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Sending the Christmas hating Grinch to Vogue Magazine’s Prettiest Place for Christmas was one thing. But this was a hundred times worse for me, because there was only one orphanage in Northland… and it was the one I’d grown up in. Fuck that. No way in hell I’ll be going home for Christmas. Not this year, not any year.
I turned up the first audiobook I’d chosen for the beach and tried to lose myself in the story of the rock star at a prep school. Wealthy, infamous, and celebrity being pursued by three assholes.
Fuck that. Frost Jackson didn’t get off that easy after all these years. So I did the only thing I could think of. I scooped up two handfuls of snow and hurled it at his back as hard as I could. Smack. Bullseye.
“Frost… you got run over by… Rayne?” The doctor’s lips twitched with amusement. “You got run over by a Rayne Dear?”
“You sure? It’s painful. For him, I mean. You might get to see him cry.” Against my better judgment, I snickered a laugh. “Fine, I’ll help.” Inflict pain on Frost? How could I say no to an offer like that?
“I will gut you,” Frost said to Alfie, but Alfie just chuckled. “Not with your arm dangling like that you won’t. Stop being a whiny little bitch and man up. Show Rayne you can handle it.” All at once the venomous glare Frost had been shooting me found a new target. Alfie looked pretty fucking pleased with himself. “Dick.” “Jerk,”
“You’re still so hot when you’re angry, Rayne-drop.
“Please, may I use your detergent, Saint Nick?” I could practically feel his smug smile. “That’s more like it, Rainbow,”
“And that’s all?” “That’s all,” he agreed. “You go all wide-eyed with shock and ask Nick? And I react the way I should have, if my brain was even halfway functioning. Deal?” A bit dazed and intrigued, I found myself nodding slowly. “Okay. Deal.”
“Rainbow?” he replied with a fake surprise that nearly made me laugh. “Holy shit, it’s really you.” Without giving me even a moment to recover from shock, he reached out and gripped the hair at the base of my skull, tilting my head back and crushing his lips to mine in a searing hot kiss. Not even the strongest of grudges could withstand the power of Saint Nick on a mission, and right now… he had a point to make. Fuck, I was done for.
“Say it,” he whispered against my ear before he bit it. “Say what?” I almost yelled. “Saint Nick,” he murmured before grazing my clit with the lightest possible pressure. “Saint Nick?” He chuckled, but it was dark and wicked and not remotely humorous. “Like you mean it, Rainbow. Beg Saint Nick like you mean it.”
A girl never forgot her first love, and in my case, I had three. That shit stuck on the mind and soul for eternity.
“We had a deal. You’re supposed to stop calling me that.” His lush lips curled in a sly grin. “Did we? I don’t recall any specifics laid out for that deal. Devil’s in the details, Rainbow my love.” I frowned, then cast my mind over our conversation word for word. “Son of a bitch!”
Roses are red. My Rainbow was too. I definitely enjoyed fucking you. Nick
“Rayne, you’re bleeding.” He cupped a hand to my cheek, turning my face ever so gently to the side. “Fuck.” The curse was a whisper that held so much emotion I nearly choked on it. In an instant, Frost’s soft expression darkened to something glacial and terrifying. “Jolly, attack. Kill.”
“See, I’m perfectly capable of standing.” Three things happened at once though. My vision tunneled, something hot rolled down my cheek, and the world turned upside down. Fuck me, I was not fainting again…was I? “Shit,” Frost swore, and that was the last thing I heard as the ground rushed up to hit me.
“Don’t cry,” Alfie urged. “You’re safe. I promise. No one is going to hurt you again.” Yeah, they couldn’t make promises like that.
Santa Claus sent an elf to kill me, and whatever was going on in this town, it was even worse than I remembered. “Whoa,” Alfie said, gripping my arms when I managed to sit up because I almost slid right off the table. The staccato rhythm beating out in my head intensified. I was going to pass out again. “Fuck.” The world went black.
“Don’t stop, Alfie. I’m so close… again.” He only hesitated a moment before shrugging Nick off his mind and went back to fucking me as if we were totally alone. “Very fucking funny, Rainbow,” Nick growled, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. “Payback, is it? Well, joke’s on you because Alf quite likes an audience.”
“You know what he likes more than having an audience?”
“Team sports,” Nick replied in a low rumble, his face so close I felt his breath against my lips. Then he was kissing me, devouring me, and I exploded like Fourth of July fireworks.
Team sports? Holy fuck. My payback definitely backfired, and I wasn’t even mad about it.
