The Kringle Girls - Collection (17 page)

God, she was going to come just watching him.

She nearly moaned aloud as his other hand reached
below to fondle and caress his balls, which were drawn up tight. The head of
his cock was flushed darker now, his chest heaving as his hand worked up and
down, faster and faster until a low, brutal groan tore from him, and creamy
jets of come momentarily coated his hand and splattered against his abs before
being washed away. It was the most stunningly masculine thing Merry had ever
seen.

Do it again.

He was still holding his cock, struggling to get his
breathing under control.

“Merry…” he moaned as another shudder of pleasure
ripped through him.

Merry was shocked. Completely and utterly
horrified.
Until she realized that she
wasn’t. This gorgeous, incredible man was fantasizing about her as he touched himself,
and okay, there was definitely a part of her that was terrified beyond the
capacity for rational thought.

But, fuck, what
a turn-on.
Her panties were soaked, and her whole body felt tight and
tingly.

She needed to think. She needed to process. But not
now and certainly not here, so Merry did what she usually did in times of
stress and uncertainty.

She fled.

ELVES DEFINITELY KNEW HOW to party. Ben shook his head
and watched four of them man the catapult, filling it with sugary snow that was
then shot high into the rafters of the Great Hall, only to flutter down to fill
eager, waiting mouths. There was food everywhere, bright lights and
decorations, and even a dance floor set up with a little elf band. They weren’t
half bad. Mrs. Claus was cheerfully letting herself be whirled around the floor
by first one partner and then another, a glass of eggnog in hand. Her eyes were
suspiciously bright.

Ben made a mental note to skip the creamy drink – he
needed a tight grip on his control if he wanted to avoid falling on Merry like
a sex-crazed lunatic. Jerking off at the hot springs had helped…a little. The
magic in the air, the decadent steamy water, and a blistering fantasy of Merry
in nothing but garters and gossamer stockings, fingering herself while she
eagerly sucked his throbbing dick had him coming harder than he had in years. He
would have been ashamed of himself it if hadn’t felt so fucking incredible.

Merry still hadn’t shown up, and Ben tried not to look
anxious. What if she decided not to come at all? But that was silly – this was
the party of the year, even if there was a blizzard picking up outside.

“There you are, sweetheart. My, that’s a pretty dress.
Is that one of Ivy’s?”

Mrs. Claus hurried forward to tipsily hug her
daughter, who laughed and set her mother upright.

“How much of that stuff have you had? Glitzy, I’m
cutting Mom off.”

Glitzy the elf saluted and patting a pouting Mrs.
Claus’ hand soothingly. She shook herself, and then smiled brightly.

“Come over here, Ben. Doesn’t Merry look lovely?”

Ben was surprised his feet were still functional. He’d
taken one look at Merry and every nerve ending in his body seemed to blow a
fuse at the same time. He’d never seen her in anything but comfortable winter
clothes – jeans and leggings, lots of soft flannel and oversized sweaters. It
was bad enough that Ben wanted to burrow under the shapeless clothing to find
the sweet flesh of the woman beneath, but this Merry – this one was dangerous.

The dress was white, a glittery fall of snowflakes
held up by tiny white straps, hugging her curves before falling to the ground
in gentle fall of snow. A slit up the front revealed those long, gorgeous, bare
legs when she walked, and high heels transformed her from the practical
responsible Toy Manager into an elegant goddess, a Christmas princess.

Ben couldn’t breathe, but Mrs. Claus was watching him
expectantly, so he stepped forward. Merry was twisting her fingers together,
and didn’t look up, and the elf children were oohing over her dress, hovering
around her ankles.

“Well?” Mrs. Claus was insistent.

“Mom…” muttered Merry.

“Beautiful,” said Ben, though privately he thought
that the word was inadequate. Breathtaking, ethereal, pure sorcery.

Mrs. Claus waggled a finger at her daughter.

“Now, no running away after ten minutes. I expect you
to stay and enjoy yourself for at least an hour. Ben, you’re in charge. Tie her
to something if you must.”

