Page 1 of Santa's Candy

One

Candace Noelle

I hated three things in life:

One, being called Candy.

Two, being stranded. Anywhere. For any reason.

And mostly, more than anything in the entire world, nay the entireuniverse, I hated Pax Kane.

So being trapped in a blizzard with the very guy who’d called me Candy since kindergarten? Hallmark hell on earth.

Especially since he’d grown into a man—a super sexy man—who annoyed me to near violence. Not that I’d ever vent that violence. But I thought it. I mean, show me a woman who doesn’t occasionally star in a mental Lifetime movie and I’ll point to a liar.

My situation was neither Hallmark nor Lifetime. But it would probably prove to be hell.

Releasing a loud breath through my nose, I stared out the window of the motel room Pax and I were sharing for the night. The highway had been closed due to the storm, this was the only lodging available, and I wondered what I’d done to bring on this karma. I was a good person. I’d only lied to a few people atcollege and said he had an STI. And by a few, I meant one—my freshman roommate who’d been waxing poetic about him and floating the idea of trying to date him. She’d known Pax and I went to high school together and asked for my advice.

My advice had been to steer clear. And look at me now. Eight years later and all cozied up in a rural motel with the devil himself.

“It’s not so bad,” he said from where he leaned against the wall across the room, watching me with his arms crossed.

“What part is not so bad, Pax? We’re going to miss Christmas.”

“We won’t miss Christmas, brat.”

“It’s tomorrow. If we’d just left when winer break started—”

“I had to work, and so did you. It’s not as if Santa and his cute little elf could call in sick.”

I turned back to the window, my hands fisting beneath my elbows while my arms wrapped around my middle. I didn’t want to admit he was right, but wehad beenworking at the local mall, and our last shift had finished this afternoon—him as Santa, which took a hell of a lot of padding to pull off, and me as the elf directing kids toward him.

It wasn’t a bad gig for two newbie, underpaid school teachers to fit around classes and our holiday break. And after break, we could go back to our usual gigs, teaching at the local middle school and picking up any extra work we could, even the “extracurricular” jobs the more seasoned teachers shunned. Call me young and hungry, but I’d tutor middle schoolers afterregular class hours in order to afford my extravagant lifestyle of eating frozen meals for dinner and having electricity.

“Speaking of calls… Did you get a signal on your phone?” I asked.

Mine was allowing emergency calls only, and I wasn’t confident even that would go through.

“Nope.” In the window reflection, I saw Pax straighten away from the wall. “If you want, I’ll go see if the guy at the desk will let me use the motel’s land line.”

“Sure.”

“I’m taking the key, so you don’t lock me out. You want anything from the vending machine?”

I shook my head, watching the snow and ignoring the way my stomach quietly rumbled. I didn’t have any loose bills or change to give him, and I’d thought we’d be home by now. That was the plan—share a car and travel expenses to make things cheaper for the two of us, then go our separate ways for the holiday until it was time to travel back up north.

Pax might ignite rage inside me, but I wasn’t stupid. If I could save money on the trip to see my parents and extended family, I would. Even by enduring him. Plus, his truck was better for winter travel than my little sedan.

“You sure, Candy?”

“Yeah. I’m sure,” I replied through tense lips, trying not to be too snarky or to growl at the name. I owed him. Kinda. He’d put the motel room onhiscredit card. I’d pay back my half, but at least, it wasn’t something to worry about right this second.

“Okay…” he replied, drawing out the word. He headed toward the exterior door that was near the window where I stood, blindly looking at the snowflakes illuminated by the lot lights beyond the second-floor walkway outside our room.

As soon as I heard the door close behind Pax, I spun away from the glass, not wanting it to seem as if I were staring after him. I headed for my suitcase, and after lugging it onto the bed, I dug around for a sweater to pull on over the turtleneck I wore. The room was warmer than the truck would be if we were stuck weathering the storm in it, but I was still cold.

After grabbing out one of the books I’d brought, too, I zipped shut the hardshell bag then looked around, deciding where to read. I had three choices, really. The bed—hard no. The desk—maybe. Or one of the two chairs beside the small table near the window. I didn’t like the location, so close to the glass that seemed to radiate cold into the room, but the bed was a hell no, and the desk chair looked uncomfortable enough that Pax would probably give me a hard time about it.