“Did you get your eyes for Christmas?” I snarked, using a phrase we’d used a lot as kids. Frost understood, his lips curving into a grin. “Yeah, I did. Do you like them?” I rolled my own. Smartass.
“Pretty?” he repeated. “I swear to fuck, Rayne Dear, you’re the only person who has ever called me pretty…”
I’d never tell them what I’d gone through after they left. Not in a million years.
“Tick tock, Bad Weather.” I made a face. There was a nickname I could live without. Still, there was familiarity in it.
“I could nut punch you and feel good about it.” Probably not the nicest thing to say, but Frost actually smiled. The slow grin turned my insides upside down. It was really not fair. “We’ll get to my nuts later,” Frost said, easily.
“You’d shoot them?” First Frost, now Nick. “To keep you safe, Rainbow? I’d do a lot worse. Now, will you trust me long enough to get you out of here?”
Frost’s dark chuckle on the speaker made me squirm. Why had he kissed me like that? “Is Stormy safe?” I frowned, mouthing the name to Nick in question.
Saint Nick.” His eyes darkened with desire, and his fingers flexed against my skull. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, Rainbow. I’ve waited my whole life to have you,
“Hmmm I’ll have to remember this,” he commented between kisses. “Adrenaline and fear make my Rainbow horny. I’ll park somewhere more secluded next time and pack condoms.”
There’s a lot worse going on here, Bad Weather.” “No shit,” I said when no one else responded. “Unlike you three, I was here when it started.” That yanked them all around to me. “I know exactly how bad it was—so much worse than what you remember.” I was practically spitting the words. Then I took another longer, deeper drink, draining the coffee for the alcohol and letting the liquid courage bolster me. “Rainbow?” Worry crept into Nick’s voice. “What happened?”
“Tell us,” Frost said. His eyes didn’t hold the dark comfort of Alfie’s, or the somber faith in Nick’s. There were no promises in Frost’s eyes at all, just violence. Violence I trusted.
“If I catch you…” “Do you promise?” I whispered, my heart in my throat. Surprise flashed across his face, quickly followed by raw hunger. “I’ll give you a twenty second head start,” he generously offered. “Starting now.”
“Team sports,” he rumbled, and I spasmed around his half-stiff cock. His grin turned almost feral. “You’re not going to be walking for a while, Stormy.” “Got no place else to be.”
“She could have gotten frost bite.” “I did,” I told him, almost cheerfully. “Frost totally bit me.” Laughter and groans answered my pun, then Frost landed another slap on my ass. Worth it.
“Frost—” I squeaked, taking in the icy fury in his gaze. “Shut up,” he snapped, grabbing a tea towel to dry his hands. “Whoa, don’t talk to Rainbow like that!”
“I said, shut up.” He gripped my face in one hand, his fingers tight on my jaw. I narrowed my eyes. “Make me.”
“Oh,” Nick murmured. “That was Frost flirting? Fucking weird but alright, who am I to judge?”
“You think he remembered we were friends?” Nick scoffed. “We were never just friends, Rayne. You were—are—the sun of our solar system.”
Within minutes, the guys were gone, and I was alone in Doc Kane’s cabin by the lake. Alone, with one girl barely clinging to life and a scared teen holding a gun like a lifeline. Oh, and a snoring polar bear. What could go wrong?
“I loved that…” Surprise flickered across his tortured expression. “You were crying…” “You have a huge dick,” I countered, and his surprise turned to a wicked grin.
“Say it again,” he demanded in a husky voice, barely releasing my lips from his kiss. “I like you, Frost Jackson,” I repeated. He rumbled a sexy sound. “Well, I love you, Rayne Dear. Always have and never stopped.”
“The point, Frost, is that I know my strengths. Yes, I went on that investigation. I got up close and personal. I got names. I got routes. I helped people. That’s why I write those stories.” “You take risks to save people,” Frost said softly. “Love me, love my damage.” Because I was damaged. “It’s why I’m here too.”
You want the honors?” At the question, I glanced at him and then the grenade he was holding in his hand. It was an actual grenade. Just like— “You know what,” I said. “Yes, I do.” “That’s my girl.”
“What if the sheriff…” “If Vynachts so much as blinks in your direction, Nick will have his badge on a silver platter. That’s if I leave him anything to roast.
“I have an idea,” Frost murmured, still sucking and biting at my throat. Leaving his own marks where the bruises were fading. “How long do you have?” Alfie checked his watch, leaning his ass against the desk right behind me, facing Frost. “Fifteen minutes.” “Good enough,” Frost decided. Wait, what?
