“Hey, you! Get off the stage, moron, before I drag you off.”
Nick jumped, startled by the shout, but the insult from the dickhead didn’t faze him.
Holding the bracelet in his left hand, he began to run. Almost colliding with the next stripper, he managed to dodge aside and head for the back stairs of the club. Checking over his shoulder, he saw the bouncer wasn’t following him. The guy had been waylaid by a couple of angry, shouting drunks.
One burly, red-faced man shouted, “We want the angel with the big tits. Bring her the hell back!”
Nick laughed. He looked over his shoulder and caught Kris’s eye. Tony and one of the other men were trying to talk to him, but Kris held up a hand. Nick motioned to him, and Kris pushed his way through the busy crowd and ran over to catch up with him.
Kris gestured at the many men around them. “Damn strip clubs are full of assholes at Christmastime! This dump is packed.” Kris noticed what Nick was holding. “Holy crap, is that Lilly’s bracelet?”
“Yup, the one I gave her.” Nick held the bracelet out for Kris to have a better look. “You know I left it on the doorknob of her room the day she threw it at me? She’s kept it all this time.” Nick looked down at the bracelet, stroking the turquoise stone, then lifted his eyes back up to Kris. “That has to mean something, right?”
Kris nodded. “She still wears it. She remembers you and thinks about you. Sure, it means something.”
Nick gestured toward the door. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” He pushed open the heavy back door of the club and headed out into the winter night.
The wind howled as it whipped the snow around his legs. “Fuck, it’s cold!”
Kris looked at him, startled. “Damn, you forgot your coat. In all the confusion, I forgot to grab it for you too. You left it hanging over the back of your chair.”
Nick shrugged. “S’okay. I’ll summon it.”
Kris grabbed his arm. “Nick, stop, don’t even go there. Someone will see.” He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, so what? They’re all drunk as fuck. They’ll think they’re hallucinating.”
He closed his eyes and hummed a quick spell to bring his warm red Santa coat to him. Pale blue light shot from his palm, and the coat came sailing through the air and into his hands.
Normally, if he or Kris wore coats like this, the material would be green and much richer and warmer. The standard uniform when they worked at the North Pole.
Nick did up the last button on his coat. “You explained to Tony we could only make the wedding itself and not the reception, right? You explained we had business commitments?”
Kris’s eyes twinkled. “Yup, he said he understood. Imagine if he knew what those ‘business commitments’ actually were, though. It would blow his little mortal mind.”
Nick grinned.
Kris turned serious. “So that really was Lilly. Do you think she still hates me?”
“Hates us, you mean? Hell, I don’t know.” Nick rubbed his hands over his face. “Damn, how did a straight-A classical music student like Lilly end up working in a strip club? It doesn’t make sense.”
He grabbed Kris’s arm. “Come on, we’ve got to find her. How about you go back and search inside the club. She could still be in a dressing room or something. I’ll search out here. I might catch her on the way to her car.”
“They’ll think I’m some creepy pervert stalking the girl’s dressing rooms.” Nick gave his lover’s biceps a squeeze. “You are a pervert. The one I love.
Now hurry.” He winked and pushed Kris’s shoulder in the direction of the strip joint. “We have to find her. Just have a quick check in the dressing rooms, and if she’s not there, come back and meet me here.” Nick gave him a pat on the ass to send him on his way.
Kris started to walk toward the club, muttering something under his breath about “bossy Doms”.
Nick watched him leave, too depressed to even enjoy his fine back view.
“Why couldn’t you have just been honest with me, Nick?”
The last words Lilly had ever said to him pounded in his head as he touched the turquoise stone of the bracelet and walked out toward the parking lot. He hadn’t understood them at the time.
Since their failure with Lilly, he and Kris had stuck to sylph women and left mortal girls alone.
A knot formed in his throat. It amazed him how clearly, he could remember Lilly. What she felt like, how she tasted. Now that he’d found her again, he ached to touch her.
He wanted to run his fingertips over her face and lips, wanted to see his hands and Kris’s worshipping her fine, curvaceous body, wanted to take her sweet mouth while Kris took her pussy and watch Kris kiss her everywhere before he put his own mouth on her.
