Santa’s Naughty Helpers
A Christmas Anthology
K.C. Stone
Elizabeth Knox
E.C. Land
Ashlynn Mills
Amy Davies
Pepper North
Evan Grace
Krista Ames
Cedar Rose
Jen Talty
Lizzie James
Santa’s Naughty Helpers
This book(s) is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the authors’ imaginations and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book(s) may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews.
Under the Mistletoe. Copyright © 2020 by KC Stone
Naughty List. Copyright © 2020 by Elizabeth Knox
Stoney’s Gift. Copyright © 2020 by E.C. Land
Want Me, Santa. Copyright © 2020 by Ashlynn Mills
Unwrapping Mine. Copyright © 2020 by Amy Davies
Santa’s Little Girl. Copyright © 2020 by Pepper North
Santa Surprise. Copyright © 2020 by Evan Grace
Finding Love at Christmas. Copyright © 2020 by Krista Ames
Secret Santa. Copyright © 2020 by Cedar Rose
A Christmas Miracle. Copyright © 2020 by Jen Talty
Mistletoe Kisses. Copyright © 2020 by Lizzie James
Cover design by: Clarise Tan, CT Cover Creations
Copy/Line Editing by: Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing
Proofreading by: Jackie Ziegler
Formatting by: E.C. Land, Knox Publishing
Created with Vellum
Contents
Under the Mistletoe
K.C. Stone
Naughty List
Elizabeth Knox
Stoney’s Gift
E.C. Land
Want Me, Santa
Ashlynn Mills
Unwrapping Mine
Amy Davies
Santa’s Little Girl
Pepper North
Santa Surprise
Evan Grace
Finding Love At Christmas
Krista Ames
Secret Santa
Cedar Rose
A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
Jen Talty
Mistletoe Kisses
Lizzie James
Under the Mistletoe
K.C. Stone
AVAILABLE NOW FROM
K.C. STONE
SERIES: LAWLESS MC
Demanding Dom (Free Prequel)
Rescuing Jules (Book #1)
COMING SOON FROM
K.C. STONE
COMING SOON FROM
K.C. STONE
Series: Lawless Mc
Breaking Locke (Book #2)
Reviving Ranger (Ranger & Missy)
Viper’s Strike (Viper & Leah)
Finding Freedom (Storm & Duke)
Releasing Ramona (Smokey & Ramona)
Series: Diavolo Mafioso
Devil May Care (Book #1)
Devil in Disguise (Book #2)
Deal with the Devil (Book #3)
Devil’s Playground (Book # 4)
Playlist
Just a warning my playlist is a bit all over the place.
Godless – BANKS
Not Afraid Anymore – Halsey
Helium – Sia
The Hunted – The Rigs
Heaven – Julia Michaels
One Woman Man – John Legend
War of Hearts – Ruelle
Jealous – Nick Jonas
Acknowledgments
Knox Publishing— Again I can’t thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to tell stories. Thank you for taking the chance on me.
Jessica Evans— Thank you for all the hard work you do. Without your patience and kindness, I would not be doing this today. You lady are amazing, you are such a fantastic friend thank you for being there for me.
Kim— Thank you for helping me make my stories the best they could possibly be. You have become such a great friend to me. I owe you so much and I will be forever grateful.
To Michael, thank you for everything, thank you for having faith in me and telling me that no matter what you believe in me and that you are proud of me. Thank you for allowing me to have the endless nights of writing while you get ignored. Everything I do is for us! I love you!
Chapter One
Missy
I wander around aimlessly immersed in Christmas, all around me the city is draped in red, green, and white. Trees decorated with lights and tinsel; windows flocked with the fake can of snow. Even the building to my office, the handles are wrapped in garland.
I dread this time of year. It is not that I hate Christmas, more so just the loneliness that comes with it. The never-ending family photos that come in, all the loving families sitting next to the fireplace, stockings hung by the chimney with care. The one time of year where family photos are shipped out by the thousands, each one carefully planned to wish everyone a Happy Holiday.
“Good morning, ma’am. Here is your mail and all of your memos from this morning,” my assistant says bringing my thoughts to the present.
“Thank you, Nicole,” I say dismissing her.
I make a mental note I need to get the ladies something for Christmas. Flipping through the mail, I notice the one thing I hate the most about Christmas staring me right in the face, the Holiday Party invitation for work.
“Damn it,” I say tossing the invitation down on the desk.
“Morning to you too.” I look up to find my business partner standing at the door.
“Ugghhhh, why do we have holiday parties.”
“Because, sweetie, it’s Christmas and it boosts holiday spirit, well most people’s spirit.” She rolls her eyes at me.
