He slipped the thermal glove off his right hand and immediately felt the biting sting of freezing winds blowing across the icy tundra. With little hesitation, he bent over his pack, unclipped the clasps, and located the interior pocket with the hand-held GPS device—a quick flick of a switch and the small apparatus’ screen lit up all blues and reds. After a moment, he located his present position and entered the coordinates of the supply box. Only one-point-two miles due west. He was in business.
While the pack was open, he checked the pocket containing the small glass phials of Thermavan and the case of syringes. His sigh of relief came out as a frozen puff. The experimental drug’s containers were undamaged, and hopefully, the rest of the supply in the crate was safe as well. At least the real reason for his being in this God-awful cold place wasn’t giving him any problems. Not yet. Though once he started his first experiment on himself that might not be the case. But repeating the same fiasco from six months ago simply wasn’t an option. His sanity couldn’t take another dose of that kind of weirdness. With only a few weeks until his retirement from the Army, his sanity was something he’d definitely need.
“Colonel Cole, do you copy?”
The transmission crackled over Axel’s hand-held radio. He retrieved the radio from his parka and responded. “Just barely. That you, Jaguar?”
“Ten-four, Colonel. A storm came out of nowhere. Near whiteout conditions. Highly recommend you find shelter immediately, sir.”
Axel steeled himself, his years of training refusing to allow panic to enter his thought process. He was out in the middle of the South Pole with only the parka on his back for warmth and the limited provisions in his pack. Getting caught out in a storm could mean his death, but not if he could help it. “Copy that, Jaguar. Is everyone there safe?”
The radio sputtered. “Uncertain, Colonel.” Static nearly drowned out Jaguar’s words. “The other members of the crew are scattered. I’ve located a tent…” Then the signal was lost.
“Jaguar?” Axel pounded the side of his radio with the palm of his freezing hand. “Jaguar?”
Axel searched the skies. Directly west, a fast-moving wall of grey blotted out the ground and the heavens above. His flesh twitched with an uneasy feeling of déjà vu. This was too much like the North Pole disaster.
With as much speed as he could muster, Axel removed one of the phials of Thermavan, ripped open the hypodermic needle’s protective plastic, and thrust the needle into the small glass container. He was skipping too many protocols to consider this first injection as a part of his experiment, but at the moment, saving his butt was more important than the tests. Just how helpful the drug would be was another matter. If the changes he’d made in the last few months didn’t work, the drug might still be unstable. The heat Thermavan provided may only last for short bursts, coming and going like the hot flashes of a menopausal woman. Then there was the side effect. Walking around the South Pole in a storm with a hard-on and nothing to relieve his condition wouldn’t exactly be pleasant.
The syringe full, Axel tapped the side of the glass to remove any excess air, then jabbed the needle into his leg through his clothing. No time to undress and inject himself in the arm. Not today.
Axel grimaced as the metal tip of the needle plunged into his flesh and the drug seeped into his system. The sting of the Thermavan was worse than being burned by a hot poker. Knowing the immediate hurt would melt into gentle warmth throughout his body, Axel relaxed his muscles and took in deep breaths to regulate his breathing. The cold air filling his lungs also burned. Hell of a way to start a damned mission.
Once the Thermavan had warmed every inch of his body from his toes to his fingers, Axel threw his pack onto his back and trotted away from the storm, frantically searching for some type of shelter. His own tent was in the supply crate a mile away in the direction of the bad weather. No way he’d reach the crate before the storm hit. He had little other choice than to keep moving and try to find a safe place to weather the storm as quickly as possible.
From out of nowhere, heavy gusts blustered through, pelting Axel’s face with shards of ice. He lowered his head and trudged on, inwardly cursing his situation. He was too fucking close to retirement to die on his last mission. What had he been thinking when he’d agreed to come down here in the first place? Thermavan’s success might change the way the military operated in the frozen terrains on this planet or in space, but it wasn’t worth his life.
