by Lily Rede
Would she?
Merry nervously nibbled her lower lip, sneaking another look at Ben, and froze to find him looking right back at her. She couldn’t even muster a smile, but nodded. He quirked an eyebrow and solemnly nodded in return.
He must think I’m a total freak. God, I really should have paid attention when Noelle tried to teach me how to flirt.
At that moment, Mrs. Claus stepped up to Ben, breaking his eye contact with Merry, who heaved an internal sigh of relief. She didn’t have to ask to know that Ben wasn’t the kind of guy who would settle for a timid, shy partner in life. And he certainly wouldn’t want a woman who wasn’t comfortable trying new things. Merry didn’t consider herself a control freak, but she liked to know where she stood. She couldn’t read Ben, and it drove her crazy, not being able to predict what he would do or say next, thought he was always polite and quick to follow orders when a piece of equipment broke or the elves were in danger of running through their licorice supply. Most of the time she barely had to make the request when he’d be halfway finished.
Would he always do everything she asked?
About to turn back toward her little house to get ready for the night’s festivities, Merry stopped in her tracks, arrested by the idea of having a newly tame Ben Wilks prepared to do anything to please her. In this fantasy, they were alone in her bedroom, and he watched her with hot blue eyes as he slowly peeled his shirt from what she had decided must be a highly impressive set of abs, though she’d never seen them.
“Take off your pants,” she would whisper, and imagined the heat in his eyes as he held her gaze and then slowly, oh so slowly, pulled his belt free from the buckle, undid the top button, and pulled the zipper down.
She was dizzy just thinking about it. Merry had always been too timid of humans to have any real sexual experience, but she had one hell of an imagination and a set of toys that would make even Noelle proud. Hooray for the Internet.
I could use one right now, she thought, pressing her thighs together to relieve her aching pussy. The Ben fantasies were getting a little out of hand.
“Miss Kringle?” The warm, rough baritone pulled Merry out of her reverie, and she blushed to see Ben crossing the square toward her as her mother headed back to Kringle Castle, a swarm of elves in her wake. Merry couldn’t move, and watched him approach with a growing sense of frustration. Even the way he walked was graceful and full of confident purpose, she noted somewhat resentfully.
She tensed as he stepped closer and he narrowed his eyes, but gave her an easy smile.
“What’s wrong? Did you need help getting the stable secured in time for the storm? Because we really need to make sure that the windows – ”
“No, we’re all set. It’s fine. I just had a question about the party.”
“Oh. Of course. Well, it’s a little chaotic, but since this is your first year, I’m sure the elves won’t make you participate in their version of reindeer games. The music isn’t bad and most of them are pretty good dancers, and – ”
Oh my God, stop babbling.
Merry abruptly shut her mouth, feeling the heat rising up in her cheeks again. Ben only grinned and shocked her by placing a warm hand on her arm. She felt the tingle all the way to her fingers and toes, whispering across her nipples and down to her swelling clit.
“I just wanted to know if I could reserve a dance. With you.”
Merry opened her mouth again, but for a moment, nothing came out. She tried again.
“I don’t dance. I mean, thank you, but no.”
Ben looked…hurt? That couldn’t be. Unless the isolation from the outside world had finally made him snap so that even she looked like a viable romantic option. But he could leave anytime he wanted, visit friends and women all over the world with a simple step through the portal, so that didn’t make sense either.
Seriously, just because you’re not the right woman for him doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat, Merry. Snap out of it!
Merry swallowed and mustered some basic courage.
“That’s very sweet of you, Ben, but I’m a terrible dancer. All those eyes looking at me…”
“How do you know they’re looking at you?”
“Because ninety-five percent of the community is under three feet tall. I kind of stand out no matter what I do.”
He chuckled, and she blushed again, and the embarrassment was just painful, despite her attempt to assert herself.
“Excuse me.”
