"No. Dustin specifically asked for the Fire Princess doll, so that is exactly what I am getting him."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Your six year old nephew wants a princess doll... Really?"

Darcy glared at me. "He is a kid, Neala - it's princess toys this week and next week it could be man eating dinosaurs. I don't expect judgemental people like you to understand that children like to play with all kinds of toys."

Judgemental people like me?

The nerve of him!

"I'm not judgemental! I just don't think Dustin would really have any fun with this doll or any doll for that matter. I mean, the kid cut the head off all of Charli's toys last week for his own sick and twisted amusement. He is a serial doll killer, Darcy."

Darcy looked at me with both pain and amusement.

"If I didn't know each member of your family like they were me own, I would think you were reared by a bunch of crazies."

He wouldn't be lying if he said my family was crazy, because they were.

"I don't appreciate you insinuating that I'm crazy-"

"I'm not insinuating anything, I'm flat out saying you're a nut job."

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance.

"I can't stand you."

Darcy smiled wide revealing his perfectly white straight teeth. "I know."

Why did he seem so pleased by that?

"Don't you have somewhere else you rather be? Like mattress dancing with some poor unfortunate soul."

Darcy smirked. "Last night's adventures will keep me sedated for awhile... trust me."

Ew.

"You're disgusting."

I tried to turn and walk away, but Darcy reached for the box in my arms and with my lioness like reflexes, I sprung back away from him. I gasped when I lost my footing and fell back into what I can only describe as a mountain of pillows. Ok, so maybe I was a clumsy lioness, but I was still a lioness and it meant I was dangerous.

Very dangerous so Darcy should never underestimate me.

I was embarrassed when Darcy's laughter rang in my ears. My embarrassment quickly turned to anger when I opened my eyes and found I was buried under a bunch of smiling snowmen instead of plain old pillows.

"You know, you could give Charli one of these snowmen instead. She might be just as happy."

"Shut up," I growled.

Darcy laughed as he dug me out of the snowman mountain, and helped me to my feet. I brushed myself off with both my hands then glanced down and gasped.

The doll!

Where the hell was the doll?

I spun around in a complete circle searching for the doll.

"Looking for this, Neala Girl?"

I growled and turned to face him.

I was furious for two reasons. The first was that he once against took the doll out of my grasp. The second was because he called me Neala Girl, a nickname he called me two decades ago, back when we were still friends. I loved when he called me Neala Girl when I was little, but now I couldn't stand it. It hurt my chest.

"Don't call me Neala Girl."

Darcy smirked. "That's your name."

No, it wasn't.

I snarled, "Give me the doll. Now!"

Darcy had the doll box against his chest with both hands on it. His fingers tapped against the box while a smug smile stretched across his face.

He glanced to the snowmen gathered around my feet and teased, "You've got to watch your step, sweetheart."

I blew out a frustrated breath. "I swear if you don't give me that bloody doll I'll-"

"You'll what?" Darcy cut me off, his smug smile still in place on his handsome face.

Damn him.

"I'll shove me foot so far up your arse you'll need a surgeon to remove it."

Darcy's eyes widened. "You're a foot shorter than me, and at least fifty pounds lighter. You're a itty bitty thing, Neala Girl. I'm not scared of you. You can't hurt me."

Wrong.

He was so wrong.

"I can hurt you, and I will unless you give me the doll."

Darcy raised an eyebrow and snorted. "How about... no."

Bastard!

I curled my lip into a sadistic grin. "Okay, you asked for it."

Darcy shook his head at me and moved forward so he could brush by me. "I don't have time for- What the hell?"

When Darcy was close enough to do so I manoeuvred my body behind his, hooked my arms around his chest and searched for his nipples with my hands. When I found them, I grabbed them between my index fingers and thumbs and pinched.

"Me nipples, let go of me nipples!" Darcy cried.

I growled and tweaked his nipples a little harder. "Let go of the doll, and I'll let go of your nipples."

Wow.

There was a sentence I never thought I'd hear myself say.

"Neala!" he yelped.

I heard the doll box hit the floor, and as I was a woman of my word, I let go of Darcy's nipples. I didn't linger around long enough for him to recover. Instead, I moved around his body, grabbed the doll box off the floor and took off running up the aisle.

"NEALA!"

I squealed and continued to run until I was clear of the aisle. I turned left and almost tripped again but got my footing and stayed upright. I stopped running when I noticed every single person in the shop was staring at me. Granted there were only five or so people in the shop because it was closing soon, but still, they were all looking at me.

I lowered my head and briskly walked over to the only open checkout till. The young girl at the till was wary of me as she took the doll box from me and scanned it through.

"That'll be forty-five Euros and ninety-nine cents when you're ready, please."

For a doll?

"Bloody expensive," I muttered as I pulled my debit card from my pocket.

I placed my debit card in the girl's hand at the same time someone else did the same thing. I froze when I slowly glanced to my left then looked up.

Darcy's furious face was glaring down at me, and I couldn't help but smile and say, "Too late, Darcy, I'm buying it."

I looked to the girl and took out a Visa card from her hand and handed it to a glaring Darcy. I turned my head and nodded to the girl. She scanned my card, printed out a receipt, bagged the doll and handed everything back to me.

"Thanks." I smiled to her and began walking towards the exit.

I could feel him walking behind me, so I picked up my pace.

"Leave me alone, Darcy!" I hissed when I made it out to the car park.

"Not a chance, Satan," he snarled, stilling rubbing his recently abused nipples. "Give me the damn doll."

Oh, that was rich, this eejit was calling me the Devil.

Great!

"This doll is my property. I paid for it so feck off."

Darcy hissed. "If you think I'm letting you leave here-"

"Oi, you two."

Darcy and I halted our movements and turned our heads to the right. I was momentarily confused when I spotted two male Garda walking towards us, and neither of them looked happy.

"Are you talking to us?" Darcy asked the officers.

"Do you see anyone else out here?" one of the men snarkily replied.

I glanced around the empty frost covered car park and shivered.

We apparently were the only eejits stupid enough to come outside when it was below zero.

"No," Darcy replied and hung his head.

"We got a call that a female and male fitting your descriptions were causing trouble inside the toy shop."

I widened my eyes and glanced back to the shop.