Naughty Elf: Mistletoe (Santa’s Naughty Elf Mates)

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

RYAN

Once Miz's heat ended, I left him in bed to recover for a few hours while I finished the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and took the longest shower of my life. I could still smell sex on me when I knocked on Dru's door. From the way she wrinkled her nose when she answered, so could she.

"Finally," was all she said when she handed me a plastic container filled with oatmeal cookies.

Ellie nearly knocked them out of my hands when she tackle-hugged me. She grinned up at me. "Where is Miz?"

"Recovering," I said. "He's been … sick."

"Dru said he was going through something bird related. Or bee related. What does that mean?"

I glared at her over Ellie's head. "We'll talk about it when you're older." Much, much older.

"You will not," Dru said. "Every young girl should know age-appropriate birds and bees, so I took it upon myself to share it with her."

Oh no. Dru was our resident baby expert, and Ellie was still my baby, even if she had turned eight a few weeks ago.

"When two people love each other very much, they show it by kissing and hugging, and other things I'll learn about when I'm older."

"Oh, thank goodness," I muttered under my breath. "That's … thank you," I said to Dru.

"Do you love Miz?" Ellie asked.

It was way too early for anyone to be thinking about love. Miz and I had just had our first kiss on Friday. Then, we'd spent a wonderful night together, after which his heat took over. I wanted to love my fated mate, someday. We were compatible in bed, but I couldn't let my mind wander too far down that path while talking to my daughter. "I don't … not love him," I said.

Ellie giggled. "You sound like one of my dragon suitors, Daddy!"

My answer stopped her questioning. By the time we returned home, she was already talking about moving her entire collection of dinosaurs, horses, and other farm animals to the living room for a huge puppet show for Miz.

"He might not feel like a puppet show today," I warned her. "He was pretty tired."

"Tired? Who?" Miz came down the steps two at a time. He'd showered and styled his hair so it surrounded his face in tiny spikes like a hedgehog.

"Miz!" Ellie gave him a tackle-hug, too, and led him to the couch, where he gingerly arranged a few pillows before sitting down with a blanket in his lap.

"Stay right there! I'm going to put on a show for you!" She thundered up the stairs, leaving Miz and me grinning at each other like fools.

I sank onto the couch beside him and rubbed my thumb over the mottled bruise I'd sucked on his neck instead of marking him with my teeth. "How do you feel?" I didn't know how he could be vertical after all the fluids he'd sweated, leaked, and jizzed over the past few days.

"Amazing," he said. He lifted the blanket to show me the tent in his pants. "And still horny."

I kissed the tip of his cute nose and pointed to the container of cookies I'd deposited on the coffee table. "Let me take care of the rest of you first. Have a cookie to tide you over while I make you breakfast."

True to my word, I brought him sausage, scrambled eggs, and toast, along with some orange juice to swallow down his multi-vitamins.

"You've got to be joking." He rolled his eyes at me.

I scarfed down my own plate while Miz nibbled at his. At one point, he froze with his fork halfway to his mouth as he gazed at our reflection in the dark television screen.

"Everything all right?" I asked.

"How will I know if I'm doing the right thing?" he asked.

"Are you talking about the sex? I've never been with someone in heat before, but wow, that was?—"

"Not that." He grinned. "Though it was awesome. I mean with Santa. How will I know if he approves? What if I'm supposed to get a job outside your home and —"

"Shh," I said. "You have nothing to worry about. You're great with Ellie."

"But what about us? What if there's a test, and I don't pass?" he whispered.

"We have plenty of time to get to know each other better." I already considered Miz a friend, and if the last few days were any indication, we were vigorously sexually compatible.

Our conversation skipped from subject to subject while Ellie set up her playhouses and figures. Miz's questions reminded me of a pop quiz. At least they were about me, a subject I knew well.

I was relieved when Ellie announced the show would begin. I draped my arm over Miz's shoulders and pulled him close to my side, hoping to console him with my actions after my words had failed.

"And then they lived happily ever after!" Ellie finished with a bow, gripping her model horse wearing a gauze headdress and dinosaur wearing a construction paper jacket.

"Bravo," Miz cheered as we both clapped.

"Wonderful performance!" I pretended to throw roses at her feet.

"What are you doing?"

I laughed. "Throwing pretend roses."

"Dru has roses in her garden. You could pick them and throw real roses at me," she said. "But they have thorns. Won't that hurt?"

