Alistaire turned his head slightly and kissed Fox’s palm. “I don’t want him to take anything else from me.”
“He won’t.”
Alistaire leaned down and kissed him gently.
* * *
Alistaire groaned,trying to understand why the bed was shaking and the voice of an excited teenager ringing in his ear.
“Come one, wake up,” Ava said. “You can’t still be sleeping on Christmas Day.”
“Go away,” Alistaire grumbled.
“No! Everyone’s waiting on you so we can open up our presents.”
“Do it without me.” Alistaire pulled the covers all the way over his head, hoping she’d get the message and go away.
“I’m not going away,” she told him. “Come on, Alistaire. It’s our first Christmas together. If you sleep all day, it will make me sad.” Her voice cracked for a second.
Ah, fuck.
Alistaire mentally cursed. He didn’t want to make her sad after all she’d been through—pulling the covers down to look at her. Alistaire scowled when he noticed she didn’t have a tear in the corner of her eyes.
“You could at least look sad,” he grumbled. Sitting up, he looked around the bedroom and noticed two people were missing. “Where’s Crevan and Genesis?”
“They’re in the kitchen. Everyone had breakfast without you. And man, it was delicious. Grandpa Barret made pancakes.They were so thick and fluffy with strawberry syrup. I almost ate the entire thing and the bacon…”
“All right…all right…I get the point.” Alistaire cut her off the second his stomach growled.
“Don’t worry. I saved you some.”
Alistaire turned his gaze away from Ava and saw Crevan standing at the door with a cup of coffee in his hand. He looked handsome—like an angel in a white silk pajama set.
“Hey.” Alistaire smiled adoringly. His affection for the other man grew more each day, and Alistaire hoped his actions showed it—even if he couldn’t say it with words.
“Hey yourself.” Crevan walked into the bedroom and handed Alistaire his coffee. “Go into the family room. We’ll be there in a bit,” Crevan told Ava.
Ava stood, smiling. “Okay.” She ran out of the room, closing the door without even a sarcastic comment.
“How’d you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Get her to listen and not argue back?”
Crevan chuckled. “Ava listens to you, too. It’s just you guys like bantering back and forth with each other. It’s how you both show you care for each other.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, how about we find our way to banter.” He leaned in to kiss his lover but was stopped with a hand on his chest.
“No, you don’t, Alistaire McBain. We have presents to open, and everyone’s been waiting for you. Go get cleaned up, and I’ll wait out here for you.”
“I might as well since I won’t be getting the Christmas present I asked for.”
“Stop being a baby.”
