And now it was time that Nikolai understand just how miserable Holly was. How depressed she was. Depressed enough that Bryan made it routine to swing by and visit her regularly, even though he shared her misery. He wouldn’t ever expect it of Holly but depression made a person do strange things and he worried about her health, her safety.
That she’d chosen to run away had been a relief to Bryan in a way, because he’d feared her depression would drive her to take an uglier escape route—a permanent one.
Instinctively, Nik tried to jerk away just and his magic instinctively tried to block Bryan’s. But emotion wouldn’t be cut off. It could be dealt with, could be handled but empathy wasn’t a gift that Nik had any skill with and he was helpless under the barrage of emotion Bryan sent screaming into him.
“She hates her life, Da,” Bryan said, his voice as cold, as emotionless as the magic that emerged from Nik when the man was pissed. “She’s depressed. She questions why she even lives. Every day is misery for her. Very little brings her pleasure—and none of it comes from you. She hates the jobs you let her work. She sees herself as more and more useless. The only reason she keeps fighting is because she wants freedom to have a life…and because she’s angry. You are the reason.”
Nik jerked against his hold once more, his eyes wide and so dark they appeared black in his face. This time, Bryan let him pull away.
“You’ve made her a prisoner, Da. Even if it’s a soft, pretty cage, it’s still a cage.”
He shook his head. “I will not believe this. That cannot be Holly.”
But his voice was husky, his accent thick with emotion. When he reached up to shove a hand through his hair, it shook. Nik turned away and started to pace the rocky beach but then he whirled back around to glare at Bryan.
“If you and her mother know how unhappy she has been, why has nobody told me?”
Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, Bryan pointed out, “We’ve tried. You don’t want to hear.”
Drawing himself up straight, his back as stiff as an iron rod, Bryan mimicked his father’s Russian accent. “Holly is but a child. She doesn’t understand the world, the mortals. She doesn’t realize that she is a stupid, naïve little girl and allowing her to have any kind of life outside the Reach would be like leading lambs to slaughter.”
Nik’s face flushed hot with fury. “Holly is not stupid. I have never said such things.”
“You’ve never said it, no. But that’s how you’ve made her feel. Stupid, foolish…incompetent. Useless.” Softening a little as he sensed his father’s pain and the guilt beginning to bloom inside, Bryan said softly, “And others have picked up on it and that is how they treat her.” Restless, frustrated, he shook his head. “If we were just plain and simple humans, or if she was born to any other elvin father but you, she would have run away long ago. But she’s been trapped at the Reach.”
“It’s never been my intention to trap her, just protect her,” Nik said, his voice icy and defensive. His eyes narrowed as he studied Bryan’s face. “You helped your mother to leave me. Why did you never help Holly if you feel so strongly about this?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Bryan responded, “This time, she didn’t ask.” He remembered the one time she had come to him, years ago. Perhaps he should have helped her then but she had been younger then and her misery hadn’t run nearly as deep. Or perhaps he hadn’t wanted to really look. It was a guilt he would have to live with.
Instead of helping her then, instead of making Nik see the painfully obvious, he’d told Holly to talk to their father. Talk, as if Nikolai ever listened when anybody talked to him.
“If she had, I would have helped her. I love you, Da but I love my sister too. I hate seeing her so miserable. But Holly might not know that I would have helped her or maybe she just didn’t want to put me in that position.”
Darkly, Nik muttered, “That did not stop your mother.”
In a grim voice, Bryan said, “Mom didn’t have to ask me.”
His father’s dark blue eyes cut to his. It was the same look he’d gotten back when he was a kid and he’d decided he’d try to sneak into the workshop, or the time he’d been caught sneaking through a girl’s window. Those times, that look had frozen him in his tracks. But now, he glared right back.
“When I saw her after Holly disappeared, I knew she was worried, that she was hurt. I figured out why and I also figured out what she was planning to do.”
