“He sees you when you’re sleeping.”
I was awakened to Santa’s gruff voice singing in my ear. Moaning, I turned to cuddle into his warmth, pressing my body against his. I frowned when I realized he was still wearing his Santa suit. I tugged at it, pulling the jacket open to lay my head against his bare chest. He chuckled and kissed the top of my head.
“Or when you’re not sleeping, as was the case with you last night, naughty girl. You were supposed to rest.”
I opened my eyes as much as I could, as they were still heavy with sleep. I wasn’t sure when I had finally gone to bed, or how much sleep I had gotten, but it had been pretty late, and I suspected it wasn’t much.
I had spent most of the night packing, in between stalking my brand-new husband using a Santa tracker app on my phone. I knew it wasn’t accurate, but it helped me count down the hours until he would be home and officially on vacation. The hours until we could start our honeymoon and our new life together. This man was my husband now. The wedding had been small and lovely, a quiet and intimate ceremony the morning before, at the North Pole, before the Christmas craziness officially commenced.
Once I had stopped fighting what he insisted was my destiny, my entire outlook on life had changed. I’m not sure when it happened, exactly, as the entire romance between us had been a crazy whirlwind of emotion, but the love I had for him consumed me, and I felt like it was easier to breathe when he was around. He made me a better person.
“Now I can rest with you,” I countered, snuggling in even closer than before. “You need to rest, too, after your long night.”
Yule shook his head and hooked my chin with the crook of his finger.
“I will, later. Right now, I want to watch you open presents.”
At the mention of gifts, I sprang up in bed. It was my first ever real Christmas morning, and he had promised it would be amazing.
“Are there presents?”
“Mountains of them.” He grinned widely when he answered.
“Eeep!” I squealed and jumped off the bed, sprinting to the door, and down the short hallway to the living room. “Holy holly!” The small pile of packages under the tree had more than tripled in size overnight. “What are you doing? Making up for lost time? Geez!” Staring at the pile of gifts, I almost felt silly for being so excited. I truly was acting like a child on Christmas morning, but I could not help myself.
“When Daddy makes a promise, he keeps it, little elf,” he whispered into my ear.
I turned and threw my arms around his neck. “Can I open them all? Right now?”
He tightened his arms around me and lifted me off my feet. “Nope, not until you earn them.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
I eyed him dubiously. “How?”
“Oh, I think you know. Christmas morning candy sticks should be our first new tradition as husband and wife,” he quipped.
“Presents first,” I huffed. “If you wanted to do that first, we could have just stayed in bed. But you lured me out here to this pile of presents, and now I want to open them. If they are really good, maybe you’ll earn some bonus points for later.”
Yule guffawed loudly, kissed my cheek, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “If I get enough bonus points, do I get to shove my candy stick in your Hershey hole?”
I was still sputtering when he set me down on my feet, turned me toward the tree, and got me moving with a loud slap across my bottom.
“Ow!” I exclaimed, turning to glare at him. “We don’t have time for all of that, anyway. After presents, I need to finish packing so we can move to the North Pole in time for the New Year’s celebration. I promised your mother.”
Santa took a step back and looked around the room at my piles of half-packed boxes. “Silly girl, did you forget your Daddy has magical powers?”
With a smile and a wink, he lifted his hand between us and snapped his fingers. In a second, the entire room was empty save for the Christmas tree and the surrounding presents.
I shook my head, and rolled my eyes, wagging a finger as I teased him. “Silly Santa, I thought real daddies did things the hard way.”
He gaped at me, feigning wounded shock. “I worked all night! I traveled all over the world and back again and delivered millions of presents. I’m tired. Plus, there’s only one thing Santa Claus wants to do the hard way on Christmas morning, little elf, and that’s Mrs. Claus.”