Page 100 of Run, Run Rudolph
“You okay?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t going to tell me I was pushing too fast. Now that the door had opened between us, I wanted all of her. Now.
“Am I really the reason you’ve never dated anyone for longer than four months?”
“Four months?” Had she been keeping track of my past relationships?
“Yeah.”
I paused, considering my conversational options. I didn’t want to talk about exes right now. I wanted to keep kissing Tamara. But I got the impression that if I didn’t talk about my exes, there would be no more kissing.
With a sigh, I ran a hand through my hair. “What’s the point of staying with someone when you know you’ll never fall in love with them, because you’ve got feelings for someone else?”
She sighed in my arms, and it was the happiest sigh I’d ever heard. It made me wonder if we would have dated in high school if we’d been the same age. If it hadn’t been necessary for me to put up mental blocks and walls to keep things appropriate between us for so many long years.
Before Tamara could ask anything more about my long-buried, not-fully-understood feelings about her, I grazed her lips with mine. I’d never get tired of her and her coconut lip balm. The tender touch of her mouth. The way her lashes fluttered down before mine did when we kissed, the way she lost herself in being touched by me.
The light kiss turned into something more, a need that made our kisses suddenly turn frantic and deep.
I suddenly jolted back, freezing as I processed what was going on around us. Something had clanged. Was it a door? Had Mrs. Claus found us?
Could Tamara magic us away again with another wish? The seamless way we’d travelled here made me wonder if someone else’s wishes had ever impacted my life before. Maybe the renewed friendship between Tamara and myself tonight was nothing more than a product of someone’s wish.
I’d be okay with that, as long as the wish didn’t wear off. Right now, her sweet lips were millimetres from mine, and I felt their pull, my libido wrestling for control. This felt real. So very real.
I heard the whisper of fabric, maybe the squeak of a rubber sole, and the instinctual part of my brain tightened its grip on my focus.
Something wasn’t right.
Tamara was still gathered in my arms, and I pulled her into a full upright position, releasing her.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered as I heard another undefinable noise. I slipped my night vision goggles down over my eyes again. The store was cold without Tamara pressed against me, my jaw pleasantly tired from kissing.
“I didn’t hear anything,” she whispered back. She was feeling around in the dark for her own goggles, which had gone skittering across the floor at some point. I passed them to her.
“Is it Mrs. Claus?” she asked me.
“I don’t know.”
Flickering security lights strobed, streaking the store’s ceiling. Had we accidentally tripped the alarm? I was sure I’d turned it off.
Adrenaline thundered through my veins as I heard a boot land on the hard floor somewhere to the right. I slid Tamara behind me, trying to gauge where the intruder was, and whether I should announce our presence or not. If it was Mrs. Claus, we wanted to stay completely off her radar.
I picked up my Nerf gun, prepared to throw it once I had a target.
“Police!” a deep male voice shouted, and Tamara jolted, hitting her head on the boxes on the shelf behind us. Large sounding feet, in some pretty serious boots, stomped across the floor in our direction.
Was it really the police, or was Justin playing a prank on us? He could have installed cameras without me knowing, and thought he’d come scare the crap out of us. But the red and blue lights rotating on the ceiling…yeah, it could be the police.
Tamara and I scrambled to our feet, listening. She backed against a wire rack and it swayed, dropping whistles and keychains around us. She squeaked, and the footsteps came closer.
“Police! Stay where you are!”
“We’re unarmed,” I shouted, realizing just how far south this situation could go if we weren’t careful.
“Drop your gun!” Tamara said to me, and I let the plastic toy clatter to the floor.
“He’s armed!” the police yelled, and Tamara screamed.
“We’re not armed!” I hollered back. “It’s a toy. A Nerf!”