“Yes, Claire, just lovely. A bunch of drunk assholes and women throwing themselves at the said drunk assholes, they are my favorite,” I mocked.
“Ohhh, Missy, relax. It’s only a Christmas party, it will be fun. I even got a Santa to hand out gifts,” she snickers.
“What are you up to? I know that look, you have something planned and it never goes well when you do.” Sitting back into my desk chair I look out at the city below watching the people running back and forth as the hustle and bustle of the holidays are breathing down our necks.
“I swear you are such a scrooge; you should have been called Ebenezer instead of . . .”
“Don’t you freaking say it or I will kick your ass,” I interrupt her.
“Relax, Mistletoe, nobody is around,” she cackles before leaving my office.
As I toss a pencil at the door, looking at the invitation I have a month to find a date unless I want to go to the party alone, again, for the fourth time in a row.
That is not happening again.
Lunch time was brighter, I had lunch with Claire and her sister Ramona who is a nurse at the hospital down the street. She told us all about the charity the hospital is having for the children’s Christmas party.
“You can thank Ramona for the Santa, I borrowed him from them,” Claire says, knowing my reaction.
“Thanks, Ramona,” I say sarcastically.
“Yeah, Claire texted and said you weren’t happy about the Santa, but as I recall you haven’t ever really been excited about Christmas.”
> “Well when you grow up like I did, Christmas was never really something to look forward to,” I say.
“It doesn’t help that they named you Mistletoe either,” Claire chimes in.
“Oh shit, no they didn’t,” Ramona says laughing her ass off.
“Oh, they did,” I say.
“Mistletoe Evelyn Jones,” Claire pipes up.
“You bitch, why,” I sneer. I hate my name so much, I begged my mother to let me go by Eve but, she refused.
“I just thought your name was Missy, but now I see why you go by Missy,” Ramona says, still dying of laughter to the point she almost falls out of her chair.
“God, I hate you,” I say to both of them.
“So, are you going to find a date this year and embrace Christmas or will you be another Scrooge again?” Claire asks
“She needs to get Scrooged,” Ramona jokes.
“My goal is to find a date, maybe I will hate the party less if I have someone to spend it with,” I say and by the time lunch was over they had a game plan to find me a date for the Christmas party, which was only four weeks away.
I leave the office at exactly four-thirty. If I leave now, I can make it before traffic starts to suck. The amount of people in this city is ridiculous so I build my schedule around the least amount of foot traffic, and now with the holidays looming so many more people are out there doing their shopping. I could not stop thinking about what Ramona said earlier about the children at the hospital and how a lot of them never get to leave there so they try and make the best holiday for them. So, I decided to head into the toy store down the block, once I finish there, I text Ramona to see if she is working that way I can drop these toys off. By the time I would get home I would be ready for a nice relaxing evening with my two favorite guys. Ben & Jerry have always been faithful no matter what.
Me: Hey, are you working tonight?
Ramona: Yeah, I get off at six-thirty. What’s up? You want to grab dinner?
Me: No, I can’t but I want to drop some stuff off to you for the kids.
Ramona: Sounds great, how long until you get here?
Me: Oh, I’m outside, so about five minutes.
Ramona: Okay, great, see you then.
Now, it’s just a matter of getting all this stuff inside and not dropping something.
Heading up to the children’s floor, I see Ramona talking to one of the most gorgeous men I have ever seen, tall, blonde, and muscles rippling down his back, just watching him shift from one foot to the other causing his shirt to tighten and my breathing to pick up and I have not even seen his face. Yet, I think to myself, this man is to incredibly good looking to be real or even single.
I catch her eye and she waves her hand and nods her head signaling me to come to her. Shit, I think to myself. I steel myself and head toward her with bags in hand praying that the sexy man she is talking to is just as good looking from the front as he is from the back.
“Wow, Missy, what have you done,” she exclaims, waving to all the bags in my hands.
“Well, I kept thinking after we talked at lunch and you told me what your plan was for the kids for Christmas, I wanted to help.” I shrug taking a deep breath, I am about to turn and introduce myself when his scent hits me, fuck that’s what he smells like, panic sets in and I look toward Ramona for help.
“Missy, this is Ranger. Ranger this is one of my best friends, Missy,” she introduces us and Ranger turns to look at me.
“Damn,” I whisper trying not to swallow my tongue. The man before me is drop-dead gorgeous. Way better than my imagination could ever cook up, standing before me was one of the most uniquely looking men I have ever seen, and he is beyond beautiful.
His smile is heart shattering, deep dimples hidden behind an exceptionally groomed beard. Nothing too long and normally I am not a beard girl but damn, this man has it. His lips are the perfect shade of pink and for a moment I wonder what they taste like.