As the wall of white blew forward, the gentle warmth oozing through him exploded into an inferno from Axel’s core. Within seconds, he was too warm and beads of sweat ran down his cheeks and back. When the intense heat hit his brain, vertigo took over. The dizziness made the icy terrain feel uneven and tipsy. Barely able to walk straight, he threw out his arms, trying to brace himself against anything within his reach. Axel shook his head. He couldn’t lose his senses. He needed to focus and find shelter if he planned to stay alive. Thermavan might warm him now, but he couldn’t be sure just how long it would last. He could only hope the changes he’d made to the drug would keep it from fading in a few minutes, then ebbing and flowing for the next twenty-four hours, like the results from his last experiment. With the duration of the warm spell as uncertain as a bet on a dog race, he’d have to use the time he had wisely. There was no room for mistakes and failure wasn’t an option.
Without warning, his cock stiffened and throbbed. As though the most luscious pair of pouty female lips waited just beyond the confines of his Nomex suit, his dick strained against the thick material. Then nearly as quickly, the pleasurable arousal turned to an achy need.
Anger rose along with his over-stimulated libido. “Damn it!” Alex shouted against the howl of the wind.
Thermavan obviously wasn’t perfect yet. The side effect he’d tried to correct was still as strong as it had been in the North Pole. He inwardly groaned, but held on to a sliver of hope. If the work he’d done in the last six months had made any difference, he wouldn’t lose consciousness. He couldn’t. Not this time.
Gusts of freezing winds made his every step an effort, like pushing an unwilling elephant up a steep hill. Axel pulled out his GPS and looked at the screen, now barely visible in the blinding snow. Still point-eight miles to go. He’d only made a small dent in the journey.
Moving forward, he slammed into something solid. Like a mime outlining an empty box, Axel patted his way along the side of whatever was in his way. From what he could tell, he seemed to have stumbled upon a frozen rock or ice outcrop. He walked around the barrier, his hands searching for a fracture in the ice large enough for his body to slide into. Any bit of shelter to get out of the whipping winds would do. Even holing up in a block of ice would be better than total exposure to the storm.
When his hands found a crevice wide enough to fit in, he slid himself backward into the tight squeeze and found he could move even farther back into the ice. He continued carefully sliding backward, immediately feeling the force of the storm release him from its grip. His cock pulsed with a relentless ache and the wooziness in his head was still strong, making rational thinking difficult. Rather than staying focused on his dire situation, thoughts and images whirled around his brain. He hadn’t thought of her in awhile.
Tasha.
That was her name.
He’d tried to forget her, her name and everything associated with the disaster at the North Pole, putting the experience down as drug-induced dreams. But she lingered in his memory like a favourite song.
She’d said she was an elf. Why his crazed mind had chosen a character from a Christmas tale still made no sense. He’d hardly celebrated the holiday after his mother died and he’d been sent away to military schools. Special holiday homecomings with dad had abruptly stopped after he’d turned eight. Yet for reasons he still couldn’t understand, Christmas and elves had filled every moment of his delirium.
Axel closed his eyes. Then, like a grainy projection from a 1920s film, memories of the crazy hallucination fro
m his North Pole experiment reran in his mind’s eye.
Topping six feet, with almond-shaped green eyes and long copper hair that reached her shapely, tight ass, Tasha hardly fit the image of pointy-eared little people making toys at Santa’s fictional shop. The tall beauty said she saw him collapse in the snow while on “bells” duty, whatever that was. She had taken him in, removed his clothes, and placed him in the softest bed he’d ever lain on. Before he realised what she was doing, Tasha unzipped her skin-tight white uniform and slowly peeled the fabric away from her body, revealing a figure most strippers would envy. Seeing her breasts, full and exquisite, caused his gut to twist with intense, passion-driven want. At that moment, he wanted nothing other than to take one of the ripe tits in his mouth and caress the hard peaked nub with his tongue until she groaned her pleasure. Tall, fit, and curvy, Tasha was truly the stuff of dreams.
With long, graceful strides, she had manoeuvred around the bed, turned back the fur blankets, and joined him. She said she’d never seen a naked human before. She had no idea human men’s penises were so big.
