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Sauna Rules
Shower before entering the sauna
Use 2 towels
Remove all jewelry
Close door quickly upon entering
Talk quietly
No ogling other people
Avoid the top bench if it’s your first time
Must be naked to enter
Next to thelast line was an image of underwear with a red line crossed through it.
“Wait up,” I said, my head already swimming from the half glass of whiskey I’d just drunk. “No one said anything about being naked.”
But when I turned around, all the men had vanished into the men’s changing room, leaving me alone to contemplate the whole situation. What was I doing exactly? I peered into the sauna through the small window in the door. Wooden panels ran across the walls and ceiling, along with the three layers of ascending benches. The place was empty. I paced back and forth. If the guys intended to do anything to me, they would have done it already, right? I glanced over at the pile of towels near the ladies’ changing room. And since when did I ever shy away from trying something new?
I snatched a towel and palmed open the door before heading inside. By the time I came out, washed, naked, and wrapped in a towel, I grabbed another and entered the sauna.
A wall of sweltering heat collided into me, not a burning kind, more like a buck-load of humidity. Tatum sat near the wall and wore a towel around his lap, like the rest of them, which I appreciated, because I wasn’t sure what I was doing here with them. Except my head felt light, and I had the urge to just laugh and let myself relax for a while. My gaze swung from bare chest to another, all muscular, powerful, and hairless. Not one of them had chest hair, which was interesting. But they were built like quarterbacks.
Leven crossed his legs, and I looked away to avoid being flashed, while Jax smiled my way, his skin glistening with sweat.
I joined him on the second layered bench, laid a towel down, and sat. “It’s hard to breathe in here.” My nostrils stung slightly.
“You get used to it,” Jax said.
It wasn’t long before sweat rolled down my back and the sides of my face. Salty drops ran into my mouth, and I wiped them away.
“What I wouldn’t give for an iced drink right now,” I said. “Or a chocolate milkshake.” All I could think about was food. Whenever I drank, I got the biggest hunger bursts.
“As long as it’s not milk and cookies,” Leven blurted out and everyone chuckled.
“Inside joke, eh?” I reclined against the back step as more sweat smothered me, convinced pretty soon I would turn into a puddle.
“It’s a running gag,” Jax explained. “Santa has this thing where he doesn’t allow his elite reindeer to ever share any of the milk and cookies that families leave for him on Christmas Eve. He enjoys them all himself.”
“Seems a bit greedy,” I added.
“Right! Which is why he’s got such a healthy belly.” Tatum laughed. “He insists the elite reindeers need to remain fit. And now the other reindeer pay them out at any chance they get. One Christmas, the reserve team left so many packet of cookies outside their rooms, that by morning, they couldn’t open their the doors to their dorms.”
“Poor guys. I’d sneak them cookies before their trip.” I figured I might as well go along with the whole Santa thing if the guys were playing the game. And for the first time since leaving home, I slouched and didn’t look over my shoulder at every sound. Instead, I wanted to laugh and have fun. Well, the wordfunwas questionable when it came to me and three sexy men, and I smirked to myself at the idea. Then I caught Tatum staring across at me, as if he’d caught me grinning at my own fantasy.
“You look mischievous when you smile,” he said, and despite feeling as if I were already burning up, an inferno swept over my cheeks. “So,” he continued. “What brings you to Austria? Guessing you’re from America.”
“Long story, but I’ll give you the short rendition.” The one where I explained getting my uncle’s inheritance, how my life had sucked back in California, about my sister, and how this was a new chance for us to start fresh. I left out the whole my-parents-being-druggies-and-in-prison-for-attempted-murder thing. I didn’t need to be judged by their actions. Plus, long ago, I’d promised myself not to speak of them to anyone. Pretending they didn’t exist was the best approach.
“Holler Distillery is renowned for their Krampus schnapps,” Leven said, as if I didn’t already know.
“I just learned it’s our biggest seller each year,” I added, lifting my chin, actually proud that I now managed a successful business. Me, the girl who couldn’t get a job as a personal assistant because I hadn’t earned my high school degree. I might have inherited the joint, but I was going to learn everything about the distillery and grow it even more.
Leven piped in. “Most think it’s just a tradition to leave out a glass of schanpps for Krampus. But it keeps their children safe. He can’t resist the schnapps that relaxes him so much, it makes him weak. He knows he shouldn’t drink it, but when he smells the aroma, his anger fades.”