“Merry, wait – ”
But she was halfway down the path toward her little house, grateful to put some distance between her and the too handsome, too sure of himself, too fascinating and sexy and totally not right for her Ben Wilks.
MERRY KRINGLE WAS GOING to drive him stark, raving, mad. Ben was sure of it. He’d never believed in love at first sight, but then again, he hadn’t believed in Santa Claus either. Both fundamental beliefs were shaken the minute he’d agreed to take the job as an all-purpose handyman for an eccentric, remote northern community. He’d stepped through the odd doorway in the woods…and his life had changed forever. Not only was the job everything he’d hoped for – physical and challenging and away from any sort of boring office politics or drama, but Merry Kringle was the woman he didn’t realize he’d been looking for his entire life.
Not that he hadn’t resisted, of course.
She was the daughter of Santa Claus. A princess. An unearthly fairy maiden who spent her life helping bring joy to millions of children. Funny, smart, and generous, from what he could tell from her interaction with the elves. Out of his league. Permanently.
It didn’t help that she made him hard as a fucking rock with her pouty lips and eyes that literally changed color with the intensity of her feelings, along with a sweetly curved body Ben wanted to lick from her toes to those hot little pointed ears. Just the thought of her long legs encased in soft leggings that clung to every toned muscle, and the slightest glimpse of cleavage when she bent over to talk to one of the elves on the production line was enough to get him throbbing – under those modest clothes, she had perfect, rounded tits that Ben was sure would taste like the warm sugar he always caught a whiff of when he stepped close.
He’d been jacking off to the thought of all that warm sugar for months now.
The first time, he was sure some sort of magical Christmas wrath was going to rain down on him and weeks later they’d find his body buried to the eyeballs in gumdrops and defective leftover toy parts, stabbed through the heart with a candy cane. At the very least Ben expected to see his name charred into the Naughty List, glowing and permanent as a brand on his skin. Nothing. North Pole Village bustled along, the residents completely unaware that their silver and pink-haired princess was turning the local handyman into a lust-crazed shell of a man.
Once Ben had realized that Merry was going to keep starring in his increasingly naughty nightly fantasies without his permission, he was grateful for the fact that she was skittish as a wild fawn – one of them had to have some common sense, and if she showed even the slightest bit of interest, he was going to have her stripped and spread and coming around his cock before she could say jingle bells, and her eyes would shift from blue to deepest swirling violet as she screamed out her pleasure. Screamed out his name.
Yes, Ben was grateful. Or so he reminded himself. At first.
The gratitude didn’t last. As the weeks passed, Ben could feel his infatuation changing. He still wanted to stroke and suck and debauch every inch of her hot little body, but the more moments he stole of her company, the more he got to know her, the more he realized that no other woman was going to measure up. He was falling for her, hard.
And she still ran every chance that she got.
It pissed him off.
Son of a bitch.
And now it was Christmas Eve, the one night he could actually coax her into seeing him in a different light. He thought he’d done a terrible job of hiding what he felt, and often caught Mrs. Claus watching him
with those shrewd, twinkling eyes. Ben loved his job and his new life at the North Pole too much to jeopardize it, and reasoned that if he courted Merry gently, courteously, respectfully, maybe she’d start to warm up to him. And maybe Santa and the elves wouldn’t arrange to have him trampled by reindeer in a dark alley somewhere.
Merry disappeared around the bend into the woods just outside the village, and Ben felt lust and frustration swirl around him, battling for control. He needed to take the edge off.
And he knew just the place for it.
WITH A TOWEL SLUNG over her shoulder, Merry traipsed through the woods, whistling under her breath as the snow came down. There was a serious storm on the way, but they were ready, and for the moment it was pleasant and beautiful, with fat flakes sticking to her eyelashes and getting caught in her hair. The elves were off setting up the party in Kringle Castle’s Great Hall, and Merry knew that the best thing she could do was to stay out of their way. From her mother’s elf side of the family, she’d inherited their lighting fast reflexes when she wanted them, but the elves had been setting up the Christmas party for hundreds of years, and Merry really didn’t like to mess with tradition.
