So I’m going to try and start doing Fiction Fridays again. The last one I did was a fan fiction from The Hobbit. This one is geared more toward the holiday season. I thought this one might be fun as I just wrote two posts on writing Holiday Romances. So I’m going to give it a shot with this short that will end up being the first chapter in a novel someday. Yup! Since I had the idea for this short story it has formed into a book and from there, a series of books. So here ya go. A bit of Christmas Love for you.
Awakened for Christmas
Samantha’s foot slipped on the slick ice and the mile high stack of Christmas presents her boss had sent her out to pick up flew in every direction along with her purse. She squeezed her eyes shut anticipating the pain of her butt connecting with the ice laden street, when strong hands wrapped around her waist. She opened her eyes to find a warm set of deep green eyes staring down at her, framed by thick dark lashes and a heavy set of manly eyebrows.
“Are you okay, Miss?” His voice came out husky behind the scarf that obscured the rest of his face. He righted her and she sucked in a chilly breath. Holy hell he was the biggest guy she’d ever seen in her life.
Crap! The presents. She scanned the ground, rounding up the gifts and brushing off the snow. A car honked and she looked up as a bright yellow taxi screeched to a stop.
The man stood and she got a nice eyeful of his round rear as he slapped his hand on the hood of the taxi and pulled something from inside his coat. The cabby raised his hands in apology and when her white knight turned back around she caught a glimpse of a metal shield as he shoved it back inside his leather coat.
A cop.
Samantha finished stacking the presents and tried to get her arms around them.
“Thank you for your help,” she said. “I was sure I’d break my tailbone that time.”
He pulled down his black knit scarf to reveal a ruggedly handsome face. Dark scruff stained his cheeks and chin blending seamlessly with his olive skintone.
Samantha averted her eyes to keep from staring at his hard chiseled bone structure and Roman nose. Damn! He was like a Greek statue of Adonis. She scanned the stack surveying the damage to the wrapping paper. Her boss would kill her if they arrived in anything less than pristine condition.
“Can I help you with those?”
“No. Thank you officer. I’m good.” She glanced around at the people rushing past that spared her just enough of a glance to deem her insignificant.
“Detective,” he corrected. “Detective Greco.” He held her black purse out to her in his oversized gloved hands.
She reached for her purse but a business man on his phone bumped her shoulder and almost sent her flying with her packages once more. Detective Greco chuckled.
“Let me at least help you across the intersection.” He wrapped his large gloved hand around her and Samantha’s cheeks flush with heat as he kept her on her feet till the other side of 5th and Broadway.
“There. Safe and sound.” He looked down at her feet. “You really should get some boots. Flats aren’t exactly great as winter shoes here in New York.”
She’d been saving up to buy a pair for the last month and a half.
“I’ll consider that.”
“So, where are you headed with all those packages? You must have a large family.”
“Uhm…” She didn’t have the heart to tell him she hadn’t been crossing the street when she slipped, she’d fallen into it. “They’re not mine. They’re my boss’s. He was in a meeting and had me run out to pick them up for him.”
His brows furrowed and he looked at his watch. “On your lunch hour?”
“I… well… I’m just a temp right now and I’m trying to get hired on permanently so…” It sounded lame, even to her own ears, but she’d moved to New York just two months prior and her rent was already a month behind. She needed this job.
“Do you give that jerk your lunch break often?”
Samantha clenched her jaw but refused to allow his words to offend her. “I really should get back.”
“You have thirty minutes. Can I buy you a cup of coffee first and maybe a sandwich?”
The slight upturn of his smile tempted her to say yes. Detective Greco was the first friendly face she’d seen in a month. Back home everyone smiled, but here it seemed like people thought smiling took too much energy and time.
“Yes, but my walk is about fifteen minutes. If I don’t fall again. So I shouldn’t. Thank you for your help though. You really went above and beyond that protect and serve motto.” She walked past him trepidation building in her gut at not being able to see her feet or the ice and snow below her. Her heart screamed at her for not being nicer to the Detective. After all he’d helped her across the street and offered to buy her lunch.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Merry Christmas, Detective Greco!” she called.
His eyes stayed focused on her and she was afraid if she lingered any longer she’d take him up on his offer. But if she was even one minute late getting back from lunch, her boss would dock her pay.
She turned around and headed off into the crowd. The sounds of a Salvation Army bell filled her ears as she tried to figure out where she was. She passed one of the shops she’d picked up packages from earlier and got her bearings. The office was four blocks north.
A block into her trek back her arms ached from the packages of wine for the bosses. Jewelry for two mistresses. A fur coat for the wife. A model airplane for the son. And half a dozen smaller gifts for the staff. None of which had her name on them. She ground to a halt with the rest of the throng at a stop light, unable to see anything except coats and hats. The chatter of people on cell phones buzzed in her ears, drowning out the honk of horns and the occasional Christmas tune floating out of an open store door. The scent of cinnamon flavored coffee wafted toward her from somewhere up ahead and made her stomach rumble. In the moment it took her to catch her breath she berated her from not accepting the detective’s invitation. He really had been as handsome as he’d been kind.
“Miss? Miss?” a voice called. She tried to look around but bodies pressed on her from all sides and she couldn’t tell who was talking or who they were calling.
The light turned green and she was propelled forward with the rest of the herd. Her flats slipped on a patch of ice but with so many people propping her up she kept from going down again. What a mess. She really needed some boots.
****
Ares kept his eyes trained on the bobbing blond head and gigantic stack of packages. She was a good fifty people in front of him but from his height of close to six foot six it wasn’t too hard to keep track of her. She was the only person in New York City brave enough to not be wearing a hat and scarf.
Her bright blue eyes had shown like twinkling Christmas lights framed by thick light lashes and cheeks pink as berries when he’d stopped her from crashing to the ground. Her lack of boots, scarf and hat told him that this was her first winter in New York.
He clutched her black purse in his hand and watched as she slipped and slid back over the street that he’d helped her across and into a tall business tower. Odd.
Reason told him that he should go into the building, hand the girl her purse and just head back to the station, forgetting her. But his gut pulled him in her direction for gods only knew what reason.
He snorted. Gods only knew, yeah right.
There’d been something alluring about her sweet, innocent nature. It reminded him of the virgins of old. The maidens he’d chased across forests and fields to get at. The ones who’d giggled and protested, only to give in a moment later. But those days were long gone. Long. Gone.
He headed across the street and into the prestigious glass building adorned with a lighted tree at the top and humongous wreaths on the office windows on the second floor. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas played inside the building as he wiped his boots on the red rug and headed for the security desk. Several people were already signing in and he dug inside the black purse for the girl’s wallet and her ID.
Samantha Young.
“Can I help you?” The security guard looked Ares up and down as if he meant to rob the place.
Ares removed his badge from inside his coat. “I’m Detective Greco and I’m looking for Samantha Young. She’s a temp that’s working here.”
The security guard’s face broke into a smile and he nodded. “Let me get you that information.” He clicked on a computer keyboard as Ares tucked his badge away.
“Yes, Miss Young is working for Brackenridge, Ernst and Tobler. The nineteenth floor.”
Ares nodded. His grip tightened around the purse. He should just drop off the purse at the front desk and leave the girl be.
But something inside him had woken up for the first time in over a millennia at the sight of her. And he couldn’t just let that go.
Well, that’s it. What do you think? It’s rough, I know. But it’s the beginning of something I think will be lots of fun! Take care and have a Wonderful Fiction Friday!
Rebekah R. Ganiere – Books with a Bite
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