by Amy Patrick
Very slowly, I inched toward him, lifting my chin and tilting my head in an unmistakable signal he was all-too-happy to receive. He gripped the back of my head with one hand as our mouths crashed together. He gave a pleasured groan, meeting the caresses of my tongue with his own. And then he took over, his mouth claiming mine with consuming, hungry kisses. He pulled me against him possessively, and I didn’t resist. I lifted my chest against his, needing the feel of his solid body against mine.
With a lusty growling sound, Nox gripped my hips and lifted me onto his lap so I faced him, my knees straddling his hips and pressing into the soft cushion behind him. His hands dragged up to my ribcage and slid around to my back as we kissed frantically.
I didn’t even have to try to read his emotions now—my response to his touch was driving Nox wild. He was fighting for control, and I was doing nothing to help things.
Lifting my hands, I held his face and kissed him back, matching his intensity stroke for stroke. My body melted into his, loving the way his skin felt under my hands, the way he made me feel small and delicate next to his vastly superior size and strength, the way he made me forget about my issues with Mom, Emmy, everything outside this room.
Sliding his hands lower, Nox pulled me tightly against his lap, and there was a moment I considered throwing all caution to the wind and letting it happen. Being close to him like this, being the recipient of his experienced touch was the best thing I’d felt in a long time.
I didn’t want to think about the future, and he certainly didn’t seem worried about the consequences of what we were doing. In fact, he pushed things further by breaking our kiss momentarily and stripping my tank top off in one swift move that left me slightly surprised and completely turned on.
Leaning back, he drank in the sight of me sitting astride his legs in only my bra and hiked-up skirt.
You are beautiful Ryann.
And then his lips were on my neck, and his hands were exploring all the new skin he’d uncovered. It felt incredible. But as his mouth worked its way down and his fingers moved upward, a fragment of common sense intruded.
Nox. I silently messaged him and leaned back. He only leaned forward and followed me with his mouth, not breaking delicious contact with my skin. He was not listening.
“Nox. We have to stop.”
He lifted his head and our eyes met, his burning with unsatisfied desire, mine only barely more controlled, I’m sure.
“We have to,” I repeated.
He closed his eyes and breathed, his fingers still clenching my sides. Finally his eyes opened. “I know. You’re right.” He smiled at me, wearing a look of wonder.
I smiled back, suddenly feeling shy and very exposed. Reaching for the throw blanket, Nox wrapped it around my shoulders and covered my chest.
He gave me another soft kiss. “I’m glad to see that pretty smile again. Feeling better now?”
I nodded, still amazed at what had transpired between us. “Yes.”
Studying his face, I allowed myself to believe I really did have the glamour-gift of emotional IQ. I actually tried, for the first time in my life, to read another person’s emotions. And they came to me with an unshakable sense of certainty. Patience. Concern. Still some barely leashed passion. And love. He really did love me. He did intend to stand beside me, no matter what came. He would do anything in his power to help me.
“Do you want to tell me what happened today?” he prompted.
To my surprise, I did. I couldn’t handle all the crazy changes happening in my life all alone. In the past I would’ve turned to Emmy. But she wasn’t here. Nox was here. Not only was he my friend, now I knew he loved me. I wasn’t yet entirely sure how I felt about him, but as I’d admitted in that desperate silent call this afternoon, I needed him.
“I called my mom today, and she admitted she is engaged. And she also told me…” I closed my eyes and took a breath. “She told me my dad’s not my biological father.”
“Oh. No wonder you were upset. Did she say who is?”
I rolled my lips inward, pressing them tightly against a new round of sobs I could feel rising in my chest. “Her new fiancé—Davis.”
“Wow.” He blinked. “That is—that is weird. So… has she been having an affair then? During your parents’ whole marriage?”
“No. She says no. She knew him when she was really young, in college. She was with him for a short time back then when my parents were broken up. But he was much older, and he was a senator running for re-election. He said he couldn’t acknowledge her publicly, and so she broke it off with him. She and my dad got back together, but she was already pregnant with Davis’s baby—with me.”
