Christmas Kisses at the North Pole

By Jessie Pinkham

Adley is an unusual elf. He prefers skiing to parties, doesn’t like to sing, and cares so little for elf conventions that his brother despairs of him ever getting married. Which is fine, because Adley has no intention of marrying just anyone.

When he meets Keru at the annual Christmas Eve party, the two are drawn to each other. The party may be the most important event of the elvish social calendar, but neither Adley nor Keru minds leaving early to take a walk. They enjoy an idyllic and romantic first date under an aurora, rescuing a reindeer calf along the way, and a relationship seems promising.

But their second date takes a dire turn when a skiing trip brings them face to face with a polar bear. They’d like to keep seeing each other ... if they can make it through their second date without being eaten!

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781634865296

Jessie Pinkham

Some kids have imaginary friends. Jessie grew up in rural Maine where she needed to entertain herself, so she created an imaginary village and she has been dreaming up stories ever since. These days she writes romances which reflect her love of hot guys and a good happy ending. Married to her own Mr. Right, Jessie gratefully acknowledges his support and encouragement. She enjoys exploring the diversity of the universe and therefore cannot commit to a single subgenre of male/male romance. She’s also a chocoholic, avid reader, and travel enthusiast. Too often she rushes out at the last minute because she lost track of time while writing. For more information, please visit jessiepinkhambooks.com.

Book preview

Epilogue

Chapter 1

December 22

Adley stared at the tablet screen in disbelief. Humans actually think the North Pole has a singing snowman? Is this some kind of joke, Fedment?

Fedment shook his head. No. Do you honestly think I could make this up?

It was a good point. Adley knew his brother and while Fedment loved a prank, he wasn’t good with technology. There was a reason he worked in the stuffed animal department, safely away from anything electronic. He’d never be able to pull off making this video.

As if we have time to make every single toy by hand with the way the human population has exploded. Adley shook his head in disbelief at the out-of-date portrayal of toy production. Besides, kids these days want so many electronics we could never keep up by hand.

The North Pole had modernized to keep up with the times and the population. Adley worked as a mechanic in the toy vehicle department and without machines to speed production along, the boys and girls of the world would be lucky if they each got a single toy for Christmas.

I don’t think even humans make their electronics by hand, pointed out Fedment.

That isn’t even the silliest part. Why would anyone wear shoes with these ridiculous curls at the toes? And this part about elves only making toys and ridiculing the young adult who wants to be a dentist is just absurd. As if we don’t have dentists! How do they think we deal with cavities? Magic?

Maybe they think we don’t get cavities.

That’s just silly.

Elves got cavities. They also had an entire society, so while it was true most of them were toymakers, there were plenty of other career options. For instance, Adley and Fedment’s father was a barber. While they weren’t related to a dentist, one of their maternal aunts was a pediatrician.

I’m pretty sure humans think flying reindeer are silly, too, said Fedment.

Flying reindeer are magic. Adley didn’t pretend to understand how magic worked. He simply accepted its existence. It’d be nice if magic prevented us from getting cavities.

I wish, Fedment said, unsurprisingly. He had a voracious sweet tooth.

Their younger cousin Cezina came looking for them. For elves, theirs was a small household, consisting only of thirteen adults and one baby. Elves lived in extended family groups which frequently saw more than twenty souls together.

Are you done with my tablet, Fedment? asked Cezina, the technophile. She was very enamored with electronics, an interest not shared by most elves. I want it back before you break it.

I’m not that bad, he said with a pout.

Adley and Cezina shared a look which confirmed he truly was that bad. Possibly even worse, in fact. There were unsubstantiated rumors Fedment could break a radio-controlled helicopter with a single touch, and while Adley hadn’t witnessed that in person he’d seen his brother swamp a music speaker with boiling water and knock an electric scale simply by walking past. Fedment was sensitive about this curse, so Adley tried to change the subject once Cezina had her tablet back.

He grabbed his coat and told his brother, It’s time to go to work.

It was always dark at the North Pole in December, so they walked by lamplight. Cloud cover blocked the starry vista but compensated with temperatures which, for winter at the North Pole, were quite warm. Elves liked cold weather anyway. They overheated easily and if anything was universally despised in elfdom, it was being hot.

I think we’ll be done packing by noon tomorrow, Fedment said as they walked along the well-worn path to the Toy Production Center.

The elves who usually worked in toy production spent the last days before