Holiday Mates: Supernatural Enforcers Agency Short Stories (2 page)

“Okay, yeah, good, I have to get the right purse for my mom.”  Penny looked between the two perfectly good purses she was holding and realized that neither of them would be good enough.  She discarded them and picked up two more.

“I can’t stand another year of her comparing it to a clown purse, like she did with last year’s.  Do clowns even carry purses?!”

The clerk nodded.  “Difficult mother – I understand.  Mine won’t let my boyfriend sleep over on weekdays.”  The clerk could only have been eighteen.

Penny bit her lip.  “I don’t know what to do.  I suppose it won’t be good enough for her no matter what I choose, so why bother trying?”

The clerk winked.  “That’s my policy.  That’s why I dropped out of college.” 

She wandered away, and Penny looked at every purse they had for the second time.

“The store is closing,” boomed a voice throughout the store.  “Everyone take their purchases to a checkout and happy holidays from all of us as Westcott’s Department Store.”

“Okay, okay, not the red.  The blue’s too big.  She’d hate the flowery one – crap, crap, crap!”

There was no way she could get away with homemade gifts again.  Her mother was very scathing over the necklaces she made.  So they were plastic beads – so what!  The world does no begin and end with Tiffany’s.

She could try a gift voucher  - she could print the thing right off her computer.  The thought momentarily elated her before she slumped.  Her mom would just complain it wasn’t personal enough.

Damnit!

“Okay, decision time.  Ah, the green one – yes, the green one!”

Yes, her shopping nightmare was over.  All she had to do was pay for the bag, and she was free. 
Free to find Mr. Sexy Tight Pants from earlier suggested her penguin
.  She gave the animal a blast of disapproval, but it was very half-hearted.

Penny was so thrilled to be so close to the end, she almost skipped to the cash till.  Sadly, her excitement was short-lived.

Gunshots resounded through the store.  Penny silently yelped and dropped to the ground.  Her bags scattered all over the floor.

“Everyone shut up!” roared an angry voice.  “Do as you’re told and you won’t get hurt.  Piss me off and you’ll be a Christmas fatality!”

There were some cries and whimpers of alarm. 

Shit, shit, shit!  The store was being
robbed!

She peeked out from behind the display of four hundred dollar face crème to see the elderly security guard holding up his hands.  “Take it easy, son.”

“Don’t call me son,” snarled the gunman as he hit him over the head with the butt of his gun.  The security guard let out a groan and slumped to the ground.

Oh god!

She huddled behind the crème.

“Is this everyone?” asked one of the robbers.

“There may be a few shoppers in the store,” came a quavering voice.  That must have been one of the clerks.

“Shit, find them.  As for the rest, tie them up and separate them.  No need for any of them to know who’s still alive,” the male said meaningfully.

Oh god, oh god, oh god!  She needed to call the cops.  She needed to let them know what was going on.  Penny was about to make a grab for her purse when she heard footsteps headed in her direction
.  Eep!

She did a swift crawl through the shoe department and was just about to make it into scarfs when someone grabbed her and pulled her to her feet.  Her bird squawked.

A huge male with bad breath and long greasy hair leered at her as he pulled her up by her collar.  “Looky what we have here.”

Ugh.
  Save her from him saying ‘what’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this’.

“Where you been sweetheart?”

“Ummm…  Homewares?” she squeaked.

He smirked.  Her beast ruffled her feathers at his expression.

“Hey, you got someone?” called another voice.  “Bring her over here.”

The robber she had named Smelly Greaseball rolled his eyes and reluctantly dragged her over to Santa’s village.

“Oh no, you’re not putting me in there!” she objected as Smelly Greaseball tried to manhandle her into Santa’s house.  Yes, they were armed robbers, but she had her limits!

“Quiet,” he hissed.

“We got another one,” said the second guy.  “Tie them up together.”

Penny gasped as she was faced with the pant-wettingly gorgeous man from earlier.  He looked completely unconcerned by the two men training guns on him.  They looked a little wary of him, though. 
No wonder
.  He was big and ripped.  He looked like he could cause serious damage.  She guessed he was a shifter, but her sense of smell was awful.  She had no idea what kind.

Smelly Greaseball shoved her at him.  “C’mon honey, give him a hug.”

“What?”

The gorgeous man caught her and scowled at Smelly Greaseball.

They pushed her against him, chest to chest, and tied them up.

“Make sure it’s tight,” said the second guy, eyeing her gorgeous co-captive warily.

They did, too.  Penny whined as she struggled to breathe against the painful ropes.  Oh god, she was screwed.  Her penguin, on the other hand, suddenly seemed unconcerned.  The beast was under the impression that everything was going to be okay now!

“Have fun you two,” sneered Smelly Greaseball.  “Either of you move, you’re dead.”

“Great,” she muttered, her face mashed against his extremely hard chest.  Not an ounce of fat on this one.

“You okay?” he asked as he tried to move against the ropes.

“Terrific.”

His chest vibrated as he silently laughed.  “I’m detecting a hint of sarcasm, but don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

Hope swelled in her chest, and she tried to ignore the fact that he smelled really good.  “You think they’ll let us go?”

“I don’t know about that, but we’re getting out of here.”

“Ah…”

“I’m SEA.”

“SEA?  Why did you let them catch you then?  Why didn’t you take them all out?”

He chuckled.  “This ain’t Die Hard.  I counted eight of them – I can’t take them all at once.  If I did just attack them all they probably would have killed me, and maybe moved onto the hostages, to make sure no one else pulled anything so stupid.  And I am not dragging my ass through any vents or walking on any broken glass.”

