Move Me (17 page)

“I’m glad you’re not mad at me,” Duvall said
sleepily.

“I should be,” she retorted. “Why didn’t you
tell me you were rescuing Danny?”

“I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I wasn’t
sure I could find him ... or return myself. I thought enough people
in your life had disappointed you.”

“And you thought me feeling abandoned would
be better?”

“You didn’t feel abandoned,” he said.

She didn’t realize this was true until he
said it. She’d had other reactions but not that. “You closed the
door behind you,” she said. “You made certain I couldn’t follow
you.”

“I closed
a
door,” he corrected, “not
every door to your world. And, yes, I made certain you couldn’t
follow. I flattered myself that you’d try, and you could have ended
up anywhere. Unless inter-dimensional portals are anchored expertly
- which this one was not - they don’t lead predictably from point A
to point B. What would you have done if you’d ended up in a hell
dimension? More importantly, what would
I
?”

“Spoken like a prince,” she said with a
choking laugh.

“Well, I am one,” he said, his dignity
aggrieved. “What I meant, however, was that I’d have
had
to
come after you, which might not have ended well for either of us.
You might not realize this, and I don’t mean to suggest I’m not
willing, but I’m giving up quite a bit to marry you and live
here.”

She twisted around in his arms to look up at
him.

“I’m
more
than willing,” he clarified,
his expression softening.

“Will you miss your power?” she asked,
because perhaps his comment hadn’t been as self-centered as she’d
thought.

“I’ll have some,” he said, affecting a shrug
that didn’t entirely convince. “My power will simply restore itself
more slowly. And I’ll still have my faerie luck. We’ll have a nice
life here.”

“Would you want to bring me to Faerie?”

“Absolutely not,” he said unequivocally. “You
can meet my parents in Resurrection. It’s a half-and-half city,
magic-wise, much more stable than Faerie and much less dangerous
for humans. You’ll like it, I believe. My faerie cousins think
anyone who lives in the Old Country is crazy.”

Belle touched his chest, trying to understand
the sentiment behind his acerbic words. “Are your parents going to
be upset with you for wanting to marry me?”

“Worried maybe, but not upset. They love me.
My happiness always matters most to them.” He said this simply, but
also as if he knew how special it was. “My family is the main
reason I love Faerie. Under their rule, Talfryn is wonderful.”

“Love makes any place a home.”

“That has been my experience,” he said.

He regarded her so warmly she was humbled.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “You really want to marry me?”

“I do,” he confirmed. “I believe you’re the
other half of me.”

“So ... like it or not, you’re stuck is what
you’re saying?”

He laughed and kissed the tip of her nose. “I
don’t think of it as stuck, Tinker Belle. I think of it as
lucky.”

Belle thought of it as lucky too. She put her
head on his shoulder, and he rested his chin on top. “Danny
would
tell you that stupid nickname.”

“You have to admit it’s appropriate. Plus,
every faerie bride can use a few extra names.”

“Like you have my uncle’s now.”

“Like I have your uncle’s. If you wish, you
could choose a last name for me to use every day.”

“I’ll think on that,” she said, too lazy to
move away from the strong beating of his heart.

“Nothing too ridiculous,” he cautioned.
“You’ll have to share it soon enough.”

Oh, he had a thing or two to learn about
women in her world - though maybe not on that particular score.
“I’m not fragile,” she did feel compelled to say. “I’m strong
enough to face hard things. My ex used to call me tough-as-nails
Belle.”

Duvall hummed and stroked her hair. He seemed
to have an opinion about the nickname but kept it to himself. “I
wouldn’t want you any other way,” he said.

More than him being a faerie made Belle
believe this.

~

Duvall hugged his betrothed in the warm dark
car surrounded by winter cold. As he did, he experienced a peace so
profound it could only be a gift from the Power his kind didn’t
contemplate as often as humans did. Faeries were demigods
themselves: dimension creators, when it suited them. They knew,
though, that greater hands than theirs had formed the universe.

