Seducing Santa Read Online Free PDF Page B

that moment. The mock Santa boomed out, “Ho, ho, ho,” over a megaphone and threw candy canes at the crowd.
     
    “Hey, they should’ve asked me!” Nicholas exclaimed.
     
    “You are such a nut.” Neeva said with amusement.
     
    “Am I really.” Nicholas lifted his head and imitated the Santa in the float.
     
    “Ho, ho, ho!” resonated through the crowd. He didn’t need a speaker to make his voice heard. The crowd cheered in response, and Neeva stared up at him in amazement.
     
    “How did you do that?”
     
    “I guess I just have good lungs,” Nicholas said. “Come on. I’m hungry. Let’s find sustenance.”
     
    The things he ate shouldn’t have been called sustenance. It was pure culinary genius. Conkies, the oddest name he ever heard but the light bread was a mixture of pumpkin, raisins, coconut, and spices made into bread and cooked in banana leaves. The first bite made him close his eyes in pleasure. In his entire existence, he had never tasted anything that delicious, and sharing with Neeva made it all the better. He knew then that thousands of years had passed, but he had never really lived. The job was his passion. Seeing children smile filled his heart with joy. But somewhere along the line, he had forgotten that he needed to find personal joy and love. He needed love.
     
    Just at that point, above the revelry, he heard crying. It was a small cry that said distress and fear, unmistakable as if he or she was calling for help. He knew a child in distress. He saw too many of them alone, or abused with no one around the holidays, and it broke his heart.
     
    “Hey, where you going?” Neeva was breathless, and he pulled her along.
     
    He began moving so fast on instinct that he was pulling her along behind him. The music faded a bit, and in front of a building, he saw a little boy standing. He had red snow cone juice around his mouth and running down the front of his shirt. Tears fell from his eyes, and lost and alone, he stood looking around in fright.
     
    Nicholas squatted in front of him. “Hey, buddy, how are you?”
     
    “Momma, Momma!” He sobbed and rubbed his eyes.
     
    “We’ll find your momma. Let’s get you cleaned up just a little and see what’s under all the snow cone juice.” Neeva pulled a few wet-wipes from out of her purse and squatted down next to Nicholas. “Find his mother please. She has to be looking for him somewhere close by.”
     
    Nicholas heard something in her tone. He couldn’t place it, and when he looked at her curiously, she was already sitting on the pavement with the boy in her lap. She didn’t even care about the sticky syrup on his hands getting on her dress as she cleaned him up. He turned and hurried into the crowd. He was immortal. He could hear a pin drop in the middle of New York City. He soon picked up the mother’s terrified cry for her son.
     
    “Steven! Steven!” Her accent was even more pronounced than Neeva’s.
     
    Nicholas hurried to her when she, panicked and terrified looking for her lost child, turned around in the crowd, a wild look in her eyes.
     
    Nicholas laid his hand on her shoulder. She whirled around ready to fight anyone as any protective mother would. “Miss, I found your boy. He is sitting with my girlfriend right now.”
     
    “Take me to him, please. Oh, God, he must be so scared!” the young mother cried.
     
    They tried to move through the throngs of people, but it was like one step forward, two steps back. By the time they reached Neeva and the boy Nicholas now knew was Steven, he was curled up in her arms asleep sucking his thumb and Neeva was comforting him with a soothing voice.
     
    “I found his mom,” Nicholas said as Neeva looked up.
     
    The young woman rushed forward and plucked her son from Neeva’s arms. Nicholas noticed that she seemed reluctant to let go.
     
    “Thank you. Oh, thank you for finding him,” she gushed, kissing the boy over and over again.
     
    “You should’ve have been