Page 33 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

~ Tamara ~

H aden knew exactly how to kiss me. His hands were in my hair.

His lips were angled just so. His tongue was dipping and diving, meeting mine.

It felt so good to be in his arms, to be cherished and held.

He was the perfect height, so easy to kiss, and I wanted every future kiss in my life to be this magical.

Feeling bold, I ran my hands over Haden’s waist and up the curve of his back.

He was muscular and fit, the planes of his torso perfect under my palms. His fingers tightened in my hair, sending a delicious shiver down my spine, and I inadvertently moaned into his mouth, immediately feeling self-conscious for showing my pleasure.

I angled my lips, tipping my head so he wouldn’t try to kiss me again. I needed to get a grip on myself. I needed to focus on all the reasons Haden and I shouldn’t be doing this. I needed to work on the broken logic in my brain that had to be swept up and set straight again.

Because none of this made sense.

He wanted me.

He most definitely did not think of me as a sister.

His lips had moved to my neck, and I shuddered with pleasure, sagging against him as he left a trail of magic down my nerve endings.

Was it actually possible that this man had secretly wanted me for so long, too?

That we’d both been burying our attraction and denying it, and that Kade had seen what we’d refused to recognize?

Had he been trying to keep us apart? To keep me from this bliss?

And what was this exactly? Temporary bliss influenced by the magic around us, or something more?

Before I could settle even one shard of shattered logic into place in my aching brain, my thoughts scattered.

My hands, without much guidance from my brain, had slid under Haden’s soft flannel shirt and cotton tee, hitting the hard, smooth skin of his lower back as we clutched each other, as if we needed to hold on so we wouldn’t fall.

Then his lips were on mine again, and I never wanted to stop.

I didn’t want to think or worry or be responsible for anything in this world.

All I wanted was to be in his arms, and feel every bit of him pressed against me, the way he was in this moment.

When we finally broke apart, dazed and slightly breathless, it took a minute for thoughts, and then reality, to weave their way into my brain.

Haden was a hottie.

A hottie who’d just kissed me senseless.

I’d liked it.

My crush on Haden had returned with a breathtaking force.

Haden was my ex’s older brother.

It was Christmas. I’d hit Rudolph.

Santa Claus had a concussion.

And all of that was happening here in my barn, where we’d been making out, oblivious to it all.

A soft sigh of realization escaped as my mind put new pieces together. If I wished that I’d never hit Rudolph in order to fix this Christmas fiasco the way Estelle wanted me to, I’d never kiss Haden. I’d lose this.

Haden was studying me with an unreadable look.

I shifted, pulling myself from his arms, afraid that I’d misread him and mauled him once again. Afraid that he didn’t want this with the same urgent desperation that I did.

He led women on, didn’t he? That would explain these amazing kisses. He was well-practiced, and this was just a fun and distracting game for him.

“You need your head checked, TM.” With a tug at my waist, Haden had me back in his arms for a quick kiss.

“What? Why?” I tried to step back, but he pulled me close once again. He trailed a knuckle softly down my cheek, his expression warm, open, and filled with what I could only hope was affection.

“I can’t believe you would ever think I’d see someone as amazing as you as a mere sister .” He said the word with the same amount of disdain I felt for it.

His lips, plump from our kisses, covered my mouth again, and we were lost in a new lust-hazed, delicious pink cloud of wondrous feelings.

When we pulled apart, we were both smiling. We rested our foreheads against each other’s, delighting at our mutual attraction.

Playboys who led on women didn’t act like this. They were simply cool, because kissing someone was blasé. This was something more. I could sense how our kisses had shifted something for Haden, too. He was feeling something, something he wouldn’t have felt with the fan group flavour of the week.

He glanced around, as though tuning into the silence that surrounded us. There were no hoof sounds scuffling through the straw strewn across the barn floor. No bickering. No hiccuping. Not even the sound of Boots purring.

“Where are the reindeer?” I asked, a feeling of uncertainty tipping me between hope that they’d solved every problem while we’d been kissing, and a fear that everything had slid into absolute chaos.

“They went to get Mrs. Claus,” Snarky said. He wore an expression of delight as he hopped down from one of the bales beside Santa. The old man in red was dozing, Boots curled up in his lap.

“I thought she wanted nothing to do with Christmas?”

The elf shrugged. “They’re dumber than a box of candy canes.”

“Well, hopefully they can convince her to come.”

