by Mina Carter
“Whoa, we’ll have none of that.”
Strong arms closed around her, lifting her clean off her feet before her legs gave out completely. A heartbeat later she was nestled against his broad chest, still bundled up in her thick winter coat.
A short gasp escaped her lips as she turned her head and found herself nose to nose with him. Rhod’s intense green eyes caught hers in a gaze she couldn’t escape, didn’t want to escape, as awareness arced between them. His lips were so close all she would have to do was lean forwards, press hers against them—
Ohmyfuckinggod.
She thrust the thought away, leaning back a little to put some distance between their faces and trying to focus clearly. He’d been kind enough to rescue her— Twice. Once from the thugs who’d attacked her and a second time from landing in the muck at their feet. The very least she could do was avoid assaulting him.
“I’m so sorry; I don’t know what’s the matter with me. You can put me down, I can walk,” she assured him, words that fell on deaf ears as he turned and headed for the car at the end of the alley.
“No can do, sweetheart.” He flashed another of those sexy little smiles as they reached the side of the vehicle, and then bent to tuck her into the passenger seat. “You’re in shock, so you’re not walking anywhere until we get you checked out properly.”
Clipping her in, he smiled at the big man in the driver’s seat. “Thanks, Cal. I’ll take it from here.”
She leaned her head back against the leather of the headrest and closed her eyes. The side of her head ached something fierce, and an oily, sickly feeling rose from the pit of her stomach. And what the fuck was with the shaking? Pulling her coat closer around her, she opened her eyes as Rhod slid into the driver’s seat and treated her to another mega-watt smile.
“Don’t worry. It won’t take me long to get us to the emergency room and we can get that little cut there all fixed up.”
She rolled her head to the side to study him, and decided he really was gorgeous. She was fairly sure she had a concussion, so she might as well use the situation to her advantage. Namely being able to stare without anyone thinking she was weird or rude.
He was tall and broad, the fine fabric of his shirt pulling across what looked to be a mouth-watering set of muscles as he twisted to put his seatbelt on. Dark hair long enough to tuck behind his ears curled up at the ends, lending him a disarming, disheveled look. His jaw was covered by a scruffy five o’clock shadow she just itched to stroke her fingers along.
“Take your time,” she mumbled softly, content just to sit there and look at him. Warmth and a feeling of safety crept over her as he put the car in drive. All she needed now was a nice fleecy blanket and possibly a bigger seat so he could fit in with her and snuggle. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He slid her a sideways glance and smiled, but she caught the worried look in his eyes. Reaching out, she smiled and patted his arm.
“Thank you. If you and your friend hadn’t come along, I don’t kn…”
She trailed off for a second, her throat closing over as she thought of what might have happened. She wasn’t under any illusions. Once they’d discovered there wasn’t anything of value in her purse, their attention would have fallen on her. She wasn’t tall or pretty. In fact she was fairly ordinary looking. She doubted that would have mattered much. Life was cheap in certain circles, and thugs hyped up on god-knew-what were capable of just about anything. She had no doubt she’d have ended up as just another corpse found behind a dumpster.
Determinedly she dragged her mind from ‘what if’s’ and focused on him again. Smiled, even if it was a little weak.
“Just…thank you.”
“You’re more than welcome. It’s what we do.”
He shrugged, the shirt pulling across his shoulders again and distracting her. Damn it, he had to have picked that shirt specifically for the effect it had on women. No way could he not know what he looked like in it. And from what she recalled, his friend had been just as good looking, if a little…hairy.
They weren’t human.
“You’re with that protection agency thing, aren’t you?”
Dazed as she was, the cogs finally slid into place. She’d walked past that new place on North Street. Personal…no, Paranormal Protection Agency. She remembered seeing the sign go up and thinking about that. Para’s had been out of the ‘closet’ for years now, but from what she knew of them, most had scary-ass abilities. So why would they need protection?
