If someone had asked him a couple of weeks ago whether he thought he could be happy with just one man, Asher would have said no for that very reason: variety. He couldn’t have imagined having sex with the same man night after night without wanting something new and different—until he met Zach.
“What I had before,” he said, resting his palm against Zach’s cheek and stroking it with his thumb, “was a string of men who were no more attached to me than I was to them. It was enough because I’d forgotten what it felt like to be truly desired.”
Zach leaned into Asher’s touch, and there was a soft, warm expression in his gaze. “I do desire you,” he said softly. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I do you.”
“And that’s why you don’t have to worry about me getting bored with you,” Asher said. The way Zach was looking at him made his heart flip, and he couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss Zach, slow and deep.
With a soft moan, Zach wrapped his arms around Asher, parted his lips, and kissed Asher back, pressing against him as though wanting to be as close as he possibly could despite their clothes. Asher continued the kiss, savoring Zach’s sweet yielding, and for a time, he felt like there was nothing else in the world but the two of them in the quiet woods. But eventually, he drew back with a rueful smile.
“If we don’t stop now, I’ll have to fuck you again, which means your family won’t get their tree, we’ll miss the roast,andwe’ll be in trouble with your mom.”
“At least the tree won’t take long,” Zach said. “We passed by several good ones on the way here. I just wanted to get far enough away from the house that we could be vocal.”
“You’re a wise man.” Asher smacked Zach’s ass as he let Zach go. “Let’s get the tree and head back. Your insatiable demands have made me work up an appetite.”
Laughing, Zach led him back in the direction of the house, pointing out suitable trees along the way. At last they found one that seemed perfect, tall and symmetrical with lush branches and long, soft needles. Zach showed him how to trim the lower, sparser branches away before they chopped through the base. After carefully rolling the tree up in the tarp and tying it to the sled, they pulled their burden back to the house and got it inside.
Mikey came over to grab Asher’s hand, pulling him slightly away from the others as they put the tree into a large base to keep it stable.
“Did you see Santa?” he asked urgently. “Did he help you pick out the tree?”
Asher squatted down to get closer to Mikey’s level and fixed him with a serious look. “We did see Santa,” he said. He and Zach hadn’t discussed how to perpetuate the Santa story, but he thought he could improvise well enough. “He was pretty picky about the tree too. He said he wanted it to be just right for you because you’ve been so good this year.”
Mikey beamed. “Really? That’s awesome! I should get a lot of presents, then! Thanks, Asher!” He dashed off to the kitchen, yelling for his mother to tell her that Santa had said he’d been really good and deserved lots of presents.
Zach and the others laughed, and Zach beckoned for Asher to join them. They’d set up the tree in the living room, right in front of a big bay window. “So what do you think?” he asked, gesturing to the tree. “Doesn’t your first lumberjack effort look great?”
“I think I might need to invest in some plaid flannel shirts and my own ax,” he teased, moving to stand beside Zach and sliding his arm around Zach’s waist, a gesture that felt natural now.
Zach leaned against his side, seeming perfectly comfortable with the display of affection in front of his family. The rest of them seemed to accept it as perfectly normal, too, as though Asher were already part of the family rather than the first boyfriend Zach had ever brought home.
“Dinner, everyone!” Katherine called out, and they moved to the dining room, where a festive meal had been laid out. In addition to the promised roast, there were homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli with a rich cheese sauce, and rolls that melted in the mouth. The banter during dinner was light and easy, and Asher learned about Zach’s sisters and their career aspirations, and about Zach’s parents and their plans to take a trip to Europe the next summer. They didn’t press him for information, but seemed interested in what he did divulge.
After dessert—a rich chocolate cake thickly iced with fudgy frosting—Asher was drawn into helping clear the table and handed a dishtowel to dry the plates Zach was washing. Then they all went into the living room to decorate the tree with the ornaments Zach’s sisters had selected.
Mikey selected Asher as his personal ladder, asking Asher to pick him up so he could place his own favorite pieces. Then Katherine brought out a box that held seven ornaments, each one different but bearing the name of one of the family members. Zach handed Asher a ceramic fire engine with “Zachary” written across the side in flowing script.
“Here, you can hang mine this year,” Zach said. “That’ll make it even more special.”
Asher cradled the ornament carefully in one hand as he examined it, more deeply touched by Zach’s gesture than he could express. “Let me guess. You wanted to be a fireman when you grew up?”
“I did,” Zach said, smiling slightly. “Plus red was my favorite color, and I just knew that particular ornament was meant to be mine. Of course, I was all of five years old at the time, and I think by the time I was eight, I had moved on to wanting to be a cowboy, but you don’t change a tradition, right?”
“Of course not. But I’m glad you didn’t become either a fireman or a cowboy, because then I might not have met you,” Asher said.
It struck him, then, what he would likely be doing this weekend if Zach hadn’t become a lawyer, hadn’t joined Caldwell and Monroe, and hadn’t shown up at his door with those documents. He would be working alone at home, and he felt a surge of despair at the thought of returning to that empty life. He realized how much happier he’d been—how much more he’d been enjoying life rather than existing through it—since he and Zach began dating.
Now he was here, feeling like he was accepted by Zach’s family already. His parents hadn’t provided good models when it came to marriage and family. But the Richardsons showed him what itcouldbe like, and as scary and overwhelming as changing lifelong patterns of behavior was, he was finally willing to make that change. Hewantedto make it because he wanted Zach.
In that moment, he knew what he wanted to give Zach for Christmas, and he hoped Zach would accept it—and him—as wholeheartedly as he intended to offer it.
“That would be a tragedy,” he murmured, meeting Zach’s gaze steadily.
Zach leaned in to give him a brief, tender kiss. “I happen to agree,” he said. “And not just because I think the legal world would be worse off without my brilliant contributions.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Asher dropped a quick kiss on the tip of Zach’s nose to lighten the moment before turning his attention back to the tree. “Do you prefer to hang your ornament up high, midway, or down lower?”
“I’ve always put it up as high as I could reach,” Zach said, then chuckled. “For the last ten years or so, that’s meant right near the top. But I’m game for a change if you have a different idea.”
