Sleeping Beauty

Author’s Note: I have apologized so many times before, that I’m not sure if it means anything to you anymore. However, I am willing to do so once more with the hope you will forgive me. I’ve been away for quite a while due to several important changes in my life, because I needed time to think and adapt to the new circumstances. I am back, though, and eager to get this story moving, especially once my exams’ period is over. I thank you once more for your support and I hope you will give Alice and her story another chance. And, of course, I would also like to thank Gwynnyd for her tremendous help!

Disclaimer: See Prologue.

italics: thoughts

Chapter 5 – A jealous husband

She slowly opened her eyes feeling somebody caressing her bare shoulder and arm with a feather-like touch. It was so light, it almost tickled. For a moment she thought Logan had returned earlier than expected, but his touch had nothing of the tenderness traced upon her skin with each caress.

Her foggy mind realised that she was in another dream; that the person touching her was the elf who had turned upside down her peaceful, organized life. Her heart jumped only once and then the panic slowly faded; like a pebble causing ripples on the surface of a lake, which gradually disperse, until they disappear completely. Dreaming again. She had half-expected it, and she was prepared. The time for fear and panic was over; this had to stop.

She opened her eyes, seeing Legolas sitting beside her on a couch. There was again a blank expression on his face, but the gravity of his gaze betrayed a whirlwind of emotions inside him. Was she the cause of it? Her resolution wavered. She could feel how much this elf needed her; she could feel her own need for him growing as well. She turned to lie on her back, wanting to study his face more thoroughly for answers, but he didn’t withdraw his hand; instead, he began running his fingers through her red waves, his knuckles brushing over her right breast with the motion.

He was aware of the fact, Alice could tell: his eyes seemed to darken with a blue flame that sparked inside them, and his jaw clenched, as if their contact was tortuous for him. And what of me? What a torture to deny the dizzying feeling that accompanied his every touch! Gathering all her will, she pushed herself up to sit on the couch, hugging her knees close to herself. With dismay she recognised a hint of satisfaction in Legolas’ smile; was she blushing again? Did her body betray the effect he had on her?

Alice tried to gather her wits and slow the crazy beating of her heart. There it was again! Every time he touched her, she became completely unbalanced! Was it possible to feel so realistically infatuated in a dream? Because she was sure that was the case. Ever since the first dream, the elf had been the only thing on her mind. As many times as she told people she just wanted to discover the historical background of the myth, she only wanted to know more about this, this... elf that had been consuming her waking hours since that first dream. Damnit! She must be compulsively searching and fretting because she knew, deep in her mind, that Logan was not satisfying her in some way. Feeling this figment of her imagination run his hand over her shoulder, she admitted the truth to herself. No one had ever made her feel the way this elf made her feel. Of course no man ever could. You’ve conjured your perfect lover out of your own head. ‘But I love Logan’, part of her mind insisted. ‘He’s everything I want, really.’ You love Logan so much, yet you spend all your time trying to prove your dream lover is real? She gritted her teeth against the realization that she had no answer for herself.

“How are you?” His smooth voice brought her out of her thoughts.

“Confused,” she answered with a nervous laugh. Stop acting like a stupid schoolgirl!! she berated herself. Surely, she had more confidence than that!

“Still? I thought things would be quite clear by now,” he answered with surprise in his voice.

“Things are far from clear,” she spat growing again irritated at how he thought everything so simple, and crossed her arms in front of her. “This thing needs to stop.”

“Stop? I thought you were enjoying it,” he told her teasingly as he ran a finger from her cheek to her lips, sliding it down to her neck and collarbone.

“You are badly mistaken,” she managed to say and swallowed hard, watching the movement of his hand.

“Am I?” he asked in a low voice, as he flattened his palm over her heart. “Your heartbeat tells me otherwise.”

Alice’s cheeks flushed at the amusement in his voice. She got up with no warning, walking a few feet away from the couch she had been on, to the open space of the room. She gasped as she saw the view in front of her and stilled in amazement. The setting sun cast an orange light over the valley where the room was situated and reverberated over the roofs of the elegant houses around them. The gardens and bridges gave an air of timelessness in the green valley that further accentuated the glory of the roaring river passing across it. Her mind offered the word ‘picturesque’, but she felt that it didn’t do the place any justice. It was beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. She was sure she could live contented in such a place forever. She ran her hand over the fine-woven material draping from the ceiling and dancing gracefully to the light breeze. She was actually surprised at the depth of her creative subconscious: how could a human mind create something as eternal as the valley in front of her? It looked magical; the serenity in its atmosphere seemed to release the tension in her body and make her feel light-headed. Maybe it was not a creation of her mind? Maybe it was really built by elves…?

“I could not find any information on elves like you,” she said suddenly, flinching at how loud her voice sounded in the peacefulness of the place.

She was surprised to hear his voice coming from right next to her. She had not heard him walk near.

“My kind has long left these grounds. I watched the Age of Men progress and the memory of my kind become a myth. I am not surprised we are completely forgotten.”

Alice detected a hint of sadness and bitterness in his voice that his eyes confirmed, as he turned to look at her. Damn those bottomless oceans! She seemed to go deeper and deeper each time in their abyss and Logan’s hand was too far away for her to reach and be pulled back to the surface.

“Where are we?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood. The pain and burden in his eyes was too much for her to hold.

“In Rivendell,” he answered in his musical voice and his face was graced with his beautiful smile once more. “You always wanted to see it.”

The longing in his eyes appeared again. Legolas fought hard to keep his emotions at bay, but the happiness from being with her again covered all his senses. He could not keep himself from touching her, making sure that she really was there. He threw caution to the wind, as he cupped her cheek and traced her lips with his thumb.

