Page 29 of Amy's Santa

Amy

The sound of the door to the suite opening makes me jump. But then I relax. There’s no way it could be Flint, it will only be Xander.

“BDSM? Really, Amy?”

I swing around with my hand to my mouth. “Dad told you!” I scream accusingly. “How could he?”

“Nah.” Wizard steps closer and takes my hand away from my lips. “Well, he did, but only after I told him I could easily find out for myself.”

“So am I in for a lecture?” My eyes spark in challenge.

He shrugs. “Your life, what you get up to is your business. For now I want to know what’s between you and this Xander. Where is he, by the way?”

“He’s gone to get his bag from the car.” His toy bag as he wanted to play more later, but I’m not admitting that to Wizard. “And what’s between me and him is up to us and nothing to do with you.”

He walks to the door that leads out onto the balcony and stares out. I watch him. Drew—Wizard is his name now, I remind myself—had been my friend growing up. He’d also been the reason I’d chosen to move away to complete my studies and follow my chosen career. And why at first it was deliberate, then habit, that I hadn’t often returned.

I’d first met Drew,Wizard,when I was five and he was fifteen. He’d come to the compound, not seeming to be too sure what to do. Of course, I hadn’t understood what was going on then. But as often the way over the years, I’d picked up that something was wrong. He was here, his sister wasn’t.

It had always been in my nature to help where I could, so of course, when I’d overheard thatWizardwas worried about Mariana being missing, I’d tried to help, in the only ways I could. Back in those days, it was trying to occupy his mind by me parading my series of toys in front of him.

It seemed while there had been little I could do, he’d appreciated me taking his mind off of whatever problem he was battling with and we’d drawn close. When Mariana had returned, and things had settled back down on the compound, I’d often caught him gazing at me when I was helping my stepmom with the twins, and later my baby sister when she’d been born.

I still remember the day Dr… Wizard had come up to me.

In my memories, in my head, he’s always been Drew.Damn it, unless he insists, I can’t change how I think of him now, and anyway, he was the boy then, not a president of an MC. As he continues staring out and not speaking, I find myself back in time.

I must have been about seven.

“Hey, squirt. Fancy escaping this joint?” Then he’d added, “I’m going to visit the Desert Museum. Wanna tag along?”

I’d startled and jumped at his voice and then leapt to my feet. Drew’s undivided attention for a few hours? Try and stop me. “Yes,” I’d cried, then added remembering the lessons drummed into me, “Thank you.”

I didn’t even care where we were going. It could have been grocery shopping just to have some one-on-one time with the boy/man who intrigued me.

I could barely contain my excitement. I’d been there before on a trip with my school, but to go with Drew? “Can we see the lizards and snakes? And can I play in the playhouse?”

A chuckle had come from his throat. Deeper now, unbeknownst to me at the time, it was a perfectly natural progression of him aging as his voice had completely broken. All I knew is it had seemed to vibrate through my mind.

“You want to be a packrat, do you? We’ll see what we can do.”

“And get ice cream?”

“We’ll see,” he said again.

One thing I already loved him for was that most of the men tended to preface my name back then with the word ‘little’ in front of it. Drew never did, treating me more like an equal than a kid ten years younger.

I hadn’t known it at the time, but growing up with Mariana, Drew and his illegal immigrant sister had flown under the radar, and were also dirt poor. He’d never been to the iconic desert museum just outside of Tucson, he’d never been to Tombstone, or spent time in the film studios of Old Tucson. Now independent with his own car, he was making up for lost time. Old habits had died hard, rather than make friends at school, he’d bargained with Mariana that if he got good grades, he could get a motorcycle, and, by giving Heart and Marc time to concentrate on the babies without me under their feet all the time, he was giving back to the Devils who had taken him in.

“One day, I’m going to be a prospect,” he’d confided, on one of our trips out.

I’d felt a burst of excitement. That meant Drew would be staying around, even after he’d left school.

But things changed. I started to notice him in different ways as I grew into a teenager, noticing how handsome he was, his body so enticing and muscular, his chest a canvass of artwork as he began to add tattoos. My often made promises that I was going to marry him when I grew up, which had amused him and he’d laughed off while ruffling my hair, I began to keep to myself. My child’s dreams turned into more mature ones and I started to believe they could become a reality. I’d sensed my personal time with Drew would come to an end, if he knew how much I wanted to feel his mouth against mine.

My seventeenth birthday had come and gone, and as I was seeing Drew as a man, I wanted to show him I was a woman. So I flirted with him, wore skimpy clothes, not put off when that didn’t work.He just needs time.One day I was sure he’d notice me, and no longer see me as a little girl.

But he hadn’t.

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