8. GRANT

I’d never needed someone as badly as I needed Henry right now. We’d flirted before, but now that we’d seen each other, there was a burning desperation to feel him between my fingers.

We spent the next couple of days working closely together on the Aurora Records case. He’d come up with several arguments and ultimately had PulseStream going back to their contract and offering to change their exclusivity clause. And since there were multiple clients trapped into it, they were desperate for it to change sooner rather than later, or be faced with more legal battles.

Now, we had more to celebrate when he came over.

I’d left work a little early, still needing to put up and decorate my tree. But it still wasn’t up when I got an email from Henry’s Legal Elf account, telling me he was almost here.

‘ I’m going to need to get ready at your place. Is that ok, Daddy Kringle? I’ll be there in around fifteen minutes. I’ve also brought a toy you might like to play with. I hope you’ve got your Santa suit on.

Starved, Legal Elf.’

I was unprepared in all aspects. I’d managed to mull some red wine in a pan on the hob with a couple of spices, and I’d even gotten the fake tree out in the box with all the decorations, but once that first glass of mulled wine was going down, I was overcame with a nice sense of relaxation.

The email prompted me into motion, I scurried around to get into the Santa suit. There were several pieces to it, and it was all an effort. I had the red pants, the coat, the gloves, the boots, even the suspenders. Then there was a fake beard which I knew would be the first item of clothing off, and finally, the red hat.

For as much as I loved Christmas, my apartment didn’t reflect it in its current state. In full Santa attire, I answered the door. Henry stood there in the large winter coat he wore to the office. His hand on his chest to really enhance the gasp. “Hi Daddy Kringle,” he said.

“Come on in, my little elf,” I said, ushering him inside.

He carried a large bag on his back, swinging it around to his front. “Are you sure this is your place?” he asked. His brows together, his eyes flicking side to side in judgement and question. “Or have you been burgled? I know some great lawyers.”

“I told you, I haven’t been here for a while. But I do have a tree we can decorate together.”

“I love tree decorating!”

“That’s why I saved it,” I said. The thought had crossed my mind actually. “Let me show you to the bathroom where you can change.”

“I also brought wine,” he said. “Oh, and I absolutely love all of this that you’ve got going on right now.” He reached out, his hand on my chest. He stroked the trim to the suit. “Is this custom?”

“It is,” I said, reaching out with a gloved hand to touch his face. It didn’t have the same affect or feel behind the leather. “Take it all in, because the beard and gloves are gonna have to come off first, especially if I’m going to kiss you.”

He giggled. “You wanna kiss me?”

“I kiss all my elves,” I said. “But I only have one elf.” I quickly saved myself from any potential back lash there. “And I heard you did a good job today at work.”

“My mentor has a reputation apparently, I think they were mostly scared by that than the work I’d done,” he said, looking coy with a tilt of his head. “You wouldn’t know anything about him, would you?”

“Your mentor?” I asked, humming. “Ah. Yes. I believe he’s on the nice list. And trust me, I’ve checked it twice. He’s definitely there. I think he might deserve a reward too.”

Henry licked his bottom lip before biting it, almost knowing the temptation it had on me, the want and need to lick and bit his lip for him. “I can definitely think of a reward for him,” he said. “But I’m going to become an elf now, so I’ll have to think about him later.”

“Good, I don’t want you thinking about other men, or other Daddies while you’re with me,” I told him, trying to stroke his face with my hand, still unable to reap the benefit of touching his skin. “I’m ready to see what you look like as an elf. And there’s mulled wine if you’re interested. I was going to make hot cocoa, but a little birdie told me you might’ve had enough chocolate already today.”

“That birdie was right. I’ll take the mulled wine.”

“It’s Santa’s own secret recipe,” I told him. “But I can only share it with elves.”

Henry went to the bathroom off a hallway in my apartment. I had half been tempted to send him to the bathroom through my bedroom, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise of seeing my bedroom so soon, and it wasn’t the only surprise in there.

I set the tree up int he time it took Henry to get changed. There were three parts to it, all slotting into each other. I parted the branches to make them look more realistic. I was grateful for the gloves in this instance because I knew how the fake branches all scratchy would make my fingers feel.

