Nice and Naughty Read online

She settled at the table and folded her hands. “What would you like to know?”

  “Do you hate me for my relationship?”

  Ru shook her head. “Of course not. I am a little irritated by your mourning. I had always assumed that she would live and love you as long as she could, but by the time I became a woman, you would be ready to move on. That happened a few decades ago, and I can tell you that frustration builds up very quickly when you are going into heat once a year.”

  He dropped into his chair. “You want me?”

  “I have always known that you are the most suitable mate I would come across. I also knew that I needed a lot more time to get to this point in my life cycle than originally guessed. This dimension does not let me change myself, so reaching maturity at all was an act of will.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “You never asked. Now, I am going to change clothing, so as I know you are a little squeamish about these things, you can either turn your back or leave.”

  She got up and went to her wardrobe, pulling out a gown with flames in the pattern. It was daringly cut and left her neck and collar completely exposed.

  She tossed it onto her bed and stripped off her clothing. Santa watched with interest, and he jolted in surprise when she turned toward him, her hands on her hips wearing only her collar. “Are you taking inventory?”

  He blinked. “I hadn’t realized you were really...”

  “An adult? I was just a little forest force when you first met me. I have absorbed more magic in the last thousand years than most gods see in five thousand. My forest may be long gone, but I am still standing.” She stalked up to him and poked him in the chest.

  He caught her hand and pressed it flat against him. “I was going to say I hadn’t realized that you were made entirely of curves. The clothing you wear hides it.”

  “I did that for Kres. She thought of me as an eternal teenager, and I didn’t want to disabuse her of that notion. As you know, there was much we did not tell her.”

  He nodded. “I know. Does the collar hurt?”

  “It is simply like wearing a belt. Well, wearing a belt at all times, even while bathing.”

  “I am sorry. You know why it was necessary.”

  She chuckled, turned and went to pull on her gown. “Of course. You don’t trust me to stay otherwise. You chose to lock me in place rather than trust that I would keep to my promise. It is a sad state for Santa.”

  “You were a forest spirit, notoriously free. I did not know how long it would take to implement my plans, and I could not chance you returning to your forest before things were settled.”

  “What about now?”

  He blinked and sat up. “You still want it off? You are known for the red glow.”

  Ru nodded. “Of course I would choose freedom. I would choose to walk the paths where my trees were.”

  “The trees are still there.”

  Shock ripped through her. “What?”

  “The trees are still there. They are a protected forest. No one can touch a trunk or a branch. Families camp and animals are safe in the two hundred acres where your forest began.”

  Tears formed in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you say that it was gone?”

  “I needed you to stay with me.”

  Ru brushed the folds of her dress into straight lines. “I need some time on my own now.”

  He left, and she nodded to herself, removing the dress she had just put on and running to the roof again. She found the contemporary portal, and she shifted into her reindeer form, running to see the place that had been hers and hers alone.

  * * * *

  Santa felt the moment that Rudolph left him. It hurt more than anything he had ever felt before, and he deserved it.

  He had kept her from her forest, kept her from a mate and, instead, flaunted his relationship in front of her. Now, she had told him that he was her best chance at a mate, and he had commented on her taste in clothing.

  He was an idiot.

  Even before he met her, Ru had acted in the best interests of those around her. When he had captured her, she had still moved to make the lives of those around her richer and more fulfilling.

  His focus had been on ingraining himself into the rituals of humanity. She had helped him achieve his goals, but he had still never given her freedom.

  It was time to rectify that detail. If it was all she wanted for Christmas, he would give her her freedom. Once they were on equal standing, he could address the letters of the other reindeer.

  If she was amenable, he and Ru would become lovers, and together, they would soar forward, bringing as much comfort and joy to the world as they were able. He just had to convince her not to spit in his face first.

  * * * *

  Ru’s hooves stepped carefully through the snow; the trees whispered to her in welcome, excited by her return. She listened and heard the brook tapping under the ice.

  She walked to the centre of a clearing, and she knelt, lying down in the snow while the world moved around her and her forest welcomed her home.

  A familiar presence interrupted her all too soon.

  Santa appeared in the centre of the clearing, and he walked over to her in silence, kneeling at her side and stroking her muzzle before he reached around her neck and unbuckled her collar.

  He was freeing her.

  She sat for a moment as air rushed around her neck, and then, she carefully took on her wolf form.

  The first few steps were cautious, and then, she frolicked in the snow, enjoying her favourite form for the first time in a thousand years or more.

  Santa knelt in the snow with the collar in his hands. He watched her with a smile on his lips and a gleam in his eyes.

  She walked up to him and growled happily, rolling to her back and wiggling in the snow.

  He laughed and stroked her fur. “You look happy.”

  She shifted to her human form and grinned. “I am happy. Thank you.”

  She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. His mouth was firm under hers and soon began to kiss her back.

