#TeaserTuesday - Merry Elf-ing Christmas by Beth Bolden

So excited to be sharing another exclusive excerpt for Teaser Tuesday!  Today's excerpt comes from Beth Bolden's Merry Elf-ing Christmas which is currently available for pre-order and will release on Thursday, November 18th!

Blurb:

Aidan might be a bad elf, but he’s never been naughty.

Aidan has always landed on Santa’s nice list, thank you very much. But that doesn’t mean he’s cut out to be a North Pole elf; instead of worrying about the dwindling magic of Christmas, he’d much rather be back in Tir na Nog, calculating where the next end of the rainbow is going to land.

Instead he’s freezing his butt off in Santa’s sleigh.

His situation seems grim despite all the decking the halls, until on Christmas Eve, during a milk and cookies run, he meets Dexter, an engineering student.

They couldn’t be more different, and Dexter couldn’t be more forbidden, but Aidan is drawn to the handsome human anyway. Over the next year, their emails start out as a entertaining way to pass the time in all his interminable elf meetings, but soon, hearing from Dex becomes the very best part of his day.

And when they meet up on the next Christmas Eve? Aidan and Dex discover that their infatuation is so much more than just attraction. If they believe in each other and in the love they share, together their magic might be powerful enough to save Christmas.

Excerpt:

Dexter had known, of course, that Aidan was an elf, and that every Christmas Eve he joined Santa on the sleigh, to deliver presents to the children of the world.

But it was one thing to be aware of such an extraordinary situation, and it was another entirely to experience it.

Sam handled the sleigh like he’d been born to do it, diving and dodging around buildings, only landing the sleigh briefly on rooftops to deliver gifts, the brightly decorated packages appearing from thin air, zipping from his fingers into any opening in the houses and condos and apartment buildings.

“Is it always like this?” Dexter asked as they stopped on one particularly breathtaking rooftop with an incredible view of the London skyline.

“The first year I was pretty much cold the whole damn time, but yeah,” Aidan said, snuggling closer to Dex.

“I think I might have said I could keep you warm,” Dex teased. “Am I doing a proper job of it?”

“A little too proper,” Aidan said, turning towards him. “You’re all the way over there.”

All the way over there was maybe a few inches.

Dexter laughed.

“Didn’t want Sam to feel too much like a third wheel,” he said, as the man in question took off from the roof again in a dizzying rush.

Dexter didn’t think he’d ever get used to that feeling of utter weightlessness, of the swoop in his stomach when the sleigh dipped and turned suddenly, Sam long since having discovered the best methods to navigate the big cities.

Of course, the cities, with their lights and skyscrapers, were incredible, but Dexter had equally enjoyed the open plains of South Dakota and Montana, the sparse beauty of the darkened plains, and the incredible light of the stars above them.

Not once had he been tempted to check his phone, which seemed like it was for the best as Aidan had warned him it wouldn’t work.

“That’s why we don’t have them,” Aidan had said when they’d first left Chicago, “the sleigh has a magical time-slowing mechanism, which allows Sam to traverse the world in a single evening. The magic messes with that kind of technology.”

“But not others,” Dex said, feeling curious even though he definitely wasn’t an expert on the intersection of magic and technology.

But what he wouldn’t give to take a closer look . . . to map the differences and the possibilities.

He’d said a dozen times already that he wanted a job where he could use his imagination.

Sam hasn’t offered you a job, he reminded himself, and this one magical night might be the only time you ever get with Aidan. Don’t ruin it by worrying about what you’re going to do after graduation.

Aidan snuggled up closer as Sam flew the sleigh around Montmartre and then headed out past the buildings of Paris towards the French countryside.

“I never thought that this would be romantic,” Aidan offered quietly, tipping his face up to Dex’s.

“You just thought it was cold,” Dex said.

“Well, it’s not not cold, but it turns out that when you’re with me, that’s not what I’m thinking about. Not anymore.”

Are you as excited as I am?  Pre-order your copy of Merry Elf-ing Christmas today!