Naughty St. Nick (8 page)

Her heart sank.

...
All I’ve ever
truly
wanted
... and
All I’ll ever need
instantly vanished into thin air.

Nick had carried her into her bedroom after their second go-round in front of the fire. He’d made love to her twice more. Bliss couldn’t even begin to describe the sensations that had enveloped her, leaving her both sexually
and
emotionally charged. And wanting Nick even more.

Yet, here she was the morning after. Alone.

Her brow furrowed and the corners of her mouth dipped.

“Nick?”

Silence met her ears. She stared at the side of her bed that he’d vacated without warning. Without telling her where he’d run off to. Without confessing that he’d rather sleep in his own bed than hers.

Apparently, old habits died as hard as old traditions.

She snapped up the note lying on the pillow that still held the indentation of his head. Dread
and
disappointment slithered down her spine as she read the very simple missive.

Had a couple of things to wrap up. I’ll be in touch.

Nick

Vixen crumpled the piece of paper. How fucking vague was that?
I’ll be in touch
...? Like, from Siberia?

That was it? Really? All he had to say?

What the hell?

Was this is his standard
it’s been fun, gotta run
kiss-off?

Had he gotten what he’d wanted from her...and now she served no purpose in his life?

Vixen was taken by surprise at the tears that instantly sprang to her eyes.

How could this be? How could he just slip out? What about all that lovely stuff he’d said to her? The way he’d kissed her? The way he’d made love to her?

Confused, and feeling the heartache coming on, she left the bed and headed toward the shower to wash away the flood of tears with the hot spray of water.

This must have been how her mother had felt when she’d told Vixen’s father they were having a baby. And then he’d split. No feeble note needed. He’d blown out of her life with the first stiff breeze.

Had Nick just done the same?

* * *

Paranoia, insecurity, heartbreak...they were pretty much all the same thing in Vixen’s mind at this point.

She’d dressed, done her hair and makeup. Still no word, no call from Nick.

Who was avoiding who this time?

She left the house and walked toward the town square. The bite in the air was a nice enhancement to the Christmas Eve ambience, but Vixen couldn’t fully embrace the cheer she’d started to get back lately.

Fighting the emotion welling within her, she tried, instead, to focus on another critical issue at hand. One of the reasons she was in such financial dire straits was that she was responsible for her mother’s hospital bills. She’d been perfectly fine with that arrangement when she was bringing in money from her books. But the fact that she hadn’t generated new royalties in three years, and that a lot of her time had gone to freebie work at her aunt’s bookstore, Vixen felt the pinch more than ever before.

She’d considered switching to romance just last night. But now?

Yeah. Right
.

What the hell did Vixen White know about romance?

It stung to think she’d been wrong about Nick of late. She’d been convinced by all of his good deeds that he wasn’t a player, that he was no longer the love ‘em and leave ‘em sort.

Deep in her heart, she still wanted to believe that. Couldn’t shake the feeling, in fact.

But after that amazing connection they’d established last night, it honestly felt as though he’d walked out on her come morning.

As she aimlessly wandered the square, forcing a smile to everyone she passed, she tried to find solace in the fact that she wouldn’t turn out exactly like her mother. She hadn’t fallen too far down the rabbit hole and certainly wouldn’t wind up pregnant and alone.

Well, not pregnant.

Just alone
.

Because Nick was it for her.

With a sigh, she spun around on her boot heels, deciding to head home and Google jobs in Maine. If she left North Pole, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, right?

“Hey!” came a familiar voice.

She jumped back before nearly slamming into Nick’s brick wall of a chest.

He grinned. “You are way too much of an early riser. Don’t you eat breakfast?”

Her brows knitted. “I had strawberry yogurt. Why?”

“Well, I only planned to be gone a short while. Jesus, I took up more time than I’d thought...”

She eyed him curiously. There were pine needles stuck in his thickly woven sweater. And he looked a bit breathless, as though he’d been rushing about.

“Somewhere you had to be so early in the morning?” she asked, resisting the urge to demand whether it was someone else’s bed he’d needed to warm.