  When he wrapped his hands around her and she felt the collar, she paused and pulled back. “Are you going to put that collar back on me?”

  “No. I will never sneak it onto you again. If you want to wear the ruby, we will come up with something else.”

  She grinned. “Good. In that case, would you care to return home? The magic you expended to get here is making you look a little tired.”

  He sighed in relief. “Yes, please, Ru. I had forgotten how exhausting it was travelling on my own.”

  She stood, stretched, rubbed her neck and shifted into her reindeer form. Santa was on her back in a moment, and they returned home in the bright light of day.

  When they arrived back at the workshop, she waited for him to spring the collar on her, but it never came. She shifted into her human form and smiled at him, her neck free of the collar.

  “If you still want to have dinner with me, I will join you in an hour or so.” Santa smiled.

  Ru was standing in full view of a dozen elves, but they were all staring at the collar in Santa’s hands. She chuckled and inclined her head. “Roast chicken dinner it is.”

  He smiled and she left, walking naked across the landing zone before she shifted into her wolf form and ran up the steps to her tower. It felt so good to be whole.

  Ru finished assembling the meal just as Santa came through her door. This was his realm; he could enter and exit anywhere. He just couldn’t manipulate things. The rules of magic were funny.

  “I brought a bottle of wine.”

  She chuckled. “Just like the old days.”

  “Yes, when you were four hundred and looked twelve.”

  She snickered. “Yes, I never had the heart to correct any of the elves either. As far as they knew, I was an enchanted human.”

  He sat and poured the wine.

  She served
the chicken dinner, and they sat as they had in the old days.

  When they finished with the meal, they were sitting back and he cleared his throat. “I have something for you.”

  She perked up. “Yes?”

  “The dwarves put this together last minute, but I think that it will satisfy a conundrum.” He reached into his tunic and pulled out a small pouch. He handed it to her.

  She opened the drawstrings and dumped the pouch contents into her hand. The ruby from the collar gleamed in her palm.

  “The chain fits over your head, and it will shift with you. You can take the ruby off or put it on. It is your choice completely.”

  She smiled at the compromise. “Well, the humans do expect a red glowing reindeer at the front of the team, thanks to that song.”

  “They do. It also keeps us from showing up on radar and other tracking mechanisms.” He smiled.

  She placed it over her head, and it glowed brightly as if happy to be back with her.

  It settled between her breasts, and she sighed in contentment. “I was feeling a little naked.”

  “So, you like it?”

  “In this format? Yes. Thank you.” She trailed her fingers over the stone.

  “It looks content only when it is with you.” Santa smiled. “Just like me.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “You were content with Kresida.”

  “I was in love, but I knew she was mortal. We were happy, but I was never content. I could never relax because each moment with her was going to be one I could never recapture.”

  Ru walked to him and sat in his lap. “I am sorry for the worry.”

  “Don’t be. There was joy, there was laughter, but it was different. You are my equal in a way that is not possible with someone else.”

  Ru blushed. “I am powerful, but I wouldn’t say equal.”

  “Your power is different from mine, but it is no less strong. The reindeer have taken on the status of demigods. You have your own immortality beyond this realm. I would say that makes us even.”

  Ru wrinkled her nose. “You make it sound so romantic. The humans are fickle. In a matter of decades, we could be forgotten.”

  “And at that point, you will be free to live here and spend your time visiting your forest.” He cleared his throat. “Or you would be free to travel with me.”

  “Travel?”

  “In the old times, I would travel as an old man and assess the villages and villagers that I came across. Those who offered me hospitality, though they had little, were rewarded. I don’t think it is a bad idea.” He wrapped a hand around her waist.

  The firm curve of his hand sent a number of reactions through her body. Ru smiled and placed her hand on his chest. His heart was thudding under her touch.

  She leaned up to kiss him, and he met her halfway. Their subject matter may not have been romantic, but she was no longer trapped at his side. She could choose him and that was the headiest aphrodisiac ever.

  He moved his hands over her body, and she twisted against him. When his erection was thick against her thigh through the leather of his leggings, she pulled her head away.

  “You aren’t just humouring me because of the girls’ letters?”

  Santa grinned. “No, they have just reminded me of a few things that I was in danger of forgetting.”

  He stood and carried her to her bed, placing her on the covers and arranging her limbs. “I love that you wear your horns at all times here. It suits you.”

  She chuckled and waited for him to strip his clothing off. “And wearing your normal seeming suits you, but I am used to your old, fat, human seeming. I wouldn’t want to wake up to it, but even that has a certain charm.”

  He paused while pulling off his boots. “You know that I only wear that because I let the humans control the glamour.”

  His hair was sliding around his pointed ears, the scarred gleam of his chest was visible through the strands, and the muscles of his stomach were bunched as he balanced on one foot.

  She reached out with her leg and pushed him over.

  He shouted and thudded as he hit the ground.

