“No. I can make my own way. And Jimmy will be around with some fresh baked bread any minute. I’d hate for him to think I had a girlfriend. Even one as pretty as you.”
“You are a sweet talker, aren’t you?” she said, with a giggle. “Did you sprinkle some of that magic on me?”
“No. You have a magic all of your own.” He took her hand and kissed it. “Until next year, Miss Pepper. Tell Santa I insist you come bring my gifts.”
“I will,” she said, tears pricking her eyes. “Take care of yourself.”
“I will,” Mr. Kramps said with a wave of his hand, and then he tottered off across the hill and out of sight.
“We should go,” Bas said. “It’ll be light soon.”
“Yes. We should get back before dawn.” She lifted the reins, and said, “Fly, fly.”
The two reindeer lifted themselves up into the air, their small feet propelling them forward, despite the nothingness beneath them. Slowly, they increased their speed, until they were moving so fast they left a trail of light. Anyone who saw them would think they were seeing a shooting star.
Too soon, they reached the cold North Pole. “I’ve worn these clothes through the day and night.” She unzipped the jacket. “You know, it never occurred to me until now. You may have bear blood in your veins, but I’m a Christmas Elf. The cold doesn’t bother me.”
“We have something in common,” Bas said. “And I could definitely get used to those stripy stockings, and that short tunic. It skims your legs beautifully.” He let his voice drop. “And I know what is between those legs, and it makes me hard thinking about it.”
“Bas,” she said, shocked.
“What? It gives me something to think about when we are in this damn sleigh. I have found I can cope with flying, even at this speed, when I think of those hours we sat here, and the things we did.”
“Don’t tell anyone,” she said. “Promise.”
“You don’t think Mr. and Mrs. Claus have ever… You know… In the sleigh.”
Pepper put her hands over her ears. “Blah, blah, blah. Not listening.”
The reindeer took them in to land. The small town where Santa lived was hidden among snow banks and drifts. This was a place of safety, a place of sanctuary, and she was about to bring a stranger into their midst. But he would never find his way back here, and she trusted him above all others. He’d proven himself a good man. All she had to do was make her father see that.
Pepper was going to have her chance to introduce Bas to her father, much sooner than she thought. The sleigh had not even come to a halt when the door of the main building in the center of the small town, which acted much like a town hall, was pulled open and out came her father. He wasn’t dressed in his elf uniform; instead, he wore thick hiking pants and a woolen sweater.
“Where the hell have you been?” Her father saw Bas. His face turned white, she presumed with rage, before adding, “What have you done?”
“I can explain,” Pepper said. She got up. Turning to Bas, she asked, “Would you please unharness Dan and Dash while I deal with this?”
“Sure.” Bas got up, eyeing her father with a look that meant he’d rather be by Pepper’s side, defending her, but he didn’t, he went to the two reindeer and unbuckled their harness.
“He shouldn’t be touching them,” her father hissed.
“Yes, he should. He’s my mate,” she said firmly. “Or at least, I’m his mate.”
“Is that what he told you? And you were so taken with Vixen and her mating with a bear last year, you went along with it.”
Pepper frowned, her anger rising, but she kept her voice even. “I am not a stupid impressionable child.”
“Really? You’ve brought a stranger here. You, of all people, should know not to do that.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “It’s not allowed. To divulge our whereabouts is against what our family stands for.”
“He will never tell, because he is my family. He’s bound to me, just as Dermot is to Vicky.”
Her father shook his head. “It was not your choice to make. Bringing him here…”
“Why not? Why aren’t I to be trusted? You were the one who didn’t want me to take on the task of taking the gifts to Krampus.”
“Yes. Because of what he is…”
“He is a good … person,” Pepper said.
“A person. He’s a monster who threatened you…” Her father took a step towards her, his hand outstretched and he looked vulnerable. For the first time in her life, she saw him for who he was.
“You were afraid for me. It wasn’t that you didn’t trust me. Don’t fail. I’m trusting you with this. You have one job to do. Make sure you do it right. You were scared he’d hurt me.”
His body slumped. “You are my child. I know what he is. I know what he does.”
“Used to do. You convinced him to be something else.”
Her father shook his head. “I never believed he could change, not for good. I was always afraid I would fail, not keep the bargain, and he would come for you.”
“So you tried to make him afraid of you.”
“Who could be afraid of a man in stripy stockings and a green tunic?” he asked, with a sad smile.
“Me.”
“Pepper. No. I only ever wanted to prepare you for what is out there. This, here, this is safe. Out there…”
“Is a world of possibilities.” She went to him and hugged him close. “I can look after myself. And now, whether you like it or not, I have a mate. You have to let me go.”
“I don’t know if I can,” her father said.
“I’ll always be your little girl. But I’m a woman too.”
“A beautiful woman, I’m so very proud to call my daughter,” he whispered in her ear. “I never told you that, did I?”
“No. I always thought I was a failure. Because I was a girl.”
“No. Never a failure. I was only scared you would be… This is a hard life.” He nodded. “I think I wanted to push you away, because I wanted you to have choices. Choices I never had. I was lucky, I met your mom here, and we were happy. But I always thought you were meant for greater things.”
