Page 14 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

I held my breath and waited for the glass atrium to turn into a giant fireball.

I hated to die so young. But at least I was going to look hot as hell doing it. I mean…I was totally slaying this bikini. I just hoped that a security camera caught me walking in here so that everyone would see how fabulous I looked when I got incinerated.

But… Nothing happened.

“Huh,” said Ash, looking down at the big red button. “Why didn’t it work?”

Oh thank God! Ash must not have hit the button hard enough. It was a Christmas miracle!

“Put it down slowly and back away,” I said.

Instead, Ash held it up to her ear and shook it. And then she hit the button again.

No!

The floor started to shake as the sound of heavy metal gears grinding together filled the air.

I was about to take off running, but then Slavanka said, “That sound like big ass bomb.”

Good point. There was no sense running. Because if the bomb was as big as it sounded, it was probably going to take this whole freaking mountain down. So instead I just posed real sexy to ensure I went out in style.

“You guys are being so paranoid,” said Ash.

“It’s not a bomb. It’s a secret door!” She pointed to a portion of the floor that had slid open to reveal a hidden spiral staircase.

The banister was wrapped in red and green Christmas lights and I thought I heard the faint sound of Christmas music playing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Lead the way,” I said to Ash. There was no use trying to get her to give up this chase.

And I was beginning to think that maybe this wasn’t the work of Crazy Isabella after all.

Don’t get me wrong, this whole thing was still extremely creepy.

But if she wanted to murder us, she’d had like twenty opportunities.

She could have shot us on the balcony. She could have cut the ski lift cables.

She could have gunned us down in the dark atrium.

And she could have blown us up with that button.

Why would she pass up all those opportunities just to lead us down some secret staircase?

I didn’t have an answer. Maybe we really had spotted Santa. And this was all just a ploy to distract us while he slipped away into the night.

The Christmas music got louder and louder with each step we took down the spiral staircase. And eventually we found the source of it: a shiny brass gramophone surrounded by six-foot-tall candy canes in the middle of a big round room.

I jumped as a machine to our left sputtered to life.

Gears spun and valves hissed and steam shot out of it.

And then the smell of hot chocolate filled my nose as the machine simultaneously filled three mugs to the brim.

More gears whirred and the nozzles over the glasses shifted.

The new nozzles sprayed a perfect little dollop of whipped cream onto each mug.

And then mini marshmallows rolled down a tube and landed gently on top.

A red and white striped straw dropped into each mug and the machine fell silent.

“Santa is really giving us the VIP treatment. Whipped cream and marshmallows? He’s a genius.” Ash grabbed one of the mugs and took a big sip. “Oh my God. It’s so good.”

Why the hell not? I grabbed a mug too. And it really was good. It tasted a lot like Teddybear’s hot chocolate. Which made me wonder. What if Teddybear…

“Look!” said Ash, pointing at her name on the wall.

It was spelled out in big white letters trimmed with green Christmas lights.

Below it looked like something you’d see in a changing room for a Christmas movie: a big mirror, a vanity fully stocked with a full assortment of brushes and make-up, and a rack of green outfits with white fur.

“I think Santa bought me a whole new wardrobe,” gasped Ash.

“Although I’m not sure about that. ” She pointed at a knit green ski mask pulled over a mannequin head.

“Why is the top of that mask missing? It looks like someone tried to rob a bank on Christmas and got scalped by an overzealous security guard.”

“That’s so that we can wear it and still show off our hair,” I said. “And also…no. This isn’t a gift from Santa. This is definitely a gift from Teddybear and Ghostie.” Now that I’d seen the ski mask, I was sure of it. It was exactly like the one I’d drawn last night.

“Huh?” asked Ash.

“They must have found the plans we drew up. For the present delivery competition.” They said they’d handle the Isabella issue. It made sense that they used our plans for it. We’d come up with some top-notch ideas.

Ash stared at me like I was crazy. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Last night. We were brainstorming ideas of how we could stop Isabella. And we devised a plan where we’d have a competition to see who could help Santa deliver the most presents to the soldiers staying here.

And my team would be composed of me, a Locatelli, and a Chadwick.