With that provocative remark, the tipsy queen of the
North Pole let Glitzy lead her toward the cookie table.

“Tying you up might be a little extreme,” Ben said,
smiling, and was gratified when she raised her eyes to look at him. Blue and
green – good, she was nervous, but not terrified.

“And it would probably crush my dress,” Merry added,
smiling the tiniest bit.

He wanted to offer the best possible solution to that
dilemma – just take the dress off. He would gladly help, with the dress and the
tying.
Keep it in your pants, Wilks.

“I wanted to thank you for all your hard work, Ben,”
said Merry, her soft voice washing over him like a gentle stroke.

“It was my pleasure.”

“And…” she blushed, biting her lip, “I wanted to take
you up on that dance.”

She could have knocked Ben over with a flick from one
of those delicate fingers. But he wasn’t about to question what had brought
about her abrupt change of mind. Timid Merry was trying to be courageous, and
he was lucky recipient of her attempt.

“I’d like that.” He kept his voice gentle and his
touch light as he took her hand, savoring the softness of her skin and trying
not to picture wrapping her fingers around his cock.

He started to pull her toward the dance floor, but she
surprised him, tugging him in the opposite direction.

“Not here.”

Puzzled but game, Ben let Merry lead him through a
side door just as the candy catapult went off again, allowing them to make
their escape while all the elves were distracted.

“Where are we going?”

Merry led him along a corridor and through another
door Ben was unfamiliar with. Inside, his eyes widened – it was a conservatory,
alive with orchids and trailing vines, and even a small fountain. With the snow
falling outside, they seemed to be cocooned in an inside-out snowglobe. The
music trailed in faintly from the Great Hall, and Merry smiled at him, a real
smile. He felt his heart clench.

“Fewer elves,” she explained, and he nodded dumbly as
she stepped forward, hesitating slightly before guiding his arm up around her
waist while her hand slid up to rest on his shoulder.

Ben’s brain was gathering new information at lightning
speed. Up close, Merry was warm and soft and fit against his body like she’d
been built for him. The scent of warm sugar rose from her skin to tease his
nostrils, and her eyes swirled from blue to violet as he pulled her a little
tighter, moving them into a gentle sway with the music. The most important
thing Ben learned in that moment, however, was that when they were alone, when
Merry was comfortable and not anxious, she was brave. And even a little
demanding. When his cock swelled between them, he would have pulled back, but
she stunned him by pressing a little closer, letting cuddle it against her
stomach, sliding her arms around his neck to press her cheek to his.

“This is nice,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” he managed.

He felt the warmth of her breath on his jaw, and then
the delicate brush of satin lips, like a touch from a live wire. Knowing he was
absolutely, definitely, positively going to regret it, Ben eased back a bit,
frowning.

“Merry?”

She tensed, and a flash of silver swirled in her eyes
– anxiety – but then she dropped her gaze, blushing.

“I just thought…well, I wanted…”

“It’s okay, anything you need, Merry.”

Merry’s chin came up, firm.

“I was going to ask if you’d like to fuck me tonight.”

Holy shit.

Of all the things he expected her to say, that was
not
one of them. She had stepped back,
her back ramrod straight, eyes steady on him. Where was the timid, retiring
Merry he’d gotten used to? Ben’s mind was racing, his dick pounding, urging him
to take her up on her straightforward and very tempting offer.

Would I like to
fuck her tonight? Hell, why stop with tonight?

Ben shook his head and warned his cock that there was
no way in hell that Merry meant it, and that they were in for a serious case of
blue balls later that night.

“So?”

God, she was actually waiting for an answer. Ben tried
to marshal his scattered thoughts.

“I don’t think…that is, Merry…what?”

Not coherent. Try
again.

Before he could babble his way around the questions he
really wanted to ask, she launched into an explanation.

“I thought…well, you’re alone. And I’m alone. And all
the elves are really more like family than anything else. And they’re
elves
, you know?
So I thought, since we have this one night to kill, that we
could…just once, and then we’ll both be over it and everything can go back to
normal.