Again, she didn’t think he’d screw her over that badly. But he did have a reputation, and Vixen was just new enough to a relationship and experienced enough in this area because of her mother to have prickly feelings about it all.

Yet, she wasn’t above giving Nick the benefit of the doubt—so she bit her tongue.

“Actually, yes,” he told her.

She blanched.
So
not the answer she was expecting.

His gaze narrowed. “Vix... What gives? You don’t think I... I mean... Wow.” He seemed to reel from a sudden revelation. “You don’t actually think that I was making a house call somewhere else?”

His shocked expression—no, his
pained
expression—made her falter. Emotion seized her insides. This whole hot-sex-one-minute-disappearance-the-next was all way too new to Vixen for her to even begin to process the crazed feelings coursing through her.

“I don’t want to think that,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to think. I just... It just seems that...” She shook her head. “After last night...” That was really all she could say.

Apparently, it was enough. Nick grinned. “Yeah, last night. Damn.” His head dipped and he kissed her enthusiastically, passionately. Right there in the town square.

While
she
reeled this time, he added, “Best night ever, Vix. Like...stellar.”

It took a few seconds for her to collect her thoughts, then she said, “So why the quick escape?”

“Ah, that.” He grinned again. Full-on mischief and excitement and something she couldn’t even define lit his eyes. “So, first of all, we needed condoms. Seriously, what was I thinking coming over with only four of them? Well, except that I didn’t want to get ahead of myself with wishful thinking or be presumptuous, but I should have planned a little further ahead. I woke up wanting to make love to you—but couldn’t.”

Her brow jerked up. “Again?”

His grin widened. “And again and again. But... I also had this one other Christmas task to get out of the way, only I couldn’t let anyone see me. And then the shops opened, and there was one in particular I suddenly
had
to stop into.”

“Nick—”

“I know, I’m all over the damned place right now, aren’t I?”

His smile was sweet and charming, yet seductive at the same time. Only Naughty Nick could pull off that look.

“What are you up to?” she quietly demanded. “Because I am going crazy. I’ve never had a night like last night and then you were gone this morning and I just—”

“I love you, Vixen.”

She sucked in a breath. Stared at him. No blinking. Just an endless stare.

He said, “Madly. Deeply. Truly. However the song goes. You’ve always been the one for me, Vix. You always will be the one for me.
Just you
.”

“Nick.” That one word fell from her lips on a rush of air. There was hardly a breath left in her body as she gazed up at him, shocked.

“See, the thing is,” he told her, “we’ve been surrounded by magic our entire lives. And when we were younger we always believed—in everything. Every hope, every possibility, every Christmas tale. Then we got older. Thought we got wiser. And some of that belief fell by the wayside. Then some bad things happened to us, to our town, and we finally let all of that belief slip away.”

With a nod, she said, “That’s true.”

“But the thing is, there are certain epiphanies that can make us believe again. For me, it was the sleigh I had the chance to work on. It was the lights I was tasked to fix. All of that made me remember why I love this town so much—why I want my parents to come back, because they’ve always loved it, too. Sure, things are different now, but that doesn’t mean they’re worse. We still have everything in North Pole that we did before, it’s just...a different version, you know? That doesn’t make it a bad thing, because we’ll always remember what we had before. But time marches on, right? We either stay mired in the past, or we embrace those memories and accept the change at our doorstep.”

Vixen’s gaze slid to Santa’s village, and though hot tears rolled down her cheeks, she said, “It’s all so perfect right now. It’s not the same for so many of us, and it never will be
the same
. But...it’s still perfect.”

“Exactly.”

She turned back to Nick. “Does that mean you have one more surprise for us?” She thought of the star he’d yet to place atop the tree.

“A couple, actually,” he told her. His mischievous grin made another appearance. “Vix, I’ve always wanted to be with you. Long before I even knew what that meant. Long before I made that promise to your granddad. I was drawn to you from the beginning—I mean, the
very
beginning. But you had stuff going on, and you weren’t inclined to open up. I didn’t press. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t know back then what you were going through. I didn’t fully get it.”

