Yuletide Mischief (4 page)

“This is Melody Raine reporting from the scene. A house frozen by more than the freezing cold.”

Vivi rolled her eyes at the perky, made up name of the reporter, but kept listening.

“The Waverly household was shaken to its core when, somehow, the pipes burst in the house and icicles the size of cave stalactites exploded through the walls. It is most definitely a strange occurrence in this community and has the neighbors questioning whether they are safe in their own home,” Melody Raine said. “We still don’t know why clothing is strewn across the snowy lawn. Residents called us when they woke up to the sight that you can see here.” The camera panned across the large front yard.

She knew the name well. Waverly could only mean one thing. Jonas’s house was now worse for wear.

“I’ll tell you why the damn clothes are on the front lawn.” The camera jumped to a woman coming down the driveway in a mink coat. “The bastard that
lived
here decides to cheat on me and this is all of his clothes. Your viewers should know the name—Jonas Waverly. He is an asshole of a man and a cheat of a lawyer and husband. The pipes burst and shook the house so hard it made his computer fall over. And what do you think I found there?” Mrs. Waverly was breathing hard with the exertion of her anger and practically foaming at the mouth. “Hardcore porn open on one site and a chatroom full of harlots on another, all the while talking to his mistress on the phone. Oh, yes, he can multitask, can’t he? Pity it doesn’t measure up in the bedroom. Viagra, ladies! This is no longer his residence. Now get off my front lawn!”

Vivi’s mouth dropped open as she watched Melody Raine’s surprised face come back into view. She stepped back quickly when the furious Mrs. Waverly made a sound that was a cross between a feral cat and screeching monkey.

Vivi sat back stunned and then a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and a small giggle escaped her. Before she knew it, she was in the midst of a full-belly laugh and tears of mirth ran down her face. She certainly wasn’t one to take pleasure at another’s misery or misfortune, but Jonas Waverly was a snake living in luxury. After what he tried and what he did while she was growing up, he seemed to be getting his just desserts.

It was diabolical the amount of chaos that landed on his doorstep in one night. The thought made her sit up and stopped the laughter in her throat.
Loki
. Only one person could have engineered that amount of misery in one sitting.
But why? Was it for her?
Another smile crossed her face and she felt the warmth of pleasure fill her chest. There could be no other explanation.

She was just about to get up and figure out how she could find Loki when a knock sounded on her door. She crossed the room and was expecting one of her friends who didn’t take no for an answer, but when she swung the door wide she found herself staring into the devastatingly gorgeous face of Loki. He was dressed in a black Armani suit and the silk shirt he wore underneath looked like wet ink. Her hands itched to touch it and feel the hardness of his chest through the expensive cloth.

In his hands he held an assortment of wild flowers that filled the air with an exotic scent. This was not a bouquet that you would find on the streets of Manhattan. Knowing that he probably traveled far just to retrieve them made her heart flutter in her chest. He was darkly attractive and probably more dangerous than anyone—even she—realized. Yet Vivi was more attracted to him than anyone she’d met in her life. The silence stretched between them until he held out the flowers to her.

“These are for you. I picked them myself,” Loki said. He sounded so uncomfortable that Vivi couldn’t help but chuckle.

She took them from his hand. “They’re very pretty, but no flowers like these are native to the United States, let alone in season.”

“Joko…I mean, my mother, the woman who raised me, has an impressive greenhouse back home. She allowed me to gather these for you,” Loki explained. “I want to apologize for my behavior last night; I was a bit thrown askew.”

“Really?” Vivi said drily. “I thought it was you being…well, you.”

“It was…well, is, but Joko pointed out that maybe I’m living in a pattern of my own making,” Loki said quickly. “My past patterning my future, so to speak, and I want to change that.”

Vivi looked at him, wondering what he was talking about. “Okay, well, I accept your apology, the flowers, and hope you figure out your past and future self.”

Loki made a frustrated sound. “Let me spend the holidays with you, to see if I can be more than a mischief-maker.”