He completely surprised me. Dressed in a green and red striped elf outfit with matching striped socks and red shoes with bells on the tip. A red crowned hat and elf ears. Staring at him, I was adding more things to the list of how much he impressed me. He’d gone as far as adding a red icy pinched look to his nose and cheeks as well. I was transfixed, mesmerized, and absorbed into him. I couldn’t look away.

“Do I look ok?”

“You—you look incredible,” I said, tugging the gloves away from my hands. “Can I touch you?”

“Yes. Please,” he said. “I need to put my somewhere.”

“Is it just a change of clothes?”

“And something else,” he giggled.

“Something you want to share now, or later?”

“Later.”

I gestured to the entire room, giving him the choice of the immediate space to put his bag.

Henry put his bag beside the sofa. “No peeking.”

Finally, getting the chance to touch him without any eyes on us. I stroked at the little stubble on his face. “Do you shave every day?”

“Yeah. It grows back super quick though,” he said, reaching for my face, he went right under the white beard attachment to my actual face. “I like your facial hair.” His stroked his fingers across it, attempting to curl his fingers and collect a handful of it. “It feels nice.”

The white fluffy beard had to come off. “And a kiss.”

“Anything for Santa.”

The moment our lips locked, I didn’t want to leave his face alone ever again. My lips needs to be planted firmly on his skin for the foreseeable future, or at least the length of the weekend. But the peck of a kiss could only last so long.

“Santa smells of peppermint,” Henry said, smacking his lips.

“Is that all?”

“Any orange or spices?”

“Is peppermint a spice?”

The question struck me. “It’s kinda got a tingle to it sometimes. I think so.”

“Then yeah, I tasted a spice,” he giggled. “Has Santa made a list of things to do?”

“And I’ve checked it twice.” I pretend to look at a long list stretch between the length of our bodies. “First up is the mulled wine station, and then we’ve got some tree decorating, after that, I’ll perform an elf inspection, just to make sure you’re well. After that, I’ll decide what type of reward to give you.”

“No punishments?”

“Oh, good question.” I hummed, pretending to pull the list to my face. “Small print. It says if you have been bad, there are punishments, but I don’t see you being bad. I guess we’ll see that section if you are bad, but for now, we’ll stick to the good stuff.” I winked, folding the invisible list away.

The wine was perfectly wine with the spice pods and sticks floating on top, alongside orange slices. I used a metal ladle to fill two mugs, both Christmas themed with imagery of mistletoe, candy canes, and reindeer on them in all different colors.

Henry coughed after his first gulp. “Oh god, this is good,” he said. “I breathed in when drinking. I was smelling it.”

“Let’s try not doing that again. You’re the last elf, I don’t want to lose you.”

“The last elf?”

“My only elf,” I rephrased. “And I definitely don’t want anything happening to you. So, let’s sip it slowly.” The red of the wine had already started to turn his delicious lips into a cherry red. “How good are you at tree educating?”

“You’ve seen the pictures of my tree, I basically hold the only degree in tree decorating,” he said. “It was issued to me from the North Pole’s Elven Excellent Academy.”

“Oh, that’s a prestigious place,” I said. “What grade did you get?” I’d seen the pictures on his phone, alongside the way he decorated the rest of his apartment. Part of me wanted to take this party to his place after seeing it, but I liked having the home court advantage of hosting at home.

“All A’s, I’m not sure if you know this, but I’m a bit of an overachiever,” he giggled, taking another tip of wine, this time without choking on it. “Oh, this is must better when I’m actually drinking it.”

“Good,” I said, tapping the lip of my mug to his in a cheers and taking a swig. “Now, let me put you to work.”

“You have to help too, Santa,” he said. “Or is it still Daddy Kringle?”

“Daddy Santa, Daddy Kringle, whatever you want, my sweet little elf.” I leaned in for another kiss, and this time, tongues were involved. I knew the red rouge from his nose was on my face, but I didn’t case because I was obsessed with the taste of his tongue.

Henry kept things on track, while I wouldn’t mind a little derailing to happen and potentially take things away from the living room. He was adamant about decorating the tree, like it offended him to see it so bare.

“I’ve had real trees before,” I told him. “But getting them into the building is hassle because I prefer the huge ones, and there’s a height limit in the elevator.”