Nik fell back, almost as if Bryan’s words were a physical assault. His head snapped back, his skin went white and then slowly darkened with anger…and pain. “She’s been planning this?”
Bryan shrugged. “You won’t listen to her, Da. She’s tried to tell you a thousand times. And you won’t listen. What else was she supposed to do? Stand by and watch while Holly died inside? You won’t listen to Mom, you won’t give Holly a chance to stand on her own and because of who you are, when you treat Holly as though she’s incompetent, so does damn near everybody else.” Turning away, he stared out over the turbulent gray waters of the Atlantic. “Mom can’t change things there and she can’t just stand by any longer.”
“How does her leaving me help Holly?” Nik demanded.
Glancing back at his father, Bryan smirked. “Well…you’re actually listening to somebody for once.”
Hissing out a breath, Nik started to pace again. “I do not believe this.” Falling into the language of his youth, he started to swear.
Bryan knew enough of the muttered words and he turned his face away so Nik wouldn’t see him grinning. The swearing came to an abrupt stop. Bryan neither heard nor saw his father move but in the span of blinking his eyes, Nik stood before him, when seconds ago he’d been ten feet away.
His face was grim once more, his eyes holding all that arrogant authority that had made him so untouchable over the past few years. “Do none of you realize that Holly is in danger now? Perhaps I have been overprotective—”
Bryan lifted a brow. “Overprotective?”
Narrowing his eyes, Nik ignored Bryan and continued. “True danger. Bordelain hasn’t been brought in. He is still a threat and if he realizes that my daughter, my only daughter, is alone out in the mortal world, do you really think he will not act on that? For all we know, he already has her.”
“He doesn’t,” Bryan said, confident in that. Shaking his head, he told his father, “I’d know, Da. She’s safe.” Closing his eyes, he extended his senses out until he encountered Holly’s soul.
When he’d been brought in to help find Holly, he hadn’t done all he could, not by half. Nobody had pushed him—considering he was Holly’s brother, most just assumed he would do all within his power.
The fact of it was that he could have located Holly within a few heartbeats—then and now. He might not know where Holly was but he could track her down. He’d kept that bit of knowledge quiet, though, because he knew she was safe.
Even though his mother was worried, even though his father was about to blow a gasket, Bryan had kept it quiet. He had relented when he’d helped Mom leave the Reach and told her that he knew Holly was safe, though he wouldn’t tell her anything else.
Holly had finally managed to break free from their father’s smothering hold and Bryan sure as hell wasn’t going to intrude on her newly found freedom.
Not as long as she was safe.
His inner self—his soul, perhaps—collided with Holly’s and he withdrew before he even meshed. Not only was Holly safe, at the moment she was doing things that no brother wanted to think about when it involved his sister and if their father knew who…
For one very brief moment, he was glad he’d been schooled so damn rough. The selfcontrol he had learned during his training was the only thing that kept him from blushing as he opened his eyes and looked at his father.
Emotional control was everything to an empath. He swallowed through a tight throat and forced a smile that hopefully didn’t look too fake. “She’s safe. I can tell. And she’s happy.”
Nik’s eyes narrowed. “You know where she is.”
Shaking his head, Bryan answered, “No, I don’t. But I know she’s safe.”
Nik growled. Slashing a hand through the air, he snarled, “But that might not last. I know Holly has trained her magic and I know she has much talent but she is unused to any sort of confrontation. She’s never been faced with violence and she doesn’t understand how desperate men can do terrible things. She needs to be home where I can protect her.”
Oh, she’s got protection, Bryan thought and he had to bite his tongue to keep from saying it aloud. “You want her to come home, old man, you’re going to have to be willing to give a little. Or, in her case, a lot. I won’t help you force her back into a prison.”
“Not even if her life is in danger?” Nik spat.