A few things hit Ben all at once. First, Merry was
attracted to him, which made him want to howl in victory, making a total fool
of himself. Second, she’d apparently noticed him mooning over her and was ready
for it to be over, which was supremely depressing. Third, she thought of the
sparks that they both obviously felt whenever they got close as an itch to
scratch, an annoyance to be dealt with and discarded.

Merry was staring at him with silver and violet
swirled eyes, but he didn’t need her magic to tell him she was waiting for his
answer with bated breath. And suddenly, Ben couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be a
one-night stand, an experiment for her, no matter how mind-blowing the
experience was bound to be. His heart would shatter into a million pieces. It
was already cracking under the strain. He smiled for her, and raised a hand to
stroke the petal-soft skin of her cheek, trying to ignore the way she responded
to even a simple touch, her eyes darkening and her skin heating under his
fingers.

“I’m flattered, but it’s not a good idea, Merry.”

Cursing himself for a fool and then some, Ben turned
away and walked out of the room.

STUPID, STUPID,
STUPID.
Merry
curled onto the
delicate little sofa in the corner of the conservatory, kicking herself for her
awkwardness, her mishandling of the situation, and for being born in the first
place. She’d meant to ease into the conversation, but he’d looked so nice all
cleaned up in a white shirt and new jeans, and him that close had been too
dizzying, too heady…she just blurted it out, like she was asking if he took
cream with his coffee. He probably thought she was out of her mind.

But…

She’d heard him, out in the woods, moaning out her
name from the heights of pleasure. It was a puzzle. Merry frowned, trying to
work it out. Before, she thought he’d never notice her that way, as a woman or
a sexual creature. If that wasn’t the case, what could possibly keep him from
taking her up on her offer? There were no strings here – she wouldn’t demand
more than a night, wouldn’t cling. It had taken her the entire trip back from
the woods and two hours of girlish primping to work up the nerve to ask him in
the first place, but after watching him come, her natural shyness had been
trampled by a burning desire to finally do something reckless and naughty and
brave.

She’d run away from the hot springs when all she really
wanted to do was to join him, to press herself against every inch of his hot,
wet, flesh, and finally get to experience all the things she wondered about
while she played with her toys alone in bed at night.

Maybe it’s
because I’m a Kringle.

The thought slammed into her in a sudden burst of
insight. She was the boss’ daughter – he was probably worried about losing his
job. And on top of that, her family was the epitome of everything good and pure
in the world. Ivy complained about it all the time – she was obsessed with
putting the right message out to the world, but that usually meant that men
treated her like some sort of untouchable bastion of purity. Merry hadn’t come
up against this problem before, since she rarely ventured far from home, but it
made perfect sense. Of course Ben didn’t
actually
want her. Fantasy Merry was probably sexy, confident, and flexible like a
slutty contortionist, while Reality Merry just came off as pretty, but prudish
and scared of her own shadow.

Merry frowned. Enough was enough.

She might be shy, but she was stubborn, and it was
about time that she went after something she really wanted.

I want Ben.

Merry was just going to have to convince him that he
had nothing to lose by indulging her fantasy of a night of wild abandon, and
everything to gain.

Feeling terrified but determined, she smiled.

THE TANGLE OF ROPE in Ben’s hands just seemed to get
more knotted with every yank, and he tossed it to the floor in frustration. After
his disastrous interlude with Merry, the party had lost its luster, and Ben had
retreated to the comfort of the empty stables to busy himself getting
everything ready for the reindeer’s return.

He was having trouble concentrating.

Big surprise.

If he’d had a little less self-esteem, right about now
he’d be balls deep in Merry Kringle’s hot little pussy, sucking her sweet
nipples while she rode him, her head thrown back, delicious sounds of pleasure
escaping her lips. Instead, he was alone in the stables in a blizzard, trying
to will away the erection that had sprung up the moment Merry had asked him to
fuck her, so politely.

Shit.

It galled him that she just wanted to use him and then
forget him, that she didn’t see that they could have a glorious future together
if she’d just let her guard down. One night would never have been enough
anyway, he reasoned. The list of things he wanted to do to her was a mile long.