Wonder: A Soul Savers Collection of Holiday Short Stories & Recipes (16 page)

Chapter 2

I still hadn’t thought of what to do for Alexis when she returned in the early afternoon from her off-island trip with Sophia.

“Did you have a good morning?” I asked her as she sat down for a late lunch with me. I hoped she’d drop some hints of what she was getting me so that maybe it would provide some ideas of what to do for her.

“Do you remember our honeymoon?” she asked out of the blue. “So peaceful, just you and me on the beach, hardly any cares in the world ...”

I grinned. “I remember it quite well.”

She scowled. “Well, it was nothing like that. The Norman world is a madhouse with everyone running around shopping for last minute gifts. People are
crazy
. And then Sheree and Vanessa came with us for protection and about drove me insane. They were both looking for just the right gift for Owen, that dog, and they seem to think they’ll be getting something terribly romantic from him, but I know Owen—”

“They said that in front of each other?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

She laughed. “No. Their freakin’ thoughts were so loud and excited, I couldn’t help but hear them even when I wasn’t trying.” She massaged her temples for a moment, then looked at me with those mesmerizing brown eyes. “You know what I wish existed? A faerie stone that calmed everyone the eff down.”

I rubbed her shoulder for a while as a new plan formed in my mind. I’d given up our opportunity for a mini-retreat to our honeymoon spot by letting Jax and Blossom use the jet, but if she wanted a faerie stone, that was something I might be able to provide.

“I need to go,” I said before kissing her goodbye.

“Where?”

I tweaked her chin and repeated her words back to her. “You’ll find out Christmas Eve.”

She tilted her head, but I only winked before darting out of the room.

I flashed to the village, and then contacted Bree the way she had shown me.

“I need to ask you something,” I said when she appeared in front of me at the end of the pier that jutted out into the Aegean Sea, and I told her my idea for Alexis’s present.

When I finished, Bree looked at me with a golden eyebrow raised. “You ask a faerie for a favor?”

I narrowed my eyes. “If that’s what it takes.”

I’d hoped for special privileges, but should have known better. It didn’t matter, though. Alexis’s happiness—and peace—would be worth it.

Bree smiled warmly. “I won’t charge you, but if we run into any faeries in the Otherworld, I can’t guarantee anything.”

I nodded. “Of course.”

Bree turned toward me, placed her hands on my head and her thumbs over my eyes, forcing me to close them. The air shuddered around us, and she released me. Although it seemed as though we still stood on the pier at the Amadis village, we weren’t really there anymore. She’d brought us through the veil. I knew we’d entered the Otherworld immediately—my chest squeezed painfully.

“What do we need to do?” I asked, pressing my hand to my chest as I followed her off the pier. We didn’t sink into the ocean, but, rather, traversed the Otherworld. Breathing became more and more difficult. “I’d forgotten how much it hurts to be here.”

“That’s the human part of you that knows it’s not supposed to be here yet,” Bree said, tossing her golden hair over her shoulder to look at me. “We need to—”

She wasn’t able to finish her sentence. A creature with bat wings, horns, and a body like a human heavyweight boxer—a female boxer—flew at me with a sword raised. A demon.

“You attract them like an angel,” Bree said with dismay.

I didn’t have the same defenses in the Otherworld as I did in the Earthly realm. When the demon swung her sword at me, it sliced through my skin like butter. I bit back a howl of pain and charged. Her wings beat at the air, but I grabbed onto her hoof before she rose too high, then climbed up her trunk-like legs and wrestled her to the ground. She fought back, digging her claws into me and snapping her jaw full of needles too close to my face for comfort.

“I’ve fought worse demons than you,” I growled. Nothing was worse than the demons inside. Of course, Alexis had helped me beat the one that used to control me. Just the thought of her now—of our love, of leaving her if this demon won—gave me the boost of strength I needed.