“You want to spend the holidays with me as an experiment?” Vivi shook her head. “I’ll have to say no because if it doesn’t work for you I will be the one who’s hurt in the process. We all see how cruel you can be when you want to be.”

“I kissed you, and I felt something. It’s been a long time since anything like that has been in my life and, yes, I lashed out,” Loki said. He braced his hands in the door frame and leaned forward until they were nose to nose. “I want to feel it again. I want share the holidays with you. No tricks, I promise. Just let me see the holidays through your eyes, Vivienne. I won’t harm you in any way.”

She considered his face and saw no lies there and her instincts told her that she could believe him. Vivi had just been sitting on her sofa being gloomy because of him and now here he was at her door begging for a chance to spend Christmas with her.

“Okay, it’s a deal, but we do it my way.” She stepped back so he could enter her apartment. “And it starts now.”

“How so?” Loki stepped inside and looked around. “I like your home; it’s very warm and comforting.” He rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get this started. Shall I wait for you to get dressed and then we have a night on the town? Should I call for the limo?”

“No, we’re going to stay in and watch classic Christmas movies in front of a warm fire with hot chocolate.” Vivi looked at him in his expensive suit. “This won’t do. You need pajamas.”

Loki snapped his fingers and instantly he had on silk pajamas. Vivi was amazed at the instant change and laughed in delight before she shook her head. “No to Hugh Hefner.” She picked up a magazine and flipped through until she found the perfect picture. It was a man in a blue Snoopy T-shirt with matching fleece pajamas and socks. “Go for this look.”

Loki looked horrified. “You are kidding me. This is… It’s just awful, Vivienne. Please reconsider.”

Perfect
, Vivi thought and grinned. “This is a traditional holiday event and you have to look the part, so if you don’t want to or it’s beneath you, I understand.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’m assuming this is some kind of payback.”

Vivi stepped closer and placed her hand on his chest. “Honestly, it’s not, Loki. You asked me to share how I enjoy the holidays with you and this is part of it. I’ll even make you hot chocolate.”

“Vivienne, I’m going to kiss you again if you don’t step away,” he warned softly.

She took fate in her hands and stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. The kiss was gentle, but that didn’t mean it affected her any less. His soft groan told her he felt the same way. Vivienne stepped away with a sigh and in the time that they were kissing, he managed to change his clothes magically to look exactly like the picture in the magazine. Vivienne laughed out loud as she looked at the most handsome man she’d ever seen dressed in Snoopy pajamas. It didn’t take away from the man in the least, only enhanced him in her opinion.

She went to the kitchen and made them both a large cup of hot chocolate. She added extra marshmallows into his cup and grabbed a bag of potato chips from the pantry as well. By the time she came out to the living room with the tray, Loki had pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and sat under one side, straight and prime.

“The point of this is to relax, slouch a little, put your feet up,” she said and placed the tray on the coffee table and handed him a cup. “Here, try this.”

Loki took a tentative sip and then shrugged. “It’s not bad. Kind of creamy on the tongue.”

“That’s the melted marshmallows,” Vivi explained. “And I decided we’ll be watching
Frosty the Snowman
.”

Loki laughed. “My cousin Jokul hates that name. Mortals making him into a character made of snow did not make him too happy.”

“I keep forgetting your cousin is Jack Frost,” Vivi said.

“It’s extremely sexy that you know our real names,” he said. “But let’s watch this show now. I’ll be amused thinking of Jack as a big, chubby snow-made person.”

She shook her head and pressed play on the DVD. “You already found the wrong meaning of the movie.”

They sat back quietly as the DVD began and watched the story of
Frosty the Snowman
. Loki of course laughed at all the wrong parts until Vivi pointed out they were meant to be sad or pull the heartstrings which then led to a heated discussion and then heated kissing.

By the end of
Frosty the Snowman
, she was snuggled into his arms and her legs were tucked into the cushions beneath the blanket. They then decided on another movie,
The Avengers
, which portrayed him in a not-so-nice light. She laughed as he argued with the movie and how it made him look, and was especially unhappy with how the big green giant mistreated his character. Vivi never thought she would have this much fun at home with Loki, but wrapped in his arms while they yelled at the TV, she learned that he wasn’t as cold and ruthless as history spoke of him.

