Chapter 1
Chloe
“Isn’t this great???!!!” my friend Astrid asked excitedly.
“Yeah.. amazing.” I tried to summon the same amount of cheer as Astrid, but it didn’t work.
She was enthusiastic enough for both of us, though. So she didn’t notice that my smile was plastered on instead of natural.
We were in the middle of nowhere, on top of a mountain, waiting in line forA Snowy Sleigh Ride With Santa.
Her ex-boyfriend had bought the tickets a month ago. Unfortunately for Astrid, that same man became her ex before the sleigh ride happened.
There’d been some heated blow-out over the tickets, and before I could blink an eye, they’d gone from the cute couple traipsing towards the wedding aisle to bitter exes who hissed whenever the other’s name was mentioned. Or at least, Astrid was hissing. I didn’t know if her ex was actually doing that, too.
But us ladies have to stick together, which was the reason I’d skipped out on an extra shift at the diner, and let my frienddrive me an hour away from civilization and deep into the Ozark Mountains to stand in the frigid snow waiting for Santa.
I mustered up enough enthusiasm to say, “Oh, look! There’s the sleigh now.”
But the words dried up in my throat when I saw Santa.
“He doesn’t look like the Santa on the website,” Astrid said.
“No, he doesn’t.”
Santa was hot. Hot-as-fuck hot.
Anyone could see that.
“I guess he has his own beard, so he didn’t need to use a fake one,” she added while I tried valiantly to shut my mouth from where it had fallen open.
This Santa lookedsexy… and more than a little grumpy.
His beard wasn’t white. It was dark brown, the same as his eyes. And he’d forgotten to put on his Santa suit. He was wearing a flannel, a pair of old jeans, a black winter coat, and a pair of thick, sturdy boots.
The onlySantathing about him was the sleigh and the hat on his head. Some of his hair was hanging down under the Santa hat, and it was dark brown, too… almost black.
I had a thing for men with dark hair. A parade of blonde men could sashay by me in nothing but their underwear, and I’d be looking past them for the dark-haired man brooding in the corner.
But I wasn’tlookingfor trouble today. In fact, I’d sworn off trouble. And I could tell already that Sexy Santa was trouble with a capital T.
His eyes flashed to the front of the line where Astrid and I were waiting, then stopped on me for a second, his lips furling down into a deep-set frown.
The second our eyes met, my breath caught in my throat, and my pulse started fluttering. I couldn’t look away. I was instantly trapped in his web.
Which was a problem, because I’d been in my life-after-men phase ever since Todd and I split up. But Santa was making me reconsider my decision to live life without a man.
“I didn’t know they made men that hot,” Astrid whispered to me.
“That one’s not for you. You’re still in mourning,” I dead-panned. “If anyone gets him,Ido.”
“Mourning! It’s not like Jeffdied. He just forgot to hide his asshole side from me. Besides, what wouldyoudo with a stud like that?” Astrid knew I was still a virgin.
I giggled, and the first real smile of the day popped out on my lips. “Don’t worry about that. I’d figuresomethingout.”
Then we both laughed.
We were far enough away and talking quietly, so I was certain he couldn’t hear what we’d just said about him.
