Right now.
And have I got the Santa for you.
BLURB
Christmas 1985 promises to be dull for Steph Marshall, a computer whiz stuck in a dead-end mall job. Then two small strangers enter her life…and kidnap her as a present for their boss, Nick Claus. When she wakes under a Christmas tree, Steph is furious at her abductors and Nick. But she soon learns that Nick is not like his father, Kris Claus. He’s charming, funny, and most of all, kind to everyone he meets. She finds herself drawn to the Santa-in-Waiting.
But things at the North Pole aren’t like the songs describe. Not everyone is a jolly old elf. This world is too different from all she knows, full of magic and reindeer shifters, and to make things worse, Nick won’t stand up to his father and make the changes the North Pole needs. Can Steph help Nick break from tradition and be the Claus he’s meant to be? Or will Christmas morning come too soon?
Excerpt:
“What happens eventually?” She felt awkward asking about the topic but was too curious not to. “Do you just wait for your dad to die, and then you become the next Saint Nick?” Though to her, with the color high in his cheeks from the cold, he looked as far from a saint as could be.
“No.” He flashed her an amused look. “It doesn’t work like in the human world.”
“Okay. So how does it work?”
“One day I’ll be ready, and he’ll just retire.”
“Retire?” That seemed impossible to her. “And you’ll grow a long white beard and a giant belly overnight and take over his duties?”
He groaned. “That was my grandfather. I look nothing like him.”
“I dunno.” She peered at him, moving close enough to see the faint freckles that dotted his cheeks. “I can kind of see a resemblance. Laugh for me.”
He shot her a look. “No.”
“C’mon, say it. Ho, ho, ho.” She poked him in the side. “You know you want to.”
“I will not. And I do not sound like that.” His tone belied his words, and a merry glint lit his eyes.
“Fine. Be that way.” She sat back and crossed her arms in mock indignation.
The steady beat of Peppermint’s hooves cut the quiet of the residential area as she considered that in the future, the man—er, elf—sitting next to her would fly eight tiny reindeer to her house. “I’m struggling to wrap my brain around the fact that one day you will come down my chimney and eat my cookies.”
“Darling, I will happily eat your cookies.” The saucy grin he gave her made her heart flutter.
“Oh you will, will you?” She raised an eyebrow in challenge.
“Definitely.” His grin turned wicked. “And anything else I can get my mouth on.”
The flutter in her heart became a stutter. The idea of him using his lips on her body turned her knees into a bowl full of jelly.
She shoved that idea away. “Are we still talking about cookies?”
“We aren’t?” His eyes widened in faux innocence.
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D.S.Dehel 