My power had a lesser effect on the beast, but I blasted it at her anyway. It didn’t paralyze her, but her movements slowed. With a feint here and a perfectly placed kick there, I was able to steal her sword even as my lungs seized painfully. Pushing through the agony, I swung the blade upwards and sliced it across her neck. My ears nearly exploded with the sound she made as she picked up her head and disappeared. Demons couldn’t be killed in the Otherworld, but hopefully I’d deterred her from coming back—and any others from attacking.

“Let’s hurry,” Bree whispered.

Traveling through the Otherworld was disorienting. The farther away we moved from the veil, the farther Earth fell away, as though we ascended through the atmosphere, but we didn’t rise into the Heavens. From what Bree had told me, only the Angels could rise into the Heavens. The faeries occupied a different part of the Otherworld that somewhat resembled Earth, but … wasn’t. We followed a path, presumably toward their city, but it never came into view. When we entered a meadow of wildflowers, Bree stopped, fell to her knees, and dug her hands into the ground. They eventually emerged, producing a yellow stone that looked like citrine the size of a walnut. She closed her hands around the stone and murmured something in fae, then she held the stone out to me.

“I have given it the quality of peace,” she said. As soon as I took it from her, two familiar faeries popped into the meadow.

“Oh! Wot is this?” asked the purple-haired one who I’d met before in England. In the Earthly realm, she went by the name Debbie.

“This is a delight for the eyes,” Stacey, the pink-haired fae, answered. She danced around me, and a long-nailed finger stroked my cheek. Her Yorkshire, England, accent was less apparent in this realm. “Did you miss us? Needed to come for a visit?”

“I need the faerie stone,” I said matter-of-factly, not wanting to get involved in their faerie antics. “For my
wife
.”

Both faeries scowled at the reminder of my love. They didn’t have the same effect on me because of it, which apparently annoyed them. They deserved to be annoyed for all the trouble the fae caused for everyone else, but an unhappy faerie wasn’t a good thing.

“And why should we do anything for you?” asked a third familiar voice. Jessica, another purple-haired faerie, had appeared.

“What will you do for us?” demanded her sister, Lisa, tossing her blue hair. She and her sister had also lost the heavy twang of their accents—Southern U.S. when they were on Earth.

“He doesn’t have to do anything,” Bree said, standing by my side. “He’s—”

“We know who he is,” Debbie said. “
What
he is.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Stacey added.

“He doesn’t get special treatment,” Jessica agreed.

“What do you want?” I asked. There was no use arguing with them, and I needed to get out of here. After the fight with the demon, not only my chest ached, but so did the rest of my body.

Lisa twirled a lock of her blue hair around her finger. “We’ll let you know when the time comes.”

“Beware,” said Jessica, “if you take that stone, you will
owe
us.”

I bowed my head and said through gritted teeth, “I understand.”

Those two words bound the contract more tightly than any written one on Earth, and as soon as I said them, Bree took us out of the Otherworld. We appeared in the woods near the matriarch’s mansion, and I gasped like a fish out of water. I fell to my hands and knees, struggling for a deep breath. Minutes passed before I could finally breathe normally. By then, my injuries had also healed. Only the rips in my clothes showed any evidence of the fight with the demon, but when I rose to my feet, I still rolled my neck and shoulders and shook out my limbs, making sure I was truly free of the pain.

“You’re okay?” Bree asked, and I nodded. “I hope this does what you desire.”

She gave me a quick and awkward hug before disappearing. Although the pain was gone, I still felt stiff as I made my way past the training gym and to the mansion. I reached for the handle when the wooden door flew open.

“Men,” Vanessa snarled as she nearly mowed me down. She blurred off for the beach.

As soon as I entered the foyer, Sheree stomped past me.

“Men,” she growled around elongated teeth as she headed for the back of the building.

Owen stood at the bottom of the stairs, his blond hair standing in all directions and his blue eyes wild with confusion.

“What’s up, Scarecrow?” I asked.

“Women!” he snapped, and without another word, he disappeared.

I closed the front door and shook my head with bewilderment.

“I told you, they need a calming stone,” Alexis said as she strode out of the sitting room and over to me. “If only they existed.”

“
They
need one?” I asked as she wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her head against my chest.

