Chapter 3
Willy
I could do this.
This wasn’t a big deal.
There was no need to panic. Everything was going to be just fine.
Absolutely fine.
Sure, in the last thirty-six hours, I’d gotten several questions from various elves who’d heard through the grapevine that we were going to be under new management for the rest of the year. All of them panicking. I didn’t blame them. I was low-key doing the same.
We were so close to our goals. No one wanted to fuck it up and disappoint the naughty adults in the world. We’d worked too hard to have it go to sugar plums now.
Most everyone was concerned that Nick had done something wrong and was going to be replaced permanently.
It wasn’t something that happened often, but there was one incident with a Santa who made their talking baby dolls accidentally terrifying and didn’t catch it until they were out that led to a change in Santas.
The official word was he resigned, but you know how rumors were.
And that was why I refused to allow this one to grow roots.
I’d been able to squash them down rather quickly.
Now I needed to be sure they stayed down.
The only thing that Nick had done wrong was working too hard. The fact that he was mated to one of our elves, one who kept the workshop running extremely smoothly, only added to the worry. We were taking a double hit with the two of them on vacation. But it couldn’t be helped.
Imagine Nick being on vacation for three months while his mate was still working. That would’ve been worse for him than not taking one at all. And at its core, I believed that the rule was in place to protect the Santas from burnout, but they couldn’t have picked a worse time.
Nick, Percy, and their little guy had left early that morning.
They’d turned in their phones and were officially uncommunicative until the first of the year.
We weren’t allowed to call them at all. I didn’t doubt that either one of them would find a way to get in touch if they needed it, though. I’d keep an eye on my email.
As stressful as the entire situation was workwise, it also hit me on a personal level.
Percy was my best friend. He was the one person I talked to everyday, something that hadn’t changed when he mated Santa.
I was going to miss him something fierce.
Who was I going to share the naughty-list tea with or complain about smelling like cola-scented lube?
Despite asking for extra help, the only thing I was given, aside from an inexperienced Santa, was a binder.
It was filled with outdated specs and some contact info for some of the other Santas, all of whom had agreed to help if needed.
Or maybe they were voluntold they were going to. That wasn’t clear.
I appreciated the numbers. I really did, but generally speaking, other Santas weren’t overly helpful in the naughty workshop because they dealt with children.
We dealt with adults and very adult things.
Aside from delivering our gifts on Christmas Eve to those who deserved them, we had very little in common.
Still, I remained optimistic that everything would be fine.
I had spent the last thirty-six hours putting together a perfectly organized timeline of when everything needed to be done, when the best time the new Santa could make appearances for morale’s sake, and a list of the elf “experts” in the department.
My plan was to let things work as the well-oiled machine they were, cross my fingers that nothing went awry, and hide new Santa away in the office so that he couldn’t bung anything up. All he had to do was be a figurehead. The rest was up to the elves.
I took a deep breath as I knocked on Nick’s door.
His brother had arrived, according to Merith, our leather expert.
She was queen of the tea around here, and we all loved her for it.
She told me that a “yummy mountain man” had arrived via helicopter.
I didn’t even know that was possible, but there was only one person it could be… Campbell.
“It’s open.”
I stepped inside, smiled wide with my shoulders rolled back, ready to have this discussion, introduce myself, and get us off on the right foot. I was a happy, jolly elf ready to spread the naughty Christmas cheer. I shouldn’t have been surprised by what I saw.
He’d only been here less than an hour and already he was jumping in. This was an adult workshop, so the actual view wasn’t odd in and of itself, but paired with a newbie… it caught me off guard.
The last thing I expected to walk into was to find the newest Santa with ten different dildos and a silicone butt on the desk.
The scent of the different types of lube we had filled the air.
Please let him not be using them on himself at this very moment.
That was a level of intimacy I was not ready for.
“What are you doing?” I asked, even though I doubted I wanted the answer.
He looked up, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Well, hello there, handsome. And who might you be?”
He did not start off his stint here holding a dildo and flirting with the first elf he saw. He was Nick’s brother. He, of all people, should be behaving. Although, maybe he was the kind of guy never to be on the nice list. I regretted not looking before now.