“More like Die Softly then,” she grumbled.  Her penguin sent her the burst of disapproval this time, but Penny was too scared to pay any attention.

“Don’t worry, I managed to call my buddies before they took my phone and they’re on their way, we just gotta sit tight, and this will all be sorted out.”

“What do they want?”  Penny tried to bite her lip, but her mouth was so tight against his chest all she managed to do was drool on him.

“This is the biggest department store in the city, and this is their busiest day.  The amount of money they took in today must have been phenomenal.  I guess they just want the money from today’s sales – I’m sure everything will be fine.  It certainly not worth anyone getting hurt.”

“Uh, I hate Christmas.”

“Your Christmases usually end in hostage situations?” he teased.

“No, but last year it was almost a murder-suicide between mom and me, and I was doing the murder.”

“So this is a step up?”

“Yeah.  Look, if we get out of here I will be allowed to pick up all the things I bought, right?  I had to abandon them when bullets started flying.”  She tried to shudder, but she was too tightly tethered to Mr. Gorgeous.

“When you get out of here,” he corrected her, sternly, “yes, it’ll be fine.  I’ll make sure you get your stuff.”

“Yeah, when,” she muttered.

“It’ll be okay; I won’t let them hurt you.”

There was a ferocity in his voice that was very appealing.  Unfortunately, her nose chose that moment to become incredibly itchy. 
Typical
- it would wait until she was tied up, and because she was tied up it immediately became unbearable.

Penny tried rubbing it against his shirt, but on realizing that she looked like she was trying to wipe snot on him, she explained.  “My nose itches.”

“Yeah?”  She could hear the smile in his voice.  “Okay lift your chin up and tilt a little to the right, okay as far as you can.  Now hold still.”

He scraped his bristly chin over her nose a few times.  “How’s that?” he said through gritted teeth.

She groaned.  “Oh, so good.  Thank you.”

“It was good for me, too, babe.  I’m Diaz by the way,” he added before she could tell him off for dirtying up a perfectly clean nose rub.  “We didn’t really meet earlier when we were flirting.”

“We were not flirting!” she denied hotly, although her penguin was more than happy to agree with him.  “You were trying to get somewhere with that slutty cat.”

“Bah - she’s my ex.  I was hoping for an employee discount.  What’s your name?”

She sighed.  “Penny Jones.”

“Penny the penguin.”  She could hear the amusement in his voice.

“What about it?” she snapped defensively.

“Suits you.”

Penny wriggled against the bonds.  “This is really uncomfortable.”

“There’s a chair over there - maybe we could try and sit down.”

“Okay.”

They tried shuffling in the direction of the chair, but given that they could barely move, it took a heck of a lot of effort just to get an inch in that direction, and they almost fell over.  It seemed unlikely they’d be able actually to bend enough to sit anyway.

“This isn’t working,” he muttered.

“Have you got a huge flashlight in your pocket?” asked Penny in annoyance.

“No,” he replied in a puzzled tone.

“Well, something really hard is digging into my… oh,
seriously
?!”  Her penguin would blush if she could.

“What?  I’m sorry, but I got a gorgeous female pressing against me – I’m not made of stone.”

It felt like part of him was, and he certainly didn’t sound sorry.  “We’re in a hostage situation!”

“Which is going to turn out fine, and you feel good against me.”

Ugh, she was glad he couldn’t see her flush. 
Even gladder that he wasn’t a mind reader. 
Having his body against hers was giving her some very interesting thoughts, and in spite of the situation, making her just a little horny.  “Can’t you control yourself?”

“If you’d stop rubbing against me…”

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” she grunted.

“Okay, look maybe if we lie down.”

“What?”  They were only a few scraps of material away from having sex – surely lying down was just going to help hurry that process along.  She wasn’t sure if she was as outraged as she should have been about that.  Her penguin thought it sounded like a terrific idea.

“If we lie down, maybe we can get comfortable and stop moving and maybe I can make my
flashlight
go down.”

“Fine,” she grumbled.

“Okay, I’m going to try and carry you over to our right, that fake snow drift looks soft.  I’ll try and fall into it as gently as I can.”

With a great deal of effort, he managed to maneuver his hands around to her back.  She squeaked as he clamped them on her ass.

“What the hell?” she cried.

“I need something to hold you by and your butt’s available.”  He sounded very happy about that fact.

“You don’t have to squeeze!”

“How else would I pick you up?  I need to hold you by you cheeks.”

“Because they’re so big,” she murmured.

Diaz chuckled.  “I’d say juicy rather than big.”  She heard him sniff and his chest vibrated.  “Holy shit, it’s turning you on!”  He sounded like a kid on Christmas morning.

“It is not!”  She was relieved he couldn’t see the heat rising to her cheeks. 

Penny wriggled against him in the vain hope of dislodging his hands.  He groaned.  “You do that, and my
flashlight’s
never going down.”

“I can’t help it.  You’re… I'm... well, I’m very sensitive back there.”

And it did feel nice –
far too nice
.  Her penguin was in bird heaven just being this close to him.  She could feel the heat pooling between her legs.  She was already aroused by this guy, but now they were veering into actual foreplay territory.  Her last boyfriend said she was far too big back there and wanted nothing to do with her ass.  But she loved having her ass squeezed, and this guy was definitely enjoying himself. 
Was that an actual moan?

“Will you just stop?” she hissed rocking against him.

“Whoa, Penny, don’t…”

“Eep!”

They toppled backwards, or rather she toppled forward on top of him.  Now she was lying on him.  Their bodies were rubbing against each other –
they were officially dry humping
.