Chapter 9

Liselotte

“Favorite Color?”

“Black. Yours is red?”

“Yellow,” I reply, snuggling deeper into his embrace. We’ve volleyed icebreaker questions at one another while watching Krampus Village for hours. I can’t believe how much we have in common. From ball sports to acoustic guitar, we have many of the same hobbies.

“Favorite Christmas memory,” he whispers over my ear as we watch a couple load their wagon with empty baskets. They must be heading to the market to collect their supplies.

“My last Christmas with my parents in Krampus Village. Dad teased me that he wanted me to bring back a Christmas tree from my first time as Krampus. Half of the words he said were jokes, but I was determined to bring back a tree. At the end of my first shift on Earth, I came across a young man stealing from a Christmas tree depot—you know, those temporary stalls on the side of the road. The owner gave me his biggest tree in gratitude for frightening the would-be robber away. I wrestled with that eight-foot beast until it cleared the gates of Krampus Village.”

“Did the village gather to decorate it like in the movies?”

“The smirk on your face tells me you know they didn’t. What happened was better—at least in Dad’s opinion. I left the tree in the front yard for Dad to wake up to the glorious tree outside his window…but we slept in. The neighbors thought a giant possessed tree snuck through the gates. We awoke to a ten-foot bonfire melting the cobblestone sidewalk and spreading across the candy-floss lawns.”

“You almost burnt down Krampus Village,” he says, hiding his luminous smile horribly.

“Hilarious, right? My dad rolled with laughter, crying in our living room, as the fire brigade dragged a hose from the Sea of Faith. Water was pumped across town all of Christmas. Everyone worked to put out the fire instead of enjoying their celebrations.”

“Did they ever figure out how the tree got there?”

“My dad announced it to everyone he met for the next six months. The fire grew and the story became more fantastic every time he told it—even asked me if I remembered about it on his death bed.”

“I love how you could give him one last gift—a story to tell.”

“Huh, that’s what Mom said.” I hug Gerhard a little tighter. The more I learn about him, the more I know I made the right choice. “Before you ask, those baskets are to pick up supplies at the market.”

“The grocers aren’t allowed to enter the village to make deliveries? Harsh.”

“Can’t take the risk that elves might hide or smuggle their technology in the cargo. They have sour bombs that can suffocate a neighborhood of this size,” I reply as a chill drifts down my spine. Is someone watching us? Could Eugene be perched in the shadows? That would be the best-case scenario. What if it’s another Krampus waiting to pounce on Gerhard, or the elves? Have I scared myself by mentioning them?

“You’ve gone cold, kleine dame . Are you ready to head back for lunch?”

“I love how you notice little things about me. We can go. When we return, it will be as residents.”

Despite the prickles on my arms, nobody ambushes us as we emerge from our hiding place. Gerhard asks a million questions on our return trip to my apartment building. I try my best to answer, but who knows why the only colors in the realm belong to the possessed trees and Krampus Village? He made some vague reference to Kansas and an emerald city, and I was lost.

“Now this, I recognize. What’s up with the Earthly map?” He says, dragging me to the assignment board. He wraps his arm around my shoulders. When the other Krampuses in line for their daily rations stare, I glow with happiness. Jealousy leaks from their pores because it’s obvious I’m about to bond and leave their dreary place.

“My heart used to live and die by this board. This is the current status of the Krampus territories. See how central Ohio is blinking yellow? It’s because I’m retiring. When our bonding ceremony is complete and we get our assigned house in Krampus Village, Ohio will blink red. It will be an open assignment for the next Krampus or Krampuses.”

“Will you train your replacement?”

“Oh no, no headstrong Krampus wants a dried-up crone telling them what to do. They are full of energy and ideas.”

“Better not be a dried-up crone, my assignment is to breed you.” The husky growl in his whisper curls my fingers into fists. I tilt my chin upward for a kiss. Someone gasps as Gerhard grips my throat and devours my mouth.

“Liselotte and consort,” the lobby attendant calls through the speaker system.

“Were we called to the principal’s office for making out in the hallway?”

“No,” I reply, barely suppressing the urge to giggle. It’s my turn to lead him to the front of the line. My pride threatens to burst out of my turtleneck blouse. Because of my hard work, we are the top priority everywhere we go. “Our daily rations of sugar cubes are ready.”

“Weren’t all these Krampuses here first?”

“Yes, but we outrank them.”

