She did know, and this wasn’t the first time he’d asked her for her star hairpins.
“You can’t have them,” she insisted, tipping her chin up and staring at him.She noticed the graying hair at his temples, and the slight beard on his jawline.It was not unattractive and only emphasized his masculine features.He really was an extremely attractive Elven male.Too bad he was such an arrogant jerk.“They were a gift,” she reminded him with a slight smirk.
“I know they were,” he acknowledged regretfully.“I gave them to you.Of course, that was before you showed your true colors.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know the truth, Chrissy, even if you choose to deny it.If I’d realized what you were going to do I never would have given you…”
“A set of six beautiful diamond hairpins shaped like stars,” she interrupted.“Surely a man of your means can afford to replace them.”
“They are much more than pretty baubles,” he stated angrily, rising to tower over her.“The magic they possess is beyond price, beyond value.I hoped you were going to be my bride one day!Of course, that was before you became infatuated with a human, and what’s worse, I saw what was happening,” he ground out.“I watched it all and waited patiently in the shadows for you to come to your senses.By the time I realized you didn’t have any sense at all, it was too late and you’d gone.”
“What could you have done about it anyway?”she asked, tilting her chin in challenge, her blue eyes flashing.“My mind was made up.”
“I was too patient with you,” he sighed with regret.
“Yes, because you were convinced you were too old for me,” she scoffed.“Don’t touch the pretty little elf!Wait until she’s filled with desire and maybe then it would be acceptable to take her to your bed.Well, guess what?Brad had no such reservations, none at all.”
“Obviously,” he drawled.“I was a fool.I accept that freely.”
“Finally, something we can agree on,” she crowed.
“I should have spirited you away to my castle, taken you over my knee for being so disobedient to your parents and disrespectful to me and then made you my own.I have no doubt that had I done exactly that you never would have run off with the human.”
“My mother would have rescued me,” she sniffed, bracing herself when he took hold of her shoulders and gave her a slight shake.
“Assuredly, but by then I would have taught you a few lessons, in and out of bed.I doubt you would have been so defiant with your sweet little bottom on fire.Maybe you would have crawled onto my lap and sobbed out your apologies for playing me for a fool.At least Timberline would have been gone by the time you were found.That alone would have been worth it.”
“Maybe not.Maybe I would have come to hate you,” she hissed.
“And maybe you would have come to truly love me and I would have realized you were more trouble than you were worth,” he suggested, watching the shock wash across her face.“In any case, we’ll never know, will we?”
“No, we’ll never know,” she admitted, surprised to feel a touch of sadness, a smattering of remorse.Would she have come to love him?There was something between them back then.
Jackson had been handsome, charming and he treated her with the utmost kindness, catering to her every whim.Clearly, he’d adored her, treating her ever so gently when she was in his presence.In his eyes, she was a rare and fragile creature, too beautiful to sully with his touch.She’d been certain that his desire was to possess her as one would a pretty Christmas ornament, yet he held his desires in check.For a moment, she recalled the frustration she felt each time he kissed her cheek instead of taking her in his arms and claiming her.It did not end well, for Brad Timberline felt no such restraint and while she’d been certain Brad loved her; it was not enough to keep him from risking his life or losing it.
Left with a child and no husband to protect and support her, she often wondered if she’d done the right thing by running away with him.However, the damage was already done.She loved her son Wyatt, but the loneliness and shame was her undoing and soon bitterness was her closest friend.Last night, seeing her son with his bride, Patty, was the first time Crystalia had felt any hope for the future in many years.One day they would have children, and she would be given another chance to make it right, another chance to find some form of happiness.
Jackson watchedthe emotions play across her face.God, he’d been so stupid, so ridiculously chivalrous back then.Captivated by her beauty, he never looked beneath it to find the woman, for despite being centuries younger than he, she was his for the taking if he’d only seen it at the time.
Santa had disapproved, encouraging him to set his sights on a more mature female elf, perhaps one who’d been married before and was now a widow.It had caused a rift between the two men who’d been best friends for more years than either cared to calculate.
When his Chrissy finally ran away with the human, Jackson lost all sense of reason for a number of decades.In a fit of rage, he turned the beautiful courtyard he’d created for her, the one place he was publicly able to court his love, into a frozen wasteland, unsuitable for any lovers tryst.Ever after it was deserted lest a pair of young lovers wanted to freeze to death.Only Crystalia was permitted to enter without fear or injury, but for years it remained empty until last night.
He knew it immediately, sensed she was there and slipped into Christmas Village unnoticed amid all the celebrating.From a short distance he watched her, felt the love as she embraced the young elf that would marry her son.
Even though he’d visited her many times, it was the first true emotion he’d seen from her normally frozen features.Perhaps there was yet hope, he decided.If she could love this pink haired female, then was it possible she could love others?She was so very vibrant last night.He could not look away.She could burn him, badly.Chrissy, his ‘hot star’ was capable of crushing his heart once again, but he would not make the same mistakes a second time.
Slipping away from the festivities he’d returned to his frozen castle and began to make plans.
Now she wiggledher shoulders free and went to refill her coffee cup.
“So why are you still here?I’ve told you I won’t give them back.What else could you possibly be hanging around for?”
“I want you to come with me,” he stated.“I have something I want to show you.”
She laughed.
