Page 25 of Reindeer Flames
"Then I'm glad I'm with you." He slid his hands up my back, pulling me closer as he did so. Our lips met in a gentle greeting that quickly turned frantic. I'd missed kissing him, and I couldn't resist the warmth of his naked body against mine.
"We should get inside," I whispered when he broke the kiss.
He took a step toward the sleigh, and I followed, unable to let him go just yet. He bent down to grab his pile of clothes, and then he opened the sleigh bench. I grabbed both of our bags, and he fished the keys from the front pocket.
"How did you find this place so easily?" I asked.
"Santa brings all the new recruits here to bond with the team, one week over the summer."
"That sounds wonderful," I said.
"It's nerve-racking." Hart grimaced. "Some of the team expected me to take charge, even when I was new last year. When they learned I'm not like my cousins, it didn't go well." His footsteps were louder than mine on the porch boards, and I looked down to confirm he still had human feet, not hooves. He unlocked the door and held it open for me.
"When Martin Cupid came on board this spring, he kept quoting Bopp like he was the coolest reindeer in the universe." A shiver rolled up his shoulders and neck, and he squinted his eyes shut.
"It must be hard being his cousin."
"I wish he was the only one." Hart shut the door and flipped the lock while I found the light switch. "One annoying cousin, I could avoid. Thirty of them around Grandpop and Grandad's table, it's a lot harder."
I was only half-listening while I took in the sights. Instead of an overhead light, the room was lit with large rainbow-colored Christmas lights, the old-fashioned pear-shaped ones, except when I touched them, they weren't hot.
"Magic," Hart confirmed. "The heat must be magic, too, since I don't see a thermostat or a fireplace."
The room was far warmer than the outdoors, and all decked out for Christmas. "Bedroom's back here."
He led the way, and I stared at his gorgeous naked backside. I still couldn't believe the sexy reindeer was my fated mate. I'd denied my dragon's desires, but hearing Santa say it aloud had changed everything.
Fate made nothing easier, though. Hart was still a Comet, and his family would be difficult to ignore. My dragon was up for the challenge. I hoped Hart would be, too.
CHAPTER 12
HART
When we finally tumbled intobed, I couldn't shake the inkling I'd let Santa down. His idea of restful sleep would have to wait. He wasn't a shifter, so he didn't know how taxing it was to prance and play with his mate's beast for the first time. Flying the sleigh was one thing; air dancing required muscles I didn't use all that often, and boy, were they tired.
Silver got ready for bed first. When I joined him under the covers, his light snores were too adorable to resist. I cuddled against him and fell asleep.
The next morning, we were up with the birds and the automatic coffee machine. The place really was magic, or so I thought until I walked into the kitchen and found a note from Santa 30 scrawled on the paper he kept on his desk at the North Pole.
"Keys to the Volkswagen. Fill 'er up when you're done. No flying dragons in Copenhagen."
Well, that was a problem. "I don't know how to drive."
"I do," Silver said from behind me. "Coffee?"
I poured two cups and showed him the note from Santa. A set of keys on a race car keychain lay beside it.
"How do you know how to drive a car?" I asked.
"Gold and I haven't always had a bakery in Christmas Village. We used to fly to Longyearbyen and then drive to work."
Once we finished our coffee, I tucked Santa's purchase order agreement into my jacket pocket, and we were off. Silver's driving reminded me of my papa on a snowmobile, slow and careful. I plugged the address into my phone, and we followed the turn-by-turn directions to a lovely brick storefront decorated for Christmas. Inside, we found all the trappings of a dry goods store and some amenities I wasn't expecting, like a phone charging station and an ATM. The shop mixed old-fashioned flair with new technology. I was surprised to find the same brands as the North Pole. Santa 30 was on the board to provide food for Christmas Village, but I hadn't realized how much had come from here.
I also found it interesting that we wouldn't buy enough salt for everyone at the North Pole. We would provide only for Gold, Silver, and Laurie. If the Christmas Village bakers had misused their salt, that was their fault.
Since Santa 30 insisted on our daily runs to Gold and Silver's, I couldn't remember the last time I ate something from a village baker. Now that I knew Silver was my mate, I was even less likely to shop in the village.
I didn't want to examine my reasons too closely. Was that because the village vendors were snobby? Or was it because my cousins might see me in the village? Yes, the vendors could be snobbish, but my cousins were assholes.
