this trip, because I had no intention of joining them. Glen was disappointed at my revelation, having assumed I’d be along to help with the kids, but that was not something I had ever agreed to and I was not about to spend an entire day in an amusement park with these children. In fact, lines from the Weird Al song, “One More Minute,” had popped into my head on several occasions that day. The last line of the song went something like “I’d rather rip my heart right out of my ribcage and stomp up and down on it ‘til I die, than to spend one more minute with you.” I thought that might be slight overkill, but at the moment I wasn’t sure. I needed desperately to be away from these kids for a day.

I was able to go to my room early that night and I was ecstatic, doing the happy dance around the floor as soon as I closed the door. I would have the whole next day without any of them, since I told Glen I’d be working on my stories and he should just forget that I existed until it was time to leave again. He seemed determined that I would join them for breakfast and dinner but I made it very clear that I wanted some time alone.

When Haldir came to me that night, I told him that I had the room for the entire next day and he seemed pleased.

“Then may I stay with you?” he asked as he ran his hands over my body.

“You don’t need to go home during the day or anything?” I asked.

“No. Orophin’s friend, Neume, and Rúmil’s friend, Amalee are both visiting for the week so I thought I’d give them some space anyway,” he told me, pulling me closer.

I smiled. I would get to spend the whole day and two nights with Haldir. He pulled me on top of him and situated me to his liking. Coincidentally, it was also where I wanted to be. I began moving as his hands slid up to cup my breasts. It was a better ride than anything at the amusement park.

~~~

The next day and a half was absolutely incredible. We spent much of it in bed, but we also did other things. Once we finally decided to get up and dress, we walked into town and ate a meal together. We held hands and talked along the way and Haldir explained a little more about his situation. Middle Earth had existed on this very planet a long time ago, according to him. When the last of the ships sailed to Valinor, Haldir and his brothers had chosen to stay behind, as did Thranduil and a few of the others. He had mentioned some of this before, but I had chalked it up to my deteriorating mental condition and not taken it seriously. Not that I did now, either, but it was starting to feel more real. According to him, none of the female elves had stayed behind, thus effectively bringing about the end of the race of elves on earth if these males should die. They were the last of their kind. I remembered Elrond and had to ask the question.

“But what if you mate with a human. Would your offspring not be elfkind?” I asked. “I know that Lord Elrond was part human.”

“Yes, that is true, but none of us have chosen to do so,” he said. “It would require being in love and I have already told you what the consequences of that would be.”

“Humans have children all the time without being in love,” I stated.

“I would never do that and neither would my brothers,” he said. “I am certain that I can say the same for Thranduil.”

“That’s good,” I told him. “I would hate to see the Elvish race die out but breeding new elves with women you don’t love would not be an acceptable way to solve the problem, either.”

“Especially since their mothers would not be around to see them grow up,” Haldir reminded me, a bit sadly. “Remember, it takes much longer for an elf to reach maturity.”

Changing the subject, because it depressed me, I asked him how he managed to follow me if he didn’t use some sort of a portal, as I had originally assumed.

“I fly or take public transportation,” he shrugged. “I have a rental car in the parking lot right now.”

“Are you joking?” I asked. “That doesn’t seem very…elf-like.”

He laughed. “Since we were first together we have had a small bond and I have been able to keep track of you by touching your mind.”

“Do you mean reading my mind?” I asked, taken aback.

“Probing your mind?” he tried. “I do not try to dwell on your personal thoughts but I sift through to find what I am looking for. I know if you are distressed, for one thing. I knew that you had mixed feelings about going on this trip and you had trouble sleeping because of it. I decided to join you so I flew to Las Vegas then rented a car to follow you. When I touch your mind, I can follow you because I know where you are going.”

“And Thranduil?” I asked.

“I try to warn him ahead of time when I know that you will want him. He flies out,” the Marchwarden told me.

“Does he also have a small bond with me?” I asked, not sure I liked the idea that these elves could read my mind.

“No, he does not,” Haldir told me solemnly, “it requires an emotional tie as well as a physical one and Thranduil will not risk that.”

“So, do you have little bonds with all of your women?” I asked, regretting it immediately.

“No,” he said, not elaborating. I felt relieved and did not ask for more information.

“How can you afford to be traveling all over the place if you don’t have jobs?” I asked.

“Sinda, we have had many, many years to accumulate wealth through investments. Think about how much the average human could accumulate in a lifetime, if they never had any major medical emergencies. Multiply that by many lifetimes. We all have more money than we will ever need.”

That made sense; too much sense. I began to wonder for the first time if this wasn’t a fantasy after all but was somehow real. I pushed that thought away, because if it were true, I had been having sex with not just one, but two elves. I had done things with Thranduil that I would never do in real life. No, it was much safer to remember that they were simply part of my imagination and leave it at that.

We found a park and lay on the grass together for a while until our hands started wandering and we decided that it might be wise to return to the room. We didn’t make it that far. Haldir managed to find a secluded area in the park that was thick with bushes and trees and he pulled me into a thicket with him. Others would not see us, but if we were not careful, we would be heard. I tried to keep that in mind and I think that I did well, considering how good it felt. We stopped to brush the leaves and dirt off of each other before returning to the room, staying in bed until dinnertime. It’s amazing what almost non-stop sex can do for one’s appetite.

That evening we found a nice restaurant and both had steak and lobster as well as a very good bottle of wine. For dessert, we had each other again, once we returned to the room. When my alarm woke me in the morning, I rolled over to reach for Haldir and was terribly disappointed to find him gone. I don’t know why he never stayed until I left for the day, except for the fact that I would probably never leave while he was there. I’m sure he realized that. Disappointed, I threw my stuff together and left to find the van.

