Comfort and Joy (37 page)

Santa Claus, wearing a full red velvet suit and fluffy white cotton beard, strode toward her bed. His dove-gray eyes twinkled and he wore a silly grin upon his face.

“Ho ... ho ... ho!”

Maeve squiggled down in the bed, giggling.

Santa greeted her in a deep, rumbling voice. “Merry Christmas, Little Bit!”

“Oh, no!” she cried, tears of laughter streaming down her face.

“Oh, yes,” Santa declared, before lowering his voice to a seductive rumble. “I brought more love for you.”

“A woman can never have too much love,” Maeve gasped between giggles. Reaching up, she pulled Santa into her bed.

But Charles was enjoying his charade. “Ho... ho...ho! Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good night.”

There seemed only one way for Maeve to silence him.

She blew out the candle.

She had nothing to fear in the dark.

Copyright © 2001 by Sandra Madden

Originally published by Zebra [0821772171]

Electronically published in 2010 by Belgrave House

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.