Nox’s body went rigid. “Did you say he’s a senator? Named Davis?”
“Yeah. Davis Hart. Why do you have that look on your face?”
He did look strange. His normally tan skin had gone pale, his eyes wide and dark. He lifted a hand and cupped my face, his eyes filled with pity. “Because now I understand. Ryann… Davis Hart is—”
The double doors to Nox’s suite crashed open. We both leapt to our feet, and his arms went around me in a strong protective grasp, covering my body from view.
Good thing, too. If he hadn’t been holding me up, I might have dropped to the floor when a beautiful platinum-haired Elven girl strode into the room.
Followed by Lad.
Chapter Nineteen
Reunion
I could hardly believe my eyes. What were they doing here? Together? My heart simultaneously exploded with joy and crashed painfully to the soles of my feet. I’d never expected to see Lad again—anywhere—least of all here in Los Angeles.
In Nox’s bedroom.
“Ryann?” he gasped, probably in disbelief himself at where he’d found me.
And in what condition.
I glanced down at myself, realizing what he saw. I had on a mini-skirt… and a bra. The tank top Nox had removed minutes earlier lay a few feet away on the floor where he’d tossed it. Wiggling from Nox’s hold, I grabbed the throw from where it had fallen onto the sofa and held it against my front.
Nox stepped over, picked up my shirt, and tossed it back to me as he went to stand in front of Lad and his companion—Vancia, the daughter of the Dark Elf leader and Lad’s former (and once-again) fiancée.
She was completely silent and also appeared to be in shock, though her eyes were fixed on Nox instead of on me.
“What’s going on?” Nox demanded of Lad. “Why are you here?”
The level of alarm in his tone surprised me—and then I got it. Only something of the greatest magnitude could have drawn Lad so far away from the center of the Light Elves kingdom, could have made him leave his people.
Lad still looked a bit stunned. I wasn’t sure what he’d expected to find when he came through those doors—certainly not me sitting astride his adopted brother’s lap, partially undressed.
He glanced away from Nox’s face toward me, and those green eyes filled with pain. “I came looking for Ryann. Her grandmother said she would be here…” His gaze went back to Nox and turned murderous. “…with you. You were supposed to be keeping her safe.”
Now Nox’s tone hardened, and his jaw jutted out. “She is safe. And she’s happy. If that’s all you needed to know, you can go on back to the woods now. We’re doing fine here, as you can see.”
Lad’s hands clenched into fists as his eyes drifted over to me again. I’d slipped the shirt back on, but I still felt utterly exposed. He’d told me to forget about him and move on with my life, said I’d never see him again and there was no hope for us. He’d acted like he no longer cared.
But standing in front of me now, Lad looked like he still cared very much. In fact, he looked like his heart had been ripped out and stomped flat in front of him. Mine on the other hand was detonating in a rapid succession of blasts like the grand finale of a fireworks show.
Vancia had stayed silent, staring at Nox. When she finally spoke, her voice was chok
ed with emotion. “We’ve… come with important news.” Her eyes slid to me and narrowed.” It concerns… the half-breed.”
Oof. The term nearly knocked the breath out of me. It wasn’t just the inaccuracy—I was only a quarter Elven, not half—but the disdainful tone she’d used. Clearly she knew about my history with Lad. But she had nothing to worry about. He was hers now. They were engaged. I was no longer a threat.
“What news?” Nox demanded.
Lad answered. “Ryann needs to come home. Her mother is in danger.”
“What? What’s going on?” I said.
“Yes,” Nox agreed. “She’s already been informed, and I’ve just learned of it myself.”
My gaze bounced between the two of them, so clearly in the know, and I felt pitifully ignorant. And scared. “What? What did you learn? Why is Mom in danger?”
Vancia answered before Nox could, her eyes widening as if trying to impart some significance. “She’s about to marry my father.”
