Chapter 8
Instead of finding Pete, Nick found himself on the ice with a hockey stick in hand.
Krampus had been creeping outside Cora’s house as a solid reminder that unless she mended her ways, her future endeavors would be guided by fear and punishment.
It might force her to make better decisions in the end, but she’d gain far more if she remembered that one good deed fed another and brought about a chain reaction of goodness.
But the last thing Nick was thinking about right now was a chain reaction of human goodness.
He was hot and horny and had left the woman he wanted in his bed at her house an hour ago.
He wasn’t firing on all pistons and it took everything in him not to leap through the portal and knock on her door.
His priorities were all over the place. He needed a reset, and skating hard and slamming the puck into the net was the only way he could think to make that happen.
“One-on-one?”
Jack sat on the bench near the rink, tying his skate laces.
There was no point in Nick’s life that he could remember when his best friend wasn’t at his side.
There was a lot to be said for having a friend who knew him as well as Jack did.
But tonight, Nick didn’t want to do any reflection.
He wanted to whack the hell out of the puck.
He wanted to skate until he was so exhausted he wouldn’t dream of Cora’s ass in his hands as he pressed his cock against her soft warmth.
“So … yes to one-on-one?” Jack asked as he got to his feet. He had to wear skates for hockey with Nick to make things even between them because Jack glided across all ice like he’d been born to it—which technically he had…
“I’m in a pissy mood,” Nick warned his friend.
“Then you won’t mind if we join in,” Pete said, emerging from the forest on the opposite side of the outdoor rink with Finn Blaze behind him. Finn was Jack’s twin—the spirit of summer and heat.
Fire crackled through the air as Nick charged at Pete, grabbing him by the throat and holding him up by his neck.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Pete cried.
“Stay. Away. From. Her.”
Pete flexed and twisted out of Nick’s grip. “We agreed she couldn’t get any worse and I was just making sure she hadn’t. I haven’t broken any rules. Can you say the same?”
Could he? He’d kissed Cora for his own pleasure. There was no future in it for him or her. He needed a wife. She hated the thought of marriage. Instead of snow and snogging he should have— Fuck. Should have. But he didn’t regret his actions. Cora stirred something primal in him.
“Are we playing or what?” Jack’s brother cracked a smile as he made a show of shivering in the cold. “I’d warm this place up but then we’d struggle to skate. Bros versus ho-ho-ho’s or winners against losers?”
Nick relaxed for the first time in the last two days. This was familiar. Finn and Pete against Nick and Jack. They’d always teamed up this way. “It’s a bit mean to call you two losers, but who am I to argue?”
Finn blew Nick a kiss as he skated onto the ice. It melted into puddles around him until Jack waved his hand at Finn’s blades, giving them a permanent frost layer. Krampus shrugged out of his jacket, preferring to be shirtless in the cold, as usual.
They went hard at the game. Nick bodychecked Pete hard and low as they both went after the puck. Pete elbowed him in the nose; Nick saw stars for a minute before he used his stick to jerk Pete’s feet out from under him. As his cousin stumbled, Jack launched the puck into their goal.
Pete skated around the edge of the rink, coming back to Nick’s side. “So, no progress tonight?”
“Unless you count her not believing in me as some sort of result.”
“Seems to me I’ve already won.”
“You’ve never bested me in a challenge,” Nick reminded him.
“Are you two done gossiping?” Finn yelled.
The game continued until they were tied and both teams were bruised but smiling. “Drinks at my place?” Jack suggested.
Everyone from the magic realm went to Jack’s. At this hour, however, the bar was empty and they chose to sit near the fire. Jack and Finn went to make the drinks and Nick was alone with Pete.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “You need to give me room to work.”
“Was that what you were doing tonight? Working?”
As much as he didn’t want to admit that he hadn’t made any progress with Cora’s redemption, it would do him no good to lie to Pete. They both had equal access to information concerning people on the Naughty List.
“Of course.”
“Seems to me you’re getting your wires crossed. You need a wife, or did you forget that?”
“Save your fake concern.”
“Ah, so it’s a two-for-one?”
Pete was also very good at what he did. Naughty and Nice wasn’t as simple as straightforward good and evil, and there had to be balance.
“Shut up. Do you have to make everything sound so…” Nick wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “I’m … getting an idea of why her knot is so tangled.”
