Christmas from Hell

  *-*-*-*

  Wednesday, December 2nd.

  It was official, he’d lost his goddamn mind.

  That was the only explanation that would explain why he was standing outside Dixon’s bakery, trying to figure out the proper way to apologize to a woman that he’d spanked. He could send her flowers or maybe chocolate, he thought hopefully, but just as quickly dismissed it.

  There was no way that he was going to get out of there without apologizing to the woman that he’d spanked. Then again, there was probably nothing that he could say or do that would make what he did right, but Christ, had she fucking terrified him.

  He’d seen a lot on the job, more shit than he ever wanted to, fucked up accidents that could have been avoided if someone had used their goddamn minds and never once had he lost it like he had yesterday morning. It had taken him five hours and just as many shots of whiskey to calm down after the scare she’d given him yesterday. He’d never reacted like that to an accident or ever been that worried over a patient before.

  His reaction still shocked him. Not only had he acted like a fucking moron, risking his life instead of calling for help, but he’d actually spanked her ass close to a dozen times. He’d never hit a woman before, because he wasn’t that type of guy. He’d been brought up never to raise his hand to a woman no matter how much she pissed him off.

  If his father ever found out that he’d laid his hands on a woman, he would fucking kill him. What was worse, was that his father would fucking disown him if he ever found out just how much he’d enjoyed spanking her.

  Christ, he was a sick bastard, he thought miserably as he stepped out of the way as another satisfied customer stepped out of Dixon’s Bakery with a smile and a large white bakery bag that momentarily distracted him from just how fucked up he truly was.

  He should have never touched her, never laid his hands on her, and never gave into that first urge to spank her, because once he did, God help him, he hadn’t wanted to stop. He hadn’t hurt her, he’d made damn sure of that, but he’d spanked her hard enough to make her soft ass jiggle enticingly with just the right amount of-

  Now was not the time to think about that, he told himself as he absently licked his lips and forced himself to focus on a large crack in the sidewalk, willing his damn cock to behave. He needed to make an appointment with his father when he came back from their family trip and get his goddamn head examined, because there was no way in hell that he should be reacting to the little menace never mind wondering how smooth her bare ass would feel against his hand.

  This was so fucking wrong, he thought with disgust as he shook his head, grabbed hold of the front door and yanked it open, deciding to get this shit over with quickly so that he could go back home to his miserable suspension. He walked inside, ignored his friends waving to him, trying to get his attention and stepped in line.

  Jaw clenched, he stood there, prepared to man up and apologize so that he could get this over with and forget that last night he’d woken up with his hand wrapped around his cock and thoughts of suckling Necie’s large breasts on his mind. He either needed to get a hobby or get fucking laid, something, anything so that he could stop those damn thoughts from haunting his mind.

  He wasn’t attracted to the little terror, didn’t want her and his goddamn cock needed to remember that. Silently cursing the long line that was keeping him there longer than he wanted to be, he found himself glancing around the large bakery, looking for the little pain in the ass and once he saw her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  Yeah, he definitely needed to get his fucking head checked, he decided as he licked his lips as she bent over to grab something out of one of the ovens, making her jeans tighten around her generous ass and giving him an image that had him muttering a curse, turning around and hurrying out of there before he did something seriously fucking stupid like take her out back, bend her over and fuck her until he couldn’t see straight.

  *-*-*-*

  Thursday, December 3rd.

  “Thank you,” she said, frowning as she shook her head and decided that wasn’t the tone that she wanted to convey so she tried again. “Thank you,” she said with a heavy sigh of disappointment, because saying it breathlessly probably wasn’t the best way to thank someone for saving her life. It sounded more like she was thanking him for spanking her bottom, which probably wasn’t appropriate.

  Although…

  No, she decided with a sad shake of her head, definitely inappropriate, she decided as she picked up the plate of spaghetti and meatballs and immediately put it back down when the hot plate burned her hands. Berating herself for such a rookie move, she grabbed the potholders, placed the foiled wrapped Texas toast that she’d made on top of the plate and picked the plate back up and headed for the door, deciding that she should just keep it short and sweet.

  That was probably for the best, she thought absently as she opened the back door and frowned, wondering when everything had turned white. She stood there for a few more seconds, watching the sheet of white race this way and that way and wondered why her weather app hadn’t alerted her to a winter storm. Stepping back into the safety of her kitchen, she closed the door with her hip, placed the plate down on the table and pulled her phone out only to groan when she realized that at some point she’d switched her phone to silent.

  She swiped her phone open, turned the sound back on and read her text alerts. By the time she read the fourth text, she’d really wished that she’d left her phone on the kitchen counter instead of carrying it around in her back pocket as she’d rushed around cleaning, cooking and going over next week’s orders, because then she would have known that the huge storm that was supposed to hit Pennsylvania before heading out to sea had shifted so that it was now hitting Massachusetts at full force and skipping Pennsylvania altogether.

  Yeah, it definitely would have been nice to know, she thought as the lights flickered, once, twice and then finally, went out, leaving her standing in the kitchen in complete darkness.

  Yup, she definitely could have used those text alerts…

  Chapter 11

  Friday, December 4th.

  “Why?” he asked no one in particular since he was standing in the living room by himself, staring out the window. “Just fucking why?”

