Reindeer Flames (Reindeer Mate for Christmas #4)

Chapter 1

SILVER

After two centuries of social anxiety, I should have known something was off when I wanted to go to a Halloween party. I didn't really have a libido, so this strange desire to hook up with someone for the night wasn't like me at all.

I could have guessed the cause of these strange feelings, but my sister, Gold, liked to call me the dullest candle in the woodshed, mixing as many metaphors as possible.

Despite her less than kind mixed metaphor, I loved her so much. I wouldn't have settled at the North Pole if not for her. Together, we worked the best job ever, owning a bakery and baking cookies, cakes, and pastries for the magical folks at the North Pole, including some of the Santas.

She also talked me into going to the Spooky Soiree in my apartment building's community center.

The top floor was the main floor, since the rest of the building was below ground.

I loved my little cave-sweet-home and all the amenities that came with it.

The Honeycomb's community center was one of my favorite places to relax and be near people without having to talk to them after a long day of serving customers at the bakery.

I could already feel the beat of the music as the elevator car neared the main floor. I wanted to sway with it, but I was a big man-shaped dragon in a little elevator, and the two otter shifters beside me looked uncomfortable enough to share the space with me.

The doors opened, and I motioned for them to go first. They fled toward the exit while I moseyed to the community center's open double doors.

"Hey, Silver." Mize greeted me at the door with a smile. They were the events coordinator for our complex, The Honeycomb. "Let me guess … you're supposed to be a dragon baker."

I blinked at them, and then it came to me. I cocked my tall white hat back on my head so he could see the little rat clipped inside.

He gasped. "You're the guy from Ratatouille!"

"I wanted to come to the party as myself, but Gold said I needed a costume."

"Oh!" Mize clapped. "That's so clever! I should have tried harder to guess."

"That's okay." Everyone knew Gold was the smart one.

"Drinks are at the deejay table. Help yourself!"

My whole body felt like it was on fire after talking to Mize, and I talked to them almost every day. The entire refreshment table wouldn't be enough to calm my nerves.

I shuffled around the outer wall to the table, trying not to bump into people with my broad shoulders. I leaned forward to avoid a string of orange lights hanging from the ceiling and bumped into someone anyway.

"Silver!" Jax Donner was one of Santa 30's reindeer. His husband, Beau, ran the daycare in our building. "Nice to see you!" He pointed to my crooked hat and laughed. "That rat is just perfect! I love it."

My shoulders loosened at the praise. "Thank you."

"What can I get you to drink?" He stepped behind the table and picked up the punch ladle.

"Water would be great." With the way my body was burning up, alcohol was a bad idea.

He dropped the ladle back into the punch and handed me a glass bottle filled from the building's filtration system. When empty, we could deposit them in the bins by the elevators to be washed and refilled.

"There's the man of the hour!" Jax walked out from behind the table to pull a much taller reindeer shifter into a hug. "This guy won our time trials today."

I recognized the tall alpha reindeer shifter in an instant.

Hartley Comet was the hottest reindeer on Santa 30's team.

His hair was the color of acorns, and his eyes were a deep, soulful brown.

Whenever he placed Santa's weekly cookie order with me, I got lost in his gaze for a few seconds and missed half of what he said.

The first time it had happened, I'd flinched, thinking he would insult me like everyone else.

Instead, he lowered his voice and began again, making sure I jotted the order correctly on my notepad.

Still, he was a Comet. He probably went back to the team and made fun of me. His cousins flew for the other Santas. They sneered at me and hurled insults in my face whenever Gold wasn't around to stop them.

"Hey, Silver!" Hart grinned up at me. He was dressed as a superhero, but my mind blanked on which one. "I love your costume. How've you been?"

I looked over my shoulder, though I was taking up too much space for him to be looking at anyone else. I was the tallest one in the room, and one of a handful of Silvers at the North Pole. "Me?"

"Yes, you." A light blush spread across his cheeks, meeting at the bridge of his nose. "How are things at the bakery? Are you ready for the Christmas rush?"