“Neither did I.”

He scowled. “I should have pushed you to talk to me.”

“I wouldn’t have,” she confessed. “Because, Nick, I couldn’t figure it all out myself. Just about everyone else in town had a traditional family. Sure, some kids’ parents were divorced. But at least they knew who their parents were. I have a dad out there, somewhere, who didn’t want to know anything about me, who didn’t want to know whether I was a boy or a girl or an elf.” She gave a half-hearted laugh in hopes of sounding a little less bitter. But one thing that always hurt Vixen was that her father had never cared about who she was—whether she lived or died.

Nick brushed a few tears from her cheek and said, “Baby, that was his choice to make. Chances are very good he regrets his decision. But one thing
you
can’t regret is your life in North Pole. You can never deny that this town is as much a part of you as you’re a part of it. Whether your mom or your granddad are here or not. They contributed to the history. They loved it as much as you do. And they’d want you be happy here. The way they were.”

Vixen drew in a long breath. Despite her mother’s heartbreak, she had found peace in North Pole. And generations down the road would know about her grandfather, because he truly was
North Pole history. A tradition that would never be forgotten.

“I know you’re right,” she said. “Thank you. Thanks for everything you’ve done. Thank you for...reminding me about the true spirit of Christmas, the true spirit of this town. The lights and the cookies and Santa’s village...those are all contributing factors. But it’s hearing the laughter that’s been gone for so long and seeing all these people milling about, who’d all but forgotten about us... They’re all in awe, Nick. They
believe
.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s once a year, once in a lifetime or year-round,” he said. “Believing in a little magic goes a long way.”

“Yes, it does.”

She hugged him, her eyelids fluttering closed as she absorbed his warmth, his strength. Nick had helped to bring back Christmas to North Pole. He’d made
her
believe again.

He held her tight for a while. When Vixen finally opened her eyes, fat, fluffy snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

“It’s snowing,” she whispered.

“Even more perfect.” He eased her out of his arms and grinned again. “Makes for good ambience.”

“It does.”

“I’m not just talking about the square,” he said. “I had another errand this morning. Needed to pick something up. For you.”

“More truffles?” she joked as she brushed away wayward tears.

“Not exactly.” His fingertips grazed her temple as he stared deep into her eyes. “I love you, Vixen White. I always have. I always will.”

Her breath caught.

With a soft chuckle, he said, “I like that I take your breath away.”

“Every time,” she managed to tell him.

“So... I was sort of wondering how you feel about me.”

She laughed. “You can’t possibly have any doubt that I love you. Especially not after last night.”

“We were sort of just getting started.” He gave her coy look.

Vixen’s cheeks flushed. “You’re just so...naughty, Nick.”

“Only with you. Forever, only with you.”

Then he knelt on one knee. Vixen’s heart skipped several beats.

Nick pulled out a small box from the pocket of his leather jacket and flipped the lid. “Will you be my wife, Vix? To have and to hold, forever and ever...and all that?”

Tears crested her eyes again. “You really like catching me off guard, don’t you?”

“Best way to get a gut reaction from you.”

“I think that, somehow, you already knew my reaction. Yes, Nick. With every fiber of my being—yes.”

He stood, removed the ring from the black velvet holder and slipped the gorgeous diamond on her finger.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too.”

His mouth sealed to hers, yet another sizzling kiss.

When they finally came up for air, Vixen heard the enthusiastic applause that filled the town square.

She hadn’t even noticed they’d had an audience.

Chapter Nine

On Christmas Day, a beautiful phenomenon occurred. Or rather,
several
phenomena occurred.

First, the City Council miraculously found enough money in the budget to fund the “official” annual tree-lighting ceremony in the town square, even if it was a bit late in the season. While Nick had already replaced the lights on the huge spruce in the center of the square, and he’d also fixed all the colorful lights on the trees that lined the perimeter, the Council had sprung for refreshments, which Jenny handed out to the folks gathered around the big tree.