“Then you are right. I have a choice. And my choice is to spend my time here, and also with Bas. He’s a lawyer.”
“A lawyer.” Her father nearly choked on the word.
“Yes. But he helps people. Only today, with a little help from Krampus and his magic dust, he helped a girl.”
“Krampus helped you?” her father asked.
“Yes. It’s a long story. And if I tell it to you honestly, then you have to promise you won’t fire me.” She smiled. “I may have broken a few more rules than bringing Bas here.”
Dan passed them and said, “But it was an amazing adventure, Pepper. Amazing. Any time Miss. Pepper has a job to do, me and Dash are your reindeer. Or her reindeer.”
“Thanks, Dan.”
Her father sighed. “They love you. They always have. I think part of me was jealous.”
“I understand so much more now.”
“I came down too hard on you. I should have offered you advice, but when Mrs. Claus insisted you went...” Her father looked over to Bas, who stood by the sleigh, his eyes on Pepper and her father, but he didn’t approach. “Maybe she knew. That woman has a way of knowing things.”
“So she knew I would crash, she knew I would meet Bas.”
“Wait, you crashed the sleigh?” her father exclaimed.
“It all ended OK. Come on. Let it go,” Pepper said, feeling like the adult. She linked arms with her father. “We need breakfast, do you think Mom will make some of her pancakes? Then we need to sleep.”
“You’d better introduce me to your mate first,” her father said. “I don’t know if I’m ready to give you up yet.”
“You have to think of it as you aren’t losing a daughter, you are gaining a son.”
“I suppose,” her father said, his voice a little grumpy once more. “But a lawyer…”
“You’re lucky, wait until his rich parents find out their son has a Christmas Elf for a mate.”
Epilogue
“Merry Christmas,” Pepper said, as she slid into bed next to him.
“Your feet are cold,” Bas said.
“But my heart is warm.” She wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her hands to his chest.
“Fuck.” He leapt away from her. “What did you do, put your hands in ice before you came in?
She laughed. “What happened to the hot-blooded bear I fell in love with?”
“I don’t feel the cold, but I do feel cold feet.”
“Then why don’t you warm me up?” She moved closer to him, and lifted her face to his, licking her lips, wanting him to kiss her, and warm her body, and her soul. “We only have an hour before I have to go.”
“I thought you were having today off, after all the deliveries were done? It’s Christmas Day, don’t you get a rest?” Bas asked, lowering his head and kissing her lightly. “I had plans to ravage you all day. I even bought food that only needed to be heated up, so we could stay in bed. I’ve missed you. These last few days have been lonely.”
“Poor Barnabas Bear,” she crooned.
“So do I get a gift?” he asked, pulling her close.
“Wow, I’ve never bought anyone a gift. It just doesn’t happen at the North Pole. By the time we’ve organized gifts for everyone else… We kind of get gift fatigue.”
“I have one for you,” he said.
“Now I feel really bad. Or… is your gift, an actual gift, or is it sex?”
Bas burst out laughing. “You know me so well.” He softened, and wrapped his arms around her. “No, it’s a proper gift.”
“I have nothing to give you in return,” she said, feeling ungenerous. She should have thought about this.
“Your answer will be enough,” Bas said, and reached over to open the draw of his bedside table. Out of it he took a small box. Pepper found she couldn’t breathe.
“Bas. Really?” she asked.
He grinned. “Now I feel pressured, just think if you opened it up and found a pair of earplugs or something.”
“I’ll put on my best surprised face, no matter what it is,” she said. The look on his face told her she wasn’t going to be surprised, he’d talked about them getting married, in a matter-of-fact way, ever since they’d met. As far as Bas was concerned, it was not up for discussion.
Not that she minded, it might have been romantic to imagine him dating her, taking her to dinner, and maybe the theater, but really, they both knew they were going to be together forever. This was not some whirlwind romance where outsiders looking in may think they were being rash, or foolish.
There was plenty of time for them to find out all about each other. A ring on her finger was not going to change any of that, but it would make Bas happier, or perhaps it was his bear that had been pushing for them to get married. There seemed to be some competition going on between Bas and his two friends Kain and Asher, who had both found their mates in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Each story was interwoven with magic.
Then she remembered, she did have something to give Bas. A small box, given to her by Mrs. Claus, for both of them, she could at least let Bas open it. “Wait.”
Bas sat back on the bed, and watched her, as she went back to her sack, which she had set down by the window when she entered. Bas never found it strange that the reindeer would fly down and hover by the window, legs treading the air, while she opened the window of his apartment building, which he no longer locked, and climbed in.
“Here,” Pepper said, rummaging through her sack, until she found the gift, exquisitely wrapped and tied with a bow.
“You know, I should get you a purse for Christmas,” Bas said.
“Why would I want a purse, when I have a completely serviceable sack?” Pepper came back to the bed. “It’s for both of us. She said for us to open it together.”
“Which first?” Bas asked.
“Yours,” she said, seeing how much he wanted to give her his ring. “I can’t wait.”