~~~

We were finally going to make it to Michigan that day, after circling around and going through New York and Ontario, Canada first. Crossing the border into Canada was not a problem but crossing into Michigan was another story. It became apparent that we might have a problem when we saw that the lane of trucks was backed up for over seven kilometers in front of the bridge. That did not bode well for us. As we drew closer, we slowed to a crawl, along with the rest of the traffic. I was driving at the time and the smart thing would have been to switch places with Glen, since he handled his kids and stress much better than I did. Instead, I got to listen to the little darlings fight and complain and scream at each other for almost two hours as we inched towards the bridge and Michigan. If it hadn’t been an international boundary, I would have gotten out with my laptop and walked, telling him to pick me up on the other side. Somehow, I didn’t think the border guards would appreciate that and I stayed where I was.

The lane between the trucks and cars was empty, but the sign above clearly stated that it was strictly for people who had some sort of a pass. Regardless, I would see not only cars but also trucks get into that lane and drive up to the front of the lines where somebody would invariably let them in. This began to anger me as I watched car after car cheat their way out of waiting, which inadvertently made us wait even longer. Why should they be allowed to do this? The longer it took, the louder the kids got and the more irritated I became. I badly needed a rest area, too, and was starting to wonder if I could use a container in the van if it came down to it. I wasn’t sure how I’d pull that one off with Glen and the kids in the vehicle, but I was getting desperate and seriously regretting the Super Big Gulp iced-tea I’d just finished off. At least that meant there was an empty cup handy. It should be exactly the right size, too.

By the time we almost reached the bridge, I was ready to jump out and pulverize the next driver that cut in line. I told Glen that I wasn’t going to let anybody in and he agreed, seeming to be as angry about it as I was. I think that he had to go, too, as did the kids. Sure enough, some good old boy in a pickup truck who didn’t think that he should have to wait like the rest of us started edging the nose of his truck in front of the van, trying to force his way in. I shook my head no and pulled closer to the car in front of me.

“Uh, Sinda, maybe you should just let him in. He looks like a pretty big guy.”

“So you think that I should give in to him just because he’s big?” I asked, annoyed. “He’s a bully! If there’s any damage to the van, I’ll pay for it.”

“Damage? Wait, Sinda, really, the guy looks pissed off,” Glen said, nervously.

“So am I!” I replied. “And I have the right to be. I waited in this damn line for two hours while he skipped ahead to the front!”

I was fuming as Billy Bob moved his truck even closer. My hands were shaking as I mouthed the words, “Come on,” to him. He gunned his engine, but he must have been in neutral because he didn’t move.

“Sinda, I don’t want to end up in jail! I don’t need to get into a fight with this guy!” Glen was almost frantic.

I turned to glance at him, “Why would you end up in a fight? This is my battle, not yours and I didn’t take years of Taekwondo just to let somebody else fight for me. I can handle this guy.”