“You arrogant bastard.” Bryan closed the distance between them, leaned in close to his father and did a little growling of his own. “I’d never risk my baby sister. If I didn’t know she was safe, if I thought for even a minute she was in danger, I’d call in every damn fighter I can find. Damn it, Da! You don’t have any faith in her and apparently none in me, either. You think empathy is so damn limited that I won’t feel it if a threat moves in on Holly? I can be with her in seconds if I have to and I don’t need far-sight to do it, because she’s blood. I’ve got a bond with her that nothing can touch and I can be with her before you could even reach out to see what the problem is.”
He started to say something else, almost asked him if Rhys would be good enough protection for Holly. But if his father suspected that Rhys was with Holly, he’d send for the other man. If Rhys didn’t answer, Nik would go and find him.
While Nik’s telepathic skills wouldn’t work on Holly unless she let her father through her mental barriers, the same wouldn’t apply to Nik and Rhys. Rhys’ bond to Nik wasn’t so archaic as servant and master but it was a powerful thing. Those who had sworn an oath to him could be tracked through such a bond and Nik wouldn’t hesitate to do it if he knew it could help him find Holly.
If Nik went after Rhys, he’d find Holly.
Blowing out a harsh breath, Bryan fell back a step. “Fuck this. I can’t talk to you about this. You have no logic when it comes to Holly.”
Turning away, he headed down the beach, shoving his hands into his pockets.
When Nik laid a hand on his shoulder, Bryan whirled around and knocked it off. “Leave me alone right now, Da.”
But when he looked at his father, some of that arrogance was gone. Leeched away and replaced by a haunted expression that only hinted at the guilt, the worry and the grief that Bryan sensed inside Nik. “I want my wife back, Bryan. I want my daughter back. And I don’t want to lose my son. All I’ve ever wanted was to keep my family safe and happy.”
“You want them back, you know what you got to do then.”
Then he closed his eyes and followed the other source of pain inside him.
Teleporting away from his father without saying another word, his magic carried him from his father to his mother.
His mom’s misery ate at him and as he alit inside the small Gatlinburg chalet where Chelly had settled in, Bryan told himself he wasn’t ever going to fall in love. It was doing a serious number on his mother and his father.
He wanted no part of it.
* * * * *
Holly awoke to warmth—no, not warmth—heat. Liquid heat flowed and pulsed inside her and there was a hard, heavy weight against her back…and pulsing inside her. Shivering, Holly rocked her hips back to meet Rhys as he pushed inside her.
“You’re awake,” he whispered, his lips trailing over her shoulder. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Holly.” Trailing his fingers across her neck, he touched the necklace that she’d fallen asleep wearing. Rolling his hips against hers, he murmured, “I like waking next to you. I like seeing you wear jewels that I gave you and I like knowing that you smell of me.”
“I like knowing that I can make you come as you cry out my name,” he rasped, his voice deepening until it was little more than a rough, sexy growl that sent shivers down her spine. Without withdrawing, he rolled his weight onto hers, crushing her into the mattress. His hands came up, braceleted her wrists and stretched her arms over her head.
Holly felt surrounded by him and she loved it. Loved it as he shafted her deep and hard, his cock throbbing, caressing already sensitive tissues. He took her with a force that bordered on pain. She loved it, loved his desperate hunger, his rough hands—all of it.
Rhys let go of her hands, trailed his fingers down her arm, her back until he could grasp her hips. Shifting back, he pulled them both to their knees. “Pretty, perfect little ass,” he muttered. He slid one hand down her rump and then swatted her.
Holly squealed and bucked, sending him a startled look over her shoulder.
He grinned at her. And then he did it again on the other side. Pleasure hurtled through her, so intense it sucked the breath right out of her lungs.
“Damn it, Holly…and here you had me thinking you were a good little girl,” Rhys muttered. He slapped her again, a little harder this time and at the same time, he surged forward, filling her. She came, quick and hard but it wasn’t enough. The hunger still burned inside her and she pushed up onto her hands, shoving back to meet him as he rode her.
