Free Elves and Escapades (Scholars and Sorcery Book 2) by Eleanor Beresford

both nights I had felt aching desire at the closeness. I close my eyes, allowing myself the luxury of tightening the hug just a little.
    It doesn’t take long to realise that I still can’t sleep, not like this. Rosalind's breath is as quick and shallow as my own, and I’m certain I’m not the only one wide awake. Perhaps I’m holding her too tight and it’s squashing her. I tell myself to release my grip on her, and fail utterly. Some things are entirely too much to ask, I decide guiltily, and it’s no more sensible to try and force oneself to do the impossible than to ask a unicorn to fly.
    “Charley?”
    "Hmm?" Perhaps I’ve started to drift asleep after all, when it comes to it. My voice is heavy with slumber, or with something else.
    “I don’t want to go home without you.” I can hear my own desolation echoed in the quiet words and, selfishly, my heart jumps at it. “I don’t know why Mother didn’t invite you in return. I can’t bear to be without you so long.”
    “She probably wants some time with you to herself, especially for Christmas. It’s been ages since you’ve been to school, after all, and she must be missing you.” Rosalind makes a noise that, if it was no quite so ladylike, would have resembled a snort. I chuck her under the chin. “Buck up, kid. It's not for long.” I keep my voice consciously light, deliberately giving the lie to her own feelings. The rest of the holidays without her feels like an unendurable eternity.  
    Despite myself I stroke Rosalind's back with one hand, tracing the faint outline of her spine with my fingertips, more out of the need to give comfort than to touch, however wonderful it feels to touch her. "You’re putting on weight. I think Mother's succeeded in fattening you up a little. You resemble a half-starved baby bird far less than you did when school broke up. And you have more roses in your cheeks, too, when you’re not wasting them on fixing my bumps. Your mother will be happy."
    "Charley, please!" Rosalind seemed amused and frustrated in equal measure, and the wet tickle of her mouth against my collarbone as she giggles makes me want to gasp aloud. "I'm serious."
    "So am I. I want you to get healthy so you can take over as goal keeper.”
    Rosalind pushes herself up slightly, her head above mine as if she is trying to make out my expression in the darkness. "I don't know if you realise quite how serious I am," she says slowly. “Charley—I told you I didn’t tell you all of it. Why I couldn’t go back to that school and face the others.”
    I stay very still. Even my breathing seemed to become slow and slight, as if it too is waiting, terrified of being noticed too much and scaring away whatever is about to happen. My heart is beating too hard, sending echoing pulses through my throat and wrists and somewhere else, deeper inside.
    Eventually Rosalind speaks again, so softly and indistinctly I have to strain to catch the words. And I know it is so terribly important I don't misunderstand a word.
    "I didn’t care for Mavis the way I care for you. Truly not. But—sometimes I think she was right about me. I did feel differently to the other girls. And—I do care for you, Charley. So much.”
    “I care for you, too, Rosalind. You know that.” My mouth is dry and it is an effort to force the words out.
    “I don’t know if you care the way I do. I care too much, Charley. Far too much. And I am so afraid you will hate me for it. But sometimes I think you’re feeling the same, and I need to know. I can’t bear going on wondering, otherwise.”
    Her lips against mine shouldn’t take me by surprise, not really. Not after what she has said. It’s just that you don’t really expect your secret dreams to come unexpectedly real. Only in my dreams it was always was always me losing my senses and kissing her, not Rosalind pressing her cool mouth passionately against mine in the dark.
    Any control I have scatters to the wind. I try to snatch back the