“Up here,” I hear in a deep baritone and I jerk my head up looking him directly in the eyes. My face completely red with embarrassment. He has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, one was brown and one was half brown and half blue, it was a few seconds before I realized I was staring at him.
“Sorry, Missy,” I say, taking his hand, well attempting to since I still had bags of toys occupying them.
His laugh was even sexy, “It’s okay,” he says, taking them from me.
“Mona, where do you want these?” he says, taking some of the bags from me.
“Right this way.” She leads him toward the back. When she comes back my smile falls a little because my dream man is nowhere to be found. Just before I open my mouth, he rounds the corner, and gives me an earth-shattering smile.
“Okay, Ramona, I will see you later. Tell Smoke to give me a shout if you hear from him before me,” he says, tapping the counter.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, I hope to see you again,” he says, grabbing my hand. Good lord, his skin feels amazing against mine, rough calloused hands glide against my soft skin.
“Sounds good, sweetie, and thanks again for everything,” Ramona hollers as my Mr. Sexy heads out the door.
I spin around. “Tell me everything about him, I mean everything about that man!” I rush out.
“That is Ranger, he is amazing. He volunteers here a couple times a month reading to the kids. He is pretty to look at, isn’t he?” she says the smile on her face tells me she will never let me live this down.
“He is gorgeous, there is no way he is that nice. I have never met a man that beautiful without having an ego to boot,” I say because it’s the truth.
“Ha. No, ma’am, he has a huge ego, but he is still a nice guy,” she replies.
“See, no thanks, I do not need another jerk in my life,” I tell her because it was the truth. My past dating life has been nothing but jerks and I am done with that.
“Hmmm, that is a shame because I gave him your number,” she says. “Please give him a chance. He really is a nice guy,” she pleads.
“Fine, I will try, but only because of that stupid ass Christmas party,” I say, conceding to her demand. “Besides, he is nice to look at,” I joke.
“That he is, and he rides a Harley.” She winks before heading back to work.
Once I step outside the hospital, I pull my coat closed. The winter chill is sharp, hitting you to the bone.
“Missy,” I hear, and my body is frozen as his voice washes over me as I say a silent prayer.
Please let this be him, please let this be him.
I turn around coming face to face with Mr. Sex on a stick from upstairs and I thank God once more.
“Hey, Ranger is it?” I play dumb, there is no way I could forget this man.
“Yeah, I was just wondering if you wanted to grab a bite with me.” His crooked smile does it.
“Sure, what did you have in mind?” Sorry, ‘Mona, but I can’t pass up this opportunity.
“What did you have in mind?” I ask again, my stomach growling loud enough half of New York heard it.
“This way, I know a place.” He places a hand on the small of my back and fire shoots up my nerves when he touches me, I could feel his warmth through my clothing.
This couldn’t be good.
Chapter Two
Ranger
I have no idea what I am doing, I have no plan, all I know is I want her. I want her more than I have wanted any woman, the fact that she said she would go to dinner with me hit me hard.
“Shit, it’s cold.” I blow heat into my hands rubbing them together.
“Angelo’s is down the street; I have a standing table there. Is Italian good with you?” I lean closer into her, taking a deep inhale, she smells like coconut mixed with a slight hint of flowers.
“Sounds heavenly,” she says. I realize at that moment I am starving.
I open the door to Angelo’s, and we are hit with the aroma of fresh yeast rising, wood burning stoves in the back pulling out fresh baked
bread, nothing could be a better smell.
“God, this place smells like heaven, I might eat everything here,” she says and I couldn’t help but laugh, at least she will be eating more than a salad.
We finish dinner just as the rush hour picks up, the waitress brings us the bill and a brown paper bag. “Mario asked me to drop this off, he went ahead and put two slices of cheesecake in there for you.” She winks, turns, and walks away.
The warmth leaves us as soon as we are outside. “Are you ready for me to take you back or do you want to head for a walk?” I ask her. Being very brazen I take her hand in mine and I am instantly rewarded as she tightens her hand around mine.
“My apartment is not far from here,” she offers just as I’m about to say something. “I just mean it’s eleven and I have to be up by four tomorrow for work.” She corrects herself.
“I will walk you back then,” I say, keeping the disappointment out of my voice.
Reaching up on her toes she places a gentle kiss on the corner of my mouth, her lips so soft I can’t help but pull her close to me, deepening our kiss.
She grips my coat, our tongues fighting to taste each other, feel each other. By the time we pull away neither one of us can breathe.
“That was amazing,” she whispers, her breath flutters across my lips leaving behind a tingle.
I have never been more thankful for a winter’s night than I am right now. My dick is so hard the only thing keeping it from destroying my jeans is the cold.
“This is it,” she says, standing in front of a four-story red brick sky rise.
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