We’d win by a landslide, and then they’d see how well we all worked together and then they’d happily agree to form an alliance against Crazy Isabella. ”

Ash took a big sip of her hot chocolate. “Hmmm… Not ringing any bells.”

“Seriously? We were going to each be on a different team…” I pointed to Ash’s changing station.

And then I pointed to the stations on either side of it.

“Why else would we all have different colored clothes?” Ash’s name was lit up in green and all her clothes were in green.

Mine were red. And Slavanka’s were white. It was clearly three different teams.

“I thought our big plan was to give them gifts?” asked Ash.

“Right. We thought of that after I’d drawn up plans for the competition. So I threw those plans in the trash.”

“Not trash,” said Slavanka. “Mail bin.”

“Either way, Teddybear and Ghostie must have found the plans. So earlier today when they said they’d take care of it, they meant they’d execute our plan.”

“What if plan go to Santa? With Christmas lists?” said Slavanka.

“Yes!” agreed Ash. “That makes so much more sense. Ghostie and Teddybear are awesome, but do you really think they could have set all this up? How would they have even known about this secret room?”

“That’s actually a really good point…” Did Santa really do all this? It didn’t matter either way. Because the fact was, someone had. And now it was up to us to execute the plan and make the alliance with the Locatellis and Chadwicks. “Let’s get dressed,” I said. “We have presents to deliver!”

I ran over to my changing station and started rifling through the rack of outfits.

All of them were red and white, but each was a different style.

The first one was just a long sleeve felt dress with fur trim on the hem, sleeves, and way-too-high neckline.

Nope. Then there was a pants romper. A shorts romper.

No and no. A matching set of booty shorts and a little fur crop top.

Maybe. But it didn’t really read sexy elf to me.

It was more pornstar at a Christmas rave looking to get some dick.

I kept looking. And then I found it.

The perfect sexy elf outfit.

It was a tiny little red dress with a corseted top and a short, flared skirt. Classic and sexy. And when paired with the red and white striped thigh-high boots at my station, I had a feeling it was going to show off just the right amount of thigh.

I wriggled into it and looked in the mirror.

Yup . I was right. It was perfect. I added some red lipstick, matching red gloves, and finished it off by pulling my ski mask on.

Usually my hair would have been all balled up in the top of the mask, but thanks to my brilliant idea to have the top cut off, my long blonde hair cascaded down onto my bare shoulders.

I was officially the hottest of all Santa’s little helpers. Although it was possible Ash or Slavanka would give me a run for my money…

I turned around to see what outfits they had chosen.

Slavanka had gone for a dress pretty similar to mine, but it was all white and the waistline was a little higher. It kind of looked vaguely Russian. Or maybe I was just giving that vibe because of the white ushanka she’d put on over her ski mask.

And Ash chose…

Wow.

“Bold choice,” I said as I took in Ash’s whole deal.

It was actually a series of bold choices.

Because not only had she gone for the Christmas rave pornstar outfit, but she’d also wrapped her hair around a special headband to make it look like she had candy cane shaped horns.

That wasn’t even her bravest choice, though.

That title belonged to the green and white striped temporary lip tattoo that she’d applied.

Yes, it looked awesome. But I knew better than to use those.

Lip tattoos did not survive blowjobs well.

“What?” she asked as she checked her ass out in the mirror. “We’re supposed to be Santa’s sexy elves, right?”

“Oh, it wasn’t an insult. You look fucking amazing.” I walked over and honked her tits twice.

“I hope Santa likes it,” she said. “I want him to rip it off of...” Her eyes got big and she coughed.

“What was that?” I asked. “I didn’t catch the end of that?”

“I said I hope it doesn’t rip. Yup,” she said with a nod. “That’s what I said.”

“Girl, that’s not what you said. You said you want Santa to rip it off you. And honestly, I kind of think he might.”

“That isn’t what I said!” She looked back in the mirror. “Is it too much? It is. I should change.”

She started to shrug out of her top, but she froze when the Christmas music on the gramophone got all scratchy and switched to a recording of a deep voice.

“Present delivery begins in five minutes. Please make your way to the atrium. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Ah!” screamed Ash. “Santa just talked to us!”

Did he? Because it sure sounded a lot like Teddybear’s voice to me…