The closeness they’d shared years ago with Lilly hadn’t been an illusion. It had been real! The problem was, back then they’d been too focused on the rules Dad had set for their time in the mortal world. No doing magic in front of humans. They hadn’t explained themselves to Lilly; they hadn’t really let her know who they were.
He blew out a breath and glanced behind him. He needed to find her and talk to her now, no matter what her reaction and no matter what the consequences. Kris would understand and want her too. He had to. Because there was no way Nick could substitute one for the other.
Chapter Two
Lilly’s eyes still stung with tears of humiliation as she stumbled down the corridor in her ridiculously high, strappy, platform sandals.
So, they thought she was fat, or one of them did, but Ron, the owner of Venus Girls, had said she’d do fine at the club. He’d said the place needed a few girls like her, with large, natural breasts and a different look. Some men went for that kind of thing. Not every man wanted a statuesque, leggy, peroxide blonde. That’s what Ron had said.
Anyway, who the hell cared what those sleazebags thought of her? Lilly Rudolph was not a stripper. Not really.
Who was she, then?
A reviewer for the New York Times had called her a “passionate flute player who combines extravagant technique with broad stylistic range”. She’d placed third in the Concert Artists’ Guild awards two years in a row.
She was also a devoted daughter.
And that was the only reason she was stripping as a side gig right now. She would do whatever she had to, whatever it took, to help her mom out of this mess.
She clutched her handbag to her side, grateful that Tucker, the security guard, had had it ready for her the moment she came off stage. Inside was a good three hundred dollars she could add to the five hundred she’d already made this week. Not bad. A decent start.
As Lillian rounded the corridor, the sight of the other four strippers knocked her out of her reverie. Bambi, Tasha, Sonya and Kandy stood outside her dressing room. Bambi stood in front of the door, blocking her path.
Fear nipped at the edges of her mind. Something seemed a little off here. But there was no reason to be afraid of these girls. Women.
“Hey, Bambi! Hey, Tasha…”
“Grab her.” Sonya’s voice hissed with venom.
Before Lilly had time to react, Bambi grabbed her and forced her in a headlock so tight it made her ears burn. Kandy tugged at her handbag.
Tasha stood nearby, shaking her head with disgust. “We know you’re the thief, bitch!”
Lilly struggled to free herself, but it was no use. “What? I’m not the thief, damn you! When did you decide it was me? I don’t know what makes you think it’s me.” Inwardly, she winced at the tremor in her voice. She couldn’t afford to sound weak.
For the last few days she’d heard the other strippers gossip about how someone was stealing their tips and how they’d beat the thief if they caught her. Fear of a beating shrieked in her blood, urging her to run from her attackers, but she couldn’t wrench herself out of Bambi’s grasp.
Kandy continued to tug on Lilly’s handbag while Lilly held on to it with all her strength. Kandy sneered, “Ever since you started working here, girls have
had their tips go missing. Every day this week, one of the girls has had her money stolen.”
Sonya, the tallest of the strippers, poked her in the back. “And you don’t make many tips ’cause you’re fat. So, it has to be you.”
Lilly’s jaw tightened. Fear twisted into rage. “I did fine with tips up until tonight. I’m not your damn thief. Let me go.”
“Grab her wallet!”
Lilly cursed as she realized Kandy had unzipped her handbag. “Got it!” Bambi rapped her on the head with her knuckles. “If you have our money in there, we’ll fuckin’ kill you.” She turned to Kandy. “How much she got?”
Lilly couldn’t see Kandy, trapped as she was in Bambi’s headlock, but she heard her grunt. “She has three hundred dollars.”
Tasha tsked. “Well, that’s not much. She might have made that herself.”
A little bit of hope surfaced at Tasha’s words. Lilly felt the petty, desperate-to-be-liked feeling churn in her stomach, an emotion she’d battled ever since her youngest years in the orphanage. Before she’d known the love of an adoptive parent. She knew she’d never fit in with these women, but she’d sort of liked Tasha before now. Tasha seemed different from the other strippers, nicer. She tried to make eye contact with the slim, stunning brunette. “See! I’m no thief. Why did you guys even think it was me anyway?”
