Page 17 of Santa's Little Helpers

“Well I don’t plan on starting a relationship out on a bad foot,” he growled close to my ear.

Gasping, I tugged my head up and hit him square in the face with the back of it.

“Ow!”

I pulled away and stared in horror at the blood dripping from his nose.

“I’m so sorry! Oh my God.” I jumped into action, unbuttoning my work shirt and taking it off.

Jared laughed. “This is one hell of a first date, little squirrel.”

“Hush and move your hand,” I demanded. I’d always wanted to go into the medical field, but my life had not lent itself to that dream. I was using skills I had picked up in my short stint at EMT school. “Lean forward a bit and pinch this part of your nose.”

He took my instructions in stride and did as I asked. Using my shirt, I wiped the blood from his mouth and chin and fell onto my butt when the elevator jerked back to life.

Erika springing to life in order to care for me was the sexiest thing I had ever seen. I was mesmerized with each movement and instruction she gave. As the elevator began to move, I found myself mourning the end of our time together. I vowed to not let any more go by. I was officially ready to pursue the sultry little sub.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a worried Moses, Derek’s right-hand man, Derek, and a maintenance man I had yet to meet.

“Is everyone okay?” the man asked.

Moses went straight to Erika, signing to her much slower than I had witnessed him signing to Derek and Sadie.

She watched his hands and nodded. “I’m fine. We just kind of collided, and Jared’s nose was the only casualty.” Moses shook his head and offered me his hand, helping me off the floor like I weighed little more than a feather.

“Thank you. Do you know what happened?”

Moses shook his head again and gestured to the guard to answer.

“It appears the power to the elevator was shut down, but we don’t know what the cause was. Derek is on his way.”

The whir of a golf cart announced his arrival. “What kind of trouble have you two gotten into?” he asked jovially.

“Well, your subbie secretary got ticked at me and slugged me in the nose. You really should get a handle on this one.”

Derek chuckled. “You probably deserved it, old man. What are you doing out of the office, little girl?” Crossing his arms over his chest, he turned his attention to Erika.

Her eyebrows came together, and she looked back and forth between him and me.

“Are you going senile? You gave her the rest of the day off,” I reminded him.

“I most certainly did not!” Derek exclaimed, glowering at her. “She and I have not had our meeting yet today, and we need to discuss the final plans for the Christmas party tomorrow night.”

“Then why did Sadie tell me you wanted me to pass on the message?” Now I was confused and frustrated. “What the hell is going on around here?”

Derek rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “I don’t know, but it seems all of it has one common denominator, my little Angel.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but we really should get Master Jared to the big house and doctor up his nose,” Erika finally spoke up.

“I’m fine, little squirrel. The bleeding stopped.”

“You need ice.” She planted her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow in challenge.

I shook my head. “Okay, you win. Let’s go to the house, but I think we all need to discuss this new revelation.”

“One thing is obvious about the elevator,” the maintenance man chimed in. “It was manually shut off.”

Derek growled in the back of his throat, a noise I had never heard from the typically laid-back man. “That woman is going to be sitting on a tender tail for weeks.”

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