She sat up a little, eager to learn more. She’d begged her father to hire some para bodyguards when she was a teenager with a crush on a newly outed paranormal actor. He’d refused. In fact he’d flat refused to have any para’s on staff at all, so she’d never gotten chance to sit down and talk to one. But now her chance was here. Live and in the oh-so-sexy flesh.
Pain stabbed through her skull, like a hot needle jabbed behind her eye. She caught her breath, and then clapped her hand to the side of her head as the world did its own tilt-a-whirl thing around her.
“Fuck, hold on sweetheart. We’re nearly there.”
“Well, you have a mild concussion, but there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Go home, get some rest and avoid anything stressful.”
The doctor smiled down at the petite woman in the bed and reached out to pat her hand reassuringly. Lurking like a caged dog by the door, Rhod bit back the urge to snap at him to get his hands off of her, even though the guy was old enough to be Candy’s grandfather.
He didn’t know what had come over him. He’d carried her into the Emergency Room in his own arms. She’d been as white as a sheet, complaining about a headache, and clinging to his hand as doctors swarmed around her.
She hadn’t asked him to leave, and thanks to a hitherto unknown protective streak, he’d glared down any suggestion from the medical staff that he do so. Elf he might be, but of the cutesy ‘sit on the toadstool’ type he most definitely was not.
The removal of the overlarge coat, expensive but obviously a couple of years old, had revealed a body to match the delicate little face. She was small and slender, her frame leaning toward petite as he’d guessed. What he hadn’t counted on were the curves. Bundled up, he’d considered her childlike. But she had a set of curves rounded enough to tempt a saint, and a rack…he bit back his growl and reminded himself that she was ill. Concussion, he told himself sternly.
It made fuck all difference. He still wanted to shove the doc out the door, drag her into his arms and learn what her lips tasted like.
Fuck. He was a sick man.
“Do you have someone to stay with you for a couple of days? Family perhaps…” The doctor was asking, and then sent a glance over his shoulder toward Rhod. “Or your boyfriend maybe?”
Rhod paused, waiting for the delightful little human in the bed to chuckle and say that he wasn’t her boyfriend…to give another name and a number to call. Jealousy rose again, sharp and immediate, as he thought of her voicing another man’s name. Instead she bit her lip and avoided looking at him.
“No family, no. I don’t want to bother them. My boyfriend can look after me. Won’t you, darling?”
He blinked in surprise, but the pleading look on her face did him in.
“Is this true, Mr…?”
The doctor looked down at his notes with a frown, as if he’d suddenly realised that Rhod was in with a patient without any of the staff having any clue who on earth he was, or having questioned him. They had of course. When he’d arrived with Candy, they’d done the usual round of twenty questions. But Rhod wasn’t your average elf.
He was a Claus, and when it came to mind-tricks even the Jedi had nothing on him. The Clauses had developed mad mental skills to ensure they went unseen while delivering presents to excited, hyperactive kids. And knowing that the hospital staff wouldn’t let him stay with her without being family or her significant other, he’d blinded them with the old Claus charm. So they forgot his answers and assumed the correct ones t
hat would let him stay.
“Claus. Rhod Claus.” Rhod gave the doctor a deadpan expression, daring him to mention anything about the name. “And yes, I can look after Candy for the next couple of days. Just try and stop me.”
The doctor nodded and scribbled something on the notes. He didn’t argue, but then Rhod didn’t expect him to. Faced with the ‘charm’ of a full-blooded Claus, he had no chance. If Rhod had told him he was a chicken and to go find a road to cross, he’d have been out making a nuisance of himself on the main intersection outside the hospital. Rhod wouldn’t be that cruel though, not with Candy watching, so he simply plastered a smile across his lips and waited for the older man to announce his decision.
“Okay. Good.”
The doctor turned slightly to include him in the conversation.
“You’ll need to take it easy for the next couple of days. There are some things you should watch out for…” He pulled a flyer from the back of his clipboard and circled some writing on it, then held it out to Rhod. “Here, take this. It outlines the major things to watch out for. If you see evidence of anything in the top box, you should bring her straight back in to see us.”