“I have missed you so much,” he whispered and Alice could only stand still engulfed by the love emanating from the creature in front of her. “Will you not let me kiss you?”

His request was uttered so softly, that for a second Alice considered it. But, suddenly, Logan appeared in her mind and she recovered immediately, squashing down the disappointment she felt at not being able to taste lips that had been made for no other reason than kissing.

“What?! No, no, you can’t!” There it goes; the nervous laughter again. Alice backed away from him and pinched the bridge of her nose. Get a grip Alice. Get a grip!

The elf, however, seemed far from put off. He looked amused and determined to get that kiss. He walked towards her as a wild animal stalking its prey and Alice kept backing off, feeling oddly aroused by the feral look on his face. Her heart made a flip when she felt the cold wall behind her and realized that she was backed into a corner.

Dammit, Alice, stop feeling so excited!!

Legolas did not miss the quickened breathing of the woman. Her pale green eyes tried their best to glare at him with determination and unrelenting will, but he was even more determined to bend it. He halted and stood so close to her, that their bodies were almost touching. He brought his hands to rest on either side of her head in a slow pace that talked of great confidence in his seductive power.

“Why not?” he asked in a low voice after pinning her down with his gaze for a few seconds.

“It’s not right,” came the breathless whisper.

“Surely, you have been kissed before?” His voice could hide neither his amusement nor the extent to which he enjoyed teasing her.

“Of course I have!!”

“Then why are you afraid?”

God, did she hate him!!

“I’m not afraid!”

Alice was very aware that her protests sounded like those of a whining child. She was doing her best to fight off his charm, but he was dulling her senses and shutting off her mind so easily! She knew she was about to lose the battle when one of his hands gently pushed her hair to the side, revealing her neck. She held her breath as he leaned in and placed a soft kiss under her ear, then another on her jaw, but he pulled back after placing a kiss close to the corner of her mouth. His lips were hovering inches away from her own and she could feel his breath caressing her face. She breathed in his scent and it did magical things to her mind. Hypnotized by the azure magnets inches away from her, the pale green of her eyes disappeared as her eyes fluttered closed and it wasn’t long before she felt his lips descend upon hers.

Her heart sang with joy with the touch of his soft lips on her own. Something inside her slowly bloomed and spread through her nerves, delicate and eruptive at the same time. Her lips moved so naturally against his and yielded easily to his will. She didn’t protest as he slipped his tongue past her lips, but got lost in his taste; he tasted like summer. Was it her imagination, or did he truly? Was that even possible?

Reveling in the sensations, she knew she never had been kissed before, at least not like this. This was passion as she had never thought to feel it. The new sensation surprised her at first, but slowly she realized that the person kissing her was everything she had associated with it: he was the past, the gentlemanly knight, the lost cavalier who would court her to satisfy his passionate love, the one who would treat women as delicate flowers and helped them bloom, the one who would kiss her senseless like Legolas was kissing her, demandingly and softly at the same time… Legolas was the passionate love she had dreamed of…


But is a dream enough? the sane part of her mind wondered. She needed comfort and stability, didn’t she? Could a dream offer her that? Logan was safe and familiar, surely being a little bored and lonely was normal. Legolas was only a dream… and she was a very down-to-earth person.

“Wait… Stop… please!”

Legolas looked at her confused, as she pushed him away and fought for breath. By the Valar, she was the only woman to have refused him twice!

“I can’t do this, I’m sorry,” she said in a silent voice, but Legolas ignored her protest. Was she being shy again? He leaned in to kiss her but she pushed him away again.

“Please… I’m… I’m in love with someone else.”

Legolas froze. He felt as if the air had been sucked out of his lungs and pleaded desperately with himself to breath. Darkness enveloped him as the words fully registered in his mind and he inhaled audibly, his jaw clenching in rage.

He had bound himself to her and become her husband. He had almost faded away because of her. He had been waiting for her for thousands of years. He had been hopeless in his endless pain for longer than he could remember, and still lay in living death in his palace. All because of her, the only woman he had ever loved, even with all their differences and prejudices, the obstacles and the consequences.

And she had fallen in love with another man.

Alice shrank under the painful intensity of the elf’s angry gaze. He looked furious and very, very scary. For the first time since she had started dreaming of him, Alice felt threatened by his presence. She watched in slight relief as his face acquired its usual impassiveness and he stepped away from her, his hands sliding off the wall. He walked to the other side of the room and stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest looking into the distance. His stance was rigid, though, and he looked like a bomb ready to burst in a matter of seconds.

And our poor little Alice knew just the right code to activate it.

“Legolas… I’m sorry… look, I love him and..-“

“YOU ARE MY WIFE!!” the elf yelled as he turned around and sent a small table with a glass sculpture on it flying on the floor and shattering to pieces.

Alice flinched at the volume of his voice and the sound of shattering glass, and pressed herself further against the wall. She was so deep in shock that she never realized she had started shaking.

“You are my wife,” the elf repeated, as he walked towards her in angry strides, “and you can love no other. You WILL love no other!”

Alice slid down to the floor as he stood in front of her to avoid him, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up, throwing her effortlessly on the bed. She tried to sit up, but he was quicker and pushed her back on the mattress, leaning over her, dangerously close to her face.

“I will haunt your dreams and make you remember, and I will not stop until I have you,” Legolas continued in a low voice, his chest heaving from his hard breathing. “You are MINE and no one else’s.”

Legolas leaned over her, his eyes sparkling with the ferocity of his emotions and his jaw set in determination. Alice melted and realized the truth of his words.

My heart belongs to you and to no other.

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