Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Loren
The sight of my stepsister bound in rope, getting spanked in front of the entire audience is enough to do me in.
But it’s her look of pure pleasure that surges anger through me. Pleasure that Kace is giving her. He saw her earlier–knows she’s my sister. What the fuck is wrong with him?
I shove the question of why I’m so obsessed with my stepsister out of my mind as I set the innocent little boy who just climbed onto my lap to the side.
The red clouding my vision as I rush to Bellamie and Kace isn’t the glare from my new Santa suit. My sister's too young and innocent to be tied up and put on display… and she’s way too… mine… my sister… stepsister. Fuck!
I haven’t resisted her teases for years only to let him move in the very first day he sees her. That's why I stayed at the goddamn Airbnb. I lose control around her. He can surely control himself for one fucking night.
I'm not exactly sure how I get to them. I seem to recall people stumbling backward, making way for Santa. Then, I'm reaching for her bound body but my damn gloves keep me from being able to loosen the knots.
My frantic approach is too rough. Krampus wraps his hands around her waist to steady her. Fuck! Kace can’t hide behind the costume.
Why my brain decides to make note of how beautiful the knots are is beyond me. They’re the lesser evil of thoughts compared to my desire to throw her over my shoulder as is and take her somewhere private.
This is not something I should see. It's not something anybody should see, and definitely not something Kace should be doing.
Ripping my gloves off, I say, “Leave my sister alone.”
“You don't get to decide who ties me up and spanks me.” Bellamie’s voice barely makes it past the sound of my pulse pounding in my ears.
Did she really say the last part or did I imagine it? Our eyes meet and there’s something feral about the way she looks.
“Have some decency, Bellamie.” The knot on her waist easily unravels. Thankfully my fingers are only brushing her coat, not her bare skin. It doesn’t stop my cock from getting—or rather staying—rock hard. Good thing the padded belly of my costume makes a great shed to hide my tool.
“We're just having fun.” Kace holds her with one hand and undoes a knot with the other.
“These knots… What if she fell or freaked out? She’s helpless. She could get hurt.”
Kace makes a point of giving a simple tug to the loose end of a knot, untying it instantly. “And if something went wrong, that's what this is for.” Kace taps the knife on his belt.
“You shouldn't have done it in the first place.” I’m kneeling, working on the last knot, barely noticing two members of the event staff approaching.
The staff member in the green shirt says, “Are you okay, ma’am?”
“I’m fine.” Bellamie, who’s definitely not a ma’am, rubs her wrists.
The one in the red shirt says, “Let’s take this down a notch, Krampus, Santa. Do we need to separate you two? Send you to your corners?”
“Just Santa.” Bellamie glares at me.
Seemingly unaware of the atrocity playing out, Bellamie’s friends, Jolene and Starla come up, excitedly telling Bellamie how good she looked on stage. I focus on unwinding the last rope from her legs, and Krampus rips it from my hands.
“The eggnog winners will be announced in a few minutes.” Starla reaches for Bellamie and just like that, they disappear into the crowd.
It’s a relief to get her away from Kace. But as they leave, I hear Jolene say, “Stepbrothers can be such dicks.”
What the hell did I do?
The red-shirted staff member says to Kace, “Will there be any more trouble?”
“We’re friends, he just gets a little too straight and narrow sometimes.”
It pisses me off that I can’t see his face to read his expression. Jolene had it wrong. Kace is the dick here. I’m just protecting my stepsister.
Both staff members turn to me, and the red-shirted one asks, “You good?”
The roar of the crowd voting on another Krampus gives me a second to force my fingers to unclench. “Yeah.” The terseness is less than convincing.
“Wishes are waiting,” a chipper voice calls from behind me, grabbing all of our attention. One of the elves forces a smile and points toward the line of kids.
I motion to the elf to give me a minute, then I take a breath and choose a tone that will get rid of the staff members. “It looked like Krampus was getting a little too… you know… not family- friendly with my sister. I’m back in Santa mode now.”
The second they turn their backs, I glare at Kace and say under my breath, “I said to stay away from Bellamie.”
“You said no such thing.”
I think back to the airbnb when he asked about her. He’s right. I got cut off by the meeting. “I shouldn’t have to.”
Bellamie’s too innocent for Kace’s string of one-night relationships. All the girls fall for him, even when he's wearing a hairy horned mask. How does he do that?
“What's that supposed to mean?”
Making up for not saying my peace earlier, I spell out what he already knows. “She’s too young for you.”
“Too young to have fun in a parade?” His tone is convincing, but if I could see in his eyes…
But if I rip his mask off, the staff will come back. “So that’s all that was?”
“Like she said, that's not for you to decide.”
“Santa!” The elf is more insistent.
The red-shirted staff member comes back. Don’t they have something better to do?
“You’re Krampus number four, right?”
“Yeah.”
“They finished going through the tags on social media… You won. We need you and your naughty girl on stage.”
Dammit. I’m happy for his victory, but also for mine that Bellamie has moved on.
Now to figure out how to cancel the family evening our parents have planned, where they expect Kace to tag along with me. This might be exactly the reason I haven’t mentioned it to him yet.