“Hello, there. What can I help you with?”
“I don’t know. I smelled something incredible and wanted to know what it was.” She jabbed a thumb in the air, toward the window. “They’re too busy fighting, so I came in on my own."
“Really? Who’s that?” The woman glanced out the large front window. Her eyes widened and her jaw slackened a bit. “I don’t believe it.”
“Why is it so shocking to see them speaking to each other?” Holly asked, eyeing the pastries on the wire rack. They smell so good. Despite the pancakes she ate this morning, her stomach made a strange growling noise.
“That, my dear, is a long story, and one that they should share. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll put together some rolls for you. They’re fresh from the oven.”
“That’s very thoughtful, but I don’t have any currency with me as of yet. I need to find a career, and as soon as I figure out where one is, I’ll be back.”
The older woman smiled and patted her hand. “Oh, sweetheart, sit down. My name is Catherine. I’m certain that Colwyn or Brand will be here in a moment and we’ll get them to cover it for you. Would you like a cup of tea to go with it?”
Holly looked at the paper cup in her hand. “My name is Holly, and I’m all right, thank you. I still have this.”
“Now, what is it that you want to do as a career?”
The door dinged again and Holly turned hoping to see Brand and Colwyn. Instead, a large man stood in the opening, inhaling deeply.
A twin of the man gave him a firm but friendly shove out of the way. “Fuck’s sake, Vencel, you walk in after us if you’re going to insist on doing that every time. Mai’s freezing cold.”
The man named Vencel immediately appeared apologetic and moved out of the way. A smaller woman stood tucked under his arm. “Okay, you two, stop it. It’s not like I’m going to freeze to death, for Pete’s sake. I’m just hungry, and I’ve got three pairs of socks on.”
“I’ll be back in a moment.” Catherine called out a welcome to the three of them and went to the counter to get three more plates. The small woman smiled at Holly and gave her a bit of a wave hello.
Holly smiled at the trio that walked in but before she could say anything, the door dinged again. She blinked at the variety of people that came through the door. So many shape-shifters living in such close quarters was unheard of in her previous life. She wondered how they all ended up here.
A large man caught her attention as he pulled a knitted cap from his head. His long, blond hair caught her attention first, but as he scanned the room, she saw his face. Fear slammed into her chest. What was he doing here? She looked away quickly so that their eyes would not meet. The last thing she wanted was for him to recognise her. He was a hunter for the fey council. His job was to track down rogue faeries and destroy them. Is he here for me? Thankfully, he didn’t seem interested in her and left after making a purchase.
“There you are!” Colwyn sat down beside her. She hadn’t seen him come in. “I didn’t know where you went. You scared the hell out of me.”
“You two were fighting and egging each other on and I smelled the most incredible thing. Have you had one of these?” She took a bite of the pastry and licked the small flakes off her lips. Brand walked up to their table and stood there staring at her as if he wanted to take a bite of her.
“Didn’t take you long to discover Ecstasy Lake’s best kept secret. Catherine’s sausage rolls are delicious.”
One of the twin men who had come in earlier called out a greeting and Colwyn smiled and waved back, before turning his attention back to her. Leaning forward, he ran a finger along her lower lip. “Missed one.” A couple flakes sat on his finger and he licked them off before smiling at her.
“Since you are that comfortable with Colwyn, he can drive you back to wherever you came from.” The tone of Brand’s voice sliced her heart like a sharp knife. At least they’d stopped arguing, but she didn’t have the time to play any more ring-around-the-truth. “Why do I have to choose between you? I thought that you both—”
“You thought wrong. I’ll tell my aunt to expect you later.” Brand nodded to Catherine and the other couple. Colwyn leapt to his feet and grabbed his arm, drawing the attention of many people in the room.
“Brand, stay.”
“You need to let me go, Colwyn.” He sounded like he forced his words out from between clenched teeth.
Colwyn flinched at Brand’s words and pulled his hand away. Holly watched the way each of them verbally struck at each other. Obviously, they weren’t finished, but she couldn’t let them continue to rip at each other.
“Both of you stop it.” She stomped her foot and glared at them.
The general noise around them dropped away as everyone stopped what they were doing and watched. Holly didn’t care what they did as long as no one got involved. This was for the three of them to work out. Brand and Colwyn looked at her, but Brand was the first to turn away and storm out of the shop. She moved to follow him but Colwyn rested a hand in the crook of her arm.
“Stay here, Holly. He’s angry, conflicted, and trying to forget the past. If you follow him, he will end up saying things he doesn’t really mean, but the hurt it causes will never go away.” It wasn’t until the door closed that Colwyn sat down. He looked defeated.
“Oh, I’m very sorry, Colwyn. I didn’t mean to cause more problems.”
He wrapped his hand around hers and tightened it slightly. Now that they were both sitting, the noise around them returned to a normal level. Holly knew that gossip spread like wildfire through any small town, and it appeared that this one was no different. She wasn’t about to give them any more ammunition. Colwyn’s hands send a wave of warmth up her arm. “Holly, we have ten years’ worth of problems. I promise you that you didn’t do anything to make it worse.”