While the idea of meeting a black witch was terrifying, the idea of Santa’s wife coming and taking charge was reassuring.

Yes, it was possible she could extend some of her Christmas anger my way, but I was hopeful she wouldn’t.

In my dreams she simply wafted in, set things straight, and Christmas was saved.

“How will they get her here? The sleigh’s broken,” Haden pointed out.

Snarky explained that there was another sleigh that had been retired.

It was rickety, and too small to handle the demands of the world’s current population, but had been kept for posterity’s sake more than as a reliable back-up.

The reindeer planned to use it to carry Mrs. Claus as well as a couple of Santa’s handyman elves who would fix the main sleigh, which was currently wedged against the giant poplar.

“That’s great,” I said, still steadfastly trying to avoid thinking about the fact that they’d be bringing a potentially very unhappy witch onto my property sometime in the next hour or two.

I spied a reindeer dozing in the corner of the barn. “Wait. Blitzen is still here.”

“He was grounded from flying by Rudolph until he sobers up. Plus, they didn’t have enough flying oats to get him home.”

“Oh. That’s not good.” Could Blitzen be stuck here forever along with Santa? What if Mrs. Claus refused to make more oats? Everyone would be stranded where they were.

Haden, as though sensing my rising panic, took my hand and tugged me toward our coats. “Let’s go check on the sleigh.”

His warm fingers entwined with mine were a fine distraction, and I felt my worries ease up a notch.

In this moment, with Haden choosing me, I didn’t even care what the town might think about me moving on to a different Powell brother.

My spirit rose at the idea of having a man like Haden to call mine, and at the idea of finally living the dream with the sweet man I’d crushed on for so many years.

There was no more squelching my truest feelings for this smart, handsome, and kind man.

As we exited the barn, Haden said, “Maybe we can bring the sleigh inside, so when the elves arrive, they can work on it in the light and warmth.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Snarky tagged along with us to the crash site, Haden taking the lead with the giant floodlight from his veterinarian truck.

What if the elf was stuck here forever? That was a distasteful thought.

“So, you rode underneath the sleigh?” I asked Hugo, wondering how he’d managed such a feat. It must have been a cold and wild ride.

“What’s it to you?” Hugo snipped.

“Just making conversation. Also,” I continued, “why didn’t you go back with the reindeer to get Mrs. Claus?”

“Do you need special oats to fly, too?” Haden asked him.

“I’m an elf . We don’t fly.”

“But I saw you fly away with the reindeer when they went to get Santa.”

“You did?” I asked, surprised by this new info. Maybe I wouldn’t be stuck with Sir Nasty Pants after all.

“I wasn’t flying . I was surfing in the wake from the reindeer.”

So he was a hitchhiker, huh?

When we arrived at the sleigh, Haden ran the beam of his light over its damage. The front right runner was badly broken, and the cab, or whatever you called it, had a jagged hole near where Santa had sat.

“Might only be cosmetic,” Haden said, testing the strength of the pieces surrounding the hole.

“Are you an engineering or construction elf, by any chance?” I asked Snarky.

“No.” He stood in the snow, shoulders sagging, expression glum.

“Do you have magic that could help us?”

“I’m not allowed.”

“But you have magic that could help us?” I edged closer, tuning out Haden’s verbal monologue about what was wrong with the sleigh, and the possible fixes.

“I don’t think Santa can fall out of that hole, if that matters,” I called over to him, then crouched beside Hugo.

“Probably won’t help the sleigh’s aerodynamics,” Haden muttered back.

“Hugo, what kind of magic do you have, and how can it help us?”

“It’s not magic. It’s knowledge. And I can’t use it here.”

“Why not?”

“Rules and regulations.”

“Don’t you think an emergency situation such as this would lead to an exception?”

Hugo refused to say anything further, his arms tightly crossed over his chest.

I sighed and went back to the sleigh. Haden stood at its front corner, and bracing himself, pushed up on it. The whole thing twisted, creaking and moaning. He swore under his breath. “I think the hole’s weakened it, structurally.”

I felt my shoulders drop like the elf’s. “What should we do?”

“Let’s get it into the barn for a better look.”

“This is really bad, isn’t it?” the elf howled, flopping into the snow, fists to his eyes as he bawled unabashedly. “Everything is going wrong. Mrs. Claus will hate me, everyone hates me, and Christmas is doomed .”