the team every night, even though some of them had been teamed together
for years. As leader, Rom felt it his duty, and it was one of the things in life that he
took seriously. Wod, as second, stood at Rom’s side, but his gaze roamed the barn,
almost as though he were on guard.
Lon tried not to watch them, but it was difficult. Most of what he needed to do
now waited on the reindeer to come out of their huddle. He and the other handlers
stood by the sleigh, and he was not alone in admiring the reindeer.
“You lucky devil,” Lon overheard Gunnie whispering to Tym. She nudged him
with her elbow and murmured near his ear. “You spent the entire night alone with
him.”
Tym chuckled, jingle bells chiming as he adjusted his hold on the harness. “It
was heaven. He’s insatiable. I’m surprised I can stand.”
The two of them laughed softly.
“You think you’ll get a repeat tonight?” Gunnie asked hopefully.
Tym sighed. “I don’t think so. Not soon, anyway. He was pretty clear about
that this morning.”
“You okay?”
“Oh sure. I knew that going in, and he was really nice about it. Anyway, the
one night was worth it.”
Lon tuned out as they continued to converse. What Wod had said about Rom
was true. Lon had known it already, of course, through hearsay, but it was another
thing to have it confirmed once by a best friend and a second time by someone who’d
shared a night with Rom. The reindeer just weren’t known for their monogamy, at
least not when they were on the team.
Reindeer Games
55
Jannie’s arrival broke up the reindeer huddle. Dressed in her coal black boots
and fur-trimmed pants and carrying her jacket and stocking cap, she entered the
barn from behind the reindeer and joined them for a moment before leading them
toward the sleigh. She stopped in the middle of the barn to don the cap that was far
too large for her head. Then she pushed her arms into the sleeves of the jacket. She
had to bunch up the sleeves and get some help from a handler to button it up. Once
she was sealed in, the handler stood back, and a twinkling cloud of magical
snowflakes surrounded her. In that bit of an instant, Jannie was gone and there
was a five-five portly man with chubby cheeks, a round belly, and a long snowy
white beard.
The reindeer passed around her as she changed. They spread out in the middle
of the barn, each shedding their robes and passing them to waiting handlers. There
was a moment to admire their nude bodies. Lon, who was usually riveted by the
way Rom’s blue hair brushed the top curves of his trim ass or the way Rom’s elegant
cock nestled in a tuft of blue hair, found himself watching Wod instead. His ass was
rounder than Rom’s, inviting a squeeze or a bite, and he, unlike most other men
among them, actually had a trail of hair guiding the eye down from the narrow slice
of his navel to the patch of near black that sprouted a cock that was thick and
inviting even when soft. Lon couldn’t help but remember seeing it half erect the
night before and shivered at the memory of feeling it pressed against him while
Wod’s soft but demanding lips devoured his mouth. It was a relief for Lon when that
shield of sparkles obscured Wod. Although the reindeer that emerged was beautiful,
this shape was not dangerously tempting like the other.
The reindeer were harnessed in two sets of four by four handlers, and then
Rudolph was buckled in as the harnesses were checked. Lon stood by as Comet,
Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen backed into place. First he strapped on Comet’s
personal harness while she waited patiently. Then he securely buckled the sturdy
collar around her neck. The harnesses weren’t traditional and would look woefully
inept to any human who knew about such things, but magic enabled the elves to
streamline the design so the reindeer didn’t have to be too uncomfortable. Once the
56
Jet Mykles
first four were secure, Lon and his fellow
A.S. Byatt
CHRISTOPHER M. COLAVITO
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