"We can make construction paper roses," Miz suggested.

Ellie ran off to get the supplies while I sank back against the couch with relief. "Thank you. Dru would kill me if I touched her roses."

"She really would," he agreed.

"You two have gotten close."

"She's unlike anyone I've ever met. We have shifters at the North Pole, but I didn't get to see much outside the workshop and my apartment."

"That sounds lonely."

"It was." He sighed. "As sad as I was when Santa kicked me out, I love my life here now." His haunted gaze met mine. "If I do anything that upsets you, please tell me right away. I don't want to find out that I didn't meet your expectations three months from now."

I pulled him into my lap and kissed his temple before cradling his head against my shoulder. "I enjoyed every minute of our date, and everything that happened afterward. No notes."

Oh, I had notes, but I didn't want to sound crass. I loved Miz's copious amount of slick. Even after I'd knotted, Miz had positioned himself on my cock. He came so many times like that, pushing me over the edge again and again when his body contracted around me. I didn't want to make him feel bad if he didn't make that much slick all the time, especially if it was a heat thing.

Still, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I wanted him in my bed, tonight and every night.

First, I had to conquer the memories.

I kissed his temple again and eased him out of my lap when Ellie returned with scissors, glue, and the mass of construction paper.

"I need to check laundry," I said to excuse myself from their project.

After my quick trek to the basement to switch out loads, I made the guest bed with the freshly washed sheets. Miz wouldn't be sleeping here tonight if I had my way.

I folded Miz's laundry and put it away in the dresser. I might have sniffed his underwear drawer for a reminder of his sweet slick smell, but I didn't dwell. The rest of the laundry in the basket was mine, so I carried it downstairs to my cold tomb.

It was almost summer outside, and the sun was shining overhead. I couldn't remember the last time I'd opened the blackout curtains in my bedroom. I went a step further and opened the windows. Warmth filled the room with each gust of wind.

I dragged the last box from my closet into the room and carried it to the bed. Inside lay the framed photographs of John, Ellie, and me over the years. I'd moved the smaller ones to my office, but these were the large prints John's parents had given us for Christmas each year. One of our wedding, one of Ellie's first day home from the hospital, and so many wonderful candid photos afterward.

Looking at them still hurt, but I no longer felt shattered by them. I honored each memory with tears in my eyes, and then I put them back in the box. It was time to give them a new home, the one they should have had a long time ago.

I carried the box upstairs to the tune of Ellie's laughter and Miz's off-key singing. I plopped it on the floor of the spare bedroom, the one with four bare walls where Miz had spent the last six months.

I grabbed my hammer and assortment of nails from my bottom desk drawer, and then I tackled the box of pictures. At the bottom lay a stack of picture-sized butcher paper. I spread them out on the floor, matching each to its corresponding frame size.

I got to work with the sticky tack, arranging the butcher paper until I had them where I wanted them. Finally, I could place the nails with decisive taps of the hammer.

On the second-to-last nail, I heard light footsteps on the stairs. "Daddy? What are you doing?"

"I'm putting up all our pictures of Papa."

"But this is Miz's room."

"It's the guest bedroom," I said. "Miz is no longer a guest."

"You're kicking me out?" Miz popped his head through the doorway behind Ellie. I wanted to kiss away his look of betrayal, but not in front of Ellie, not yet.

I hefted Ellie to my hip to get her out of my way and went to him, arm outstretched. "Not at all. I want you to move downstairs. With me."

"Oh." He blinked. "That's … are you sure?"

"I want you with me," I said. "But only if you'd like that, too."

He glanced at the work I'd already done and smirked. "You could have asked before you put up so many pictures. I'd be too self-conscious to sleep in here now!"

"It's just us," Ellie said. "Let me show you."

Miz took her from me and they made their way to the first picture. "That's my papa," she said.

"He's a good-looking man." Miz glanced at me with red-rimmed eyes.

Oblivious, Ellie pointed to each image, explaining what was happening in each one the way John and I had walked her through each picture when she was a fussy toddler. Now, she was just as much an expert as I was.

I finished my project with the final nail and balanced the picture on it. The last one had been taken a few months before John passed away. The sun shone behind his bald head like a halo. It was still hard to see him like that, but I didn't feel crushed by his loss anymore. For the first time in over three years, I felt light. Maybe even happy.