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 been 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.