I’m such a polite host.
But not polite enough to let her go. At least not yet. My entire trip was planned down to how I’d spend my time in the car on the way to the SFO airport tomorrow. But here I suddenly am, walking on the tightrope that could either toss me off or take me all the way to the end of this shiny, new song.
“Do you have any eggnog?” she asks.
“I have brandy,” I answer with a grin, wondering when I went from feeling like a cynical block of ice incapable of being amused by even the most charming of escorts to smiling at every word that came out of this San Francisco elf’s mouth.
“Okay.” She agrees again. Breathlessly, like she still can’t believe she’s here.
I can’t believe she’s here either. Or that she intrigues me so much.
I go to the room’s fully stocked bar to fish out her brandy while she takes my invitation to connect her phone to the sound system.
A few moments later, the suite fills up with a song as unexpected as her. A folk-rock ditty from the sixties, before either of us were born.
Still, I recognize this particular song. The Korean caretaker at our factory townhouse had listened almost exclusively to what he called “the California Rock” when I was a boy. What was this one called again?
As if in answer, the entire band came together to harmonize about how they were dreaming of California on a winter’s day.
Not exactly the sexiest song I’ve ever heard.
Yet, it doesn’t feel inappropriate.
Her eyes are cast down again when I cross the room with a brandy for her and a couple of fingers of Hibiki 21 for me. I hand her the glass, willing her to show me her face again.
Willing this tightrope to hold until I get what I want.
7
Merry Bacchanoel, Baby
KRISTAL
When he hands me the elegant tumbler of brandy, I have to make myself take a small sip instead of gulping it down and asking him for another, a double this time because I need all the liquid courage I can get.
“You’re nervous,” he says—a statement, not a question. And I wonder if I’ll ever get used to being able to feel his gaze on me when I’m not looking at him. Or how hot that makes me feel below the heart-shaped neckline of my green dress. Or how unbelievably handsome he looks in that tux.
“I didn’t expect it to get this far,” I tell him honestly. Then I take another sip of the smooth, delicious brandy and try not to gulp. “I still can’t believe I’m here instead of Eloa. Doing what Eloa was about to do with you of all people.”
“Why can’t you believe it?” he asks, his voice low with amusement.
“Because you’re like an incredibly well-drawn Josei manga hero come to life. And manga heroes like you don’t want elves like me.”
A pause. Then he says, “I’m not supposed to want you. Yet here we are.”
I can feel that burn of a gaze again.
“Yep…yep… here we are.” I give in to the temptation to gulp and instantly regret it.
The alcohol scalds my throat, and I collapse into a coughing fit. Of course, I do. This is why nerdy elves can’t have nice things. I can’t even bacchanoel without choking on my drink.
He moves away, then comes back and graciously replaces my tumbler with a tall glass bottle of Voss water. “Drink.”
I gulp it down with tears in my eyes. I don’t know if they’re a symptom of the choking or embarrassment. Probably both. I’m such a nerd. Such. A. Nerd. And I shake my head as the playlist I put on switches to the Beach Boys singing “Sloop Jon B.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I thought I could do this. I’m not a professional like Eloa. Or smooth. Or so pretty it hurts to look at me.”
“Kristal…” He puts down his glass.
“This was a huge mistake. I’m sorry. Maybe I can, I don’t know, sell an organ or something to pay you back.”
“Kristal…”
“I should go,” I tell him. “Save us both the embarrassment of me in bed.”
“Kristal,” he says, this time much more firmly as he takes the bottle of water back from me. “Stop. Stop talking.”
It’s a command. So I do.
“Breathe,” he tells me.
I do that, too, letting out a shuddering breath.
Then he reaches up and takes off my elf hat before saying, “Kiss me.”
Kiss me. I don’t do that right away. But I want to. Gosh, I want to…
I step forward, heart racing, mind a careful blank, because I know if I stop for even a minute to think, I will completely freak out. Manga heroes like Hayato don’t happen to elves like me. Situations like sex in a billionaire’s penthouse don’t happen to nerdy elves with only twelve days of Christmas vacation in the human realm.
But I press my lips to his, and suddenly Hayato is happening to me. He immediately takes over the kiss, hands framing both sides of my face, as he pulls me into his ocean.
I had a question before, but in an instant, it is answered.
Yes. Yes, he wants me. For some reason, he wants me. With a hunger unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
I can feel him…swollen and thick against my stomach as he devours my lips. And I moan into his kiss. Merry Bacchanoel, baby. I want this, too… So bad it’s an aching hurt in my core.
I am no longer dazed or uncertain. This is happening. I kissed him, and then I was immediately consumed by his lips. And now I’m all in, kissing him back.
We don’t even make it to the bedroom. Unzipping and yanking down. Unbuttoning and pulling off. We dispose of clothes until we somehow tumble onto the nearest couch.
It’s so finely patterned. I’m sure it has one of those fancy design names, like tuxedo or Queen Anne.
It doesn’t matter. Right now, it’s just a surface from which I watch him pull on a condom, impressed that he had the wherewithal to hold on to it during our clothesmageddon on the way to the couch.
That’s his last rational act. As soon as the condom’s on, he falls on top of me, kissing me silly again, before lifting and…
I moan into his lips when he pushes in. We’ve done nothing other than kiss until this moment, but even without any foreplay, it doesn’t feel uncomfortable like my last few attempts at a bacchanoel one-night stand. I pulse around him. Loving the sensation, loving the way he fills me up.
I can’t believe, simply cannot believe he’s inside of me. Can’t believe anything on earth could feel this good.
Then it gets even better. He starts moving. At first, it’s a slow pull in and out. Sipping on me like he did on the pots of sake we drank earlier tonight with our meal. I roll into his careful strokes, savoring him the way I tried to slowly drink the brandy. But then his pace picks up, and so does mine, and the next thing I know, it’s an all-out frenzy. Hayato falls out of the kiss, Japanese words that sound like curses issuing from his lips.
“Kristal…I’m not…able to control myself,” he says in tight English, his Japanese accent becoming much more pronounced. “You must…”
My body fully understands. I come in the next moment, the orgasm taking me as if it were merely waiting for Hayato to say the word. A bliss better than presents on Christmas morning rolls through me, and soon after, I feel Hayato thicken before releasing with an explosion of guttural Japanese.