Rhys watched, dazed, so eaten up with need and love for her that he couldn’t think past it. She met each hard thrust with anticipation, her spine arching gracefully, hoarse, sexy little moans falling from her lips. Bracing his hands on her hips, he urged her a little lower and then bent over her, blanketing her body with his. He needed to feel her against him, wanting to hear her breathing and have her soft, silken warmth against him as she came. Her pussy went tight around his dick, swathing his length in strong, silken heat. Small, rhythmic little contractions started—gentle at first and then gaining in strength. Her body blushed a soft pink and she threw her head back, grinding it against his shoulder as she started to come.
Arching over her, he pressed his cheek against hers. He hadn’t planned on telling her, not yet. But the words came so easily, so naturally, he couldn’t not say it. “I love you, Holly.”
Blindly, she arched her head, seeking his mouth. Against his lips, she whispered, “I love you too.”
Gazes locked, lips touching ever-so softly, they both let the climax come, let it take them.
As they lay there, arms and legs tangled, Rhys thought, So this is what it’s about.
Life, all of a sudden, seemed pretty damn good.
Except for the fact that her father would probably want Rhys’ head on a platter. And there was a crazy, powerful elf out there who would kill Holly without batting an eyelash if he thought it would help his crusade.
But other than a possibly homicidal, overprotective Santa Claus and the probably homicidal zealot…yeah, life was good.
Cuddling in closer, he murmured again, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Holly.”
This is going to be a first for me, Rhys thought. The first time he would spend Valentine’s Day with a woman he loved and all he wanted to do was shower her with roses and gifts and then make love to her until they were both too blissed out to do more than breathe.
Somehow, though, Rhys knew it wasn’t going to play out that way.
* * * * *
I love you, Holly. His words kept circling through her mind, chasing around until she was dizzy from it.
He had said it, right? She wasn’t just deluding herself because she just loved him so much, was she?
When he spoke, she was so preoccupied, strung so tight, she jumped. Blushing, she glanced at him over her shoulder. The bed shifted under his weight as he rose up on his elbow to look at her.
Rolling onto her back, she smiled at him but it felt like a pretty pitiful smile.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly. He cupped her cheek and she caught his hand, turned her face into his palm and kissed him.
“I’m fine.” Studying his face—so
handsome—Holly reached up and touched a finger to the line between his brows. It only appeared when he was worried or upset and it hadn’t happened all that often in all the time she’d known him.
“Know what I want to do?” he asked abruptly, reaching up to toy with the heavy necklace she still wore.
Against her hip, she could feel the length of his cock—still wet, still hard. Wagging her brows, she teased, “I bet I can guess.”
Tugging on a lock of hair, he murmured, “You got a dirty mind, baby. I love it.” Then he blew out a soft sigh. “I want to order room service. Then I want to lie here in this bed with you for half the day and then I want to take you shopping, buy you the prettiest, sexiest red dress I can find and watch you while you shower and get dressed. Then I want to take you out in a limo, fuck you senseless, find some quiet, dark restaurant. I want champagne, roses, chocolate—the whole damn clichéd Valentine’s package. I want to bring you back here and strip you out of that pretty dress and then make love to you again. And again. All night long.”
A hot, hungry knot of need settled between her thighs and her heart did one slow, lazy flip inside her chest. “It sounds like a plan to me and it can’t be too clichéd. I’ve never had a sexy red dress and I’ve never been fucked senseless in a limo or had anybody give me chocolate, roses and champagne. I think it sounds absolutely wonderful,” she said, trying to keep her voice light. Then she laid a hand along his cheek. “But it’s not going to happen, is it? You’ve got something on your mind, Rhys. Out with it.”
Rhys blew out a sigh. “A lot of ‘somethings’, precious.” He threaded a hand through her hair, toying with a curl. He wrapped the curl around his finger, his eyes taking on a far-off look. “We’re going to have that Valentine package, precious. I promise you that.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Rhys,” Holly said softly. “I don’t need them.”
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