Tasha avoided eye contact with Lilly, turning her head away. “She’s probably hidden the rest somewhere else. She’ll go back and grab it later when she thinks we’re not around.”
Tasha’s words hit her like a kick in the stomach. They were obviously directed at the other strippers. It was like Lilly was so unimportant she didn’t warrant speaking to.
Bambi pulled Lilly’s head up by her hair. “We’ll catch you out eventually, thief. You can count on it. Hey, Kandy, what’s her real name?”
Kandy flipped through Lacey’s credit cards. “Lillian Rudolph.”
“Ha! Rudolph, all right. With that red hair and ghost-white skin, she sure stands out.”
The other strippers snickered. Spite made their eyes glint in the dark hallway.
Sonya towered over her, an impressively tall and athletic young woman. Hours at the gym must have honed such a strong, slim but muscular body. Sonya had a sharp but attractive face and long, straight, blonde hair. Lilly could remember when Sonya’s hair had been a rich chocolate brown.
She and Sonya had some history. She’d met Sonya before ever working at the club. The stripper’s eyes were a solid amber, an eye color which, for some reason, always gave Lilly the creeps.
“Do you want to go out there?” Sonya asked, indicating the open door with her thumb. “Out where the trash cans are?” Malicious pleasure gleamed in Sonya’s eyes and chilled Lilly to the bone.
“Yeah!” Kandy cried. “Let’s put the thief out with the trash.”
Anger made Lilly flush. Struggling mightily in Bambi’s grasp, she tried to stomp on the much-taller stripper’s foot but missed.
Bambi laughed. “Here, you do it, Sonya. I’m not going out there until I’ve put on my coat.” She thrust Lilly at the taller woman. The blonde stripper already had her coat and scarf on. She grabbed Lilly in a tight grip and pulled her out the door toward the trash cans. Lilly kicked and struggled. Kandy followed with a smirk on her face.
The icy December winds whipped around them, stinging Lilly’s face, but the night sky was clear and full of stars. The cold bit through her flimsy costume, and her teeth chattered audibly.
Sonya stopped by the trash cans, holding Lilly tightly around the waist from behind. Kandy grabbed hold of the chiffon on the front of her angel costume. Lilly shook and twisted violently to try to break their grasp, and part of her angel costume tore. “Let go of me, you assholes!”
She jabbed backward with her elbow, connecting with Sonya’s stomach, and heard the taller stripper gasp with momentary pain, but unfortunately, Sonya didn’t loosen her hold.
“Oooooh! Rudolph’ll pay double for that!” Kandy exclaimed.
Lilly didn’t know why she did it. Maybe it was a way of dissociating from a horrible situation, maybe it was because her heart always ached to make music when she was in pain, but she began to hum, the sound starting low in her throat. She closed her eyes and played a flute in her head, filling her mind with a rich and clear melody, which, for a moment, took her right out of her nasty situation. Then a vicious pinch froze the sound in her lungs.
Lilly twisted around enough to look up at Sonya. Something frightening happened to Sonya’s face. It became very still, and the stripper’s eyes narrowed into slits that showed too much amber and almost no pupil, like the eyes of a snake or some other reptile. A sharp chill ran up Lilly’s spine.
“Don’t fucking hum.” Sonya spat out the words.
“Who cares if she hums? She’s just a weirdo,” Bambi interrupted. “I don’t care what she does as long as she doesn’t take our money again.”
The words of the other stripper somehow returned everything to relative normality.
I must have been imaging the whole thing. Must have been the cold messing with my brain.
“You steal our tips, Rudolph, and I’ll give you a red nose, all right.” Sonya’s voice seemed inhuman in its rage. Fear swelled around Lilly like a choking fog.
The tall stripper swung Lilly around like a toy, then pulled her fist back. Before Lilly could react, the fist connected with her nose. Shooting pain accompanied a sickening crack. Blood ran down her throat, tasting like metal, and all she could see was an ocean of red.
