Secret Santa

By Lara Norman

The morning after my company's Christmas party, I realize exactly how drunk I got—thanks to social media posts blowing up my phone. Me and Santa might have joined the naughty list, but then I discover it was my hot bosshole behind the white beard. Suddenly, the company policy about not dating coworkers makes temptation all the harder to resist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LPN Publishing
• Release date: Nov 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393248507

Lara Norman

Lara used to scribble her fictional characters down on legal pads in high school, and then not show them to anyone. In recent years, she started posting her work in public forums for feedback, which gave her the courage to publish professionally.  She needs copious amounts of coffee and chocolate to survive. She enjoys eavesdropping on the character conversations in her head, which she has been assured doesn’t make her crazy. She always gets the best ideas while in the shower, driving, or about to fall asleep. Though she’s a Florida girl at heart, Lara currently resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband of twenty years and their three children, where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age fifteen.

Book preview

Madi

My head felt like an anvil was resting on it. An anvil with a cannonball soldered to it, and that cannonball was the size of a pirate ship. As I heard my cell phone go off again, I cracked open one crusty eye. It was at least the fifth time I'd heard it, and I wanted to find it so I could crush it into tiny pieces with either the anvil or the cannonball that were weighing on my head. I wasn't ready to be awake, and probably wouldn't ever be.

The phone chirped once more from my bedside table. I reached over and grabbed it, dragging it across my pillow since I had yet to lift my head. Squinting, I saw that my best friend, Jewel, had been texting me.

Someone better be dying, Barden, I muttered. I dragged my finger across the screen and tried to focus through bleary eyes.

~Are you awake?

~Watts?

~Get up

~You need to change your Insta settings

~Everyone's been mentioning you in pics from last night

I sat up suddenly, my head and stomach rolling uncomfortably. With one hand on my lead balloon of a head, I opened Instagram without replying to Jewel and checked my notifications.

I gasped. The hand on my head moved to cover my mouth and tears sprang to my eyes. "Oh no. No, no, no. No!"

My denial morphed from discomfort to all-out mortification the more I swiped through the photos. I was sitting on Santa's lap in one, and in the next, we were kissing. In the one after that, he was groping my boob, and I had my hand on his crotch.

The phone in my hand rang. I cursed and fumbled it before recovering and answering. Why did you let me drink so much? I wailed into the receiver.

Jewel cackled. Oh, honey, I tried to stop you. You were hell-bent on getting plastered.

How did I get home? There was a mariachi band dancing on my skull behind my eyeballs, and I wasn't loving it. I squeezed my eyes shut with the hope I could pretend I didn't get blackout drunk and grope another employee.

Santa's sleigh.

How did I get home? I repeated.

I put you and bad Santa in a cab. What happened after that is anyone's guess, especially since both of you were so wasted.

I heard a noise that sounded an awful lot like my front door slamming shut. Someone's in my apartment! I got up, tripping over tangled sheets and catching myself on the door frame.

Jewel just laughed over the phone as I raced into the living room. The front door was closed and unlocked. I yanked it open and looked down the hall in both directions, but nobody was there.

God, Jewel. He escaped before I saw him. I can't believe I slept with a stranger. I went straight to the coffeemaker, fumbling with

Reviews for Secret Santa

[shannon mcginty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Lara Norman. For a great escape, check this super fun book out!