Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Well, I’m really on Santa’s famous sleigh.
Honest to God.
And the reindeer line up is as follows… Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Is the song playing through your head yet? Haha, a person could go insane repeating this over and over again and yet here I am. I repeat it again and then…
The most famous reindeer of all…
Rudolph!
Sans red nose, but still a little different than the rest.
I tilt my head. Hmmm. There’s something special about him that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Is it his fur? No, no, it looks similar to the others.
His mannerisms match as well, maybe it’s just my imagination?
Maybe it’s all the food, sexual tension, cocoa, or the very surreal experience of being on the sleigh.
Stetson had a few of Santa’s helpers get us ready for a sleigh ride that I was told I’ve never experienced in my life before.
Unmatched. Incredible. Better than the best ride of your life—I’ll leave my other comparison out of it— and finally magical.
I was promised magical damn it, who wouldn’t be pumped?
We have thick, furry, cozy blankets covering us, keeping us warm from the cold frost and red thermals with spiked hot cocoa for our journey.
I can already anticipate the buzz of whiskey as it hits my stomach, and I haven’t even had a sip yet.
They even gave us some Christmas treats—as if I can fit one more bite in my body.
Stetson sure has no problem eating away though like his life depends on it.
He’s already had one of the small cakes and I can see him eying the other one with sprinkles. He shoots me a wicked grin as if to say he wishes the sprinkles were on me instead. I feel myself blush.
And strangely, he’s been suspiciously quiet since the meal with his dad. He looks over at me and pulls the reins to the ginormous, intricate sleigh.
“Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I tell him the truth.
“Let’s do it,” he says with the sexy smile I’m coming to adore so much that I find myself searching for it even when I’m sitting right next to him. The man is a threat to my heart.
The sleigh takes off and it’s as surreal as it sounds.
I look up at the gorgeous sky. It’s like the whole world is glowing with a soft blue-purple light.
Shimmering neon green is spread across the sky, rippling with waves as the aurora moves like heaven whispering down on us.
It’s truly the most spectacular sky I’ve ever encountered.
I wish I could freeze the moment, him next to me, the sky above us, everything about it is surreal—perfect.
The sleigh glides across the snow, cutting a silver path through the moonlight. Ahead, a forest rises—each tree dusted in frost and shimmering as if brushed by a touch of Christmas magic. I look over at Stetson in awe.
“This is the most magical view I’ve ever seen,” I say on an exhale taking it all in. “It’s unreal.”
“It is,” he agrees and looks up, his eyes bright. “It always hits me in a different way when I come back here.”
He leans forward and hands me one of the thermal cans filled with the spiked hot chocolate.
I take it from him and our fingers collide, sending shivers up my spine.
I boldly slide closer to him until our thighs are touching under the blankets.
I feel his body tense up against mine as soon as we connect.
“I’m kind of cold,” I lie looking over at him from the corner of my eye.
His blue eyes seem to glow in the night as he looks over at me.
“Good thing I’m warm.”
My heart stutters a bit, pounding harder against my chest.
I lick the bottom of my lip and watch as his gaze turns hooded, and the mood shifts to something electric. He lets go of the straps and the sleigh continues on because of course these reindeer know exactly where they’re going.
Stetson’s arm hooks around my waist, pulling me effortlessly into his lap beneath the heavy blanket. The world tilts—the jingle of the sleigh bells fading under the rush of my heartbeat—as his mouth hovers just inches from mine.
“I’m going to assume the reindeer know where they’re going?” I manage, breathless, my words ghosting against his lips.
His answering smile is slow, dangerous. “You have nothing to worry about when you’re with me.”
His voice is low and rough, but there’s something else in it too—something that slides beneath the teasing heat and settles deep, like a promise I’m not sure I’m ready for. And then I stop thinking.
And only feel.
Stetson. Everywhere. His hands moving up and down my body, over my clothes, the black zip jumpsuit he had me wear to keep warm. No, I don’t have anything on underneath it.
His mouth as his lips part.
His tongue sliding across mine.
His hands digging into my hair.
There’s too much to feel all at once.
I’m lost in the vortex of this sexy man and everything he encompasses.
I’m no prude. I’ve been with guys—experienced and not. But this is unique.
This is something different. He’s making me feel something different. It’s not just passion and the crazy need to have him inside of me, it’s more than that. It’s feeling.
It’s deeper.
Like… this guy. This man… he’s…
The one.
I don’t say it out loud, but I’m thinking it—what about the reindeer? Rudolph? Surely there’s some HR clause for this kind of situation.
But then Stetson’s hands slip beneath the blanket, fingers brushing between my thighs, coaxing them apart like he’s parting secrets, not fabric. His touch is heavy yet careful, commanding and impossibly gentle all at once. The air shifts. My pulse stumbles.
His mouth trails down my neck, teeth grazing the spot just below my ear. A spark ignites there, racing through every nerve ending.
“I want you,” he murmurs, voice low and rough, “right here.”
My breath catches. Then he kisses me—once, twice, again—each one deeper than the last until I can’t tell where I end and he begins. The world narrows to sleigh bells, snow, and the sound of my heartbeat tangled with his.
“Oh… Christmas Tree,” I blurt before I can stop myself.
He stills, lips hovering at my jaw, a wicked smile curving against my skin. “Did you just substitute a carol for my name?”
Heat floods my face. “It’s the environment!”
He laughs, the sound dark and rich, vibrating against me. “Competing with Christmas lore, huh? Guess I’ll have to work harder to make you forget the lyrics.”
The sleigh banks into the forest, swallowed by shadow. I swear it’s intentional—the darkness, the privacy. His fingers toy with the laces of his leather pants, and I bite down on my lip.
“So the reindeer just… ignore whatever’s going on back here?”
His grin could melt glaciers. He lets out a low whistle—soft, hypnotic—and the air itself seems to hum. The melody wraps around us, isolating us in a pocket of enchanted silence.
“No one can hear you now,” he says.
My heart kicks. “You mean… they can’t hear me say your name?”
His eyes glint with something wicked. “No. I meant they won’t stop when they hear you scream it.”
The sleigh doesn’t slow. Neither do we. The night swallows the rest. We have a moment, a stare off as if he’s asking permission. I nod and then his moves.
I'm lost when he pulls me down against the large seat, tugging my pants down while I work the front of his.
His hands are already working, between my thighs, his palm presses against me before warm fingers slide inside me, prepping me, readying me.
He plays me with his fingertips the way he plays the music with his mouth, the way he demands worship with every damn thing he does.
He's a menacing sexy man of dark chaos and magical promises, whispers you're afraid to believe, hope for moments you don’t dare wish for.
I'm drowning in his deep kiss again when he presses into me.
My mouth parts at the invasion and then, all I feel is a sinking heat between my thighs pulsing with the song around me in perfect cadence to the way his hips rock into me deeper and deeper. I cling onto him for control long lost, long ago given away.
"Let go with me." He commands it. My body gives in as waves of ecstasy pour out of me.
A cry builds up in my throat, he swallows it with his kiss, his hips rocking so hard that I have to grab his shoulders to hold on.
The sky explodes in a fireworks overhead, cliché and yet not as we both find our release, the light above illuminates his gorgeous features, his full lips.
I start to get up, with a frown he pushes me back down.
"Charlie, I'm a man with a large appetite.
How dare you deprive me of my dessert." And then his head is gone, and so am I as he disappears between my thighs, a brief brush of the blanket and then his mouth licks from one thigh to the other.
I'm in heaven. This is heaven. I'm gone.