Gerhard’s lips firm into a fine line, but he doesn’t say another word. I earn a glare from Sally behind the counter as well. She’s just sour that I pulled rank. We were in the academy together, but she didn’t take her classes seriously until it was too late. My mother warned me she wouldn’t receive a territory and that I would have the same fate if I didn’t try my best. At the time, I thought that was impossible because Sally was the best at numbers and figures in the whole academy.

Watching her divide the rations and weigh sugar cubes, I guess she got a place befitting her abilities after all. She’s as efficient and accurate as one of the elves’ machines. However, she will never rise above the service caste, move to Krampus Village, or be allowed a chance at love.

How easily my fate could have been the same…

“Liselotte, will you sign the form?” Sally barks at me.

“Yes, sorry, I must have lost myself in thought.” I initial for two bags of sugar cubes.

“You lost yourself all right. Until you’re safely locked away behind Krampus Village’s gates, a lot can go wrong. Stay alert.”

“Well, that won’t be long now, will it.” I hand Gerhard his bag of sugar cubes. True to his word, he doesn’t try to broker peace between Sally and me, nor does he jump to my defense. He nods to Sally and walks passively behind me as I hightail it to the elevator.

We may swipe at one another like cats, but we Krampuses would band together on the outside if the elves ever attacked the residential tower…I hope. We work together in drills to protect Krampus Village, so it goes to reason we would put our differences aside to defend the outer edges of Christmas Town.

“If you pull any harder, we will snap the cable. Want to talk about what’s on your mind?” he asks as soon as we activate the pulley system on our elevator car. I’m delighted by the flex and release of his biceps as he lifts us.

“Sally has me worried about an elf attack. Our drills are to protect Krampus Village, but what about the outside? This building could be infiltrated…but it’s not. I’m being paranoid.” I let Sally and Eugene get to me. I’ve always been safe in Christmas Town…why should tonight be any different?

“If there aren’t security guards, cameras, or other measures, then it’s not paranoia. Do you have a plan to defend your apartment if it ever came to that?”

“I’m one of three Krampuses who can portal at will. I’ll grab your hand and disappear us—probably to Earth since that’s the easiest place to portal.”

“There you go—” he pauses to listen at the sixth floor before pulling to the next level “—what’s a problem for them isn’t for us.”

His smirk and casual shrug at our superior strength heat the attraction simmering between us to a boil. I feed him one of my sugar cubes and laugh when he makes a face. One cube is a meal replacement for someone my size, but I feed him two just in case. If he tires before I get to climax, I’ll lose my shit.

“What’s behind that plotting grin you wear?” His eyebrows are quirked in amusement. Are we traveling faster? The tenth floor can’t be too far, but I lost count.

“I think I was a very good girl today. I followed all your rules, and we didn’t meet with any trouble.” I leave out my tiff with Eugene and Sally because they were minor infractions…I think.

“You think?”

“I have been!”

“All right, good girl, do you want a reward?” He stops the pulley system and twines the ropes around the rest hooks for our exit.

“Hmm-mm,” I hum around my sugar cube. He pries the doors open and steps aside so I exit first. My iron keys unlock the three bolts that replaced the original numerical keypad. Elves are better with metal and electronics, so the trend in Christmas Town is the restoration of older technology.

“Follow me,” he purrs into my ear as he passes by. I’ve barely closed the door, and he’s stripped to his boxers at my bedside.

Oh, my man is a feast for the eyes. He rakes his fingers through his shaggy, silver hair, stretching his abs taunt. I hold my breath as the waistband of his boxers slips a few inches, revealing a cut Adonis belt. His quad muscles flex as he lowers his arms to brace himself on the bed. When he lifts one leg to climb, I lose the battle to stay upright. I lean thirty degrees to peek between his legs.

“Clothes off,” he calls as he settles on his back. One crook of his finger in my direction and my feet scramble to the bedside.

My booties, jacket, turtleneck, and skirt hit the floor in a succession of thumps. Did I run across my apartment? This is why I’m not a femme fatale. I have no chill when Gerhard’s sinful voice tells me what to do. I whip my bra off and send it sailing. One by one, my hooves lift from my panties as I climb next to him.

“Good girl, climb up here and take your pleasure,” he whispers, patting his chest.

Wait, how do I… Shouldn’t I peel off his boxers to ride his cock? My eyes dart from the prominent erection tenting the fabric to its limit and my lover’s stern expression. Indecision glues me in place. He growls….oh my Gods, that sound! I lift my leg to straddle him and take in his disappointed expression as my core hits his ribs.

