Page 23 of The Santa Rules
“A little too much.” She waves a hand in front of her crotch, and my eyebrows shoot up. “I’m going to need a minute before we go back out there.”
“Are you telling me you’re wet? That you’re standing in a storage closet dripping for me?” My voice is low, hungry.
“And he’s a dirty talker. What are you trying to do to me?” She says the last part like she’s talking to an imaginary being in the sky.
I take a step closer to her and grab her still-outstretched hands, pulling her flush with me again.
“Fuck it,” she says. She grabs my cheeks and kisses me hard. Desperately. Like I’m the last cookie on Santa’s plate and she hasn’t eaten in days.
When I feel her grind her pelvis against me, I push her back against the shelving unit, holding the back of her head so she doesn’t bump it against the hard wood. She hikes a leg up on my hip, and I grip it as I run a hand down her other thigh, encouraging her to climb me. And she does, like a tree, wrapping her legs so tight around my waist that I can’t help but grind my cock against her center.
“That’s it, use me. Make a mess in those panties,” I say as I kiss down the side of her neck.
She arches her back, pushing her pussy against me as she rocks back and forth against me.
The door handle jiggles, and we pull back, looking at each other in panic.
“Is someone in there?” a nasally voice calls out. “I forgot my key.”
“Amber,” Bella whispers.
I set her down and readjust myself as I take in the flush of her cheeks, her swollen lips, the small mark I made on her neck. Shit.
“Coming!” Bella calls out as she retucks her shirt and smooths a hand through her hair.
“The door automatically locks behind us, so you have to have a key to get in,” she explains as she moves to open it.
Amber walks in, pushing past Bella as though she knows exactly what she wants. I take a step back against the wall in the cramped space to allow her to pass. She grabs a box and walks out, stopping at the door briefly with her back to us. She turns her head slightly. “If this is how you two are going to run Santa’s Workshop, I’ll find someone else to take over.”
I can see the anger flash in Bella’s eyes. “Maybe wewouldn’t have to spend so much time in a closet if the PTO president wasn’t setting us up to fail. Boxes aren’t labeled, inventory is missing, and that joke of a stack of paperwork is atrocious. My seventh-grade boy has better organizational skills.”
A laugh bursts out of me because I know how unorganized teenage boys are.
Amber’s face doesn’t move as she speaks in a fake-as-fuck tone. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” And then she leaves as the door slams shut behind her.
“What the fuck is her problem?”
“I hooked up with her husband in high school.”
“Oh shit.”
“It wasn’t serious, and they weren’t together then or anything. But a while back, we were at the bar after a PTO meeting, and he got drunk and started talking to me rather loudly about how he wished she was like me in bed.”
“The fuck?” I clench my hands into fists.
“The fucked-up part was Jake, my ex, thought it was funny and started comparing notes. That was the beginning of the end of my marriage. It became clear I was more of an object than a person to him. Luckily, I don’t have to see Jake much, but Chuck is constantly popping up at the school or the bar. Anyway, Amber hasn’t liked me since, and we don’t invite her to the after-hours PTO meetings anymore.”
I have no words as the anger courses through me, the need to protect this precious woman strong. In the short time I’ve known her, I’ve seen how she cares for those around her and gives back to her community, and I can’t imagine anyone seeing her for anything less than she is. Incredible.
“What do we need to do to make this the best Santa’s Workshop ever?”
She laughs, and there’s a twinkle in her light blue eyes. “Now we’re talking.”
CHAPTER 8
BELLA
An hour later, we’re out of the storage closet and I’m following behind Hardy’s truck to his place. Calm your tits—I know things were hot and heavy in the closet, but his kid is going to be there, plus mine is sitting shotgun grumbling the whole drive. And after that interaction with Amber in the closet, my need to prove myself to her is overriding my libido. Barely. The man ishot.