“Enjoy, Dumpster Girl!” Sonya tipped her upside down and slammed her headfirst into an empty trash can.
Thank God it’s empty.
“Remember, Rudolph, you’ll never fit in anywhere. You’ll always be an outcast left out of all the reindeer games.”
The other strippers convulsed with laughter. “Until we meet again, Trashwhore.”
Something else dropped on her before she heard the women run away, giggling. Putting her hands up to touch it, she realized with relief it was just her handbag. Thank God for that one small kindness. One of the strippers had thought to return it to her. She knew for sure it wouldn’t have been Sonya.
Blood poured upward, running into her eyes, and she wiped at it with her fist. She knew she needed to right herself, but her head felt heavy, and her nose screamed with pain.
The shock of being called “Dumpster Girl” was almost worse than the pain. The thing was, she knew Sonya. Sonya had always made a habit of being spiteful and insulting to Lilly.
And I don’t even know why she hates me.
It was like her stalker. She had no idea why he hated her either, although he’d left many nasty messages. Lilly took a deep breath. She didn’t need to take it all in. Didn’t need to absorb the words of her vicious stalker. She wasn’t a “loser” or a “stupid whore”; she was a flautist with the East Meadow Orchestra. She was a charity worker for TONTA, The Orphans’ National Trust of America. She was smart and strong.
But some Christmas this was turning out to be. She’d been insulted, accused of theft and literally dumped in the trash, on the twenty-second of December by a gang of strippers.
She had no boyfriend. Hadn’t had so much as a date in seven months. The only person she’d be spending Christmas with was her adoptive mom.
And Mom cries every damn day.
The metallic taste of blood coated her tongue. Lilly touched a careful hand to the side of her nose and winced.
I wish just for once Christmas wouldn’t suck. I wish just for once I could have a Christmas miracle.
Lilly closed her eyes for a moment as she made her wish, then opened them again. Gradually, her eyes began to adjust to the dark in the trash can, and the screaming pain in her nose began to ease a little. She held on to her handbag with a firm grasp, then, bracing her hands against the sides of the trash can, she wriggled, attempting to right herself. But before she could turn herself around, someone else lifted the lid, and moonli
ght flooded her eyes.
“What the hell’s going on here?” The familiar voice soaked through her, rich and dark like the taste of Colombian coffee, so sexy it turned her bones to liquid in a heartbeat.
I know that voice.
Strong hands grasped her and pulled her out of the can, setting her on her feet.
“Oh my God, Lilly! Who did this to you?”
Lilly blinked. She rubbed more blood out of her eyes. She was seeing double. Two men of unearthly beauty, dressed in matching Santa suits, stood before her. They were exactly the same height, with the same broad shoulders and powerful torsos.
When she opened her eyes again, one of them was taking off his red coat, exposing his muscular arms. With the blood out of her eyes, she realized they weren’t identical twin Santas after all. The one who had taken off his coat was fair-haired with a glowing suntan like a surfer. How he could have a golden tan in this weather baffled her. The other wore his dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail. His chiseled features and raw, rough beauty stole her breath.
Oh God, it’s Nick Frost and Kris Noelle!
They were even more heavily muscled now than they’d been ten years ago, but it was them, all right.
As if I haven’t had enough humiliation for one day.
She knew she must look dreadful, her face streaked with tears, mascara probably running, and worse, blood pouring from her nose.
But before she could even cover her face with her hands in embarrassment, Kris bent down and gently wrapped her in his red Santa coat. It felt like heaven to have the upper half of her body warm, even though her legs were still freezing in her sheer stockings. He used a handkerchief to wipe the blood from her eyes, then held the cloth to her nose.
Kris’s eyes widened with shock. “Oh my God, sweetheart, who did this to you? One of the patrons in there?”
“No, no, it wasn’t a guy. It was the other strippers. They have it in their heads I’m the one stealing tips from the lockers in the dressing room, but I’m innocent. It’s some other girl doing it.” Great, she was babbling. Way to make a good impression on the two gorgeous guys she could never forget. The pain was so great she was glad to give up talking anyway.
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