Page 3 of Santa's Candy

“The drapes are thermal. We should probably shut them.”

“But that’s the only light,” she said quietly.

“I’ll turn on the flashlight on my phone. We can eat the snacks I brought then bundle up under the blankets.”

“But I said—”

“I know what you said, baby girl, but you know and I know that you need to eat something. Now behave and come over here.”

“Pax,” she protested.

“Candy, you’re hungry, and it’s fucking cold. You’re not going to starve or freeze your ass off because you’re being stubborn and scared. Get over here.” I pulled out my phone and flicked on the flashlight. Though I didn’t watch her, I saw her move from the corner of my vision. Pleasure at her obedience fired through me. However, I didn’t acknowledge her skittish compliance.

I dropped my lit-up cell onto the bed, flashlight up, then headed for the window.

The bed creaked while I pulled the heavy double curtains along the rods, and my dick went rock-hard. I’d never had Candy in a bed, but fuck I wanted that. I was glad that the darkness of the room hid the thickness in my jeans when I headed back to her.

“Why do you call me that?” she asked, leaning against the faux headboard attached to the wall. She wasn’t under the blankets or near the spare blankets and the food. Stubborn woman.

“Because no one else calls you that. And even though you act all sassy and tart, you’re my delicious Candy.”

“Pax.”

“Candy.”

“Those times…”

I waited to hear what she’d say because yeah, it hadn’t only been that our first time in the bed of my truck. There’d also been the hookup at the university’s football field, hours after the game where I’d been pummeled and my team had gotten the shit kicked out of them. I’d been in a piss poor mood, and then there was Candy. She hadn’t protested when I’d pulled her back to the shadows.

She’d made me feel a hell of a lot better. We weren’t supposed to be there, but then again, we weren’t supposed to be with each other, either.

And then there’d been the time in the coat check room at my sister’s wedding last year. I’d bound Candy’s hands with a woolen belt and bent her over a counter with cubby’s for bags, my tie in her mouth to muffle her moans while I told her what a naughty girl she was to tempt me all night.

That had been the last time we were together, and she hadn’t spoken to me for weeks afterward.

And apparently, I was kinky and a masochist, because I wanted her again—and again and again. But the next time it happened, I was keeping her. I was done with this chase and having years between the pleasure we could have as a couple.

“Those times were mistakes,” she said finally, gutting me once more.

“They weren’t,” I denied. Rounding the bed, I sat beside her on the other side and pulled the pile of food and blankets closer. I handed her a bottle of water and a bag trail mix made up of nuts and cany pieces. “Now, be a good girl and eat, baby.”

Three

Candace

When he told me to be a good girl, a flutter erupted in my middle and startled me.

Honestly, it shouldn’t have. I’d been getting those butterflies for years. They shamed me and scared me. A long time ago, after I’d seen my babysitter’s boyfriend abuse her, she’d made me promise to always be strong, to never let a guy push me around. And Pax… He did. He overruled all my thoughts whenever we were in an intimate situation—a circumstance I avoided like Ebola. His dominance made me hot and turned my skin prickly. With a few words, he could have my thighs clenching, but then I’d remember my reactions weren’t right. Because I was a strong independent woman.

And there I was, in a dark motel room, shoveling trail mix into my mouth like agood girl.

Why did I want to be that for him?

“They had some of these for guests at the lobby’s coffee counter. The coffee looked questionable, but I know you like these things.” He edged a plastic wrapped tree cake toward me.

My mouth watered as I stared at it. “They’re my favorite. I only have them once during Christmas.”

“So I’m not the only thing you compartmentalize and deny yourself then? Good to know.”

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