Rhod nodded as he scanned the list. Pre-printed and photocopied badly, it was faded in places, but he could still make out the instructions. Warnings against drowsiness, mental confusion, weakness down one side. It was all fairly standard, and familiar to him from his first-aid training with the agency. Humans were a fragile species when all was said and done, so Iliona made sure all her guys knew how to patch them up and get them to the Emergency Room.
“No problem, Doctor. I take it I’m okay to take her home now?”
Candy didn’t say anything to him as they prepared to leave the hospital, instead concentrating on the discharge procedure with the cutest little frown on her face. Rhod tried to ignore the sexy pout of her pursed lips as she concentrated, and stayed quiet to let her deal with all the paperwork and forms that she needed to sign. But he made sure he was close. Just in case. She’d taken a pretty solid knock to the head, and there was always the chance that the concussion was worse than they’d thought. If she looked in danger of face-planting on the floor, he’d be there in a nanosecond to catch her. Wrap her in up arms that had never felt as strong as when her delicate frame was sheltered within their embrace.
She didn’t want her family to know. Strange.
Lounging with one shoulder against the wall, he studied her as she went through the forms. The staff had asked her again if she wanted them to contact her family. Again she declined, a flash of irritation in her unusual eyes. It was quick, barely noticeable before she got it under control. Something the hospital staff, overworked and already rushed off their feet with the new cases piling through the doors, missed. But watching her, he caught it.
Kane. Kane…
The name rang a bell but he couldn’t place it. Her coat in his hands, Rhod scanned his memory of the recent cases to go through the agency. Had the name cropped up as something to do with a job? He was good with lists. Had to be really, with the family he came from, but his excellent memory came up blank. The only Kane he knew of was Kane Incorporated, and he highly doubted anyone from that family would be slumming it down in the rougher areas of the city.
He shifted; transferring his weight from foot to foot and barely stopped his lip from curling. He knew the sort. The Kanes were the kind of family he’d hated to deliver to when wearing the red suit. Pristine fireplaces in showcase rooms in the expensive mansion with far too many rooms for the amount of people who lived in them. Showy gifts to go under the tree, ones he could tell were purchased by the father’s PA and wrapped in store and without an ounce of thought in them. Presents given to spoilt brats whose sense of entitlement overshadowed their common sense, and who wailed that their lives were ruined if they didn’t get the latest tablet, PC or smart phone.
The sort of ungrateful assholes that’d made him hang up the red suit and head out into the world to seek alternative employment. Which was where Iliona and the PPA had picked him up. Seemed elves were in high demand for personal protection work.
Finally Candy was done. Pushing off from the wall, he wrapped the overlarge coat around her and led her out toward where he’d parked the car. Used to the North Pole, the bitter cold that greeted them was nothing more than a pleasant breeze for Rhod. It had started to snow; fat, white flakes danced in the air to an unheard tune before drifting down to the already frost covered ground.
Christmas was coming. Feeling the potential in the air Rhod paused for a moment, closed his eyes and listened. Yes, there…just on the edge of hearing. The sound of sleigh bells as they shifted slightly on their racks, ready to be harnessed up for the big event, and the soft wuffling of the reindeer as they dozed in their stables.
The Call had started.
Every Claus the world over would feel it. That need to open the brightly painted box, the one they’d all been given on attaining manhood, to pull the thick leather belt from within. Just a plain belt with a heavy silver buckle, but the gateway to so much more. Way too big for his trim waist, he couldn’t wear it any other time of year. It wasn’t meant for any other time of year. Just Christmas.
As soon as he put the belt around his waist, the magic took over. The red suit enveloped him, changed him…he went from being plain old Rhod Claus to being the big man himself. Santa Claus. One of many, he and a legion of his relatives took to the skies on Christmas Eve to deliver all the presents. He understood the magic on the belts, but he’d never figured out the reindeer. How every Santa ended up with a different sleigh but somehow the same, awkward pain-in-the-ass reindeer he had no clue.