“His head is almost touching the roof of his cab! He’s well over six feet tall and has to be at least two hundred and thirty pounds. He looks pretty solid, too!”

“His ‘nads won’t be,” I informed Glen under my breath.

Glen paled.

Billy Joe Bob was swearing at me now and he reached over to roll down his window. I rolled mine down so that I could hear his insults better. I heard the word, “bitch” clearly and I mouthed a few of my own words back to him. That worked well because the kids couldn’t hear me but my buddy knew what I was saying. The car in front of me moved and I edged forward before he could do so. Now he was really mad because he couldn’t get in front of me without backing up and aiming for the front of the van again. He got out of the truck and slammed the door, coming around to me. Glen locked the doors but I guess he forgot that I had the window down. Well, maybe he wasn’t thinking about me at the time. I was trying to figure out why I couldn’t get my door open but I guess Glen was clicking the lock down from his side every time I clicked it up.

“What is your fucking problem?” the gorilla screamed, spewing chunks of chewing tobacco into my face.

“You!” I told him, wiping the disgusting stuff off of me. “I’ve waited in this damn line for two hours and you just drive right up the middle and cut in front. Who the hell do you think you are? Why shouldn’t you have to wait like everybody else?”

He kept looking at Glen as though he were waiting for him to get involved, but Glen kept his mouth shut. I was betting that his eyes were forward, too. He was probably trying to disappear into the seat or something.

“I think that you need to get your ass to the back of the line and wait like everybody else is doing!” I said, still fighting with Glen over the locks.

“I’d like to see you make me,” he told me, putting his hands on his hips.

By now, other people were yelling at him to get back in line and it encouraged me.

“I don’t need to. Somebody else might let you in line but I won’t. You aren’t getting away with this crap with me,” I told him, meaning it.

“If you weren’t a woman, I’d kick your ass,” he sneered at me.

“Go for it,” I told him. “You might beat the crap out of me, but I guarantee you that I’ll hurt you, too.”

He reached in and grabbed me roughly by both arms and started to pull me out of the van, but my seatbelt restrained me. I was busy struggling with the button so that I could free myself and was halfway out the window when Haldir showed up. Within seconds, the elf had my buddy pinned to the van by his neck. From my point of view, hanging out the window as I was, it looked like Joe Billy Bob was up on his tiptoes. He was bigger than Haldir, but the elf was strong and had a good grip on the guy’s neck.

“Hey!” I told Haldir. “This is my fight!” I crawled back in through the window and finally succeeded in opening the door, only because Glen appeared to be in a state of shock, his finger poised above the lock button. Haldir looked like he was going to kill the guy and I was not happy.

“Let me handle this!” I said, angrily. “I can take this guy.”

Haldir looked down at me, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. The vehicle in front of us had now moved up almost a whole car length and Haldir pointed that out to me.

“Get in the van, Sinda,” he said through clenched teeth. “I will keep him here for as long as possible.”

“But that’s not fair!” I said, really wanting a shot at the creep.

“Sinda,” Haldir growled, obviously unhappy with me.

I resisted the urge to give the guy a jump-front-kick to the balls before getting back into the van and throwing it into gear. I continued to edge forward until I was on the bridge and could no longer see Haldir, who had the guy pinned to his own truck, at last observation. I sighed, disappointed that I hadn’t gotten the chance to kick some butt. Looking over at Glen, I saw that his hands were shaking and I thought that he looked a bit angry.

“What?” I asked.

“What?” he sputtered. “What? You almost got my van wrecked, not to mention getting my…rear end kicked and you ask what?”

“Could you really take him, Sinda?” Dex was asking now, his eyes big.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I doubt it. He was pretty big and I’m only 5’1”. I spar some big guys but they’re not usually as mad as he was. He probably would have hurt me, but I would have gotten in some good hits and kicks first, I’m sure.”

“I can’t believe you did that!” The Witch told me. She actually slapped me five. I was stunned.

“Dad, can I take Taekwondo when we get home?” Dex asked, excited.

Glen glared at me before turning to his son, “Why, so you can beat people up?”

“No, so I can protect myself,” the boy stated. “You were afraid of the guy but Sinda wasn’t because she knew she could defend herself.”