When her sisters had lived up here, they’d all sneak off to the hot springs to go skinny dipping after Santa took off, and Merry had continued the ritual alone. Even if she hadn’t been looking forward to a long soak after a hard day’s work, it would be tough to pass up a chance to splash around in the steamy winter wonderland and let the little waterfall work its magic on all the tension that had built up in her shoulders over the months since Ben’s arrival.
She was just working her way down the last hill toward the rocky pools when an unfamiliar sound had her freezing in her tracks – a rough, tortured, male groan.
Inching forward so that the springs came into view, Merry took in a sharp, cold breath, and held it. The night was dark, but a sturdy lantern was propped up on a ledge, illuminating the series of little pools and the gentle waterfall that spilled deliciously hot water from tier to tier. There was some magic here – Merry had always been able to feel it in the water, and the air was thick with it as steam rose in puffy clouds. But it wasn’t the springs that had Merry’s lips parting in shock.
Ben stood under the waterfall, wet and glistening and naked as the day he was born. Water churned gently around his strong thighs and the waterfall coursed over the rest of him, but every precise detail of that sculpted body was bare to Merry’s gaze, glimmering in the lamplight. His hands were braced on the rock wall, letting the water pelt muscular back and shoulders. The tight muscles of his ass shifted as he adjusted his stance slightly, and Merry’s mouth went dry. Forgetting all thoughts of a dip, Merry crouched down behind a massive fir tree and peered out around the trunk.
I should go, she thought.
Ben turned around.
Later, Merry assured herself.
Right now, she was getting a naughty lesson in male anatomy that no amount of imagination could match. Ben Wilks was stunning. Broad shoulders, tight abs, and a light swirl of black chest hair that trailed down his body to match the neat thatch between his thighs.
Merry licked her lips as Ben raised his arms over his head to stretch, wet lashes closing over his gorgeous eyes in pleasure as the water washed over him.
Stunning, she repeated to herself.
Her heart was pounding as she finally let her gaze drop to inspect his cock, and the rush of heat to her pussy was surprisingly intense. He was shockingly erect, impressively thick and long. Even from here Merry could see the tender pink of his fat crown and the ridges of veins that trailed down to the heavy sac beneath.
So much better than her fantasies or the occasional skin flick she watched on nights when her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to touch him.
Hell, I want to lick him. All over.
She clutched the tree trunk, completely turned on as she watched him push wet black hair out of his eyes. And then her own eyes widened, and she didn’t need a mirror to know they swirled dark blue and purple with excitement as his hand drifted down that ridged torso to clasp his cock in a firm grip, his intent clear.
Merry squeaked. Loudly.
Ben paused at the sound, looking out into the dark, and Merry didn’t breathe, huddled against the trunk. After a moment, he ducked his head under the waterfall, shuddering with pleasure as his hand started moving on the thick shaft, slowly at first, and then jerking the luscious flesh with hard strokes that Merry could feel echoed in her throbbing clit.
God, she was going to come just watching him.
She nearly moaned aloud as his other hand reached below to fondle and caress his balls, which were drawn up tight. The head of his cock was flushed darker now, his chest heaving as his hand worked up and down, faster and faster until a low, brutal groan tore from him, and creamy jets of come momentarily coated his hand and splattered against his abs before being washed away. It was the most stunningly masculine thing Merry had ever seen.
Do it again.
He was still holding his cock, struggling to get his breathing under control.
“Merry…” he moaned as another shudder of pleasure ripped through him.
Merry was shocked. Completely and utterly horrified. Until she realized that she wasn’t. This gorgeous, incredible man was fantasizing about her as he touched himself, and okay, there was definitely a part of her that was terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
But, fuck, what a turn-on. Her panties were soaked, and her whole body felt tight and tingly.