Enjoying the hallucination, he encouraged Tasha to explore his body as she liked. He told her he was a medical researcher. He understood her natural curiosity.
Her tentative hands touched his biceps with a softness that caused his skin to shiver with need. When she finally moved to his chest and gently pinched his nipple, he gasped and nearly lost control.
“Did I hurt you?” Tasha asked.
Axel waited a full heartbeat before answering, wanting to make sure his voice wouldn’t crack when he spoke. “No,” he said on a breathy exhale. “I like it. Don’t stop.”
Her brilliant emerald eyes sparkled and she smiled. “I’m glad. I like it, too.” She spread her fingers wide and combed through the hair on his upper body. “Most elf men are smooth,” she said, twisting a small tuft of hair between her fingers. “Way too smooth for my taste. You feel more like a man. At least, the way I envisioned a real human man would.”
As her hand roamed farther down, she moved closer. Heat, and the aroma of peppermint and chocolate, radiated from her skin, tempting Axel to lick and nibble at her hot flesh. No doubt she would taste as good as she smelled.
When she reached the bottom of his abdomen, Tasha stopped and fixed her lusty eyes on his, questioning him wordlessly. Axel could feel the rise and fall of her chest at his side. Her breathing became more laboured. He knew she wanted to touch his cock, but she resisted.
“It’s okay,” Axel coaxed.
He reached down, placed his hand over hers, and encouraged her to move lower. When her hot fingers touched his stiff dick, he froze, afraid he’d come from nothing more than pure desire. The Thermavan’s effect was either stronger than he’d realised or deep down lay a hidden need he hadn’t known existed, but he wanted desperately for her to stroke his cock, cup his balls in her soft hands, and allow him sweet release. The torture of holding back and allowing her to satisfy her curiosity bordered on cruel. She’s discovering something new, he reminded himself. As long as she didn’t stop, he would force himself to give her all the time she wanted to explore.
Smooth as satin, Tasha glided her hand up and down his shaft. So caught up in her erotic touch, he hadn’t registered she had laid her leg over his until he felt the springy curls of her pussy pressing into his thigh. Incredibly wet and warm to the touch, she rubbed her clit back and forth against him.
When she moaned, Axel gave up trying to stop himself. He slid a hand between their bodies and located the warm downy curls between her legs. Using two fingers, he gently spread her moist, silky folds. The moment the tips of his fingers found his target, she cried out, bearing her heavy breasts down against his chest. The sound of her pleasure nearly sent him over the edge. Wanting nothing more than to hear her climax, his fingers quickened their pace over and around the nub of her pussy.
“No, please, not yet,” she whimpered. “I want to know you. I want to taste you.”
A bead of pre-cum escaped the head of his dick at the thought of her sweet, full lips sucking him. When was the last time a beautiful woman had asked to suck his cock? He didn’t have to think hard. It was too long ago. Way too long.
Not able to trust himself with words, he nodded his consent. To his amazement, she pulled her lithe body down under the fur blanket until he felt the heat of her breath against the aching skin of his cock. Not being able to see what she was doing, he twitched from maddening anticipation.
Axel’s back involuntarily arched the moment Tasha took him in her mouth. Every muscle in his body tensed and strained to maintain control as she gently encompassed the base of his stiff shaft with her hand, then slowly bobbed her head up and down his entire length. Her tongue swirled the top of his cock, then flicked the tight skin under the ridge of the head. He placed his hand on the back of her head, half-inviting her to do more, half-wanting her to stop before he came too soon in her warm, velvety mouth. The moment had to last. Even if all of this was nothing more than a crazy erotic dream, the moment had to last.
As she shifted from licking to fervent sucking and writhing up and down his dick, he cautioned her to stop. He was on the brink of losing himself to her, but he wanted to do so much more.
Despite his warning, Tasha increased the intensity and speed of her thrusts with a renewed eagerness. Unable to resist the sweet release, he bucked his hips forward and moved against her rhythm, pushing his cock impossibly far into her hot mouth. He dug his free hand into the mattress and arched his back as a stream of cum surged from the pit of his clenched gut. Like tiny explosions, he came over and over again until he was so entirely spent he couldn’t move.
