Unwrapping Mr. Roth Read Online Free PDF Page A

delivered to major storage centers from there, and then trucked to city hubs by human teamsters like Merle where they were distributed to homes by elves.
    Nick had had to explain it twice as they waited in a quiet hospital office for the nurses to get kids together. She still wasn’t sure she understood, but she got the gist that Nick only personally delivered gifts to very ill children and certain troubled ones.
    Nick more or less ignored Gillian as they waited to be called, which suited her fine because she was still waiting for her brain to catch up and process the past twenty-four hours and to provide her with some insight.
    She paced in front of the door wringing her hands and occasionally smoothing wrinkles out of her ugly dress, and he sat in a chair in the dark corner, fiddling with his phone.
    Noticing his still unchanged attire, she had a thought. “Aren’t you going to change your clothes?”
    He tucked the phone into the inner pocket of his jacket and crossed his legs at the knees. “No need. They can’t see me like this. They see me as the jolly fat guy.”
    “You’re certain of that?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “Any guesses as to why I don’t see the jolly fat guy?”
    “I could make a few.” He turned his wrist over and stared down at his watch face.
    “Care to share them?”
    “No time.”
    She opened her mouth to rebut, but a gentle knock sounded on the door, and a grinning nursing assistant stepped in. “They’re all ready for ya!”
    “Oh, boy,” Gillian said weakly, and then followed Nick down the hall.
    They entered the rec room to the sound of raucous clapping and hooting from the kids, and she felt like a small-time celebrity.
    The staff had already set up a special throne for Santa, which Nick guided her toward with a hand at the small of her back. The small contact somehow managed to feel efficient and possessive at the same time. Normally, she would have minded it. The guy was practically a stranger and she wouldn’t have invited his touch, but it for some odd reason, it brought her comfort. That was hard to come by in her lonely life, so she wasn’t so eager to toss it away.
    He bent and whispered, “You stand nearby and write down what the tots ask for. Don’t worry if you miss a few items. I’ll catch anything you don’t.”
    “Okay.” She positioned herself near the side of the chair’s platform, but Nick tugged her by the apron strings and pulled her so her back was pressed to his front.
    He wrapped an arm around her waist and spun them around one hundred eighty degrees. The room had gone completely quiet, and it wasn’t because the kiddies were ogling Nick’s odd dance. They were frozen .
    Gillian gasped. “What’d you do?”
    “We’re in between one moment in time and the next,” Nick said at his usual volume, still clinching her against him. “I wanted you to see some of the magic I use to pull off Christmas. And while I have your attention, I want you to be aware of the intern in the corner. You see? The shifty-eyed one with the glasses?”
    “What about him? Is he going to eat all your figgy pudding?”
    “Hush, pet.” Nick gave her ass a dominating grab that had her pushing up onto her tiptoes.
    She wasn’t quite sure that was covered in her employment contract, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t like it, and obviously the guy knew when she was lying. She wasn’t going to waste her energy on trying anymore. It wasn’t like anyone else had to know, and she was pretty sure Santa could keep a secret.
    “I skipped his house the last five Christmases of his childhood. I suspect he’ll make a play for you, and I suggest you avoid him.”
    “How freakin’ old are you, anyway? And why should I avoid him and not you ?”
    Nick didn’t answer either question. He put his lips against her ear and trailed his tongue along the shell of it.
    “Nick, tell me,” she said on the tail end of an indulgent moan, crushing the fabric of his pants inside her