A Court of Heart and Fealty | Rhysand

Chapter 68: Fading Memories

Chapter 68: Fading Memories

"You've been brushing me off all morning."

Rhys frowned, straightening from his hunched position over his desk, eyes narrowed. "No, I haven't."

"Yes—" Galadriel placed a pot of tea on the edge of his desk, the matching teacup next to it "—you have."

Sitting back, he watched her pour the steaming drink. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, tell me what's got you so worked up that you had to abandon me in bed this morning without so much as a kiss."

He tilted his head, lips sharp. "It would hardly call it abandonment. I only came downstairs."

Setting the teapot back down, Galadriel gave a small tut and rounded the desk, twisting herself onto his lap. "You are so argumentative today. Usually that is my job." Stretching to reach behind her, she picked through the papers and books he had strewn over the dark wood desk. "Why aren't you at your office at the House? That's where you usually go hide if you have this much work."

"Because Cassian and Azriel have a habit of being busybodies and getting their noses into it all." Galadriel hummed, utterly aware that she was being exactly that. "You're allowed to be nosy," Rhys replied to her thoughts.

She placed a sheet of paper that had finances scrawled over it back down. "Anything I can help with?"

He was smiling at her as he shook his head, violet eyes intently tracing the lines of her face as if to memorise her. "I'm sorry," he said again, softer. "How about we spend the day together? Whatever you want to do." He pushed a strand of her behind her ear.

"What about all this work?" A flick of his hand. It was gone. "I'm not sure you can do that."

"I'm a High Lord. I can do whatever I please."

"And when you fail to realise your city's treasury is empty because you didn't go through your spendings?"

"Then Prythian will have some very wealthy faeries roaming about."

"Such a generous High Lord," she crooned, leaning herself against him, arms hanging around his neck.

He ran the neckline of her dress between his fingers, curling it away from her skin just enough to peek below. "I can be very generous." The backs of his fingers brushed down her breast before smoothing back over it with his palm. Galadriel pulled herself closer, willing him for more. He pressed his lips to the space beneath her collarbone, nudging her dress away as they lowered down, down. His other hand became adventurous, pulling up the hem of her dress, slipping beneath to run his calloused palm along her bare thigh.

"Is this what you want to spend all day doing?" she asked airily, chin resting on his head as he pulled down the top of her dress, leaving her chest bare.

He pulled away from her just long enough to say, "Very much so." His fingertips brushed over her underwear, her breath catching, legs tensing. "Gods, I could listen to that sound all day."

Galadriel could only smile with parted lips as he started rubbing circles, pushing her chest further into his mouth, relishing the hardness growing beneath her.

She broke away from him to sit on his desk, pulling him by the lapels to her. Rhys stood between her knees, already making way to hitch her dress back up. Smirking, she put her own palm to him, stroking up and down. She earned a groan much louder than the one she had given, his hips bucking for friction. He'd usually wait for her to undo his belt but today he went to do it himself, easily unlatching it as he kissed her, undoing the buttons next. Galadriel dug her hand under the last layer separating them, skin to skin, and pulled his length out, running her thumb along the underside.