Chapter 9

nine

?. . .?

Pepper

Sneaking into the bathroom, I shut the door partway and speak through the crack. “Nick, I have to pee. I need privacy.”

My stubborn man rests his hand on the door but doesn’t push. “I can watch.”

“No.” I giggle, rolling my eyes at him.

“Fine.” He mopes and crosses both arms over his chest like I’m somehow punishing him. “I guess I’ll stand out here and wait.”

Flashing him a quick smile, I shut the door and lock myself inside.

One day with Nick at the workshop has turned into every day for weeks, and now that we barely spend any time apart, we can’t be separated. It hurts. The bond’s too strong now. We’re obsessed with each other, and I love, love, love every minute of it, except maybe when Santa demands to watch me pee.

Quickly using the facilities, I wash my hands and dry them on a snowman hand towel. When I exit our bathroom, true to his word, Nick is chewing on his thumbnail and waiting. Stepping outside the door, he immediately pulls me into his arms and smells me. He smells me a lot now.

Needing to inspect other things, Nick double-checks that his office door is locked before he rushes back to my side, drops to his knees, and shucks my pants to the floor, trapping the fabric around my ankles. Spinning me around, he spreads my cheeks and stuffs his face there. Wetness soaks my cleft as it always does now, and he’s right there, licking his fill of sweetness.

I shuffle to the wall to lean against, and Nick crawls along behind me as he indulges. Knowing this is what he craves most, I let him because neither of us can stop. Not the sex. Not the ravenous need. It grows and grows to the point we can’t even be around anyone for more than half an hour before we’re clawing at each other’s clothes.

I wish I could say it’s too much or that I mind.

But I don’t.

Except that it interferes with everything else.

Nick knows this.

I know this.

My coming to the workshop has been both a blessing and a curse. One I don’t plan to change anytime soon.

“Nugh,” he grunts against my hole as he screws me on his tongue, and I sigh in pleasure. “So good.” He slurps and laps at the wetness. More drips onto the floor, and he tries to catch it to use as lube to jack his cock .

“Nick,” I gasp, pushing his head between my cheeks. “Nick. I think we need to go home soon.”

“No,” he mumbles.

“Nick.” I giggle at his stubbornness. “It’s late.”

He spanks my cheek. “Shhh.”

“Nick.” Chuckling, I grip his hair and pull him from my ass.

He slaps my hand away to dive back in. “I’m busy,” he comments against my rim, bathing it in his hot breath.

Amused at the absurdity of this moment, I try a different tactic. “This isn’t normal.”

“It’s perfect. You’re perfect.”

“Nick.” Trying again, I grip his hair even tighter and pull him from my crack. On a loud grumble, my partner sits back and stares up at me, mouth wet, hair messy, eyes glazed in lust, cock out.

His desperation, mixed with frustration, bleeds through our bond.

I turn around, and he dives forward and tries to swallow my erection. Snorting at his eagerness, I push his forehead before he can get me in his mouth. “Nick,” I scold, tone firmer this time by only a smidge.

Pulling my pants up to avoid any further sexual interruptions, I cup his face and make him look up at me. “We need to talk to Doc.”

Wrapping his arms around my waist, Nick rests his chin on my stomach. “Why?”

“Because it’s past dinner.” I comb my fingers through his hair to fix the wayward strands.

Confusion bleeds through the connection. “It is?” He looks out his office window, where the night blots the sky .

“Yes.” I smooth my thumb across the wrinkle in his brow. “We spent almost all day having sex.”

“I… I didn’t realize.”

“I know. Neither did I. Which is why we need to talk to Doc. I want to visit with my mom soon, but I can’t when I can’t leave you for more than a few minutes at a time, or we can’t keep our hands to ourselves. When Jessica came in today to collect your newest toy designs, I was sitting on your lap. We were?—”

“She didn’t see anything,” he defends, cutting me off.

“I know. But she had to have known something was going on when we were both panting, and I was impaled on you.”

“But I used a blanket.”

This is true. We were in the middle of another messy sex session when Jessica knocked. Instead of stopping, Nick collected the blanket I use to nap in his office and carried us over to his chair, where he sat me on his cock, draped the fabric over us, and invited the elf inside.

“I know,” I concede with a sigh. “But Santa shouldn’t be having any kind of sex in front of his elves.”

“She needed the prints,” he argues, blinking up at me as if I’m scolding him when I’m not. I’m just trying to make him understand.

“I know,” I reply.

“And I needed you.” To cement his point, my sexy partner hugs me tighter and kisses my stomach.

“I know.” And I need him, too. I do. But this isn’t normal.

Releasing me, Nick sits back on his heels and massages the bridge of his nose. “I sound insane.”

“We both do, so we need to speak to Doc.”

“In the morning. ”

“No. Now.”

“His practice is closed.”

“Not for us, it’s not. We don’t know when we’ll be clear-headed again to agree to go. Except now.” What if we wake up tomorrow and are so caught up in our obsession we can’t even get out of bed? What if this persists to the point that we forget it’s Christmas and Santa doesn’t deliver the gifts to all the boys and girls all over the world? That would be a disaster.

Sighing as if he hates this idea but is willing to compromise, Nick gets to his feet, pulls up his pants, and we're out the door in less than a minute, taking the elevator down to the ground floor. We keep our distance—at least an arm’s length away. The less we touch, the better. We don’t need any back-alley detours.

Pressing the after-hours buzzer outside of Doc’s, we wait. It isn’t long before Doc’s bright eyes greet us in surprise when he flips on the light and unlocks the front door so we can enter.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” The older elf waves for us to follow him through the red-and-white waiting room to Santa’s medical room.

Once inside, Doc flips on all the lights and dons his lab coat as I stand by the door, and Nick claims his Santa-sized seat.

Hands stuffed into the pockets of his coat, Doc approaches Nick. “How can I help?”

At a loss for words, the leader of the Pole looks over to me to explain.

Fine.

“The last time we were here, you said to sleep together and have lots of sex. We’ve been doing that. But a few weeks ago, things went from sex a few times a day to we can’t go an hour without it. My… bottom is wet all the time. Plus, we can smell each other,” I explain, growing more uncomfortable by the second.

Doc leans in to sniff Nick’s neck, and I step forward. He shouldn’t be sniffing my husband. He…

Doc sniffs again. Before I realize what’s happening, I launch myself at him, ready to kick his behind, but Nick’s there in a flash, catching me around the waist before I land a punch.

“It’s okay.” Nick wraps me tightly in his arms.

“Possessive,” Doc comments in fascination as I stuff my nose between my man’s pecs and get high on his spice. Eyelids fluttering in pleasure, I grow hard as a rock, and my ass drips in arousal as I get lost in him, his embrace, in everything.

Distant words filter in but are quickly dismissed as I reach between us and slip my hand into Nick’s pants.

I need him.

Now.

There’s a pinch in my arm.

Heat radiates there, spreading into my limbs, moments before my world goes black.