  But if he was expecting a reasonable answer as to why the little pain in the ass was outside during a blizzard that wasn’t supposed to stop for another forty-eight hours, then he was out of luck. He could understand shoveling every few hours so that the snow didn’t have a chance to pile up, but the woman’s van was in the shop and her old car had been totaled last year during the dumpster incident, which he still didn’t like to think about.

  So, digging out her driveway when she didn’t have a vehicle really didn’t make much sense. Not that anything that she did ever really made sense, he mused with a vicious curse as she slipped, again, and fell face first into the snow pile that she’d made. When any other woman would have taken that as a hint that her ass didn’t belong outside, this one simply took it as a challenge.

  With a glare towards all the snow falling down around her, she pushed herself back up, got to her feet, grabbed that shovel that she seemed to love so much and once again started to attack the snow, shoveling like a mad woman and leaving him standing there, shaking his head in wonder. There was something seriously wrong with that woman, which meant that there was something seriously fucking wrong with him, because he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her.

  For an entire year he’d done everything within his power to avoid the woman, cursing his bad luck whenever their paths crossed and praying that he survived their encounters with all his limbs intact, praying for the day that she would move or Danny would kick his ass out because he no longer needed him and now…

  He had no fucking clue what was going on. All he knew was that he just couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her, and she seemed to have some anger issues when it came to snow. When she tripped over the oversized wi
nter boots that she was wearing, he’d had enough. Zipping up his winter jacket the rest of the way, because the house was freezing thanks to the loss of electricity, he grabbed his gloves and his hat and headed out, deciding that he’d kill two birds with one stone.

  He apologize for his actions the other day and then he’d threaten to spank her ass again if she didn’t get her ass back inside where it was warm and safe. Since it sounded like a solid plan, he decided to go with it, but the moment that he stepped outside and saw the reason why they’d both lost electricity, had him swearing and breaking out into a dead run, praying that he got to her in time before she could start shoveling the walkway.

  *-*-*-*

  If he didn’t get his butt out here soon so that she could thank him, she was going to die of hypothermia, she realized as her body shivered violently and her arms threatened to fall off. As she shoveled another scoopful of snow, and seriously how much more snow could they possibly get? she snuck another casual glance next-door.

  Where the hell was he? she wondered miserably as she shoveled yet more snow, waiting for the moment that the large jerk, and yes, she was starting to get mad at him for making her wait so that she could thank him properly, came out and shoveled his walkways and driveway. As soon as he got his butt outside, she would wave, pretend that she didn’t notice that he was ignoring her and thank him for what he did for her the other day.

  Granted, he’d dragged her out from under the tree instead of giving her a chance to crawl out, which unfortunately lead to a lot of bruises, scrapes and cuts, but still…

  It was the thought that counted, wasn’t it?

  At least that’s what she told herself as she slipped, regained her footing and forced herself to continue shoveling, wondering why he hadn’t come out once since the storm began to shovel some of the snow away so that he wouldn’t be stuck shoveling all that snow later. Worrying her bottom lip, she stopped shoveling once she’d reached the walkway and glanced back at her house, wondering if she should just go inside, whip something up and bring it over, thank him and get it over with.

  That would probably be-

  “Ooof!” she gasped out in surprise as she suddenly found herself yanked back.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the man that she’d been waiting all morning to thank for helping her, yelled as he tightened his arms around her and continued to drag her away from her house.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded instead, wondering how he’d gone from not being able to stand her to constantly dragging her around.

  “What did I tell you the other day?” he snapped, instead of answering her, which wasn’t exactly helpful since he was still dragging her down the driveway and he sounded furious.

  Maybe he was an ax-murderer? she wondered idly as she lost her hold on her shovel and dropped it, losing her only means of protection. Well, she could probably count her bad luck as protection, but then again, it probably wouldn’t strike when she needed it most, she thought with a despondent sigh when he finally stopped dragging her.

  “Do you mean during your initial psychotic breakdown?” she asked with all seriousness as she pushed out of his arms, turned around and blinked up at him, wondering why out of all the men in the world did she have to fall for a guy that was, “Not all there,” as her Grandmother would have put it.

  Necie would just flat out call him psychotically insane, probably not to his face considering that he was probably over two hundred pounds of pure muscle and looked really pissed, but she was definitely thinking it.

  His right eye twitched as he glared down at her, kind of confirming her “Not all there,” suspicions. “When I had to drag your ass out from underneath that tree,” he bit out, enunciating every single syllable with a bit of a snarl.

  “I could have probably crawled out of there, but you didn’t really give me a chance,” she stupidly pointed out, not to put down what he’d done for her, but she felt that it was necessary to point out that she wasn’t completely useless, which was the way that he made her feel whenever he looked at her.

  She wasn’t useless.

  She wasn’t pathetic.

  She wasn’t-

  “Shit!” he groaned miserably as his features softened and he pulled her into his arms, taking her by surprise and reinforcing her opinion that he’d lost his mind.

  That is until she realized that she was crying.

  As soon as she realized that she was making an even bigger fool of herself, she tried to pull away from him so that she could wipe the tears away, stop her damn lower lip from trembling and pretend that it didn’t hurt when he looked at her like she was nothing, but he refused to let her go.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

  “Let me go,” she said, hating the way her voice cracked, especially since the big jerk wasn’t listening.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, tightening his hold around her and