He got up off the bed, and came around to kneel in front of Pepper, as she sat on the edge of the bed. “Pepper Minstix. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
“I will,” she answered, even before he’d opened the box. It didn’t matter to her what the ring looked like, a band of plain metal would have done. Although when he opened the box, she was astonished at how beautiful the ring was. Three diamonds, that shone and shimmered like the ice at the North Pole when the sun caught it just right, making rainbows in the air. “Oh, Candy Canes,” she breathed.
“Hold out your hand,” he said. “And if I have a little Christmas Magic on me, this will fit perfectly.”
“It does” she said, as he pushed it on to her finger. “Absolutely perfect.” She held it up to the light and admired it, before she squealed in delight and bent down to kiss him, cradling his head in her hands. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Pepper. I can’t imagine my world without you.”
She kissed him, and held him close, his head on her chest, as he listened to her heart. “It beats for you,” she said.
“As mine beats for you, my love.” He lifted his face to hers. “One hour?”
“Does that mean we’re back to sex on the brain?” Pepper asked.
“It certainly does,” he said, and kissed her. So fierce, so full of passion, that she melted into him, all thoughts of the gift from Mrs. Claus forgotten.
He tugged at her stripy stockings, which he was beginning to think of as sexy, so he told her, or maybe he was just saying that. Whichever way it was, she didn’t care. He found her irresistible whatever she wore. However, she looked, first thing in the morning, last thing at night, he loved her and wanted her.
Lifting her bottom off the bed, she helped him pull her stockings down, and her panties went with them. Bas eased her thighs apart, and dipped his head, kissing her inner thighs, and working his way up towards her core, which ached for him. She was so familiar with his every touch and caress; the anticipation was all consuming. Pepper had to hold herself together, she wanted this to last, wanted to enjoy the feel of his tongue on her most intimate places.
The anticipation evaporated when his tongue flicked across her clit. She sighed, and then whimpered as his teeth grazed the sensitive bundle of nerves. His touch was almost too much and yet it was never enough.
She plunged her fingers into his hair, and arched her back, offering herself to him. He was so good, his mouth filled with a magic of its own which he spread across her skin, and then pushed inside her with his tongue, probing nice and deep.
“Oh, Candy Canes,” she sighed.
Bas pulled back, and used his fingers inside her, while his mouth and tongue tortured her clit. Pepper couldn’t hold on any longer, she came, with a shuddering intensity that took hold of her and wouldn’t let go until she was spent.
“You taste sweeter than any candy cane I’ve ever had,” he said, kissing her thighs, and igniting the fire within her once more.
She giggled. “Not the sexiest thing to say, is it?”
“Anything that comes from your mouth is sexy,” he said, lifting himself from the floor, and using his weight to ease her back onto the bed. “My fiancée.”
“I like the sound of that.” She held her hand out and admired her ring. Pepper was sure she was going to be doing that a lot for the next few days, until she got used to wearing it on her finger, if she ever got used to it. A thrill of excitement bubbled up inside her, she was going to get married.
To the best, kindest, and most handsome man she’d ever been lucky enough to meet.
“I like the way you smile,” he said, kissing the side of her mouth. “I know you are thinking of me.”
“Always,” she answered.
He moved forward, guiding himself into her. The friction between their bodies was incredible, she gripped him, tightening her inner muscles ar
ound him, which increased his arousal, and the air hissed between his teeth.
“We don’t have much time,” she reminded him.
“I’m not going to need much time,” he groaned.
Pepper liked the power she had over him, loving the way she could make him lose control. A big, powerful man such as Bas had no resistance to her touch, she brought him to his knees. But she would never use that against him.
Well, not often, anyway.
Arching her back, she changed the angle of her body, and spurred him on. Bas rose to the challenge, taking her hard and fast, his hips flexing, pulling out of her, and then thrusting forward to fill her completely.
Pepper nipped his neck, kissing his skin, inhaling his scent while her orgasm hovered in front of her eyes. Then it crashed into her, as Bas came, his cock spurting his seed deep within her. She wished, as he rode out his orgasm with her, that next year, next Christmas, they might have a young baby of their own. And that for many Christmases to come they would celebrate this special time of year.
She had made up with her father, and they had come to an understanding, one that was only possible now she knew the deep and everlasting love that Bas offered her. She was no longer afraid of having a child of her own. No longer scared that she would not be able to walk in her father’s footsteps, or that her own children would be caught in a cycle of disappointment.
“Oh, Candy Canes,” he said, as she lay in his arms, completely sated.
She chuckled. “Stop teasing.”
“I’m not,” he said. “I can think of no other way to say how I feel right now.”
“It’s a pity we have to get up.”
“Couldn’t you call in sick?” he asked, dragging her closer to him.
“No. We have a special delivery to make.”
“Then let’s get dressed,” Bas said. He got out of bed, and dragged on his clothes. She helped, which meant kissing him, and touching every inch of his flesh, before he covered himself, reluctantly, in clothes. “You are not making this easy.”
“I’m testing your resolve.” She spun around and grabbed her own clothes, dressing quickly. “They’re nearly here.”
Sleighed: BBW Holiday Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Christmas Bears Book 1) Page 10