Lad finished her thought. “The leader of the Dark Elves.”
Now my legs did fail me. I half-sat, half-fell onto the sofa. “Your father?” I whispered. “Dark Elves? But she’s engaged to…”
And then it all made sense—the way my mom had been instantly smitten with Davis after seeing him in Atlanta. The likelihood that I possessed two different forms of inherited Elven glamour—emotional IQ and strong persuasion. I’d gotten them from both my parents—my mother, a half-Elf, and my father—Davis. A Dark Elf.
I wasn’t a quarter Elven. I was three quarters Elven. More Elf than human.
More Dark than Light.
“What’s the matter with her?” Vancia said, sounding aggravated. “She knows Elves exist, right? Why’s she acting like she’s seen a ghost?”
Lad stared at me in confusion. He wasn’t aware of my parentage yet. Nox looked at me with compassion because he did know the truth.
Nox turned to Vancia—my sister. “Because your father… is her father.”
She jerked and took a step back. “That’s impossible. My father said he could not marry and sire children—that’s why he adopted me when my parents died.”
“Adopted?” Lad asked, looking like he wasn’t quite sure where he was anymore. Apparently he didn’t know everything about his fiancée. And apparently she wasn’t my half-sister. I was strangely relieved—for someone who’d never actually met me, she seemed to hate me.
“Yes,” she answered, but she wasn’t looking at Lad. Her gaze returned to Nox and didn’t waiver. “My parents are dead. My biological father was the Dark Elven leader, but he and my mother died in a plane crash when I was twelve along with his second-in-command. Davis was third in line to the throne. He became the Dark King and took me in and raised me.”
“A plane crash…” Nox stared hard at Vancia as if seeing her for the first time. His voice was low and urgent. “Who were your parents?”
Tears filled her eyes as she answered. “They were well-known musicians, but you’d only have been a kid when they died—about twelve I think. My best friend and his parents died with them—or at least that’s what I was told.”
“Who were they?” Nox grabbed her arm, his voice ragged, his expression fierce.
Tears streamed down her face from eyes burning with recognition. “Calder and Eira.”
Nox staggered backward and collapsed, sitting on the floor with his knees bent and arms across them. I got up and ran over to him, squatting beside him and touching his hot skin. He was sweating all over.
“What did you do to him?” I glared up at Vancia without taking my arms from Nox’s shoulders.
Her face was blank, the skin pale and growing paler all the time. “Pappa said Gavin and Sylvie Jerrik’s son died with them in the crash that killed my parents.” Her gaze turned to Nox, and she stared at him as if she was the one seeing a ghost. Maybe in a way, she was. If their parents had worked together, had died together, she and Nox had probably met as children. In fact, it was clear they had.
Suddenly Vancia dropped beside us and threw herself across Nox’s body, wrapping her arms around him and weeping. “It is you. I knew it.”
He returned her embrace, pulling her close. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “I thought you were dead.”
She pulled back slightly and nodded, sniffling. “That’s what I believed about you. Pappa told me you were on the plane—he said you went down with them. How are you still alive?”
“My mother and I never got on the flight,” he said. “And you?”
“I spent that weekend with a friend. Afterward, Pappa—Davis—came to get me and told me what had happened. He said everyone had died instantly in the crash and took me to live with him in Atlanta.”
“It seems your Pappa has said a lot of things that aren’t exactly on the up-and-up,” I said, finally putting it together that Davis Hart and the leader of the Dark Elves were one and the same man—same Elf—as it turned out.
She glanced over at me as if just remembering I was there. “Are you saying he lied to me about what happened to my family then? Nox—what does your mother say about it?”
Nox spoke up now. “She’s dead, too. We went into hiding after the crash. She took me to Altum—I guess it was the safest place she could think of for me. She left me there with her sister and never came back. I was raised with Lad’s parents as his foster brother. How…” He shook his head, his eyes filling with wonder. “How did you find me?”
