Jono raised his head, meeting Patrick’s gaze, staring at this man who’d been alone for too long and didn’t know the first thing about pack until they’d gone down this road together. He kept stroking Patrick, knowing that it had to hurt a little, but also knowing Patrick was so close to coming that it probably didn’t matter.
He dragged his other hand over Patrick’s throat, pressing his scent into warm skin, wanting everyone to know that Patrick washis, and always would be, in every way that mattered.
“I love you,” Jono said, meaning it with every part of him that didn’t belong to a god.
Patrick’s eyes half rolled up into his head, and his entire body jerked as he came with a cry that Jono kissed away to nothing. Patrick’s tongue moved sluggishly against his for a few seconds as Jono stroked him through his climax, hand sticky with cum.
Jono leaned back, taking Patrick with him, until they were both sprawled on the floor in front of the Christmas tree. The living room smelled like sex and pine andthem.
Jono gently ran his clean hand over Patrick’s back, feeling him breathe. “You don’t have to say it back.”
“Shut up,” Patrick mumbled, fingers pressing bruises into Jono’s skin. “Say it again.”
Jono settled his hand on the back of Patrick’s neck, thumb curving around his throat to press against his pulse. He closed his eyes and breathed in Patrick all around him.
“I love you.”
The way Patrick’s grip tightened, as if he would never let go, was a wordless answer Jono heard loud and clear in the quiet that settled between them.
* * *
“Did youdefilemy presents?”Wade asked in a scandalized voice, clutching a brightly wrapped package to his chest over by the Christmas tree. “It smells like sex in here!”
“Keep your nose to yourself,” Jono said as he helped Sage out of her coat.
“Oh my god, my poorpresents.”
Marek rolled his eyes and held up a reusable bag straining at the straps. “I brought wine.”
“Cheers, mate. You can put the bottles in the kitchen.”
Jono ignored Wade’s muttering as the teenager started to sort through the presents under the tree, stacking up the ones that had his name on them all around him.
“Don’t open those,” Patrick warned as he came out of the bedroom, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with socks instead of slippers on his feet.
“But they’re mine,” Wade whined. He patted the stack of presents in front of him with both hands. “Mine.”
“Your hoarding tendencies are ridiculous. Jono is making you hot chocolate and the rest of us hot toddies, and there are a dozen cinnamon rolls in the oven. We’ll open presents after drinks are passed out and the snacks are ready.”
“You opened our presents to you at six this morning. You can wait a little longer for these ones,” Sage said.
Patrick made a face. “Six? I’d have sent him back to bed.”
Wade heaved out a loud sigh, projecting how unfair he thought that decision was. Then he ignored them all in favor of shaking his presents.
Jono didn’t tell him to stop. This was Wade’s first proper Christmas in years, and none of them wanted to take that from him. Everyone in their pack was alive, and together, and Jono wasn’t going to complain about any of that, even if Wade would complain until he could open his presents.
“Merry Christmas,” Sage said, giving Patrick a hug.
Patrick returned the hug with a smile. “Merry Christmas. How was getting over here through the parade?”
“Hellish, but we made it.”
“Did you have fun at Emma’s?”
“Always. We ate before we came over, but those cinnamon rolls smell good.”
“Jono made bacon as well.”