She snorted. “Yeah. As many as possible. Crap really hit the fan. I told Owen this would happen, but he never wants to listen to me. Now I’ll probably have to clean up his mess.” She let out a sigh when I closed my arms around her. “At least I have you to calm me. You’ve always had that effect on me. Too bad we couldn’t bottle it.”

My brows pinched together. “I still do that for you?”

She looked up at me and gave me that smile I love. “Always. Thank God. Otherwise, I’d be worse than I already am. Worse than them!”

She laid her cheek against my chest and moved her hands down my back. When she shifted and her hip pressed against mine, she froze for a minute before her hand dove into my pocket.

“I thought you were just glad to see me, but I guess not,” she said when she pulled the stone from my pocket. “What is this? It kind of looks like that one ugly birthstone. I was always so glad mine is an amethyst. I couldn’t imagine having to wear something like this. What’s that yellow one called?”

“Citrine,” I muttered, and then I blew out a breath of frustration. “And that’s a faerie stone for calm and peace.”

A smile broke out on her face. “Really? You got it for them? Oh, Tristan! You should give it to Owen, and then he can give it to them for Christmas. Oh! He can put it in a piece of jewelry like you did for me. They’d never know, but damn, would it make life a little easier for all of us.”

Her excitement was contagious, and I couldn’t help but return her smile. Her happiness made me happy, but I couldn’t exactly say that was supposed to have been
her
Christmas gift. Now what was I going to do? I snatched the stone from her and crushed it in my fist before shoving the pieces into my pocket.

She laced her fingers through my other hand and pulled me toward the stairs.

“Looks like you need to change before dinner,” she said. “What happened to your clothes anyway? They’re all ripped up.”

I grunted, but kept my thoughts clear in case she snooped my mind for the truth. “Nothing, my love. Just a little ramble in the woods. Don’t worry about me.”

Chapter 3

Sleep evaded me. I stared at the ceiling as Alexis slept in my arms, my mind running through possible gift options and tossing them away as garbage because none of them were just right. Christmas Eve would dawn in a few hours, and I had nothing to give her. How could I let this happen? The more I thought about it, the more worked up I became, and the more likely I’d wake her with my thundering heart. Very carefully, I slipped out of bed without waking her and flashed to the training gym.

I went through my aikido routine as the gray light of dawn filtered through the rafters, hoping to distract myself so my subconscious could work on my problem, but I still had no solution after two hours of practice. After some calming stretches and exercises, I flashed to the village for art supplies and returned to the gym, where I’d have privacy.

When aikido didn’t work for me, drawing and painting usually provided the escape I needed. I didn’t know what I’d paint when I’d first made the decision to get the supplies, but as soon as I started, I should have known where my inspiration would come from. I began with a painting similar to the drawing I’d done of Alexis when we first met. That sketch had been in pencil, but the color in this painting brought her to life. As I put the finishing touches on her lips, I imagined what they felt like to my fingertips. I tasted them on my own lips.

My stream of consciousness took me to our wedding, and I painted my beautiful bride in her wedding dress. She’d been so self-conscious in it, which had been absurd. No one could look as good in that dress as she did. Stunning. Her coppery hair had been piled on top of her head with loose curls draping around her face. She’d looked so nervous, like she might bolt, until she took my hand. Her mahogany eyes showed so much love as she recited her vows to me. I’d barely been able to focus on my own vows, blown away that she was actually committing herself to me.
Me!
Love had never been in my realm of possibilities until she came into my life, and there she was—taking the Amadis vows of marriage. On the canvas before me, I captured her face against the backdrop of the sunset on the beach as she said her vows.

I couldn’t wait to get her to the beach house that night and only stopped at the restaurant to show the monster that once lived inside me who was in control. All I wanted to do was take her and make her
mine
, but if I couldn’t restrain my human desires, the monster knew I wouldn’t be able to restrain it. So I forced myself down. Waited as patiently as I could manage. Now I painted the joy in her eyes when she looked at the house for the first time—the Caribbean room, especially—and realized I’d done it for her. She’d been so worried about not getting me a wedding present when that adoration on her face was worth more than gold to me.