He picked up her sausage roll and held it up to her. “Have a bite, and if you make a mess, I’ll kiss the crumbs away.”
Holly smiled at him and quickly bit into the flaky pastry, making certain she didn’t lick her lips after. The haunted look in Colwyn’s eyes dissipated as she chewed. She swallowed the savory bite, and he leaned forward and made good on his promise.
His lips felt strong against hers. Waves of heat radiated from their lips and coursed through her body. She loved the way he made her feel, and the thought of leaving him made her want to cry. Her throat ached, her chest tightened, and Colwyn lifted his lips from hers.
“Holly, are you all right?” Concern shone in his warm eyes, and for a moment it was centuries ago and this is how she’d wanted that moment to go. If she could go back she wouldn’t have created that curse, but then she might never have met the man in front of her. She only had a few days of life left, and she wasn’t going to waste them on wishes and past regrets. One thing she knew for certain, she had to somehow fix this rift between Colwyn and Brand before her time ran out.
“Colwyn, please tell me what happened between you two.”
Chapter Six
I see our town has a fair new resident. Everyone join me in welcoming Miss Holly to our midst for as long as Fate allows her to be here. It's not often that I see a woman pursued by only one man around here. Oh, never mind, I can see Colwyn Marshall from here. This should prove to be an interesting combination. Now in other news, there have been sightings of our own Blavet…
~ Cris on 3XTC
Holly paced back and forth across the front yard of Aniela’s house. Colwyn had dropped her off at Holly’s insistence, but only after she’d promised to call if she needed anything. He hadn’t wanted to leave her alone, but she’d known that his presence might make things worse.
After Brand’s abrupt departure from the diner, Colwyn had told her everything that happened to drive such a large wedge between them. Armed with more information, she had to figure out how to fix them. She knew that there was no hope for her, but if she could reunite them…well, perhaps she could fade from existence knowing that she helped so
meone.
Not that she wanted to fade. She wanted to experience everything this world had to offer. She wanted to feel both their hands on her skin and touch them in return. Both their kisses made her insides feel like a rushing stream, all swirling and intense, and left her craving more. She wished that she had told Brand the truth right away. It would make the confrontation to come so much easier, but he distrusted her so much now. How could she regain his trust and belief in such a short time? Her magic felt so depleted already. Most of her dwindling abilities were used to create modern clothes and keep her wings hidden. She wanted to help the woman who had freed her, but all she could manage was the small, but potent, charm to attract customers. That was what Colwyn caught her hanging in the tree the other day. What the ribbon charm lacked in grandeur, it made up for in effectiveness. Aniela repeatedly mentioned she hadn’t been this busy in ages.
She had to fix this, but first she needed to find Brand and tell him the truth. A loud thunking noise echoed around the back of the house, and that is where she found Brand. He swung a large axe with complete ease for someone who wasn’t used to this kind of work. His hair stuck up at odd angles as if he had rubbed his head recently. His jacket was thrown on a pile of freshly chopped wood, leaving him dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and a padded vest. Jeans hugged his butt as he braced himself and swung again. His sleeves pushed up to bare his forearms, dusted lightly with hair, strong and sturdy. She leaned back against the house and enjoyed the view. He loved his family and treated his Auntie with love and respect.
He couldn’t be all that bad. According to Aniela, he worked far too hard and he forgot how to have fun in life. Now that she knew the entire story, she saw the truth. Brand ran away from the pain and never forgave himself.
For a moment, over cocoa earlier, she’d seen the boy in the picture, reflected in the man who had kissed her. As she stood there in the snow watching him, she realized how much she’d started to care for each of them and knew she could never tell them. She didn’t want to add to the pain that Love had caused in their lives already.
She thought she had loved before, but now she knew that intense emotion had never touched her heart before. Her thoughts filled with dreams of happy endings and warm winter nights between two men who loved her back. They might never be more than fantasies, but at least she could hold on to this wondrous feeling when her time ran out.
* * * *
Brand had hoped that the cold air and intense physical labor would simulate a cold shower, but the persistent tightness of his jeans proved he had no luck. Instead, he fantasized what Holly would look like spread out beneath him. He imagined her pale skin against his hunter-green sheets, bright red curls around her face, and lower down, more tiny, scarlet curls glistening from his ministrations. She would be the perfect holiday treat, sweet and delicious, and no danger to his cholesterol level. He could almost smell her floral scent on the air. He would hold her legs open for Colwyn to…
“Are you finished?”
Started, he jumped and pinned her with a dark look. “Don’t you know not to sneak up on a person chopping wood? I could have slipped and cut off my own foot.”
“That’s exactly why I waited. You haven’t moved for a couple minutes, so I figured it was safe. Are you grumpy with everyone not related to you, or am I just lucky?”
“I’m not grumpy.” Brand imbedded the axe in the cutting block with a flick of his wrist. He was about to explode from the sexual tension building in him. She might have distracted him, but his brain continued with the image of her between him and Colwyn.
Why is she here? “I would rather not lose any body parts.” He grabbed a couple of pieces of wood and started stacking them. She helped tidy up the split logs, and he did his best to avoid her by watching which logs she reached for.