“That’s not important. What are you doing?”
“Familiarizing myself with the merchandise.” He waved his hand over the array of dildos, as if that explained everything.
I mean, it sort of did. It would make sense that he’d want to familiarize himself with the things we made. But still, he was supposed to be working. Sort of. Did this count as working? It didn’t seem like it counted. It felt much more like me intruding on a private moment.
Letting out a sigh, I rolled my shoulders back. “You must be Campbell. I’m Willy. Nick left me in charge of—”
“William. That’s a very nice name.”
It was one thing to shorten a name without permission, but to suddenly decide to formalize it?
He stood up from his desk, and I shouldn’t have been surprised at the mere height of him, but I was. He was, after all, Nick’s brother. And Nick was big. But Campbell? He was bigger. A lot bigger than Nick and a whole lot bigger than me. His hands could probably wrap around my waist.
I shook that thought away. Why was I envisioning his hands on me? I blamed the dildos.
He held out his hand, his eyes still sparkling. He leaned in a little too close. “Nick never told me he had such handsome elves running around here, William.”
“Willy. It’s Willy, sir… I mean Campbell—”
“Ooh, I do like when you call me sir.” His voice washed over me like a caress, and I shuddered. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Argh.
He reached a hand out like he was going to stroke my face, and I flinched and backed away. He dropped his hand immediately, putting them both behind his back.
I shook myself. This was not us starting off on the right foot. I needed a do-over.
“Listen, sir. I’ve been in charge of the workshop for many years now, and I have a binder here of everything that needs to get done in the next three months. I’ve even noted when you’ll need to do certain tasks, but for the most part, we won’t expect much from you.”
Campbell narrowed his eyes. “So you want me to just sit here and stay out of your way?”
I swallowed thickly. “No, sir, that’s not—” Except it kind of was exactly that.
“I didn’t come here to make waves, Elf Willy.” Maybe William was better even if it wasn’t my name. “But should the situation arise, I think that there are some improvements we can make to this little workshop.”
“I assure you, sir, we are running at the highest production we ever have. At this time, there are no new improvements we need to make. If you have ideas for next year, we will be happy to discuss them when your brother returns.”
Campbell crossed his arms over his broad chest, making his pecs perk up and his muscles tighten. “Some of these lube flavors leave a lot to be desired. I think more flavor is necessary.”
Sugar plums. This was not a sugar-coated test kitchen.
I had to look away. “Oh, for candy cane’s sake. I can assure you that that won’t be necessary.”
“And the dildos. They need a bigger girth.”
No. No. No. I was absolutely not having this conversation with him. Nope. Not going to happen.
“We are already pushing the legal limit and the physical limitations of most people at the size they are now.” Yes, I was making gumdrops up as I went a long, and I didn’t care. Why did I think it was a good idea to come in here, again?
“Maybe they need more ridges. I think I’ll have to test each one of them. Maybe I need a test subject.”
He looked at me. My skin flushed. Where was Krampus to throw me in his basket and get me out of here.
“Sir, if I could—”
“Let me think about this more, and I’ll get back to you. I’ll have some ideas for you to consider.”
He wasn’t taking no for an answer. How on marshmallows was I going to survive these three months?
“Perhaps you could review the binder I created. That will guide you.” I needed to get out of here. No good could come of us going around like this.
“Absolutely. Hand it here.”
I handed it to him. Just then, a floppy-eared puppy came out from behind his desk. I absolutely melted. Puppies were my kryptonite.
“Who is this?” I said, sinking to my knees and letting the puppy come to me.
“That’s Snowdrop. I found her in the woods.”
“You found an abandoned puppy?”
“I did.”
“Nick has a pretty firm no-pets policy,” I said. Not that I could turn this little one away.
“Nick is asking me for a favor. He can kiss my ass. The puppy stays.”
Maybe his stubbornness wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“Right. Of course. I better get back to work.”
“Or you could give me a tour of this place.” He scooped up Snowdrop and put her in the crate he had sitting next to the desk. “I vote that.”
And a tour it was.