“Yeah, lots of work! Chloe, we’ll need your help with picking out the perfect Christmas tree and all the decorations we’ll need for it. Do you think you can help us with that?”
The little sweetheart is practically vibrating in her seat as she bounces up and down in excitement and yells out “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She turns her shining eyes to her mom. “Mommy! We’re having a tree too! Can I help do the decorating?”
Avery laughs. “Of course you can, duck. You can help with everything.” She turns grateful eyes my way. There’s something so hopeful in them that I vow to make this the best Christmas they’ve ever had.
“It will be more than just that. We will go to the Holiday Festival, go look at all the Christmas lights, go ice skating and tobogganing.” East tells her with a smile making Chloe’s eyes get even bigger. “There’s also the Nutcracker. Have you ever been to the ballet, Chloe?”
She shoots a quick look to Avery who just smiles and then shakes her head sending her black curls bouncing. “With real live ballerinas? I want to be a ballerina! Can I wear my tutu?”
East laughs. “You can if you want to but I think the first time you go to the ballet deserves a new fancy dress to wear. What do you think? Do you want a fancy Christmas dress to wear?”
“Yay! I’m going to be a ballerina princess!”
She can’t contain herself in her seat any longer so she hops down and starts to spin and dance until she reaches East and then she throws herself against him in a hug. He scoops her up to sit on his lap with her tiny arms around his neck and she plants a sloppy kiss on his cheek.
“I love it here! Here is the best place ever.” She tells him and then wiggles down from his lap to scoot around the table to Avery. “Can I be done? Please? I want to go practice my ballerina dancing!”
Avery smooths Chloe’s hair back and presses a kiss on her forehead and then nods that she can go. We all watch her skip and twirl out of the room with smiles as Kanga prances around her feet. Avery lets out a happy sigh and glances around at all of us.
“Thank you, for all of that. Christmas, well, it wasn’t always the happiest holiday for us.” She looks down and I see her fingers tighten into a fist instead of twisting and it fills me with relief. “He made a lot of things that should have been filled with happy memories and traditions difficult for us. I’m so grateful to you all for…everything.”
East reaches for her hand and lifts it to his mouth to run his lips over her knuckles. “You don’t have to thank us, sweetheart. We all want to give you and Chloe a better, happier life.” His brow furrows. “I don’t have very many happy memories from my childhood Christmases so I’m also excited to create new ones.”
I watch her face soften and her fingers tighten on his. “I can’t wait to fill your house with holiday spirit, Easton.”
“Our house, Avery. This is our house, our home.”
A smile tugs at her lips as she nods and then pushes to her feet. “Well, I have brownies for dessert if any of you want them. I can bring them in here after I clear if you’d like.”
I clear my throat with a rumble snagging her attention. “Nope, you’re fired, remember. We will clear this. You go dance with your daughter.”
Her smile turns into a full fledge grin and then she set the serving bowl she had picked up back down. “Alright, my pirouettes do need some work.”
After she’s left the room, East raises an eyebrow at me. “You fired her? What does that mean?”
I sit back with a smug look. “She didn’t think it was appropriate to be with us as an employee. So, I fired her and then I gave her her first orgasm ever.”
Zack practically chokes. “Her first?”
I cross my arms over my chest and glower. “Yeah, she didn’t think we’d want her because she doesn’t like sex, said it hurt. I should have killed that fucker when I had the chance.” I send them both hard looks. “You need to go easy with her, give her control. She doesn’t have any…good…experience with a man.”
East curses but Zack snorts in disbelief. “Well, I’m sure you both will take care of her and treat her right. Just please, spare me the details.”
I growl across the table at him. “Dumbass! I told her that we all want to be with her and she told me that she kissed you. So, what the hell’s your problem?”
His mouth drops open. “She told you that? No, I kissed her! We were playing around in the pool and it just kind of happened but I’m the one who kissed her. It freaked her out and she took off. After, she told me that she wants to be friends. She doesn’t want me like that, Ry. I’m okay with that. I’m head over heels for those two girls and I’m just happy to have them in our lives.”
East chuckles. “So, she says, she kissed you and you say, you kissed her. Sounds pretty mutual to me. He’s right, you are a dumbass, Zack. Get out of your head, brother. Don’t let your insecurities cause you to miss out on what you want. You deserve…we all deserve to be happy. Grab the brass ring. Don’t fuck it up.”
When Zack just glares down at his plate, we stand and start clearing the table. You can lead a horse to water…
Ryker
Ilie in bed with my hands up behind my head and Kanga sprawled out at my feet, staring up at the dim ceiling thinking about her. I can’t get the way she cried my name out of my head when she came for the first time on my tongue. I want to hear it again desperately. It’s been years since I’ve been with a woman and now there’s only one that I want for the rest of my life.
My size usually either intimidates women or has the more daring wanting to climb me like a tree. It’s not that I don’t like sex, it just always seemed to be missing something, a connection of some kind that always made it a somewhat empty release. For the first time in my life, I finally feel that connection with someone and it takes all my willpower not to go to her room and show her how much I want her.
Kanga’s tail starts thumping on the bed causing my brows to furrow seconds before there’s a small knock on my door. My cock goes rock hard because I know it’s her even before the door cracks open and she peeks inside.