Oh, boy. That wasn’t good. I didn’t want to emasculate the poor guy.

“Dex, your dad didn’t want to get into a fight with the guy and I don’t blame him. These days, you go to jail for fighting. I shouldn’t have done that,” I told the kid. “Especially when you’re a black belt because your hands and feet can be considered a deadly weapon. It really was foolish of me.”

That seemed to calm Glen down a bit, but Dex was still excited about Taekwondo. He asked me about a hundred questions and I answered them. I told him that if we got to a big enough space where there weren’t other people around, I’d show him some of my moves.

“Can you break boards?” he asked.

“Sure, I’ve had to do that at testing ever since purple belt. That’s my favorite part,” I told him. Next to sparring, that was, but I didn’t think I’d bring that up right now.

Glen told him that they’d look into it when they got home and the kid was hyped. He seemed to have what it would take to be dedicated, but I didn’t know about talent. About ten minutes later, we stopped at a rest area that was pretty deserted and I showed him a couple of kicks and strikes. He tried to copy the kicks and I saw that he could get his foot pretty high. He seemed to mimic the moves easily and I thought that he might have some talent, after all. I hoped that Glen would let him do it. Dex was the type of kid that was going to get beat up in school, otherwise. I thought that the exercise and discipline would be good for the Princess and the Witch, too, but I didn’t know if they had the desire.

Glen didn’t say another word until we reached his parents’ house. I reminded him that I needed to rent a car so that I could go find a cabin on a lake. He promised to take me right after dinner and I was not happy, as I didn’t want to hang around his parents. This was my free time and I wanted to go find my lake, preferably before it got late. I gave in because I didn’t have much choice. Dinner was waiting for us and his mother did not take “no” for an answer. His dad seemed nice, although quiet, but his mother watched me through slitted eyes as the meal progressed. I already couldn’t wait to get away from the woman. She had prepared a huge meal with fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, sliced fresh tomatoes and cucumbers among other things. I went easy on the chicken, potatoes and gravy, but I had a couple ears of corn and lots of the fresh veggies. The meal was wonderful and I told her that.

“Have some more,” she insisted, shoving the plate of chicken at me.

“Oh, no thank you,” I told her. “I’m stuffed.”

“You hardly had anything,” she informed me suspiciously.

“I had a little bit of everything and seconds on the vegetables,” I corrected her. It was more than I normally ate.

“Didn’t you like the chicken?” she asked me.

“Yes, it was great,” I told her, trying to hide my annoyance. “Thank you.”

“Have some more,” she insisted, shoving the plate towards me again.

“Really, I can’t. I’m full and I’d rather not force more food down,” I told her.

Glen tried to help and took the plate from his mother, helping himself to another piece of chicken. The princess whined and he gave her more, too.

“Well, at least somebody likes my chicken,” Glen’s mom said, bobbing her gray curls approvingly at her granddaughter. “You’re a good little eater, aren’t you?” The princess nodded her greasy face between bites of chicken. I had to look away. Glen had been making some decent progress with the kid and I could see that his mother was going to undo everything he had done. I tried not to think about it because it wasn’t any of my business.

“Maybe if you’d eat once in a while you wouldn’t be so skinny,” the woman was telling me now.

“I’m not skinny,” I told her. I struggled to maintain my weight and it was right where it should be now, thanks to the extra exercise I’d been getting. In fact, if you looked at the charts, it edged towards the high end for my height, but that was because of the muscle I’d built doing Taekwondo. I was right where I wanted to be and wasn’t going to blow it because this woman thought I should weigh two hundred and fifty pounds like she did.

“Yes, you are, you’re skinny,” she insisted, glaring.

I bit my lip to keep from saying anything. I could probably show her a weight chart and it wouldn’t do any good. She didn’t want to think of herself as being fat, so she would just consider me skinny instead. I really couldn’t wait to get out of there.

“Is the car rental place open all night?” I asked Glen, glancing at the clock.

“What car rental place?” his mother asked.

“Oh, Sinda’s renting a car and going to stay on a lake for a while so she can work on her book and stories,” Glen replied and I detected a note of patronization in his words.

“What kind of book?” his mother asked, suspicious again.

I was glad that she hadn’t asked about the stories because I might have had to tell her that they were elf porn, though that wasn’t exactly true. Still, it would have gotten a reaction from her, I’m sure. The book was fairly harmless, on the other hand.

