Seduced by Santa by Mina Carter Read Free Book Online Page A

grabbed her coat from the back of the couch and headed for the door. He watched her until she was out of sight, waiting until he heard the door open and familiar voices in the hallway. Reassured by Stone’s deep tones that Candy was in safe hands, he turned and walked back into the bedroom to get ready.
    He didn’t get more than three steps into the room before The Call hit him. Hard. Every muscle in his body locked up, almost driving him to his knees as the box appeared on the bed in front of him in a sparkle and glow of magic.
    “Fuck. Off!” he ground out, gritting his teeth as he kept moving.
    Each step past the thing was like walking through treacle, steel reinforced treacle, but he did it, reaching the other side of the bed and the wardrobe by the window. Reaching up, he grabbed his pants off the hanger and hauled them on. All the time he ignored the box behind him, the magic so strong now that it was humming.
    “You can get lost. I’m not interested,” he told it.
    Then he made the mistake of looking up and out of the window. A window which before tonight had looked out onto a plain brick wall, the reason he’d been comfortable wandering around in the buff, sure that he wasn’t going to inadvertently flash anyone. But the magic of Christmas was nothing if not adaptable, if not downright fucking sneaky. Instead of the wall he looked out across the city, all the rooftops laid out before him. Snow fell, covering them in a blanket of white as a familiar sleigh touched down on the roof opposite.
    Magic held him tight, locking his muscles down so he couldn’t move as the red-suited figure climbed out, turned and saw him. A smile spilt the bearded face as the Santa lifted his hand to wave. A creature of magic himself, Rhod easily saw past the age, extra pounds and the beard, and a bolt of recognition shot through him.
    The man opposite was his younger brother. Cole.
    Unable to help himself, he lifted a hand to wave back and the look of surprise and happiness on Cole’s face cracked what was left of Rhod’s resistance. His eyelids dropped as memory after memory flooded his mind. Of the time before the snot-nosed brats, of Christmases past…even before he was born.
    He saw gifts in crude, cheap paper a mother had saved months for, right through to a hand-made gift of Jam in the most expensive paper. Gifts from military parents not able to make it home wrapped with so much love it brought a lump to his throat. Gifts from all walks of life, all wrapped with care and thought…right through to gifts found wrapped and ready, made all the more precious for the fact the giver didn’t make it home one night after work thanks to a hit and run accident.
    The collective memory of all Clauses everywhere and everywhen who had ever delivered a much-longed for present to a child slammed into and through him, swept everything else…all his arguments, misgivings and disappointments…away. Washed through him and filled him up with the joy and happiness of Christmas until he was fit to bursting.
    Opening his eyes he looked again at Cole. His brother smiled and gave him the thumbs up before turning to grab the heavy sack from the back of the sleigh. Hauling it over his shoulder, he set off across the snow-laden roof with a spritely step that belied his apparent age.
    Swiping a hand over his face to clear the tears leaking from his eyes, Rhod turned to the bed and the box waiting for him.
    “You sneaky bastard,” he muttered and reached for it.
    No more running. It was time to do his duty.
    “Oh my, you look great. Thank you so much for doing this, Jared, you don’t know how grateful I am,” Candy said as she and Jared stood in the cold corridor outside the main hall of the chapel.
    “You’re welcome. Just don’t tell anyone, okay? It would quite ruin my street cred,” he replied with a wink and a grin.
    The costume wasn’t great. Cheap and a little on the tacky side, it was all she could get on such short notice. Built