“With pleasure.”
We tried to take our time and go slow, but we had been without each other too long. I promised myself that next time I would sip and savor instead of begging to be taken. His every touch and kiss wiped away the sadness and misery I had felt while we were apart. The words we whispered to each other were about love and need as we joined our bodies together.
“All mine,” I said as I slid inside Miller. I knew it, could see it in his eyes, but I needed to hear it too.
“Yours.” Miller pulled my head down for a searing kiss that branded me as his. Once I came inside him, he rolled me to my back, suited up, and claimed me with just as much passion as I’d shown him. “All mine.” He repeated my words as he slid home.
“Yours.”
Much later, we ate reheated dinner in my bed while we watched television and our pets slept by our feet. It might’ve seemed lame to some, but it was what felt right to us. Being with Miller was as natural as breathing for me, and I vowed to never let him go.
Miller
Idid my best to make our first Christmas the absolute best one Jag had ever experienced. I wasn’t foolish enough to think I would be able to wipe away all the sadness he felt from missing his mother and brother, but I thought I could at least give him something happy and hopeful to cling to when things got rough for him.
I was planning an outrageous twelve days of Christmas to work some sexy humor into the season. I was calling it the Twelve Days of Sexmas as I made a list of things to buy from the adult toy store. My game didn’t include multiple sets of the same item like the song. I mean, what the hell would we do with three sets of handcuffs or five cock rings?
I finished my list and smiled when I read it back: dildo, masturbation toy, handcuffs, scented massage oil, cock ring, butt plug, nipple clamps, flavored lube, riding crop, blindfold, flavored condoms, and vibrating bullet. We were going to have the best Sexmas ever.
The cutest thing about the holiday was that I’d brought Lucas and Lily over to help Jag decorate his tree. We put strands of popcorn and homemade ornaments on the branches along with other ornaments we’d picked out at the store. Jag seemed touched by the ornaments that Lucas and Lily had made for him. Personally, I thought it was the prettiest tree I had ever seen.
After decorating, we ate cookies from the bakery—neither of us could bake worth a damn—and drank hot chocolate. Lily curled up in Jag’s lap, and he read Christmas stories to her. Lucas tried to act like he’d outgrown that tradition, but I saw him hanging on every word that came out of Jag’s mouth. Lucas wasn’t the only one either. I was completely captivated by the deep timbre of his voice as he read. We had a fabulous day together, and we were both sad when Darryl and Destiny arrived to pick up the kids.
Lucas and Lily hugged and kissed us goodbye and grudgingly went home with their parents. Jag and I curled up on the couch in exhaustion. It was hard work being on our best behavior and not using foul language all day. Plus, I had to keep my contact with Jag G-rated. That’s not to say I wouldn’t kiss him or hug him in front of the kids because it was appropriate for them to see affection between us. I just couldn’t sneak in any crotch grabbing or grinding against his groin like I would have if we were alone. The sacrifice was worth it, and the delayed gratification made the sex that night more intense.
We attended the work Christmas parties as a couple and had a great time. The best celebration by far was the ugly sweater party Chase and Gray hosted. Their new house was packed with merry makers wearing the ugliest, gaudiest sweaters ever created. My aunt Susan had made sweaters for Jag and me to wear. They’d started out as red sweatshirts, but once she was done, the original fabric couldn’t be seen beneath all the appliqués.
Jag had chosen aNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacationtheme and had Griswold mishaps all over his sweater, including cousin Eddie’s RV and the famous sled ride with sparks shooting out from beneath the round medal disk. I was a little bit jealous because I felt Aunt Susan had put more effort into Jag’s sweater.
I’d chosen aHome Alonetheme and was super excited about all the different pieces of the movie until Jag showed me his. My sweater must have been damn good too because people came up to me all night, pointed out different parts of the movie, and laughed. Most everyone was freaked over the tarantula sewn onto the shoulder and acted like it might crawl off and get them at any point. I named him Tyrone and petted him just to creep people out.
Even the babies got in on the action. Ellie’s newborn daughter, Sofia, wore a knitted bonnet, sweater, and pants that made her look like a gingerbread cookie. Ava’s little boy, Jacob, was dressed in a knitted outfit that had reindeer and snowflakes all over it.
I really thought Jag and I were contenders for the prize, but Gram won the contest and took home the first ever Ugly Christmas Sweater trophy. Her sweater had all the things from “The Twelve Days of Christmas” plastered all over it with enough silver and gold to blind us all when the lights reflected off it.
Jag handed me a cup of spiked punch in a plastic moose glass like the ones they used in the movie his sweater represented. I leaned in and gave him a light kiss on his lips because we were the only ones in the kitchen. I debated pulling him into a bathroom to do a little more than light kissing when we were interrupted.
“Aren’t you boys adorable?” Gram said as she stepped into the kitchen to get a cup of punch.
“Careful, Agnes, that might interfere with some of your old lady medications,” Jag said. He loved to try to get under her skin, though it rarely worked.
“Drinking water tonight, JJ?” Gram nodded to his unopened bottle. “Afraid you won’t be able to get it up later if you have a few drinks? They make a pill for that too, you know?”
Jag threw his head back and laughed so loud people in the living room turned to look. He hooked an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Her head barely came up to his armpit. “I love you, you crazy old woman.”
Gram jabbed her elbow hard into Jag’s ribs, making him groan and rub the afflicted area. “Listen here, boy. You can call me any vile name you want, but don’t you call meoldever again.” She pointed a finger at him. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Agnes.”
She frowned and tried to jab him again, but he moved quickly enough to avoid her bony elbow. “How many times do I need to tell you to call me Gram?”
“At least one more.” Jag gave her his patented shit-eating grin.
She narrowed her eyes at him, then cast her gaze to me. “So, are you idiots done with your ‘I don’t believe in love’ nonsense? You two aren’t fooling anyone anymore. You might as well embrace the fact that you two love each other and are as sappy as all the others.” She waived her hand around, gesturing at the couples who were dancing to Nat King Cole’s “Christmas Song.” I hadn’t really thought of Christmas music as romantic before, but I was learning a lot of new things once I opened my eyes to the possibilities. “Boys, there’s so much more to life than sex, and it’s past time you realize it. You can waste time pretending you’re not madly in love with each other, or you can get on with living and loving.”
“Gram, not everyone wants wedding bells and babies,” Jag told her. “It’s not a secret that I’m in love with Miller. I may not broadcast it all over for everyone to see and hear, but that’s not my style.”
“It’s not really my style either, Gram, but that doesn’t mean I love Jag any less than Gray loves Chase. What we’re doing works well for us, and I’ve never been happier in my life.” Jag’s dark brown eyes locked on mine, and I saw how affected he was by my words.