She needed to think. She needed to process. But not now and certainly not here, so Merry did what she usually did in times of stress and uncertainty.
She fled.
ELVES DEFINITELY KNEW HOW to party. Ben shook his head and watched four of them man the catapult, filling it with sugary snow that was then shot high into the rafters of the Great Hall, only to flutter down to fill eager, waiting mouths. There was food everywhere, bright lights and decorations, and even a dance floor set up with a little elf band. They weren’t half bad. Mrs. Claus was cheerfully letting herself be whirled around the floor by first one partner and then another, a glass of eggnog in hand. Her eyes were suspiciously bright.
Ben made a mental note to skip the creamy drink – he needed a tight grip on his control if he wanted to avoid falling on Merry like a sex-crazed lunatic. Jerking off at the hot springs had helped…a little. The magic in the air, the decadent steamy water, and a blistering fantasy of Merry in nothing but garters and gossamer stockings, fingering herself while she eagerly sucked his throbbing dick had him coming harder than he had in years. He would have been ashamed of himself it if hadn’t felt so fucking incredible.
Merry still hadn’t shown up, and Ben tried not to look anxious. What if she decided not to come at all? But that was silly – this was the party of the year, even if there was a blizzard picking up outside.
“There you are, sweetheart. My, that’s a pretty dress. Is that one of Ivy’s?”
Mrs. Claus hurried forward to tipsily hug her daughter, who laughed and set her mother upright.
“How much of that stuff have you had? Glitzy, I’m cutting Mom off.”
Glitzy the elf saluted and patting a pouting Mrs. Claus’ hand soothingly. She shook herself, and then smiled brightly.
“Come over here, Ben. Doesn’t Merry look lovely?”
Ben was surprised his feet were still functional. He’d taken one look at Merry and every nerve ending in his body seemed to blow a fuse at the same time. He’d never seen her in anything but comfortable winter clothes – jeans and leggings, lots of soft flannel and oversized sweaters. It was bad enough that Ben wanted to burrow under the shapeless clothing to find the sweet flesh of the woman beneath, but this Merry – this one was dangerous.
The dress was white, a glittery fall of snowflakes held up by tiny white straps, hugging her curves before falling to the ground in gentle fall of snow. A slit up the front revealed those long, gorgeous,
bare legs when she walked, and high heels transformed her from the practical responsible Toy Manager into an elegant goddess, a Christmas princess.
Ben couldn’t breathe, but Mrs. Claus was watching him expectantly, so he stepped forward. Merry was twisting her fingers together, and didn’t look up, and the elf children were oohing over her dress, hovering around her ankles.
“Well?” Mrs. Claus was insistent.
“Mom…” muttered Merry.
“Beautiful,” said Ben, though privately he thought that the word was inadequate. Breathtaking, ethereal, pure sorcery.
Mrs. Claus waggled a finger at her daughter.
“Now, no running away after ten minutes. I expect you to stay and enjoy yourself for at least an hour. Ben, you’re in charge. Tie her to something if you must.”
With that provocative remark, the tipsy queen of the North Pole let Glitzy lead her toward the cookie table.
“Tying you up might be a little extreme,” Ben said, smiling, and was gratified when she raised her eyes to look at him. Blue and green – good, she was nervous, but not terrified.
“And it would probably crush my dress,” Merry added, smiling the tiniest bit.
He wanted to offer the best possible solution to that dilemma – just take the dress off. He would gladly help, with the dress and the tying. Keep it in your pants, Wilks.
“I wanted to thank you for all your hard work, Ben,” said Merry, her soft voice washing over him like a gentle stroke.
“It was my pleasure.”
“And…” she blushed, biting her lip, “I wanted to take you up on that dance.”
She could have knocked Ben over with a flick from one of those delicate fingers. But he wasn’t about to question what had brought about her abrupt change of mind. Timid Merry was trying to be courageous, and he was lucky recipient of her attempt.