“We have a fake one too,” he said, rummaging through the box of decorations. “But we can pretend it’s a real one because Daddy Santa would definitely have a real one. Do you put all of these on because the colors are—a lot.”

“This years theme hasn’t been created yet,” I told him. “Santa’s been very busy.”

Henry pulled himself out of the box. He sat beside it on the floor and clicked his tongue. “I know what we can do. Red and white, like a candy cane stripe. We can make that work.”

“I have white lights in a box in there,” I told him. “Let me find the nearest outlet and we can position the tree.”

The problem with loving Christmas was having a lot of decorations to go through. The other problem with it was not knowing what to use and what to leave out. I’d been accused of having tacky Christmas trees in the past, and while there was truth in it, it brought me a lot of happiness. I certainly wasn’t winning any awards, but neither were the trees from the FlixMas movies I loved so much.

Repositioning the tree by an outlet in the corner of the room, with a quarter of it facing out of the window like it was on show

Henry approached, armed with a string of lights. “It’s gonna look perfect,” he said, all giddy. “Can you bring the box over?”

“Oh, whoa, a demanding elf.”

“Pweese,” he said, pushing out his wine stained bottom lip. “I pwomise I won’t be demanding.”

“A please is all I needed from you,” I told him. “I’ll pick out all the white, silver, and red decorations for you as well. As long as you didn’t want to do that yourself. I’m just trying to think of how we can be more efficient. We still have a lot of things to do tonight.”

“Does that also include the screener of the new movie you promised?”

It hadn’t, because that totally went over my head. “It does now,” I said.”Also, food, we can’t live off wine all night. But I do have a large breaded camembert in the fridge I can put in the oven.”

Henry stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, drooling slightly. “I love camembert,” he said. “Do you have those little fork things you can use like fondue and bread.”

“Somewhere.”

“Yes, please, and thank you.”

“I’ll do that now then, and double check those lights to make sure they work. They should, but before you start putting them on the tree.”

“Aye aye, Daddy Santa,” he giggled as he saluted me.

Being in charge wasn’t new to me, but being a Daddy in a capacity of care was, and being a Santa Daddy was even newer to me. I prepared the cheese on a tray and placed it in the oven. When I got back to the tree, the bright white lights were on twinkle as Henry was stringing them around the tree, but only on the visible sides.

“Some of these decorations I took from sets,” I told him as I went through the box. “Little keep sakes once filming finished. Don’t ask which sets.” None of the decorations matched. Each piece of tinsel was different in color and length, and each bauble a different shape. The only thing cohesive about the collection, was that each piece was there to decorate a tree, and lucky for us, most of them were white, silver, and red, although the red sometimes had gold.

Henry was a whiz, creating a tree fit for Rockefeller Center, assuming they wouldn’t mind if the tree was fake and small. I applauded him once he’d finished. “I think that’s the most beautiful tree I’ve ever seen.”

“Well, I have shown you my tree,” he said. “So, maybe it’s the second most.”

“You’re right,” I said.

He came in for a hug, wrapping himself around me. “And you still need something to top the tree.”

I squeezed him. “I’ve never topped a tree, but if you—”

“Not that topping, silly,” he snort-laughed. “I meant a star, or angel.”

“You’re funnier in person,” I whispered. “And I think I have just what we need for the tree.” I kissed his forehead.

“And not me,” he giggled. “I’m not trying to make a visit to Santa’s A&E department.”

“Don’t worry, mostly because I don’t have one here in the North Pole, everything is usually fixed with silk ribbon and a candy cane.”

“Candy canes,” he said in an explosion. “That’s missing.” He raced over to his bag with the bells on the tips of his shoes jingling. “You can use them for the tree, but they’re for eating.” He came back to me with a tub of candy canes. I had the exact same tub and brand in my cupboard.

“Don’t worry, we’re not going without candy canes it looks like. Let me see in the box again for a topper. I’m sure I have a star somewhere.” And I did, the only issue was, it was gold and not on the color theme at all. Henry said it would do for now, but he expected it to be swapped out.

I knew we only had a finite amount of time left of the evening, but we didn’t have work in the morning, so really, the night was still young.