  Ru giggled madly and turned to her side to watch him struggle to pry his boots off from his sitting position.

  “Why did you do that?”

  She shrugged. “I owed you. When we are even, I will let you know.” She grinned. “Plus, it was funny and I am what I am.”

  He yanked off his second boot with a pop, and he got to his feet. “You haven’t been this mischievous in a while.”

  When he was naked, she welcomed him into her embrace. “Says the man missing eight reindeer the week before Christmas.”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  He kissed her giggles quiet, and they rolled together on the snowflake-printed quilt, alternately wrestling and caressing each other until she was astride him and easing him into her.

  Santa grinned. “Is this your Christmas wish?”

  She laughed. “Christmas I will be sleeping, but it is my Boxing Day desire.”

  Ru eased onto him and closed her eyes at the sensation of heat and fullness. She may not feel the cold, but this was a kind of heat she wanted to get used to.

  His beautiful blue eyes closed as she started to move on him. The fall of his hair surrounded his head like a halo of silken snowflakes.

  His body was bronze and marked with battles of centuries past. Every inch of him was beloved to her. The man who had sought her out and freed her before she had to do something drastic.

  She rode him slowly, loving the feel of him sliding inside her, and he seemed to enjoy it so much that he rolled with her, thrust into her again and set his own rhythm.

  He grabbed her arms and pinned them above her head, weaving his fingers with hers as he lowered his chest onto hers. The full contact was wonderful, the pressure against her breasts made her skin come alive and the ruby around her neck glowed and pulsed as they rocked, thrust and retreated together.

  The light outside shifted from daylight into darkness while they rocked together, no rush on their time. Pleasure rose and fell, swelled and ebbed, and still, they moved as one.

  When she couldn’t hold back anymore, she shoved and twisted until she was on top once again. She furiously circled her hips while holding his hands above his head. Her breath came in sharp gasps, and she finally moaned, throwing her head back so that her hair cascaded down her back.

  The light under her skin swelled, and as Santa gripped her hips and thrust upward with a growl of his own, she felt the energy inside her complete.

  Pleasure pulsed through her limbs, but power glowed around them before coalescing and flying through the closed window.

  Ru slowly collapsed on Santa’s chest and smiled. “So, what was that?”

  He chuckled and stroked her hair. “I think we just made a new earth spirit.”

  She rested against him, calm and content. A new spirit. Yeah, that summed up their union. There was going to be a new spirit this Christmas, and it was going to start with them and expand out to her eight reindeer and their mates.

  * * * *

  Perfect. Rudolph was perfect. The heat from her body enveloping his cock had taken all of his concentration to work with, and it wasn’t until she was astride him again with those glowing breasts and gleaming body his for the taking that his control cracked.

  Her stamina was incredible. He had felt small, rhythmic pulses around him throughout their coupling, but it wasn’t until she had worked for her own orgasm that she really let go.

  For so many years, he had thought of her as the child he had first seen in the forest. Their time apart had done nothing to change his opinion, but now that she had proved that the years had, indeed, passed for her as well as for him, he was delighted by the transformation.

  When he had first sought a forest spirit to imprison, he could not have imagined this result.

  Santa lay back with Ru in his arms and closed his eyes. He ho
ped she was right about the reindeer being willing to return under the right circumstances. Otherwise, he was screwed.

  * * * *

  Santa had shifted them so that they were under the covers. He smiled and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Hello, Ru.”

  She grinned. “Hello, Santa. We will need to change the archive. The girls will need some privacy.”

  He blinked. “Do we have time?”

  She shrugged and tapped her fingers on his chest. “I have started the archive on the changes. It is going to be a snowflake pattern. I think it will be quite nice.”

  “You are making changes to my workshop without telling me?”

  “I am making changes to the team’s quarters. They are my concern, and now, their mates fall under my responsibilities. Even though they are from the nice-and-naughty list.”

  He brought his hand down lightly on her hip. “It is the Naughty-or-Nice list, as I have been telling you for centuries.”

  She smirked. “Whatever.”

  “So, you expect the elves from the list to stay here at the workshop? They were only available because I called for them.”

  “No, I expect them to live wherever they lived before this. I just expect them to take their reindeer with them.”

  “You want to let them leave again?” He raised his brows in surprise.

  “I want to encourage them to leave again. They were born human; they need humans to be around them so that their hearts don’t grow cold and lost in duty.”

  “Are you in danger of that?”

  She smiled as he stroked her cheek. “No. But I am not human. I wear this body for communication and now for intimacy. I still prefer my animal forms.”

  He sighed. “I will have to work at keeping you in this shape. I am guessing you will need enticement.”

  She grinned. “It sounds like an excellent idea to me.”

  Sadly, Santa had had to spend the next day on logistics, so Ru spent her time expanding the archive with points and chambers on each side of the eight-sided building. The girls could come and go in any form they wished, with complete privacy. Or, they could gather in the central common space and trade stories.