Elariel was still in shock when Tae'loren kissed her. As she looked at his battered body she shook her head, unsure of how he could do that to himself. In one way, she thought it was a clever idea.  They had a close call earlier, and she knew Neras and the others would not take too kindly to the sudden intimacy between Elariel and their captive. However, she wasn't entirely sure if they would think that she was likely to do something like that to Tae'loren. She wanted to tell him off for hurting himself unecessarily, but as she thought about it she realised that the sacrifice he had made would spare them a great deal of suspicion for at least a while.<br/><br/>"If you hadn't already done it to yourself, I would have punched you for that comment alone," Elariel said with a stiff laugh. His request for a massage had been so nonchalant that it rankled her, but she wondered if it was his way of diffusing the tension. Nevertheless, after the inital shock wore off, she watched the way he held himself and gritted her teeth, sympathy poured into her and she shuffled behind him.<br/><br/>"Teirn will be cooking breakfast. It will be a big one too, we always tend to feed ourselves well before we have a big day," Elariel ran her hands over his shoulders and neck, her fingers light and tentative as she searched for any areas that were injured. "We have some time, but I can't guarantee that it will be uninterrupted." By the time she had finished speaking Elariel was able to start a firmer massage, her stomach churning at the joy of touching him intimately once more. The knowledge that he had caused so much damage to himself in such a short time still alarmed her, but what was done was done. He was clearly set on this path.<br/><br/>"Please don't do this to yourself again," Elariel requested with a heavy sigh as she kneaded out some tension in his shoulder blades. "You would have eased suspicion about a coupling, but if you continue to hurt yourself they will become suspicious about my treatment of you. Mostly because I would have used magic to torture you rather than physical pain...  Also, if they suspect that I hurt you because I was at risk then they will not hesitate to seek revenge."<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>