Free Naughty St. Nick by Calista Fox

fact that she hadn’t generated new royalties in three years, and that a lot of her time had gone to freebie work at her aunt’s bookstore, Vixen felt the pinch more than ever before.
    She’d considered switching to romance just last night. But now?
    Yeah. Right .
    What the hell did Vixen White know about romance?
    It stung to think she’d been wrong about Nick of late. She’d been convinced by all of his good deeds that he wasn’t a player, that he was no longer the love ‘em and leave ‘em sort.
    Deep in her heart, she still wanted to believe that. Couldn’t shake the feeling, in fact.
    But after that amazing connection they’d established last night, it honestly felt as though he’d walked out on her come morning.
    As she aimlessly wandered the square, forcing a smile to everyone she passed, she tried to find solace in the fact that she wouldn’t turn out exactly like her mother. She hadn’t fallen too far down the rabbit hole and certainly wouldn’t wind up pregnant and alone.
    Well, not pregnant.
    Just alone .
    Because Nick was it for her.
    With a sigh, she spun around on her boot heels, deciding to head home and Google jobs in Maine. If she left North Pole, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, right?
    “Hey!” came a familiar voice.
    She jumped back before nearly slamming into Nick’s brick wall of a chest.
    He grinned. “You are way too much of an early riser. Don’t you eat breakfast?”
    Her brows knitted. “I had strawberry yogurt. Why?”
    “Well, I only planned to be gone a short while. Jesus, I took up more time than I’d thought...”
    She eyed him curiously. There were pine needles stuck in his thickly woven sweater. And he looked a bit breathless, as though he’d been rushing about.
    “Somewhere you had to be so early in the morning?” she asked, resisting the urge to demand whether it was someone else’s bed he’d needed to warm.
    Again, she didn’t think he’d screw her over that badly. But he did have a reputation, and Vixen was just new enough to a relationship and experienced enough in this area because of her mother to have prickly feelings about it all.
    Yet, she wasn’t above giving Nick the benefit of the doubt—so she bit her tongue.
    “Actually, yes,” he told her.
    She blanched. So not the answer she was expecting.
    His gaze narrowed. “Vix... What gives? You don’t think I... I mean... Wow.” He seemed to reel from a sudden revelation. “You don’t actually think that I was making a house call somewhere else?”
    His shocked expression—no, his pained expression—made her falter. Emotion seized her insides. This whole hot-sex-one-minute-disappearance-the-next was all way too new to Vixen for her to even begin to process the crazed feelings coursing through her.
    “I don’t want to think that,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to think. I just... It just seems that...” She shook her head. “After last night...” That was really all she could say.
    Apparently, it was enough. Nick grinned. “Yeah, last night. Damn.” His head dipped and he kissed her enthusiastically, passionately. Right there in the town square.
    While she reeled this time, he added, “Best night ever, Vix. Like...stellar.”
    It took a few seconds for her to collect her thoughts, then she said, “So why the quick escape?”
    “Ah, that.” He grinned again. Full-on mischief and excitement and something she couldn’t even define lit his eyes. “So, first of all, we needed condoms. Seriously, what was I thinking coming over with only four of them? Well, except that I didn’t want to get ahead of myself with wishful thinking or be presumptuous, but I should have planned a little further ahead. I woke up wanting to make love to you—but couldn’t.”
    Her brow jerked up. “Again?”
    His grin widened. “And again and again. But... I also had this one other Christmas task to get out of the way, only I couldn’t let anyone see me. And then the shops opened, and there was