Romancing Mrs. Claus

Chapter One

Damaris sighed as she stood in the back of the room, waving, though she knew the gesture went unseen. Her husband rode off on his sleigh pulled by a team of reindeer and was cheered on by a multitude of ecstatic workers. The din barely died down as the little men and women rushed off to have their own celebrations in the village, their work for the year now complete. Damaris had to smile. The elves worked diligently from dawn to dusk with smiles on their faces and a song in their hearts. Their only compensation was the happiness on the children's faces Christmas morning and the stories Santa brought back with him after his long night of delivering gifts to the world's recipients. 

Often Damaris wondered how much the man embellished and how much he kept to himself. She knew that while he thrived on delivering gifts to the world's children, there were times when he entered a home to find a much older, curvier and scantily clad occupant waiting for him to arrive. Nikolai sure got a kick out of these occurrences the first few times they happened and, in his usual jovial manner, he would relay to his wife how he would tip his hat and respectfully decline the lady's offer before leaving again. 

Sometimes the woman wouldn't take the hint and Santa became adept at gingerly dropping gifts beneath the tree while being chased around it. While these adventures tickled her husband immensely, Damaris was not amused and, after seeing how upset they made her, Nikolai had stopped telling her about them. This only made matters worst for not knowing made her believe he was being accosted in practically every home he entered. Then, of course, she began to wonder when amusement turned to desire and how often he was receiving more than cookies and milk on these treks.

The portrayal of the magical couple made Damaris laugh. She never understood where the idea of an elderly couple came from. Perhaps it was the fact Nikolai had been doing this for so long, but since the concept of the jolly old man was so popular, he decided to take on the disguise. Old St. Nick was actually a big bear of a man standing just over 6 feet tall with a mop of curly blonde hair and closely cropped mustache and beard. What the stories did get right was his warm heart, deep belly laugh, and the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. Damaris, on the other hand, was a slender woman whose head barely reached her husband's shoulder so that she had to stand on tiptoe to kiss him. Her ebony hair cascaded to her waist and her eyes were, as Nikolai once said, as green as the Mediterranean before a storm. While she used to travel with him often when they first married, Damaris couldn't remember the last time she had left the North Pole and was anxious to see this strange new world Nikolai described.

Damaris sighed again, realizing there was a lot that she and Nikolai used to do together. While he was still courteous and kind to her, she often felt more like a maid or housekeeper than a wife. She missed the feel of his arms around her, the electricity of his kisses, the smell of him. Each was so immersed in their duties that they rarely spoke anymore and oftentimes, Damaris would fall into an empty bed at night and awaken alone in the morning. The warmth of the wrinkled sheets beside her the only confirmation that her husband still slept by her side. It was a far cry from when they first met.

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Damaris Osci hailed from the thriving metropolis of Pompeii. Her father owned and operated the largest hotel in the region, located on the edge of the city with sprawling views of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. He often boasted of the wealthy and important clientele the hotel attracted though they rarely seemed worth the hoopla to Damaris. If they weren't incredibly rude, screaming and hitting the staff, they were miserly and haggled prices down below the rate of even the worst hovels. Many of these guests would attempt to take liberties with members of staff making it necessary for Damaris to rescue a flustered employee from a drunken official or dignitary. She also faced irate wives who accused the young woman of enticing these grabby men herself. It was miserable work and she often sought solace from her rooftop garden.