The memories flowed, and as I painted her, I felt her luscious lips, her soft skin, the vulnerability that poured off her. She was scared, I knew, on a few levels, but she put her trust in our love. In me. I held tightly to my control as I fumbled to take that dress off of her, and nearly lost that hold when I couldn’t figure it out. Her lips had tilted with that sweet but sexy smile as she showed me how to take off the top. And fuck if I didn’t almost lose it again when those beautiful tits burst free. They were a little smaller then, before the
Ang’dora
, but still perfect. Round, plump, with pinkish-brown tips hard like pebbles.

I moved to another canvas as I remembered the rest of the night. Admiring the perfection that was my Alexis naked. Seeing her flawless olive skin, her curves, the lines of her hips and her thighs and calves, the pink folds between her legs. Feeling her, soft and supple, under my fingers and lips. Tasting her in many places for the first time. Hovering over her and the frightened look in her eyes when my fingers slid inside. She was wet and pulsing, ready for me. Making me throb for her.

“You’re so big,” she had whispered, and I’d wanted to go all caveman on her. To show her just how much of a man I was. To take possession of her and make her
mine
. But I didn’t want to scare her anymore than she already was, because damn, I would have gone mad if she’d shut down on me. Again, though, she showed her love and her trust.

I lost all hold on my conscious mind as soon as I entered her. She wasn’t the first woman I’d been with, but nothing had felt like her, on the outside or in. Bliss overcame me. I wanted to go slow and make it last forever if possible, but at the same time, I wanted to pound her hard and hit that explosion with all the force we had building inside us. I was so afraid I’d break her small, human body, though. I didn’t know at first that she could have nearly broken me.  But I found out quickly. She barely moved, and I almost came right there and then without her, but I didn’t want that to be how her first time ended. Somehow, by ensuring that she enjoyed this as much as I did, I held on, stroking her, licking her, sucking and biting, wanting to devour her, pumping and thrusting and rocking together until we both climbed and shouted and exploded with a fierceness more mind-blowing than I could have ever imagined.

And not too long after, the tip of her pink tongue slid over her swollen red lips, and she wanted to do it again.

“Um ...” The clearing of a throat brought me back to the training gym. Blossom stood in the doorway with her eyes squeezed shut. “My guess is those are for your eyes only?”

I turned to the line of paintings I’d done and really saw them for the first time. I’d captured my Alexis beautifully. Perfectly. Erotically.

“Erm ...” I didn’t know what to say, part of me wanting to show her off, but part of me appalled that anyone else had seen her. Even if it was only Blossom. “Can you hide them?”

With her eyes still shut, she flicked her hand. The canvases went blank, but black rather than beige.

“Did it work?” she asked, barely cracking one eyelid open. When she saw that it had, she opened both eyes completely. “I’m, uh, really sorry. They’re really gorgeous, I mean, like
wow
gorgeous, but I’m sure you didn’t want ... I mean, I didn’t mean to—”

“Forget about it,” I said, the initial shock worn off. It was only Blossom, and although Alexis would be embarrassed if she knew her best friend had seen these, it could have been worse. She could have been Owen or Dorian. How senseless of me to be painting these here. But that’s what my woman did to me—made me lose all of my senses.

“I just came to say thank you for letting us use the jet, and, well, Merry Christmas.” She threw her arms around me in a hug.

I patted her on the back. “Merry Christmas, Blossom.”

“Dad! There you are!” Dorian came running down the path. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“I need to go,” Blossom said. She bent over to give Dorian a hug goodbye, then she looked at me and over my shoulder at the blank canvases. She couldn’t lift her spell with Dorian there, but she grabbed my hand and tapped the tips of my fingers in a pattern as her lips moved silently. “Tap the pattern on the bottom left corner of each one to expo—er, see them.”

“Thank you.”

She gave me a mischievous grin. “I don’t know who’s luckier—you or her.”

