Madison Layle - Falke’s Captive

“So I’ve heard,” she muttered and lifted her drink again. She’d almost polished it off.

“Something I’ll never know, I guess.”

“Want another drink?” Kelan asked.

She nodded as the waiter arrived with their dinner. The scent of her prime rib made her mouth water. “Thanks, guys,” she said when the server departed.

“For?” Kelan glanced up at her, butter knife in one hand.

“Dinner. Conversation. Even arguing with you is more relaxing than…” a night alone in a hotel room. She smiled. “It’s nice, and I like you two a lot.”

They glanced at each other then back at her. “We like you too, Beth,” Kelan said in the gentlest voice she’d heard him use. “More than we should.”

“There’s still daylight left,” Reidar said as they stepped outside ahead of Kelan, who was taking care of the bill. “You up for a stroll?”

“Sure. That’d be nice.”

“I know just the place. Have you been to the park?”

Beth shook her head.

They waited for Kelan to catch up before Reidar led them down a different side street and into a wooded park that stretched along the river’s edge.

Neither brother spoke, nor did she as she took in the tranquil sight of plant life alongside the rippling waters. No words were necessary. Though Kelan stayed close, he let Reidar guide the way, and it was the gentle Reidar who took her by the hand during their stroll.

She enjoyed the sweet comradery they shared as they listened to birds chirp. A squirrel did a one-eighty on the path, scampered up a nearby tree trunk and vocally chewed them out for disrupting its plans.

The critter’s anger made her grin.

They stopped at a point where the water foamed white amid a rocky outcrop, the sounds of bubbling rapids filling the silence. Kelan moved closer to the shoreline, picked up some pebbles and skipped one after another out across the smoother surface upriver from the rapids.

“I can see why you love it here,” she said, drawing Reidar’s attention.

He winked, bent down to pluck a tiny white wild flower and slipped it over her ear. “And I knew you had the kind of heart to understand.” Lifting her hand to his lips, he looked out across the river. “I was impressed by what you said about man sharing this world with animals. You have conviction, a passion for what you believe in, and that’s admirable.”

She studied his profile, so similar to his brother’s and yet different. They each had a fire inside that she could sense, but where Kelan’s was more explosive, Reidar’s simmered with undying strength and a tenderness that called to her.

“But?”

His lips twitched with amusement before he replied. “But…are there limits to what you’d be willing to do to achieve your dreams?”

She tensed. “Of course. I’m not unethical.”

“I didn’t say you were. It’s just…”

“Just what?”

He shrugged, avoiding her gaze, apparently unwilling or unable to say more.

She couldn’t fault him for having doubts. The scene she’d made in their store hadn’t exactly presented her in the best of light. “I don’t think your sister likes me,” she said, speculating on where his concerns came from. What did she have to do to convince them she wasn’t a threat to their precious pet?

“Heidi doesn’t really know you.”

“Axel? And the others?”

Reidar looked at her then, his gaze holding hers for a long moment. “They’re just concerned about Falke’s safety.”

“And you?”

“We all are.”

“That’s what I thought. I swear to you, I mean no harm to Falke. I want to help animals like him.

I can’t do that by sacrificing my integrity and harming the very thing I’m trying to protect.”

He released a breath and caressed her cheek with his fingertips. “I believe you.”

After a suspended pause, she asked, “What about you?”

He held her gaze, stared.

“What do you believe in, Reidar?”

He glanced at the horizon, toward the setting sun, his thumb caressing the back of her hand. After a second, he answered, “Like you, I think there are some things in life worth protecting.”

“Ah. So you’re the tree hugger?” she teased, making him smile, and something fluttered inside her tummy at the sight.

“Not exactly. That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” She grew serious, stepped around to face him and took his other hand in hers too.

“What’re your convictions? What things are worth protecting to you?”

His eyes warmed with such passion as he released her hands to rub his palms up her arms.

“Family.”

Smiling, she let him turn her, leaned back against him and wrapped herself in his arms.

“Hey! Care to stroll out here?” Kelan shouted from where he stood shin-deep in the river. He’d rolled up his pant legs and removed his socks and shoes.

She chuckled. “Are you crazy? Isn’t it cold?”

He grinned. “Yep. Refreshing.”

“Is he always like this?” she asked Reidar.

“Like what?”

“So adventurous.”

“Yes. Kelan is a free spirit.”

“Come on in,” Kelan urged. “It feels great.”

When she hesitated, Reidar murmured, “Scared?”

“No.”

“Where’s that adventurous spirit of yours?”

She slid a sideways glance at him. “My scientific spirit is trying to calculate the odds of falling in…or determine whether you two are up to something.”

“Come on,” Kelan called out again. “What are you waiting for?”

Reidar smiled. “Make him promise not to get you wet, and you’ll make it out with only damp feet. On my honor, I know my brother. He’d never break a vow.”

His tone was enough to convince her.

Honor.

Family.

The man before her was pretty passionate about his own convictions, too. Impressed, she smiled.

Only after she received promises from both brothers did she remove her shoes, roll up her jeans and wade into the river.

Her happy laughter soon echoed through the valley.

Reidar laced his fingers with Beth’s as they walked back to the inn from the park. The sun had set, but the chilled water had revived all of them like Kelan said it would. And as promised, they all escaped without a dunking.

Kelan opened the hotel’s door for them. Reidar noticed his brother glance at the clock and then his watch, but didn’t say anything as he led Beth upstairs.

“Left pocket,” she said, this time not even attempting to reach for her own room keycard.

We shouldn’t be doing this , Kelan said silently. We got nowhere with her tonight. She still wants another blood sample, but how do we figure out where the first one went?

Reidar slid his fingers into the pocket and told Kelan, I need this—her—tonight. And so do you.

Beth’s eyelids drifted closed as he squeezed her butt, pulled her against his body, and then retrieved the card, which he used to open the door. Dipping his head, he kissed her while he walked her backwards into the room and tossed the keycard on the dresser by the television.

“Mmm,” she murmured, pulling away enough to talk. “You comin’, Kelan?”

Not yet, but I will be.

Reidar smiled at the tone of surrender in his brother’s telepathic quip. “Yeah, he’s not gonna let me have you all to myself,” he told Beth as he removed her glasses and handed them to Kelan.

“Sharing’s good,” she got out before he claimed her lips again.

While they kissed, she tugged at his shirt, so he let her remove it and started to help her off with her own. Pushing one bra strap off her shoulder, Reidar pressed his lips to her skin and noticed his bare-chested brother draw near to kiss her on the nape. In seconds her bra, a sexier lacy scrap of material than what she’d worn the other night, landed on a growing pile of clothes, and her breasts were in Kelan’s hands, lifted and ready for a taste.