“It’s a suspense-romance book,” I told her.

“Romance book? Those are trash,” she replied.

“Some of them are,” I answered. “Mine is more of a suspense book with romance in it.”

“I’ll bet it’s still trash. Is there sex in it?” she asked, disapproving.

Oh, how I would love to leave a chapter or two of my latest story for her to read. The Uruk-hai elf encounter would work well…

“No,” I told her, truthfully, only because I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.

“Because I don’t read that kind of trash,” she told me. I forced a smile. I didn’t remember offering to let her read my work.

“There’s no car rental places here, either,” she told me, stuffing more potatoes into her face. I could see where the princess got her eating habits and where the Witch got her pleasant personality.

“What do you mean?” I asked, breaking into a cold sweat as her words sunk in. I needed a rental car about an hour ago.

“Lansing is probably the closest place and that’s a long drive. So our house isn’t good enough for you?” she asked, not bothering to swallow her food first. That was twice that somebody had spewed particles from their mouth at me that day.

“I am going to spend a week on a lake somewhere with total and complete privacy so I can write during the days. I couldn’t do that here,” I told her.

“Sure you could. You just don’t want to,” she challenged me. She was right about the second part.

“I already made my plans,” I told her, smiling sweetly.

“Now isn’t that a nice way to talk to me when I’ve fed you this wonderful meal and offered you a place to stay?” she said, glaring.

“I have a friend who might be visiting me on occasion, so they aren’t just my plans,” I added.

“What are you talking about?” she asked me, frowning.

“A friend is going to be…visiting me at the cabin, now and then,” I said. “It would be awkward for him to visit me here.”

She dropped her fork, her face growing red. Glancing between Glen and myself, she looked almost comical as she struggled to speak. I wondered if she was having a heart attack but her husband didn’t appear worried.

“But…but…I thought that you were dating my Glen?” she stuttered.

“Glen and I are just friends,” I told her. “I thought that you knew that.”

She seemed relieved, then offended. It was as though she couldn’t decide which was worse, me dating Glen or not dating Glen. I almost laughed. Eventually she finally found something that she could hold against me.

“I really think that you shouldn’t discuss your ‘friends’ in front of the kids. What you do in the privacy of your cabin is your business, but they don’t need to know about it,” she said, nose in the air. “They have young, impressionable minds.”

“All I said is that a friend will be visiting,” I reminded her. Maybe two of them, I would have liked to add. And yes, sex will be had by all, lots of sex.

“I think we all know what that means,” she said.

I smiled. She had no idea what I meant, not in her wildest dreams.

“You know what, Glen? I’ll just call a taxi,” I said, standing up and excusing myself from the table.

“Thank you for the meal. It was wonderful,” I told his mother.

“How do you know? You didn’t eat anything,” she called out after me as I walked out the front door.

I had my cell phone out and was dialing information when Glen came outside.

“I’m sorry, Sinda,” he told me. “My mom’s a little…set in her ways. There are no taxis here.”

I wondered if I could call Haldir with my mind.

“Come on, let’s go inside and call to make sure they have a car before we drive all the way to Lansing.”