I gulped half the bottle of water, hoping the liquid would pour ideas into my brain. "We're busy," I said, settling on the truth. "I almost burned the last batch of Halloween pumpkin cookies this morning. Tomorrow, we switch to a mixture of pumpkin and gingerbread cookies."

"Mmm." The sound he made in his throat went straight to my cock. "Gingerbread is my favorite. I'll have to stop by more often."

Was he flirting with me? "I'll make you a special batch of reindeer heads."

He grinned. "I'd love that." He licked his lips and took another sip of the orange punch Jax had ladled into a cup for him. "Are they easy to make?"

While I detailed every step of how to make gingerbread, a couple swaggered to the table. Hart took a step toward me, and I backed up into the crowd on the dance floor. Thankfully, no one bumped into me.

Hart stepped forward again and grabbed my hip before I took another step back. "Dance with me."

I blinked at him, completely forgetting where I'd left off with my explanation. Stirring the mixture? Pouring the batter? "Me?"

"Yes." The corner of his mouth turned up in a wicked smirk. "You're the hottest omega at this party, by far."

His finger brushed against my lips, distorting yet another, "Me?"

"You." He stepped closer into my personal space, and we swayed to the upbeat dance music. "Unless you're here with someone?" He glanced back at the empty refreshment table with a hesitant look.

"No. No one."

His confident smile returned. "Good." He winked. "You were telling me about gingerbread." He was the next-tallest person in the room, only a few inches shorter than I and almost as broad. He was all muscle and speed if he'd won the Santas' time trial. Why was he wasting his time dancing with me?

"It's the most boring thing ever." I shook my head too fast, and my hat fell into my eyes. "Let's talk about something else."

"It's not." He tucked my hat around the little rat again and trailed his finger down my cheek. "But we can talk about whatever. I could listen to your voice all night long."

Yep, definitely flirting, especially with the way his gaze flicked down my body and back up. The only thing missing was an added, "If you know what I mean."

My ass knew exactly what he meant. Slick dampened my underwear.

The beat of the music shifted from upbeat to slow, and a gorgeous piano melody played. Hart drifted his free hand up my chest to rest on my shoulder. "Is this okay?"

I nodded, too scared to breathe, certain I would wake up. I'd dreamed of this moment, when I could hold Hart against me and gaze down at him with all the appreciation and desire I'd felt since the first moment he'd stepped foot in Silver and Gold's Bakery.

It was just a silly crush, and on a Comet, the meanest of the reindeer shifters.

Their ancestor wouldn't let the first Rudolph play any reindeer games.

I thought I'd hidden my feelings well, but now, with his hips swaying, the fabric of our costumes brushing against my hard cock, they were impossible to ignore.

My dragon recognized Hart as someone precious.

"Mate," my dragon insisted, not for the first time. I shook my head to dislodge the voice from my thoughts.

Hart pressed closer and froze. His eyes widened, and he grinned. "Wanna go somewhere quiet?"

"Uh …" I should have offered to take him back to my place, but I couldn't find the words in my overheated brain.

Hart hooked his fingers in mine and tugged me toward the closest interior door. I drank the rest of my water along the way and carefully laid the glass bottle in the bin by the door before Hart pulled me through it.

He shot his crumpled paper cup into the bin before flipping the switch for the auxiliary lights.

A dim purple glow lit the rows of lockers.

Someone had taped jack-o'-lantern banners together along the walls above them, enough to go around the entire room.

Decorations hung from the ceiling. A black cat arched its back above us, and a witch stirred a cauldron in the far corner.

"I doubt anyone will be working out during the party.

" Hart pushed me up against two unused lockers.

The latches dug into my back, but that wasn't the only reason I couldn't catch my breath.

The fire in Hart's eyes sucked all the oxygen from the room.

My knees buckled, and I braced my hands against the cool metal behind me.

He reached for my face, and I almost smashed my nose against his palm when I tried to lean into his touch. I'd misjudged. He wasn't reaching for my face; he wanted my hat. Carefully extricating the rat from my hair, he set both props on the bench behind us.

"I've wanted to do this since the first time I met you," he whispered.