Duvall listened to snowflakes tick on the
frosted glass, perfectly happy that this was so.

Belle didn’t understand what he gave up for
her. Later she might, and he anticipated a few arguments. If he
remained in Faerie, he’d exist for centuries. With Belle, in the
mundane world, he’d have one long lifetime. When she was ready to
cross the veil as her uncle had, Duvall would cross with her. He
had more evidence than most humans that they wouldn’t cease to be,
but even if he hadn’t, his decision would be the same.

Time without meaning was only time. Whatever
came, he knew he’d never erase a moment he spent with her. With a
sureness that ran deeper than instinct, he knew his life here with
her, in the place she considered home, was the meaning his many
years had been leading to.

Belle was the sparkling spirit that inspired
his to its best shine.

His hands tingled as he stroked her
love-tangled hair, encouraging her to cuddle closer under the
scarlet coat. Sleep had almost claimed him when a snatch of a
vision rose into his mind’s eye. Future-telling wasn’t his
strongest ability, but now and then it nudged him.

“A treasure shop,” he said.

“Hm?” Belle hummed into his chest muscle.

“We’re going to run one together,” he
predicted, “full of things your kind have discarded that other
humans still desire. Also, there will be pie. We’re going to call
it Ring My Belle’s.”

“Oh God,” Belle groaned.

Duvall smiled. He knew he had spoken
true.

BELLE
and Duvall were married on New
Year’s day, a decision everyone - with the exception of Danny and
Mrs. J - considered too hasty.

In Susi’s case, this might have been because
she’d wanted to plan a big wedding.

They honeymooned in Resurrection, which Belle
actually did think was a mistake. The half-magic Pocket city was
far too fascinating to permit them (or her, at any rate) to spend
the whole week in bed. Plus, Duvall’s family arrived three nights
later to throw them a big dinner. His father and mother (the king
and queen!) were very nice but a teensy bit intimidating. Belle
didn’t meet Duvall’s two older brothers, because they’d stayed
behind to govern Talfryn.

Duvall’s famously fierce big sisters only
popped in to eat. Somewhat to the other faeries’ shock, they’d
sworn vengeance upon Mor, Duvall’s name-stealing enemy. Effie and
Mina, who were twins, had shared a dream in which they cut him down
together with iron swords, and they’d taken this as a sign that
their special sisterly bond would give them the power required.
Since the word from the soothsayers was also favorable, everyone
pretended not to worry for their safety.

Belle was learning life in the “Old Country”
wasn’t what she was used to.

Duvall’s Resurrection cousins turned out to
be a raucous bunch once they had some OJ in them. Danny especially
hit it off with them. He’d spent so many years in Faerie, she
supposed he might now miss that. As generous as they were fun, the
cousins gave her and Duvall some pretty awesome wedding presents,
most of which he warned her wouldn’t work in the mundane world.
Belle didn’t care about that. Lucky dragon teeth and good wishes
for heart-held friends were way more thoughtful than waffle
irons.

One more advantage of their visit to
Resurrection was that Duvall’s wings were real there. They were
almost lovelier than she could comprehend. Their iridescence was
exquisite, their colors and their sparkles, the way they glowed
like the northern lights with his emotions. Duvall explained that
displaying them was a private thing.
They
were his
nakedness. Despite their beauty, his wings were unexpectedly tough
for organs so expressive and sensitive: the strongest part of him,
he claimed.

The fun Belle had exploring them meant their
honeymoon went over by a few days.

When they returned to Kingaken, tired but
happy, she and Danny bit the bullet on apprising their parents - in
an edited fashion - of the latest developments. Even though Danny
remembered what they were like, he was taken aback by them being
wildly joyous over his reappearance ... and utterly indifferent to
Belle’s marriage. Because he felt he had to, he went to visit them
briefly in New Mexico. He was very quiet for a couple days
afterwards. When he did speak of the trip, all he said was that he
was never seeing them in person again.

