Page 26 of Holiday Power Play

"It's just interesting… I'm picturing grouchy little Lana. The grinch of the MacDonald family learning to chop down trees to bring Christmas joy to all the little girls and boys just sounds… I don't know, funny."

"I am not the family grinch."

"It's okay, Lana. Every family has one. For mine, it's my oldest brother Harlan. I think he'd rather skip the whole Thanksgiving to Christmas season altogether if he could."

"I love Christmas, Sincaid."

I blow air through my lips, "Sure, why don't you prove it then?"

"I don't need to prove anything to you." She puts a hand up to her hip.

"Because you're a little Christmas grinch?"

She scoffs. I gotta admit, I like ruffling her feathers. It's fun.

I turn, about to pick up another piece of wood to chop when something whizzes past my face. At first, I think it's a bird. But as I turn to see the direction it came from a burst of ice cold snow hits me square in the face.

As it drips off, I see Lana, keeled over and laughing in such a way that I almost can't be mad that she just hit me in the face.

"Oh, you think that's funny? " I say, wiping the slush off my face.

She giggles and it's the cutest fucking thing I've ever heard. Of course, it is. Of course I find the giggle of the most menacing human on earth to be the one thing that does me out.

I reach down to roll up a snowball and I as I do she hits me with three more.

"Jesus, woman. How many arms do you have?" I launch my flimsy excuse for a snowball at her but she's already running away.

"La-na," I call out behind her. "You want to start a war? Then stay and fight."

She doesn't stop, instead she jumps up pulling an icicle from a branch as she runs under it and launches it at me. I'm now full-on chasing her into the woods as the icicle zings past me.

"I almost lost an eye!" I yell up to her.

"An eye patch might actually fix your face," she calls back, huffing to catch air in her lungs.

"I hope you run better than you can throw an icicle because when I catch you," I threaten. "It's over."

Another snowball gets tossed in my direction. It's like she's making them as she's running which is just insane. Maybe she has the forest animals helping her out. I'm right on her tail as we break past the tree line and into a clearing, where she jumps over a fallen log but trips up and lands right in the snow with a yelp.

I got her now.

I jump the log and land right over her as she's kicking up snow and trying to get away.

I pull her legs and slide her to me, using my hips to pin her down as I lean forward and take both her wrists into one hand, pinning her arms above her head.

She writhes under me. And the motion mixed with the adrenaline has me getting excited in a way neither one of us can deny.

Lana breathes heavily, trying to escape from my grip.

"Uh-uh," I say. "An eye for an eye." I dig my free hand into the snow next to her hip and grab a handful.

"Let. Me. Go!" She fights with each word.

"Not until I get my payback," I say, squeezing the snow into a tight fist and letting it slightly melt into a piece of ice in my grip.

Lana looks at my hand, confusion written all over her face.

I take the ice and run it down the side of her face. She gasps and keeps trying to buck me off of her, but I keep trailing it down the side of her neck.

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