Free A Little Christmas Romance by H. M. Ward Page A

bazillion kids to go.
    After work, the night isn’t even over. I have to show my face at a family Christmas party, and act like I’m fine, before I can head home. Whatever. For the next few hours I work myself to the bone, not wanting to think about the dreaded family festivities that await me. I help little kids get their picture with Santa that all their parents want. They slap down money and shove their child at a stranger in a costume without a second thought. It’s utterly weird when you stop to think about it.
    Toward the end of the night, the line shrinks until there are only a few people remaining. I’m dead on my feet, and not really paying attention when I walk over to the dwindling line. My gaze doesn’t lift from the floor and neither do my shoulders. I’m ready to do a face plant a nd eat carpet. I’m twenty-two, my body isn’t supposed to ache like this until I’m thirty. Somehow, I got shortchanged a few years. Mother Nature is a bitch.
    The guy is placing his order with the cashier , and for the first time I zero in on his voice over the crowd noise. My heart shudders as the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
    No. It can’t be him.

CHAPTER 2
     
    I’m almost too afraid to look up. I haven’t seen Chris since high school. He was two years older than me and completely off limits. Well, I could have had him, assuming I wanted to be roadkill. Chris was the kind of guy that’s never serious about anything. I ended up in the friend zone with him, which wasn’t a bad place to be. It was a safe place to be.
    Nearly fou r years have passed since I last saw him, but I’d recognize his voice anywhere. My stomach sinks as I look up. Holy hell, he’s hotter than I remember. Icy blue eyes meet mine as his sexy mouth twists into a timid smirk.
    “Yeah, I want the Santa’s Sleigh Bells Package, but I want my picture with her.” He says to the cashier as he points at me with a sexy smile on his face.
    Gwen is a middle-aged Mom with frizzy brown hair and a bad dye job. She blinks like she’ s been sleeping and looks up from the cash register. “Excuse me? Did you say you wanted your picture with an elf?”
    “Not an y elf,” he points at me, “that elf.” Chris is grinning wickedly, licking his lips and staring at me like I’m the next yummy thing he plans to eat.
    For a second, I forget everything and just stand there , shocked, with my pulse racing. He finally speaks to me, which snaps me out of it. “Hey, Brooke.”
    I walk over to the cashier and look up at him. Chris is all man now, hard muscle , and a jaw that’s perfectly sculpted, with the body of a Greek god. Yeah, so four years have done him well, but me—not so much. My hips are fuller and I swear to God that I shrunk, because he seems taller. I find my voice and try to hide my shock. “Hey, Chris. Long time.”
    There’s a playful grin on his lips. “A little too long. Imagine how delighted I was when I wandered by and saw you were a hot elf. All this time you were hiding out at the North Pole. No wonder why I haven’t seen you around.”
    I give him a crooked smile and look away. “Yeah, well you know how it is.”
    “No, I don’t. I’ve never really talked to an elf before, and the fact that you’re the surliest person I’ve ever met isn’t lost on me, either. How many people did you beat with a penguin today?”
    “Just the one.” I laugh , and shake my head as I try to avoid those piercing blue eyes.
    He smirks. “So, I’ll be number two.”
    “That’s not something I’d go around saying out loud.”
    Chris offers me that smile of his. It’s purely sexual with promises of carnal acts that will make my heart skip a beat and explode. Chris’s gaze dips to the carpet and then back up. “I probably shouldn’t tell people that I was standing in line all night to see you, either, but I did.”
    Crap . He did not. The pit of my stomach drops as I think about Chris shooting pictures of me all over the internet.