I chuckled. “Definitely me.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” She leaned in closer to me, and whispered, “She’ll love the gift, though.”

I cocked my head as she walked back toward the mansion, not understanding. Because I still didn’t have a gift for my wife.

“Dad, I don’t have a present for Mom,” Dorian said, poking me in the stomach. “Can you help me?”

Apparently our son was in my same situation.

“What were you doing in there anyway?” he asked before I could answer his first question. He looked past me at all the black canvases.

I looked over my shoulder and realized one hadn’t been blanked out. The last one—Alexis later in our honeymoon, watching the sunset on the beach. Well, that’s where my vision had apparently been headed. Blossom had walked in before I finished it. Seeing it gave me an aha moment. Was this painting the gift Blossom had meant?

“Oh, that’s a pretty picture of Mom,” Dorian said, but then he frowned. “It’s not done, though.”

He followed me inside, and we both studied the picture.

“She was pregnant with you then,” I said.

“She doesn’t look fat.”

I laughed. “You were a little thing then, like a tiny bug inside her. So what do you think? Blue or green here?”

I pointed to a part of the sky right behind Alexis, thinking blue and not just any blue but a cornflower blue. Dorian had a bit of artistic talent, too, though, and I wondered what he’d pick.

“This soft, kind of grayish blue,” he said, pointing at a color I’d already mixed on my palette. Pretty close to cornflower. He swept his finger over the painting without touching it. “And make the strokes like this.”

I handed him the paintbrush. “Why don’t you do it?”

We finished the painting together, and Dorian beamed with pride when I praised his talent. His hazel eyes sparkled. When I’d first seen them do that, I’d finally understood what Alexis meant about my own eyes when she said the gold in them sparked or sparkled, depending on my mood.

“We could give this as our present to Mom,” Dorian suggested as we admired the painting. “I think she’d love it.”

“I think that’s a great idea. But it should be from you.”

“Do you already have a present for her?”

“I’m working on it.”

“She’ll like it no matter what, Dad. She likes everything you give her, even if it’s just a kiss.”

I ruffled his hair and chuckled before taking him back to the house. He might be right, but I would give my wife more than a kiss. Christmas Eve had already blasted to almost noon and I still didn’t have a present for her, but I wasn’t giving up yet.

“Dude, Tristan, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Owen said as soon as we walked into the kitchen. He grabbed my arm and pushed me back out to the foyer, I assumed to get away from Dorian’s ears. He lowered his voice. “Alexis said you have something that could help me?”

I dug in my pocket and pulled out the pieces of faerie stone. “They’re all yours if you want the pieces. They have the quality of peace.”

“Just what I need.” He smacked me on the shoulder. “You’re a lifesaver! But, uh, what do I do with them?”

I shrugged. “Take them to the jeweler in the village.”

Scarecrow snorted. “You think I should give them jewelry?
Both
of them?”

“Probably not but how else will you get them to wear the stones?”

His brows puckered so that three lines showed between them. “Good point, but what? The last thing I need is to give either of them the wrong idea.”

“Scarecrow—”

He held up his hand to stop me. “I get enough grief from your wife. I know I need to do something but not now. Not at Christmas.”

I nodded. “You do what you got to do. As for the jewelry, just don’t give either of them a ring.”

“Right. Chicks read too much into rings. Maybe a necklace? Or earrings?”

“I don’t know about earrings, but Vanessa certainly likes necklaces. A bracelet might be safest, though.”

“Cool. Thanks, man.” He stepped toward the door, then turned back to me. “Since I owe you one ...” His eyes narrowed, and he got that look when he was sensing for others’ presence. He took a step closer to me and lowered his voice to a whisper. “She’ll kill me if I tell you, so all I’m going to say is Alexis has something sweet planned for you tonight. Off-island. Just the two of you. She needs me to set a few things up, so if there’s anything you might want to have there ... her present maybe ... I could take it ahead of time.”

Son of a bitch. She’d really gone all out, and I had a perfect opportunity to do the same, but I still had nothing. Or ... did I?