Shaking his head, he ignored the feeling. It was the same every year. The urge to drag the box out from its hiding place and put the belt on. Every year, unable to face kids with no Christmas spirit and an over-inflated sense of their own importance, he ignored it. Volunteered…no, begged Iliona to let him work Christmas.
He opened his eyes and looked down at the petite brunette at his side. A smile flirted with the corners of his lips as he offered her his arm. Perhaps this year though, he’d take a little time off…
Chapter Three
“So, you going to tell me what Sebastian Kane’s daughter is doing slumming it and working in one of the roughest areas of the city?” Rhod’s rich, deep voice issued from behind Candy, filling her tiny kitchen as she made drinks for both of them. “Or for that matter, why you told that doctor I was your boyfriend? You could be at home with a gaggle of servants catering to your every need…”
He trailed off as she turned towards him, a murmur of thanks on his lips as she handed him a steaming mug of hot chocolate and shooed him through into the equally tiny living room. Her place wasn’t much. A small apartment on the fourth floor, it was crammed into the corner of the building. The entire thing would have fit in her bedroom at home. But the large curved corner window and antique fireplace gave it a charm her designer-decorated - and above all impersonal - bedroom back at her parents’ mansion just couldn’t match.
This place was hers, through and through. From the warm cream paint on the walls right through to the brightly striped rug in front of the fire that she’d picked up from one of the seasonal craft markets, she’d picked everything herself, rather than leaving it to the professional team her mother insisted on using.
“Yeah, and ruin everything I’ve fought for over the past three years? Not a chance. Please, have a seat.” She gestured to one side of the big, squashy sofa in front of the roaring fire. She lifted an eyebrow at the flames, trying to focus on them rather than the sensual grace of Rhod’s large body as he lowered himself into the seat next to her. No man had a right to be that sexy. It had to be breaking some kind of universal law or something.
Forcing herself to stop watching, in case he caught her with her tongue out or something equally embarrassing, she turned her attention to the fire. In full flame, it blazed merrily despite the fact they’d barely bee
n in the apartment above five minutes.
“How on earth did you manage that?” she asked, watching him over the rim of her mug. “It always takes me an hour to get the fire anywhere close to that.”
He didn’t just sit, he lounged with that big cat sort of grace some large men had. Of course, she realised he wasn’t human. No human moved the way he and his partner had done when they’d come to her rescue in the alley. He hadn’t gone furry so he wasn’t a wolf, and vampire just didn’t seem to fit him. She’d seen a couple of vampires during her time with the chapel, and their skin was weird. Flat, almost devoid of colour, not flushed with health and almost glowing in the firelight as his was, as though the fire itself reached out to caress him. That was all well and good, but as sexy as he was, if he started to sparkle, she was so kicking his butt out the door.
“It’s all in the wrist action,” he said with a grin and lifted his hand.
As he snapped his fingers, the air shimmered. Golden dust sparkled for a second before zipping through the air to light the candles on the mantelpiece.
Her jaw dropped. “Ohh…dayyyum. Claus. You’re an…”
She looked back at him and blinked. He’d moved, leaving the empty chocolate mug on the side table by to the sofa as he settled into the space next to her.
“Elf. Yes,” he supplied, reaching out to take the mug from her suddenly numb hands. She didn’t resist, all her attention on him. Elves, especially winter elves, were among the rarest of the paranormal creatures. Suddenly his lack of jacket, despite the freezing weather outside, made sense. Claus. His name was Claus, which meant he wasn’t just a winter elf, but a Christmas elf…
“Elf, huh? So you’re one of the guys who makes the presents for the kids…something like that?” Her lip twitched a little at the edge before she could stop it. The temptation was just too much. “Let me guess, embroidery? Doll making?”
His lip quirked as he moved in, close enough that she could feel the heat of his body against hers, even through the plain shirt and jeans she wore to work at the Chapel. Instinctively she wanted to curl up against him, feel all those hard muscles against her softer curves.