Chapter Four

The middle of the week came, and she found herself holding hands with Loki in the back of a black Escalade with his driver again at the wheel. She was excited because the truck was filled with brightly wrapped gifts for the children at the home they were on their way to visit.

“Okay, do it,” she commanded with a smile. Loki had agreed to use his magic to play Santa. Maybe agreed was the wrong word; she’d prodded him until he accepted and then he’d asked for a boon of his own—ice-skating at Rockefeller Center. She wondered if he knew she hated ice-skating and was using that against her. Yet, for this, he readily agreed.
Anything for the children at Sunrise House
, he had said.

“Very well, but this is under duress,” Loki grumbled. “But, remember, later I get to hold you close and glide across the ice.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Nick would never let me hear the end of this if he ever saw me like this.”

His words about holding her close made her stomach clench in desire. They had been dancing around their attraction for days, yet neither had made the first move. She didn’t know why Loki hadn’t taken it further than a few kisses. She wanted more, but how does one go about using their feminine wiles to seduce a demigod?

He closed his eyes and his sexy body morphed to the fat balding man everyone associated with Christmas cheer. She had to grin when he glared at her as she tugged at his beard.

“You look very handsome,” Vivi said primly.

He didn’t say a thing, just tweaked her nose and took her hand again.

“So this place is your handiwork?” Loki asked.

“Yeah, it is. After I got away from Jonas and had him removed as my guardian, there was this social worker the court assigned to me. Her name was Carmen Santiago,” Vivi explained. “She helped me find an apartment, get back on track in school, and became more like a mom to me than anything else. She retired from working with the government and I invited her to work for me at Sunrise House. She was the perfect choice to run the house. With her there, these kids have a chance.”

“Well, then, if this will bring them happiness, we will give them a show.” Loki grinned. “I’ll walk in with you in my invisible form. No one will be able to see me except you and then I'll appear in the room. Let’s keep them dreaming for a while before reality can take away that innocence.”

Vivi laughed. “How will I explain you just appearing out of nowhere? Maybe the kids can believe it, but the adults won’t.”

“You are wealthy and this is the age of movies. Let’s say it’s an optical illusion,” he said.

The plan was set when they pulled up in front of Sunrise House in Brooklyn. It was an old four-story brownstone she had bought and hand converted into a safe place for children to grow up. It housed twenty-six to thirty children between the ages of three to seventeen. Sunrise House also helped them to get grants for college and give the older kids a fighting chance instead of just pushing them out into the world to fend for themselves when they became of age.

She walked up the steps and opened the door to the house that made her believe in miracles. Carmen had decorated the house to be warm and inviting. It wasn’t a place just for children to sleep and escape the cold, she made it into a home. “I like it,” Loki whispered in her ear, and even though he was invisible she could still feel the heat of his breath tickle her ear and it made her shiver.

“Vivienne, you’re finally here.” Carmen came down the stairs with a warm smile. She was a Puerto Rican beauty with long brown hair streaked with highlights of red. Even though she was older, her skin was smooth, and her eyes sharp with happiness. Vivi remembered her kind eyes being what helped her as a teenager to feel sane in all the chaos her life had been thrown into when her parents died. Carmen could be strict when you started going down the wrong path, but her eyes never lost any of the love in their brown depth.

“Carmen, will you ever just call me Vivi?” she teased.

“Why ruin such a beautiful name by shortening it to Vivi?” she scoffed.

“I say the same thing,” Loki said. Only she could hear him and she almost reached up to pinch his ear but stopped herself.

“Are the kids excited?” Vivi asked.

“They are a bundle of excitement, all except Sandy,” Carmen explained and sighed. “That child is ten years old going on thirty. Last year’s Santa has her convinced there is no more magic in the world. That and her mother came to the school again trying to get her to leave the premises with her. When Sandy said no, she ripped that child up one way and down another.”