The Price of Pride

Elvish translations

Hiril nín – my lady
meldis – friend (female)
Lothamin – my flower
irmamin – my desire
Melethril nín – my lover (female)
mir nín – my treasure
Mellon – friend
Hannon lle – thank you
Aniron lle – I desire you
maba nín – take me
peredhel – half Elf


Chapter 11

Arwen was waiting, as I knew she would be, in the Houses of Healing. I expected her to mention our plans for a trip to the waterfall. “The healers have released you,” she informed me instead with a smile. “I thought to escort you to your new quarters.”

“Do I need an escort?” I asked teasingly as I gathered the few things I had brought with me from Mirkwood.

“You might,” she returned, with a seductive smile. I felt that smile all the way to my loins. I did not know what she had in m but but I was not about to refuse.

“Lead the way, then, hiril nín,” I replied with a bow.

“Hiril nín? Is that the best you can do?” she teased.

“How would you prefer I address you?” I leaned close to her to whisper my suggestions in her ear. “Meldis? Lothamin? Irmamin? Melethril nín? Mir nín? Do any of those suit?”

I watched the flush rise in her cheeks as I spoke, each endearment huskier than the last, my breath tickling the sensitive tip of her ear with every word. “Any and all of them suit, though I like mir nín the best.”

“Lead on, mir nín.”

She led me out of the healer’s wing but did not guide me toward the rooms where I had stayed before. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“You will see. I told you that you might need an escort.” That smile was back on her face again, the one that said she knew her own power now, as she had not when we were lovers before. I wondered briefly about what experiences might have given her that confidence, but I did not ask. I had not that right. I could only accept and be grateful that she was willing to be my lover now. She led me finally to a room I had not visited before, opening the door and leading me inside.

It took just one glance for me to realize that these were her rooms. Not the rooms I had visited the night of her Cuivië, but her rooms nonetheless. “Arwen?”

“I see no reason for one of us to have to sneak through the halls at night.”

“I would have thought discretion might be a reason.”

“Who is here to care? My father? My brothers? The household? They will not carry gossip to others. I thought you would be pleased.”

“I am pleased that you want e wie with me, that you want to share your rooms with me. I just do not want to put you in a situation that could be uncomfortable later.”

“Legolas, you are the one Elf with whom I can explore the pleasures of our bodies without worrying what the gossipers may say. With any other, they would speculate that I was looking for a mate or that I have found him. I am only 200 years old. I have reached my majority, but in many ways, I am still a child. I am not ready to settle down. I am not ready to choose a mate and begin a family. I want all that someday, but not now. Right now, I want to experience everything Arda has to offer. It is hard being a female sometimes. My brothers come and go as they please, wandering to Gondor, to Arnor, to Erebor, and everywhere in between while I am expected to stay home. I fight as well as they, though I have not their passion for it. Why must they coddle me so?”

I knew the answer from Elrond’s vision, but I could not speak of it to Arwen. I understood her frustration. My father did not have a ring of power to protect our realm as Elrond did. He needed every warrior to defend our home. I had traveled more than Arwen had, but always at my father’s behest. I, too, longed to wander Arda, exploring its beauty. I, too, was denied.

“I do not claim to know their minds, but I do know you are precious to them. You know your mother struggled to give you life. She and your father will have no other children. You are their baby and they want to keep you safe.”

“I know that,” she said, “but they are smothering me.” She gestured to the room. “Grant me this, mellon. Bring this much adventure into my life, at least.”

I could no more deny that request than I could deny my own heart. I pulled Arwen into my arms. “Irmamin. I will stay.” She returned my embrace, pressing the length of her body against mine.

“I have missed you,” she told me. This was not the first time she had said those words, but they affected me every time. To know that she had thought of me, had noticed my absence, had desired my return was a balm to my soul, which had suffered during our separation. Before I could reply, she grabbed my head and pulled my lips down to hers, devouring my mouth. I had never felt anything so erotic in my life. I had absolutely no control over that kiss. All I could do was stand there under the onslaught and feel. Feel the power of her desire.

“Aniron lle,” Arwen gasped when she broke from our kiss.

“Maba nín,” I replied, surrendering to her completely. She could not be mine, not the way I wanted, but I would be hers in any and every way she wanted.

For a second, just a second, she looked shocked. Then a mischievous grin split her face before her mouth latched back onto mine. What had I let myself in for?

We had gotten no more than two steps inside the door earlier. Now, Arwen pushed me toward the bed, our legs tangling together as we moved. She gave me one final push and I fell back onto the bed. She followed me down, hands flying over the fastenings on my tunic. Then, they were on my bare skin, burning me with their intensity. This was definitely a side of my beloved I had never seen before. I reached up to loosen the laces on her dress, but she grabbed my hands, pressing them above me, caught in one of hers. I could have broken the grip if I had wanted to, but this new, aggressive lover had an appeal all her own. I was perfectly willing to go along. When her lips left mine to nibble their way down my neck, she had to let my hands go. I reached over my head and caught hold of the headboard. She glanced up as she felt me shift.

“Good,” she said, seeing my hands. “Stay like that.” I would have been surprised if she had given me time, but her lips and teeth settled over an already aching nipple, sucking so hard I cried out. She released me, only to torment my other nipple. I was arching underneath her, my body begging for her touch. I had never felt anything like what she was doing to me. When she moved lower, loosening the laces on my leggings, I thought I would come undone right then. With a supreme effort of will, I forced myself to stillness, let her caress and taste as she desired. Fortunately, she wanted more as much and as quickly as I did. She rose from the bed to shed her dress, returning to the bed blissfully naked. My eyes raked over her body, noticing the changes fifty years had wrought, but my hands remained on the headboard, just as she had asked.

She straddled me, as she had that night, fifty years ago, but this time, there was no hesitation, no question of how to do what she wanted. She impaled herself on my erection, riding me wildly. I bucked beneath her, driving into her with all the desperation born of our separation. My eyes fixed on her face, on her beauty, enhanced as it was by wanton desire. In the time she had cared for me, helping me heal, I had fallen in love with her all over again. Now I fell back into lust as well. There had never been nor ever would be a more perfect Elf, peredhel or not. We climaxed almost immediately, our self-control burned away in the flames of our passion.

“Mir nín,” I moaned as my body shivered in release. She truly was my treasure. I had known it already, but she had reminded it of me with this encounter.

To this day, I do not know what came over us that afternoon. We loved many, many times in the millennia of our association, but only that day was it quite so primal. For my part, my conversation with Elrond had reminded me how little claim I truly had on Arwen and how much I had ose.ose. Perhaps that accounted for my actions. I never asked her to explain hers, just as I never asked her what was truly in her heart in my regard. I have survived many things in my long life, but I could not have survived hearing her tell me how fond of me she was when I desired so much more.