I let him lead me inside and I called, only to find that nobody would have a stinking car until the next morning. I told Glen to take me to the airport anyway and I’d sleep in a chair while I waited for a car. Somehow, I got talked into staying. I guess it was when he told me how tired he was and what a long trip it would be. I think he was lying, but what could I say? I got talked into staying one night, under the condition that we would go get the car first thing in the morning and I would never have to see his mother again. The guest room I would be staying in was right above Glen’s parents’ room and I felt like stomping across the floor but decided against it. I went straight to sleep, wanting to get an early start in the morning.

~~~

I felt a hand over my mouth some time later and it was probably a good thing because I would have screamed. I had certainly not expected a visitor here, of all places. I waited a second until I felt teeth on my neck, biting lightly. I closed my eyes; Thranduil. Haldir I might be able to reason with, Thranduil was another story. I was pretty sure that there was no way I’d be able to convince the king to be quiet. I turned to kiss him, anyway.

“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” I suggested as he slid his hand up beneath my T-shirt.

“You are dressed, Sinda,” he admonished me.

“That’s probably good, otherwise we’d already be making noise,” I reminded him.

“We do not need to go elsewhere,” he told me as he pulled off my T-shirt and underwear. “It will be fun to see if we can be quiet.”

“Fun?” I whispered. “Thranduil, we * must * be quiet. Glen’s parents are in the room below us.”

He separated my legs and planted himself between them before I could protest; not that I would have, anyway. He nudged at my opening with his rock-hard length and I knew that if he took me that way, we would make noise; we always did. He knew it too, based on the smile on his face. Just when I thought he was going to enter me, he changed directions, placing us in the infamous sixty-nine position. I hoped that we wouldn’t rock the bed that way, at least. I reached up and took his shaft into my mouth at the same time that I felt his tongue on me. I had a hard time concentrating on what I was doing to him while being distracted by what he was doing. He gave me gentle reminders when I slowed down too much, like shoving himself halfway down my throat when I began slacking in my duties. It took longer than usual and by the time I climaxed, I know that I would have screamed if I had not had my mouth otherwise occupied. He came with me and we somehow managed to keep it quiet, I guess because both of our mouths were adequately muted. The night was still young, though, and I knew that Thranduil wouldn’t settle for eight hours of oral sex. It just wasn’t his style. It was probably a good thing too, because the back of my throat felt like it was bruised.

Sure enough, within a few moments, he had rolled onto his back and lifted me onto his erection. I guess if we made noise this way, it would be my fault. It took some work, but not only did we manage to remain silent through that session, but we continued on for the next couple of hours in relative silence. Granted, every time we switched positions, the bed creaked, but that was not to be helped. I probably would have made that much noise tossing and turning in bed, had I been alone. When I grew tired, I told him that he would have to go, explaining about the cabin on the lake. He raised his eyebrows.

“Haldir did not mention this to me. I wonder if he was planning on keeping you to himself for the whole week,” Thranduil reflected, running his tongue up the edge of my ear. “That was very selfish of him.”

I didn’t really know, but now I wondered if I should have mentioned it at all. If that had been Haldir’s plan, I had just ruined it.

“And what of your decision, Sinda?” he asked me now.

“I don’t have to decide yet, do I?” I whispered into his ear, still worried about the sleeping people in the house.

“No, but soon,” he told me.

“Well, I don’t want to choose between you,” I told him. “I want to keep you both.”

“You cannot,” he told me flatly.

“Why is it fair for you to each have more than one woman, yet I only get one elf? Unless one of you is willing to commit to me completely, for life, I want you both,” I knew that I was pushing it, but it was how I felt. Of course, neither of them could commit to me so that wasn’t really an option.

“If you had to decide today, what would your decision be?” he asked me now, his blue eyes holding my gaze intently.

“I would choose Haldir,” I told him. “No matter what you say, I know that he feels more for me than you do. We have a deep connection that you and I don’t have.”

He seemed taken aback. I guess he had not expected this answer.

“But,” I continued, “the sex with you is incredible, even if you don’t love me, and I don’t want to give that up, either. Haldir told me that he must keep other women to prevent him from becoming too attached to just one. Well, I feel the same way. I cannot stand the thought of being with only one of you while you don’t have the same constraints. It isn’t right, so I want you both.”

“At the same time?” Thranduil asked, smiling wickedly.

“No,” I said, adamantly.

“Ah, but it would bring you great pleasure, Sinda,” he told me now, lost in thought for a moment. “Yes, that will be my stipulation. I will not make you choose between us, but I want you to spend one night with both of us, together.”

“And if I say no?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“Then you will not see me again,” he assured me.

I thought about it. Was it really any worse than what I was already doing? Yes, in my mind it was, but if it was only one time and it would ensure that I would get to keep both elves, it might be worth it. It was hard to think with him sucking on my neck, but I finally answered him.

“One night, if Haldir agrees,” I said.

“Oh, he will agree,” he whispered to me. “But you cannot tell Haldir that you were going to choose him. You must let him know that you chose us both.”

I wondered if I could do that. It would be difficult, but I didn’t want to risk losing Thranduil, either. I agreed.

“Then I will leave you now,” Thranduil told me. “I will see you and Haldir at the lake.”

I was surprised to see him go to the window and slip out that way. I fell asleep soon after, wondering what I had gotten myself into now.

~To be continued~