“And whose fault is that?” She slammed the back of her head into his nose, and he cursed so loud, his low voice echoed in the dark hallway.
“Damn it, Eira.” He spun her around, pushing her spine into the wall. Having her body pressed against him set a fire in his chest, and the last thing he wanted was to fight as her thighs brushed his. “I made a mistake. One I regret, but I did it out of love. I wish I could’ve told you. I wish so many things, but faced with your death or your survival, I chose for you. I’m sorry. So unbearably sorry, but seeing you alive proves I did the right thing.”
She slapped him, and he was so taken aback he just stood there staring at her. She raised her other hand, but he caught that arm, pinning her hands above her head. For a long, silentmoment, he held her shaking body trapped against the wall. They stared at one another, his towering height hovering over her. Two mortal enemies locked together. Two lovers breaking apart.
And then Eira lunged forward. Nick braced for the pain of her forehead shattering his nose, but shock electrified him when her lips slammed against his.
He tasted better than she remembered, and Eira captured Nick’s bottom lip between her teeth. A moan escaped his mouth, and she breathed it in, swallowing it with greed. There was nothing more intoxicating than a man voicing his pleasure, and his deep moans electrified her body. His hand tightened around her wrists. His broad chest pressed her into the wall, and Eira deepened the kiss, craving more, so much more. Nick lost all control as her tongue licked the seam of his mouth, and his hips pressed into hers. He reveled in how she squirmed when his dick pushed against her, how her skin burned warm and her breasts heaved. He missed the way she moaned, the way she screamed, the way she came, and suddenly her orgasming was the only thing he could think about.
Nick ripped his lips from hers. She sighed in protest, but he unwound the string of lights from his neck and lifted them to her raised hands. Eira gasped as he slowly wound them around her wrists, and then he slammed the pointed bulbs into the wall, embedding them so she couldn’t escape.
“In case you get any ideas about hitting me again,” he teased against her lips, and then he snapped his fingers. The lights flared to life, their blinking color beautiful against her skin.
“Asshole,” she snarled, but Nick silenced her with a kiss, claiming her mouth, her sanity, her lust. She struggled against the festive bonds, but it was futile. She was trapped against the wall, against him, and suddenly she didn’t remember why she hated him.
Through the haze of arousal and blinking red and green bulbs, Eira vaguely registered the sound of a zipper, and then Nick’s hands slid into her pants, his calloused fingers brushing against her clit.
“Fuck, Eira,” he moaned into her mouth as he pushed further, his finger slipping inside her to the knuckle. “So wet for me, just like I remember… maybe even more.” She bit his lip in annoyance, the only way she could fight back as he pressed her against the wall. “I missed your fire,” he laughed, inserting a second finger, and her teeth bit harder, but this time in pleasure. “That’s it, my little shadow. Come on my fingers.”
She kissed him with desperate hunger, her mind spinning, her body a blaze of sensations, her heart exploding. She hadn’t been with anyone since Nick left, and having him here, her emotions warring between love and hate, was too much. Too much. Too much.
She screamed into his mouth as she came, her pussy flooding his hand with her arousal. Her muscles shook. Her skin blazed with an electrical current, and she forgot how hard this man made her come. It felt like a collision between Heaven and Hell,like the hottest fire and the coldest ice. It was perfection, and one orgasm wasn’t enough.
Nick seemed to sense her desperation, and with a swift yank, he pulled her pants and shoes off. He freed himself, but before she could admire the impressive length, he gripped her thighs and hoisted her into the air. His muscular chest pinned her against the wall, his fingers digging into her skin, and as his mouth found hers again, he pushed inside her in one thrust.
Eira grabbed the string of lights with a breathy gasp as he bottomed out, his cock filling her almost to the point of pain. Nick paused, allowing her to adjust to his thickness, but she squirmed against him. She didn’t want time to adjust. She wanted him to fuck her into oblivion, to remind her how she hated him so much that she didn’t hate him at all. She never forgot the way he filled her, claiming her so thoroughly that she still felt him inside her the morning after. She never forgot the way he worshipped every inch of her body, his lips tasting her, owning her, devouring her. The way he could make her scream over and over and over again until she begged him to stop.
