Page 8 of Yule Tied Up

I turn to Dom. “Did you hear that?”

He narrows his eyes at me. “Hear what?”

“Nothing. I just thought … never mind.” I must be losing my shit.

Santa gives Mackenzie her gift. She kisses his cheek, and the crowd cheers and claps. She saunters back to us, a big grin across her face.

As we walk away from the crowds, Kirill asks, “Did he get hard for you,Kukla?”

She turns to him and purses her lips. “Sometimes, Kirill, you’re disgusting. He was a sweet old man, and it was just a silly joke.”

“I’d have gotten hard for you, even if I was ninety,” Kirill says.

She rolls her eyes. “Yes, of course you would, my big, strong Russian. Why don’t you show me how strong you are?”

His brows knit together, but she points past him. “There.”

The high striker has a small line in front of it, and Dom grins. “I challenge you to a duel,” he deadpans as he smirks at me.

“What’s the prize?” I ask.

“The three of us take a turn, and whoever wins gets to decide tonight’s after dinner entertainment.” Dom says.

Sounds good to me. I think I’m stronger than both of them. They might have an inch or two on me in height, but I’m definitely the one packed with muscle. I flex my neck, aware of how the tattoos crawling up my skin always catch Kenzie’s attention.

We approach the man running the high striker.

“Three tickets, please.” I hold out a twenty-dollar bill.

He narrows his eyes and frowns at the money. “This game is sold out.”

I have no idea what he means. “How can it be sold out? There isn’t a line or anything.”

He gives a sniff and looks us up and down. “Sold out to the likes of you.”

What. The. Fuck.

“Our money is as good as anyone’s.” I’m doing my best to keep my temper, but adrenaline is already surging through my veins.

“No, it isn’t. This is a local fair for local people, not the likes of you. Take your money elsewhere.”

I ball my fists, fully prepared to take the fucking sledgehammer and use it to bash this asshole’s brains in, but a hand on my arm stops me.

“Let’s just go.”

Kenzie stares up at me with those big blue eyes I love so much.

I look to Dom and Kirill for backup, but, though they both appear unhappy with the situation, neither of them seems to bepreparing for a fight. This is supposed to be a happy, chilled out time. No one wants to get into a scrap with one of the locals.

We turn away from the stall, but I’m still grinding my teeth and almost willing him to shout some kind of insult out to us so I’ve got a reason to go and punch him in the face.

“We’d have all hit that bell easily, anyway,” Kirill points out, trying to lighten the mood. “I think we all should get a turn to say what fun we have at some point during our stay.”

“We can draw numbers out of a hat,” Dom says, “then go by those numbers for what order we get to have our fun in.”

Kenzie’s eyes narrow. “Have you all been storing fantasies up or something? I don’t want to go home unable to walk for a week.”

Dom leans in. “Baby, if you go home walking normally, we’ve not done our job right.”

---