But he moved now, opening his eyes and shaking the memory from his thoughts. Propelling himself backwards through the narrow crevice, Axel felt the edge give way, and fell into an unexpected cavern. He landed ass first on the frozen floor and he sucked in air, temporarily forgetting how to breathe. Stars, bright and brilliant, floated before his eyes like a deep space scene from Star Wars. He blinked several times until his vision focused. But even as the haze of the surroundings sharpened, he doubted what he was seeing. This couldn’t be real.
Dozens of small silver candles glowed around the cavernous space, providing a strange but welcome heat. The room’s white walls twinkled and sparkled as though embedded with a million shimmering diamonds. Although the air was warm, the surrounding ice didn’t appear to be melting. No streams of water fell from the walls or puddled on the frozen floor.
Directly in front of him, Santa Claus stood near the narrow opening he’d just fallen through. Startled, Axel blinked and looked again. No, he hadn’t been mistaken. Attached to the glistening wall hung a six -foot poster of the jolly, rotund elf holding a large red bag full of toys. The area around St. Nick’s mouth was somewhat worn as though it’d been touched dozens of times, giving him the appearance of having eaten vanilla pudding but having forgotten to wipe his face.
Axel’s gaze shifted from the walls to the twenty-foot ceiling, where sheer sheets of glittery fabric fell and draped around a large, fur-covered bed. Large white pelts lay on various spots on the floor. If he didn’t know better, he would swear he had just stumbled upon the cave of some ice princess with a strange fetish for Santa.
The Thermavan.
Axel shook his head, feeling defeat weigh heavily on his shoulders. The damned Thermavan was still unstable and causing more hallucinations. All the work and experiments he’d done in the last six months had been for nothing. The problems he’d had at the North Pole were still prevalent, including having a dick as hard as an icicle.
Yet the heat he felt from the candles was real. Confused, Axel stood, removed his gloves, and reached out to touch the cavern’s wall. Ice cold. He knocked against the wall, which produced a barely audible clink, clink, clink, as the ice absorbed the sound.
Still unconvinced he wasn’t imagining everything around him, Axel made his way to the large bed and sat down. No doubt about it, his ass
was definitely on something soft that gave to his weight. He pinched the thin skin on the top of his hand. A small white peak formed under his fingers and his flesh burned. He wasn’t delusional. This was real. But just where the hell was he?
Chapter Two
Though she hadn’t seen Cupid or any of his Vinions yet, Tasha Tingle finished one last trip around the perimeter of the area she had located for Santa’s new workshop. With her gun firmly held in both hands and her bent arms out before her, she was ready to unleash a barrage of snow bullets if needed. Cupid had already attacked other members of the Battle Elves trained in Logic warfare and Land defence Scout team today. The Greek god’s jealousy of Santa’s popularity made Cupid a real menace to the B.E.L.L.S.’ ability to complete their mission, and she wasn’t about to let the sex beast get her off track or hurt her. Santa had hand-picked her and the other two B.E.L.L.S. to find just the right spot on the South Pole for his new workshop to expand his Christmas empire, and by the power of St. Nick, she had got the job done. Well, at least she’d found a place that looked flat and level enough to build on. A tentative location was enough for her, and Santa would most likely be pleased.
Tasha took a long, last look at the frozen, windswept tundra before finally deciding to call it a day. She tucked her pistol into the side holster tied to her thigh, then picked up a handful of snow and blew the powdery crystals high into the air. The magic puff drifted from the sky, transformed into a metal pole, and landed deep in the ice-encrusted terrain, marking the location. When the rest of the B.E.L.L.S. gathered, she’d take them to this exact spot and get their input. Hopefully finding such an ideal location would finally get her out of the doghouse with the B.E.L.L.S.’ Commander. Luckily, the Commander hadn’t come down to the South Pole yet, but he’d be here just as soon as she and the other B.E.L.L.S. were ready to make their factory site recommendations. Working with him so close around was worse than being nagged by her mother. Too much stress.
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