Nick’s head dropped to her neck, burrowing his face against her throat. With every thrust, he pushed her further into the wall, his pelvis brushing her clit with each roll of his hips. It was rough and desperate and primal, and pleasure barreled through her like a train without breaks. Her climax hit so hard, all she could do was wrap her thighs around his waist and hold on for dear life. The orgasm didn’t stop but rolled through her endlessly as he chased his own release, and she almost laughed at how loud she moaned. The thieves in the basement definitely heard her. Hell, the entire neighborhood probably heard her.
“Fuck,” Nick groaned against her throat, his hungry lips kissing her soft skin, and he twitched inside her as he came. The sensation of him emptying his pleasure into her with roughstrokes forced another climax to the surface, and she plunged over the edge with him, both of them panting and blissful.
Nick pulled the blinking bulbs from the wall and unbound her wrists with reverent care. Dropping the lights to the floor, he lifted Eira’s hands to his mouth, kissing one wrist and then the other as his darkened gaze watched his release drip down her thighs. He gently lowered her arms, and without a word, he stepped back to adjust his pants. The red suit was too big now that he stood in his true form, and Eira stifled a laugh. He rolled his eyes, knowing her all too well, and peeled the shirt from his body to reveal a physique carved by the gods themselves. Eira’s fingers ached to touch his abs, to run over his pecks and trace the veins on his biceps. She wanted to lick a path from his chest down to the impressive cock that hung between his thighs, but she noticed the sorrow had returned tohis eyes, and she remembered why she was there. To kill the only man she’d ever loved.
Suddenly unable to face him, she stormed down the wrecked hall to the bathroom. She hid inside for ten minutes as she cleaned up, wondering if Nick would be gone when she reemerged, but to her surprise and relief, he sat shirtless and patient before a now-lit fire. The cozy flames dancing in the destroyed room made her laugh, and Nick’s perfect lips smiled as he extended a hand to her. She didn’t take it, though. She simply stepped before him, knives hanging loose in her fingers.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked, and realizing she wouldn’t accept the offer, he lowered his hand.
“Where do you want to go?”
“I still hate you for leaving me.” Her grip on the knives tightened. “And I’ll always despise the Santas for what they did to my people.”
Nick shifted, breaking their gaze to stare at the mangled tree. She read defeat in the hunch of his broad shoulders, in the firm line of his full lips, and she hated that he looked like carved marble. She hated that he never showed her his pointed ears before, but she understood why. It was the same reason she never revealed her horns. But perhaps what she hated most was that under his new title of Santa, under his abs that made her core clench and her rational thoughts disappear, he was a good man, and she could never truly hate him. Before he left, he’d been the kindest, most respectful person she knew. Their relationship was strong, and the sex? It was so mind-blowing she sometimes forgot her own name, her body no longer bound to this earth but destined for the stars. They were perfect together, but then he disappeared. Only it seemed that in leaving, he still loved her, protecting her despite knowing she was a Krampus and he would become a Santa. History dictated he should’ve driven a blade through her heart when he learned the truth, butinstead, he’d spent years shielding her. She didn’t know how she hadn’t noticed before this moment. She lived in the shadows, always on the run, but there had been no real brushes with danger since their relationship ended. Only before Nick.
“I will always love you,” he whispered, as if he was afraid she would hear. “And I’ll always protect you.”
“I hate the name Santa, yet when I see you, I want to step into your shadow and live like our races in the first days.” Eira knelt before him, studying his strong profile. “Santa and Krampus. Good and evil. Naughty and nice.”
“You do naughty so well,” he chuckled, and she blushed, still feeling him inside her.
“Says the man who just tied me up with Christmas lights.”
He laughed harder at that and finally met her gaze. “What if we could change things? What if you and I could join forces and end the war between our races? I would love nothing more for you to become my shadow on Christmas, to punish the wicked so that we might bring peace to the world.”
“Is that even possible?”
“I’m Santa now and a fae. You’re a Krampus who can certainly fight her way through almost anything.” He smirked. “Don’t think I didn’t hear those men you have hog-tied downstairs.”
“They're fine,” Eira said, waving her hand dismissively. “Just waiting for the anonymous tip to arrive at the local police station.”