“If my kleine dame needs my help, isn’t she supposed to ask for it?”

“Yes,” I mumble. Shame paints me red from my face to my navel. Oh, please don’t let this become a punishment! Another night of edging may kill me. How do I turn this around—

He snakes his arms under my thighs and lifts. I slide up his chest until my mound bumps his chin. He pins my wrists in one hand, yanking my shoulders back and thrusting my chest forward. His rough treatment of my nipples sends darts of pleasure to my core. I rock my hips, seeking friction, but his other hand brushes his knuckles over my ass—far away from where I need him.

“Ask to ride my tongue, kleine dame . Ask for the attention your little body craves.”

“P-Pl-Please,” I stammer as he adds his teeth to his ministrations. My nipples are distended, purple, and ringed with love bites. “Please, I want to feel your tongue on me.”

“Not good enough. I could do this and be finished,” he says in an evil tone. He runs his tongue along the edge of my fur, and I want to scream in frustration.

“I want to ride your face, covering it with my juices, until you can’t anymore or—or—or you’ll suffocate!” My snarl is fierce, animalistic, and completely out of character.

“Good girl.” He pulls my wrists to slide me forward. I’ve left a puddle to lubricate the way, but I’m more grateful than shocked. He swirls, flicks, and presses my clit in ways that make me want to sing. His palm encourages me to rock with a press between my cheeks. As he breeches my back hole, I gush over his chin and neck.

I feel like a goddess to have mastered this man. My climax tears a roar from my low belly that surges through my lips. His hands withdraw to allow me to come down from the high. I can’t get away from his tongue! It doesn’t slow down. I jerk and twitch as my nerves misfire.

“I need...I need…” My thoughts scramble. I need a break. More? Less? Harder? Yes, he answers my plea by fucking me with his tongue as my insides clench with release.

“Again,” he croaks.

He must be joking.

He sucks my clit, and my screams go shrill. His index fingers double-penetrate me as his tongue worries my abused flesh. How many fingers will he fit inside me? I’m greedy for whatever he will give me. I squeeze my breasts, bite my lip, and breathe in the courage to look down at him. We lock gazes as I ride him. Pressure builds in my low belly, my guts coil, but I can’t peak again so quickly after the last one. My confidence falters. The buildup slips through my grasp.

“Don’t close your eyes.” He commands from below me. “Watch your master eat his fill and wear your arousal like a medallion.”

His filthy, dirty talk brings my orgasm back to the forefront of my mind. I focus on holding my eyes open but lose the battle several times. With each slow blink, he sucks on my clit…hard.

“Be my good girl and peak for me.”

The orgasm brings a strangled, deep-throated moan out of me that turns to a wail when he abruptly withdraws his digits from my body. I’m wrung out, loose, and boneless. My torso falls forward, but he’s too quick. He grips my thighs and slides me down his body.

“Remove your prize from his wrapper.”

I fumble with the waistband and snap him a few times before my fingers curl around the elastic. Long pink lines ignite on his feverish skin as my clumsy nails scratch him. He wiggles and lifts his hips to help, but my coordination is impaired at best…disastrous at most.

“That’s far enough,” he roars when I’ve inched them to just above his knees.

I cuddle my hands to my chest at the sharpness of his tone. My body slides in the sweat dripping from us. He seats himself inside my vagina to the hilt in one motion, easily because of his earlier play I sigh with the full sensation. He grabs my jaw with one hand so I can’t look away. The other holds my hip for leverage as he pounds upward. My breasts bounce, my arms flop, and my hair tangles in my horns, mouth, and nose as he uses me for his pleasure.

“Mine, feel who you belong to,” he growls. “See my face in your fantasies, keep my name on your lips, and climax on my cock.”

He releases my hip to push down on my clit. A third orgasm I didn’t think I possessed rolls my eyes to nest under my eyelids. Somewhere in the distance, he calls as his seed splashes my insides. I’m floating in subspace, but I was never tied up. My existence is at his command. My body sags in his hands as he lowers me softly to the melting bed and leaves to wet cloths to clean us. Our fluids destroyed the sheets, if not the dense sugar that makes up the mattress. We’ll be sticky in the morning, but I’m too blissed out to care. When I wake up in a marshmallow mass, I’ll deal with it then.

Good thing we’re leaving tomorrow…after our wedding…