She snorted. “Coward.”
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. Typical of men in your time. I’ve been watching TV. You talk tough but then back off when it comes time to do something about it. Or, you do it with the woman’s sister. Thankfully, I don’t have one here.”
Brand gaped at her for a moment, trying to keep up. “What do you mean men of my time? What have you been watching?”
“The Loved.” She shot him a snotty grin and scooped up the last piece of wood, tossing it on the massive stack that lined the back of the house. “Aniela says it’s the best thing out there.”
“Right. A soap opera she has watched since I was a kid. My Auntie’s taste in TV is the same as yours in clothes.”
Holly gasped, narrowed her eyes at him and slapped her hands onto her hips. She looked so damn cute all pissed off.
“I’ll have you know I copied these exactly from what Tatiana wears on The Loved. Anyone named after the Fey Queen can’t be all bad.”
“I rest my case.” He snorted. “She might be a queen, but it has nothing to do with any faeries.”
“You take that back!”
“Make me!”
Holly clenched her hands, and he could almost see her trying to come up with the right come back but failing.
“Go back to Colwyn, Holly.” He turned and walked away from her, determined to stop this before it went too far.
Seeing the two of them together, he had felt like the outsider. Which is what Colwyn would have felt like a decade ago. He knew that Brittany hadn’t shared the same attraction with Colwyn, but Brand had forced the issue and ended up hurting everyone in the process. He couldn’t stomach the idea of being the cause of more pain in anyone’s life.
“Make me!” She threw his words back at him, and then stuck her tongue out at him.
Brand turned and walked away from her. Holly was too much of a temptation. If he didn’t leave now, he would show her exactly what she could do with that tongue.
Something smacked him in the neck, forcing snow down the back of his shirt. He could feel an icy trickle run down his spine as he turned. She crowed loudly when a second one impacted against his chest. Her victory dance was short lived, though, when his snowball smacked her in the head.
A full-scale war erupted with half-formed snowballs flying back and forth. Neither of them really paid attention to where they were aiming, just tried to beat the other. At one point, Brand was certain that one had broken above her shoulder, seemingly in thin air. He started aiming for that area out of curiosity and sure enough it happened again, only this time, when the ball broke, it hovered like a lump in thin air, and then looked like it was shaken off.
What the hell? His distraction cost him when a soft lump landed against his cheek, followed by her hoot of laughter. His blood pumping and curiosity at its zenith, he suddenly lunged forward. Catching Holly around the waist, he took her to the ground, pinning her beneath him.
Panting, he grinned down at the woman beneath him. Awareness of her warm body shot through his veins, blocking any thought of the cold snow they were laying in. “I win.”
“Okay.” Holly lifted up and pressed her lips against his. She smelled like a crisp winter morning and warm cinnamon buns. Need slammed into him, and his good intentions melted with the snow. He slid his hands up and captured her face, tilting her slightly so that he could better taste her. Her arms wrapped around him, and her hips lifted, pressing up as he ground his hips against hers. One booted foot wrapped around his thigh, and she mewed deep in her throat, nipping at his lower lip when he leaned back to look at her. Her face looked flushed, her lips wonderfully swollen. A surge of male possessiveness rippled through him, knowing his kiss affected her like this.
“Holly, I really hope you aren’t conning us,” he whispered as he dipped his head toward her neck.
“You. You. Jerk! You just can’t let it go,” she snapped, wiggling madly as she pounded his shoulders. “Get off me!”
“What? No, honey, I didn’t mean it like that.” He backed off, confusion overriding lust. Why can’t I keep my fucking mouth shut?
“And I thought I was trapped. At least I coul
d escape. But you…” She slipped out from underneath him, leapt to her feet, and gave him a filthy look.
Brand sat back on his heels, his knees pressing into the snow as it melted and began soaking through his pant legs. He gazed down at where the indents of her legs and his intertwined up to where her perfect round bottom was imprinted, and up to her delicately curved back. He blinked at what looked like two perfectly formed wings that extended past her shoulders.
Holly stomped a path in the snow as she paced a few feet away from him. “For a while there, I thought you might actually believe me. Once you decide something, that is all there is to it. That’s why you left this town and left Colwyn behind. How long has it been, and you two haven’t spoken? I’m not stupid or blind. I see the way you both look at me, but you won’t budge from your self-imposed cage.”
He looked up to watch her stalk across the yard to the house and felt as though someone had just punched him in the gut. Identical to the imprint in the snow, there was what looked to be a pair of snow-covered wings on Holly’s back. Sunlight glinted off the pristine flakes. No sooner had his brain processed what he was seeing, she shook, and the snow fell gently away down to the ground, leaving no trace of the impossible.
“What are you?” he called out, still feeling a bit disjointed.
“A holly faery, what else, you big, narrow-minded, judgmental, pig-headed, childish asshole?”
She didn’t bother to turn around, throwing the answer over her shoulder. He stared at her. If only she would turn around, but she didn’t, and he didn’t call out to her again. Pushing himself to his feet, he went off to find the one person who could shed some light on this entire situation.
Davies, Corinne - Wrapped in Fur [3xtasy Lake 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 6