“I visited L.A. a few months ago—Pappa sent me here to have a portfolio done so I could begin modeling. I was at a nightclub and saw a poster for your band. But I didn’t really believe it was you. It couldn’t be you.”
“Because you thought I was dead.”
“Yes. And your last name was different. And you looked so different in the picture—I mean, kind of the same, but you’re so…” Her voice trailed off in a whisper of wonder.
He nodded, understanding her unspoken words. “I know. You, too.”
They looked at each other now like two children seeing Disneyworld for the first time. Lad watched them, his face unreadable. What could he be thinking now, witnessing the intimate reunion scene? Seeing his fiancée so overjoyed about another guy? Did he know she’d been searching for Nox?
Finally, he spoke up. His voice was soft, his expression filled with sympathy as he touched her shoulder. “Vancia, why do you think your father lied to you about Nox and his mother being on the plane?”
“Maybe…” She looked up at him wearing a stricken expression. “Maybe he believed it. He said he’d thought I was on the plane until later when my friend’s parents called, wondering what to do with me.”
“Or maybe he knew all along and he lied so you’d go with him peacefully,” Nox suggested. “He’s reported to have the strongest Sway of all our people. Maybe there was more to the accident than either of us were told.”
Vancia looked like she might vomit. “I’ve always known he would do almost anything to get what he wanted. But this…” She shook her head, staring off into the distance before training her eyes on Nox again. “So then, you don’t think our parents’ deaths really were accidental. You think… you think my father is a murderer.”
“No,” I said, watching the room spin crazily around me. “Your father was a talented and beloved singer-songwriter. My father is the murderer.”
Chapter Twenty
Stronger Than You Know
“Ryann, are you okay?” Lad’s voice was gentle in my ear as he wrapped an arm around me and led me back to the sofa.
I went with him, moving my feet across the floor on auto-pilot until we reached the seating area. There, I sank into the sofa cushions as Lad took the chair facing me.
“I think so. It’s… this is a lot to take in.” Reality was hitting me in quick, successive flashes of understanding. Davis had told Vancia he couldn’t marry and sire children. Because he’d already bonded with someone—my mother. And he’d alr
eady fathered a child. Me.
If Vancia didn’t hate me before, she would now. First, I’d interfered in her long-arranged royal wedding, and now I had stolen her father. Did she also blame me for monopolizing her long lost childhood friend?
I glanced over at Nox, still sitting on the floor. She was on her knees in front of him, gripping his hands and talking to him in low tones. How bizarre. I’d just learned my father was a Dark Elf. They’d just learned of each other’s survival after all these years. The shock filling the room was almost visible, like fog or an indoor storm cloud.
Vancia listened intently to whatever Nox was telling her. Then he lifted his head, searching the room. Our eyes connected, and his sparked with warmth.
Are you all right? He asked silently.
I’m okay. You?
He shrugged and nodded. A little blown away, but yeah. I’m good.
I gave him a small smile, and then my eyes drifted to Vancia’s face. She was not smiling. She was studying Nox.
And then she looked my way, shooting me a brief but furious glare. What was that about? A warning? I wasn’t even touching her fiancé while she was practically glued to my guy. Maybe the idea of a “half-breed” with any Elven guy offended her? Maybe she didn’t like the fact that I could communicate in the Elven way? She probably didn’t think I was worthy of her language or her friend.
“Ryann… Ryann,” Lad attempted to recapture my attention. “I need you to focus. We’ve got to get back to Mississippi immediately,” he said. “This is much worse than I thought. Your mother needs your help. And I believe it’s obvious now who killed my father as well.”
That snapped me back to the moment. “Oh my gosh—you’re probably right. But I can’t leave Emmy here. I have to bring her home with me.”
“There’s no time. The sooner we get your mom away from Davis the better.”
“But we’re going to see Emmy tomorrow. Nox is taking us to training camp—she’ll be there. I’m so close now—I have to try.”