“Is that what you call it?” Pete said with a smirk.
Nick ignored him. “It’s going to take work and time to unpick it.”
“More time than you have?” Pete asked, as Jack and Finn rejoined them.
Nick took his stout from Jack, noticing that Pete was drinking straight bourbon, Jack icy vodka, and Finn some sort of fruit-based cocktail. “To finding a Mrs.?” Finn asked raising his glass.
“That too,” Nick said, taking a long swallow of his drink, knowing he’d have no trouble splitting the G on his Guinness glass.
“Should we all—?” Jack started to say.
“No. I’ve got this. I made some good progress tonight on both fronts. I’m getting to Cora’s heart. She’s used to hiding behind her polished image and her shiny newness, but underneath, I suspect she craves something cozier.”
“Suspect or know? A lot is riding on this, Nick. If you can’t crack her, is there another non-believer you can turn?” Jack asked.
The tension was back. Just like that. One hockey game wasn’t a solution to his problem, though his mind felt clearer. He was still turned on whenever he thought about Cora.
“Black Lumen has been picking up the slack for a while now. Just say the word and I can double the workload for my elves,” Pete said. “If you fail, I’m going to have to anyway so I might as well start now.”
“I’ve got this. It’s hard because she’s never been a believer, but I have a lead. I’m going to talk to my dad tomorrow. I need to know more about the girl behind the woman.”
The others didn’t look confident, but Nick wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.
Not with Cora. She’d kissed him under the mistletoe while Christmas snow fell around them.
She’d been touched by the magic, he’d felt it in his core.
He held that close to his heart, kept it to himself because it was between them.
He’d caught a glimpse of the real woman, the one he knew would believe if he could only unlock the magic of Christmas for her.
Cora woke on Thanksgiving morning a bit out of sorts.
Everyone was celebrating with their families, which made her loneliness more acute.
Cora had declined Mrs. French’s invitation to join the family for dinner.
Mrs. French fancied herself a matchmaker and always had a bunch of single guys lined up for Cora to meet at her dinners.
The gesture was well intentioned, but it only made the moodiness that had been dogging her for days worse.
She should be in a bubble bath, listening to music and chilling out, but she was too on edge.
She’d gone out for a drink with Fliss last night to celebrate a win with the board and ended up envious of Hannah Waters, of all people, flirted with Nick Bari, of all people, and then wrapped herself around him like ivy and kissed him as though her life depended on it.
And then he’d left. And she hadn’t even got him to agree that she wasn’t needed in his booth.
Thanksgiving was the worst. She couldn’t drum out that part of her that liked to dream. That liked to pretend she was part of a large and loving family, that she was successful enough to be included by the people in her life, that she was worthy of being loved.
Not that she needed to be included. Or loved. Not when there was work to do.
Pouring herself another cup of coffee, she grabbed her laptop and went to the writing desk that she’d bought for herself—an antique Louis XIV piece that she’d had shipped from France. Her mom would have called it a dreadful waste of money.
Cora shoved that out of her head. Too bad her mind kept drifting back to Nick. She should have grabbed him by his ridiculous Santa tie and dragged him to her bed. She shook her head. That snow falling just as they’d gotten to her house had felt like pure magic.
Except that was as ridiculous as believing in Santa.
Nick had been so weird about it, so convinced, and it had stirred long-buried memories of the hope and excitement she’d felt on Christmas morning when that present had been waiting for her …
then the disappointment when she’d realized it was only from her new stepmom.
Of course her dad hadn’t bought her a gift. That wasn’t his way.
Her phone pinged and she grabbed it like a lifeline.
Unfortunately, it was a text from the one person she was pretending she wasn’t mad at. He’d totally had a point when he mentioned their working relationship, but one hot hookup wasn’t the end of the world.
Of course he was looking for someone steady. Someone permanent. Someone who believed…
Curiosity was the only reason she opened the text.
Nick
Happy Thanksgiving. Got plans?
Cora
Gobble, gobble. I’m working.
Nick
Cora, no! Want to join my family for dinner? We eat at 3 pm because it’s a holiday.
There were a thousand reasons she should say no, but she wasn’t going to.
Cora
I’ll be there.
Nick
Come at 2 pm?
Cora
Send me the address.
He did and she liked the message.