Gabe rubbed his nose into Soren’s blond hair, giving up on his attempt at the whiskey. “Soren compelled a few people for us.”
“Soren!” Danny chastised. “You didn’t!”
Soren shrugged a careless shoulder. “You said it was important to you this year, cutie pie.”
Danny took another moment to look completely flabbergasted before he turned again to Jamie, his protestations clearly not running very deep. “And it was so good of you to drive up on Christmas Eve!”
“Oh, no problem.” Jamie waved the hand not holding his beverage. “My mom’s working the holiday this year. One of Santa’s social workers.” Although, now that Soren had put the idea of compelling her superiors into Jamie’s head, his mom would definitelynotbe working Christmas next year; that was for sure.
Eventually, Jamie realized none of the mates had exchanged gifts with each other. When he asked Soren about it, the vampire shot Gabe a lusty glance. “Oh, my gift to Gabe wasn’t exactly appropriate for the group festivities.”
That prompted an “ew” from Danny in the corner.
“What did you get for your…Luc?” Soren asked Jamie, almost politely.
“Oh, I’m getting another tattoo,” Jamie answered airily.” A big one on the front of my neck. ‘Lucien’ in bold letters.” It was a joke, obviously. A ridiculous, silly joke. But Jamie felt a dark pulsing along the bond and turned his head to see Luc’s green eyes burning with unexpected heat. “Oh my God, youwouldlike that, you possessive perv.” Jamie shook a finger at his mate. “No branding me. I can’t believe I even have to say that out loud.”
Luc just gave him a self-satisfied smirk, giving a pointed look in the direction of Jamie’s tattooed hip. “You’re already branded, flower.”
“Gross,” Soren said cheerfully, but at the same time, he gave his own considering look at Gabe’s neck.
Gabe, who’d clearly been paying only half attention to the conversation, gave him a confused grimace. “What?” he asked.When Soren didn’t answer, the conversation seemed to catch up with him, and he frowned down at his mate. “No way. I’m not gettingSorentattooed on my neck.”
“Just a thought,” Soren said mildly, licking at his lower lip.
Gabe directed his frown at Jamie. “You’re a bad influence, you know that?”
“Something tells me you have your hands full with or without my influence,hot stuff.” Jamie grinned widely as Gabe flushed at his words.
Adorable.
It was surprisingly hard to leave at the end of the night, even knowing they were coming back in the morning for Christmas brunch.
“You know you can always stay in the guest room,” Danny said at the door, reading Jamie’s reluctance to part on his face.
“And suffer the hissy fit consequences?” Jamie asked, tilting his head in Luc’s direction.
“I heard that, flower.”
“You were meant to, monster.”
Jamie sighed and hugged Danny tightly, this sweet vampire so determined to keep bringing them all together. “Merry Christmas, little king.”
“Merry Christmas, Jamie.”
They stumbledinto their hotel room, and Jamie was possibly, maybe, the slightest bit tipsy. But he didn’t think Luc was far behind, considering the fact that apparently in the kitchen, he’d been spending his time drinking glass after glass of the French wine Roman had been pouring for him.
Still, Jamie took a moment to look around the spacious room, always interested in what Luc deemed acceptable. “Well, dang. This place is pretty swanky for Hyde Park.”
Luc locked the door with a resounding click. “There’s always somewhere to stay, if you know where to look.”
“Snob.”
“Mm.” Luc stalked toward him, a predatory glint in his eye. “Let’s get you out of this hideous sweater.”
“I like my hideous sweater. It smells like peppermint.” But Jamie let Luc tug it off him anyway, pouting slightly when Luc left it at that. “Don’t you want to get me out of my hideous jeans too?”
Luc gave him a disapproving glance as he folded the sweater carefully. “Those jeans aren’t hideous. I picked them out myself.”
