Page 30 of The Naughty List Agreement

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Pete cried.

“Stay. Away. From. Her.”

Pete flexed and twisted out of Nick’s grip. “We agreed she couldn’t get any worse and I was just making sure she hadn’t. I haven’t broken any rules. Can you say the same?”

Could he? He’d kissed Cora for his own pleasure. There was no future in it for him or her. He needed a wife. She hated the thought of marriage. Instead of snow and snogging he should have— Fuck. Should have. But he didn’t regret his actions. Cora stirred something primal in him.

“Are we playing or what?” Jack’s brother cracked a smile as he made a show of shivering in the cold. “I’d warm this place up but then we’d struggle to skate. Bros versus ho-ho-ho’s or winners against losers?”

Nick relaxed for the first time in the last two days. This was familiar. Finn and Pete against Nick and Jack. They’d always teamed up this way. “It’s a bit mean to call you two losers, but who am I to argue?”

Finn blew Nick a kiss as he skated onto the ice. It melted into puddles around him until Jack waved his hand at Finn’s blades, giving them a permanent frost layer. Krampus shrugged out of his jacket, preferring to be shirtless in the cold, as usual.

They went hard at the game. Nick bodychecked Pete hard and low as they both went after the puck. Pete elbowed him in the nose; Nick saw stars for a minute before he used his stick to jerk Pete’s feet out from under him. As his cousin stumbled, Jack launched the puck into their goal.

Pete skated around the edge of the rink, coming back to Nick’s side. “So, no progress tonight?”

“Unless you count her not believing in me as some sort of result.”

“Seems to me I’ve already won.”

“You’ve never bested me in a challenge,” Nick reminded him.

“Are you two done gossiping?” Finn yelled.

The game continued until they were tied and both teams were bruised but smiling. “Drinks at my place?” Jack suggested.

Everyone from the magic realm went to Jack’s. At this hour, however, the bar was empty and they chose to sit near the fire. Jack and Finn went to make the drinks and Nick was alone with Pete.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “You need to give me room to work.”

“Was that what you were doing tonight? Working?”

As much as he didn’t want to admit that he hadn’t made any progress with Cora’s redemption, it would do him no good to lie to Pete. They both had equal access to information concerning people on the Naughty List.

“Of course.”

“Seems to me you’re getting your wires crossed. You need a wife, or did you forget that?”

“Save your fake concern.”

“Ah, so it’s a two-for-one?”

Pete was also very good at what he did. Naughty and Nice wasn’t as simple as straightforward good and evil, and there had to be balance.

“Shut up. Do you have to make everything sound so…” Nick wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “I’m … getting an idea of why her knot is so tangled.”

“Is that what you call it?” Pete said with a smirk.

Nick ignored him. “It’s going to take work and time to unpick it.”

“More time than you have?” Pete asked, as Jack and Finn rejoined them.

Nick took his stout from Jack, noticing that Pete was drinking straight bourbon, Jack icy vodka, and Finn some sort of fruit-based cocktail. “To finding a Mrs.?” Finn asked raising his glass.

“That too,” Nick said, taking a long swallow of his drink, knowing he’d have no trouble splitting the G on his Guinness glass.

“Should we all—?” Jack started to say.