He lived with Belle and Duvall for six months
- decompressing from his time in Faerie, as he put it. When asked
if he’d prefer relocating to Resurrection, he shook his head. “Here
is better, Belle. Here is steady and good. Even in Resurrection
there’s too much magic for me to relax.” Hearing how adamant he was
allowed Belle to relax herself. He wasn’t staying in Kingaken just
for her. Despite the unavoidable bumped elbows, the time spent as
roomies was healing for both siblings.

Danny paid his keep by pitching in at their
new junkshop. Kingaken’s economy had taken a small but decided
upswing, a mysterious turn of events if you hadn’t learned
firsthand how faerie “luck” could spread. She knew Duvall enjoyed
playing a part in that. Watching him and Mrs. J work their magic at
estate sales was an education in the one-two punch created when
human bargaining know-how joined forces with faerie charm.

Organizing the business and restoring stock
was left to Belle, which suited her to her toes. She’d happily have
gone on as they were forever, but one morning over breakfast, Danny
announced he was ready to stand on his own. He’d bought a decrepit
Victorian mansion on the far side of town, which he and the Feeneys
were going to fix up. He planned to turn it into a bed and
breakfast for Kingaken’s now steady stream of antiquers.

Belle had grown fond of having him underfoot,
but since the other side of town was barely two miles away, she
couldn’t be too upset.

By the time the B&B was open, Duvall’s
sisters had successfully accomplished their quest to kill Mor.
Defeating the ancient evildoer had made them such celebrities
they’d felt a need to flee the magic world until the hubbub died
down. They were Danny’s first guests, their faerie glamour ensuring
the place would smell heavenly for years.

On a more practical note, Belle decided to
call her husband Duvall Duvall, because it made her laugh every
time she heard it, and because him having only one everyday moniker
gave that name the least possible power over him.

He claimed she’d chosen it in revenge for him
insisting they call their thriving junkshop his predicted Ring My
Belle’s.

“That was for luck,” he liked to complain.
“Because I saw it. Calling me Duvall Duvall was uncalled for.”

Belle didn’t buy his pretense of being upset.
Her handsome prince of a husband was a treasure worth protecting,
brightening the power he’d been born to with simpler magic of being
a good man.

Since he felt the same about treasuring her,
that worked out perfectly.

# # #

EMMA
Holly is the award-winning,
USA Today
bestselling author of more than thirty romantic
books, featuring vampires, demons, fairies and just plain
extraordinary ordinary folks. She loves the hot stuff, both to read
and to write!

If you’d like to find out what else she’s
written, please visit her website at:
http://www.emmaholly.com
.

Emma runs monthly contests and sends out
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them, go to her contest page.

If sexy shapechangers are your thing, you
might try
Hidden Talents
, which features a werewolf cop and
is set in the same general story world as “Move Me.” An excerpt for
Hidden
Talents
follows.

Thanks so much for reading this book!

available in ebook and print

Werewolf cop Adam Santini is sworn to protect
and serve all the supes in Resurrection, NY - including
unsuspecting human Talents who wander in from Outside.

Telekinetic Ari is hot on the trail of a
mysterious crime boss who wants to exploit her gift for his own
evil ends, a mission that puts her on a collision course with the
hottest cop in the RPD. Adam wants Blackwater too, but mostly he
wants Ari. She seems to be the mate he’s been yearning for all his
life, though getting a former street kid into bed with the Law
could be his toughest case to date.

DUSK
settled over the city of
Resurrection like a blanket of bad news.

That’s me
, Ari thought, flexing her
right fist beside her hip.
Bad news with a capital B
.

This wasn’t just whistling in the dark. Ari
had been bad news to some people in her life. To her parents. To
every teacher she’d had in high school.
You’ll come to no
good
, they’d threatened, and she couldn’t swear they’d been
wrong. Certainly, she hadn’t turned out to be a blessing to Maxwell
or Sarah. Because of her, Max was in the hospital with too many
broken bones in his arms to count, and Sarah was God knew where.
But at least Ari was trying to change that. At least she was trying
to be bad news to people who deserved it.