He toed my legs apart so he could stand between them, and the pressure of his body against mine held me up. He ran his hands up my white chef's coat and into my thick silver hair. With a tug, he tilted my chin down and pressed his lips to mine.

"This can't be real," I murmured against his lips. "Did you lose a bet or something?"

He frowned up at me. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"Why else would you want to be with me?"

He tipped his chin to the side, and his scowl deepened. "Why wouldn't I want to be with you? You're the prettiest omega in the village."

"No one else seems to think so." It was true. I heard insults weekly, and not one person had said the opposite.

"I do." He pressed his legs between mine, and I felt his cock, hard and long, against my thigh. Before I had a chance to reach for it and give him some relief, he dropped to his knees on the concrete floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Worshipping you the way you deserve." He shoved my white coat up to my waist and unbuttoned my black work pants. Slowly, he slid my zipper down, revealing the dark wet spot in the middle of my navy-blue briefs.

"I knew it." His breath was hot against the fabric, and then he curled his lips around my cockhead, cloth and all. "It's just as big as the rest of you."

I swallowed hard. I wanted to stop him, to put my hands on his shoulders and push him away until he felt the same way for me as I did for him.

If we did this, my dragon would want him as part of my hoard. I didn't do casual sex.

"More, more, more," my dragon chanted, overriding my thoughts.

Fuck yes, I wanted more. I wanted everything with Hart. If this was all I'd ever get, I would take it gladly and deal with the fallout.

He slid my pants and briefs down my legs just enough to pull my cock free. I couldn't take my gaze off him, not even to work the buttons on my chef's coat. I accidentally flicked the first one loose, and it pinged against a locker a few feet away.

"Ah, fuck it," I said, tugging on both sides of the coat and sending the rest of the buttons flying. I let it drop to the floor behind me as I tugged my shirt up and over my head.

Hart circled the tip of my cock with his tongue and then he pulled off me with a pop. "That was sexy as fuck," he said. "Do you always rip your clothes off during sex?"

He tugged off his red T-shirt with a lightning bolt in the middle, and then he shoved down his yellow shorts and red tights, leaving only a sexy black thong. Gods, he was gorgeous.

I swallowed hard and tried to remember the question he'd asked me. "It's been a long time since I've had sex, and this is the first time I've ever done that."

"First time for everything." The skin crinkled around his eyes when he laughed. Though it never felt like Hart was laughing at me, this time I sensed he was laughing with me at our personal inside joke.

My laughter broke off on a moan when he wrapped his lips around my cock and slid most of the way down it. His throat constricted around me, and his fingers wrapped around my base. His other hand came up to grip my balls, and he moaned when his fingers slid through my slick.

He slid off my cock, his eyes liquid and almost glowing in the near dark.

"You are the sexiest omega I have ever been with.

" He licked a stripe down my cock and between my balls.

With a tug, he dragged my pants down, pinning my legs together.

He grunted with frustration, but he couldn't reach my hole without taking them all the way off.

"You could come back to mine. My apartment's downstairs." My voice was so breathy, I sounded like someone else.

"Yes." He smiled up at me. "But first, I'm going to finish what I started. Your cock tastes as amazing as your cookies."

My eyes stung from the sheer sincerity of his statement. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

"I'm a nice guy." He took my cock in his mouth again, and I pretended I believed him. Ignoring all the red flags and alarm bells, I gave in to sensation.

In no time at all, the tingling at the base of my spine crested over my entire body. My cock spilled down his throat, and my legs shook so hard, my back slid against the lockers.

Hart wrapped his arms around my chest and hefted me up, holding me in place until the world stopped spinning around me.

I leaned in, chasing our mingled breath, and he kissed me.

The taste of my cum lingered on his lips.

I couldn't get enough. With one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his hip, I claimed his mouth, parting his lips with my tongue and chasing the mingled tastes of cum and orange creamsicle until all I could taste was him.

Hart broke the kiss, panting. I worried we were done when he tucked me back into my pants and handed me my shirt and ruined coat.

Then I noticed his cocky smirk. "You said you live here?"