Joys of the Season, An On Fire Christmas Read online

  It was a man's gold bracelet with wide, smooth sections every three links or so. Each smooth part had something different etched onto it, representing parts of their lives. There was a fire engine, a fireman's hat, a graduation cap, a little 'abc.' Another link had their initials on it and yet another the word 'love.'

  It was sentimental as hell, but he knew that Sam was going to love it. A lot.

  Smiling, Robert closed the box and handed it over to the sales girl. "I'd like the silver wrapping paper with the snowflakes, please." It was festive and fancy at the same time.

  "Yes, sir." She seemed almost mechanical as she wrapped it up. "Just under the wire, huh?"

  "Hey, I ordered it last month. I was starting to freak," he admitted, giving her a smile. It had to be hell to work in retail this time of year. "You got all your shopping done?" He tried to make nice, but he was getting later by the second and he didn't want to have to explain when he got home. He wanted this gift to be a total surprise.

  "I did it all online, finished in September." She grinned at him and rang up the bracelet. "Yeah, you can hate me, too. Everyone does."

  He gave her his credit card for the balance still owing. "Well, lucky for me, my partner takes care of everything but his own."

  "Dude. You're lucky." She swiped his card and handed him the slip, then cut the wrapping paper to size. "I wish someone would take care of my holiday stuff for me."

  "Yep. I'm very lucky." He wasn't going to argue with that.

  He was humming along to the Christmas carols playing over the radio as he left the shop, package securely in his pocket.

  Sam was going to freak, to use one of Sam's words.

  He could hardly wait.

  ***

  Forget Christmas stockings. Forget crackers, breakfast, presents -- wait. Okay, presents were good, and so was making sure the dog got out to pee, but after that... after that, Christmas morning was all about waking Robert up right.

  "Robert." Sam got back into bed, fresh and chilly from puppy duty. "Roooooooooooobert." He melded to hot fireman. "Presents?"

  "Cold!" Robert tried to roll away, but Sam was well and truly stuck to his favorite fireman. "Why are you cold?"

  "Milo likes to use the outdoors. Daphne won't share her litter box. Warm me up." Sam grinned and started wiggling, trying to find warm places to put his hands. "Presents?"

  Robert grabbed Sam’s hands and held them away from his warm body. "No presents if these frozen hands go anywhere near my dangly bits."

  "Oh." Sam thought about that for a minute. "No presents for you, either? Or maybe I can interest your dangly bits in parts of me that aren't cold?"

  "Yes. That last one."

  Sam flipped over on his back, kicked off all the covers and spread his legs. "Ready!" He grinned at Robert and shrugged. "I've been awake for a while."

  "You didn't go poking on the tree for your present, did you?" Robert rolled slowly over onto him, heavy weight pushing him into the mattress.

  "No. Under, yes. On, no. I'll remember that next year." He wrapped his legs around Robert's hips and dug in with his heels. "What did you get me?"

  Robert moaned and circled his hips, rolling their bodies together. "You're going to have to wait and see."

  "Oh, do that again." Sam reached way up and took hold of Robert's shoulders, then rocked his hips. Friction was a very, very good thing. "You can tell me now. I know you can."

  "Nope." Robert brought their mouths together, keeping him from pushing further.

  Sam would have kept trying, but it was a lot more fun to kiss Robert stupid and hold him close with both hands and feet. Leverage was an interesting thing, and if he tried really hard Sam could make Robert whimper, he just knew it. Well, it wasn't like he wasn't already moaning and gasping. It was only fair that Robert get that way, too.

  He got himself a groan, Robert rolling and rocking against him, cock leaking all over his belly.

  "Come on." Sam grinned and started whispering, his heels digging in even more. "Do what you want. I'm not going to break, you know that. Let go and show me."

  "You been up long enough to get yourself ready?" Robert asked, shifting so that his cock was pushing along behind Sam's balls.

  Sam just grinned harder and wiggled. Robert knew him so well.

  Laughing, Robert got himself where he needed to be, cockhead nudging at Sam's slick hole.

  "There we go!" Sam laughed, his back arching as he tried to work his way onto Robert. "Presents! I want this one right now."

  "You're crazy, baby." Robert watched his face as Robert's thick cock pushed into him, slowly stretching him wide.

  "Oh, boy." The laughing died away as Sam felt his body being taken over, his attention entirely on Robert, what his eyes were saying. "There. There you are. All mine."

  "Yeah." Robert sank all the way in and then stayed there for far, far too long. Still, when he finally started moving, after Sam had bucked ineffectively a time or two, it felt so good.

  "Robert." Sam knew his eyes were wide, but they always seemed to get that way when Robert was in him like this. Robert was just so big, so powerful... even after years together, it sometimes overwhelmed him. "God, yes." He leaned up, needing kisses and love to go with the way his body was being rocked down into the mattress.

  Robert's lips pressed against his, their mouths opening at the same time to take the kiss deeper.

  Sam clung to Robert, arms and legs and mouth, and hoped to God he wasn't about to shake apart. He loved this man so much that sometimes it took his breath away. Then Robert moved and Sam shifted and heat licked up and down his spine. "Oh, boy. Yes. Harder. Love me."

  "Always." Robert's growl came from the heart. The thrusts got harder, Robert rocking him with every push into his body.

  "Love you." Those were the last sensible words Sam managed before he fell back to the bed and started moaning, Robert's thrusts making things light up in his head. His cock was suddenly throbbing, his balls hot. Without looking, Sam reached down and started stroking off.

  Robert's hand knocked his away a moment later, the big hand wrapping tight and doing it for him. Between that and the way Robert was slamming into him, Sam wasn't going to last very long. Like he ever lasted what could be called "long." He didn't care -- never had, not really. He was still making up for it in frequency.

  Sam shuddered as Robert thrust into him again. One more pounding and Sam went off without warning, splashing his own belly and chest as his body went tight around Robert. Breathing wasn't any easier, though.

  Robert made some inarticulate noises, hips stilling as Sam came. When Sam finished, his grip eased up a bit on Robert's cock, and Robert started thrusting again, long strokes that shook Sam. Sam tried to praise Robert, but it came out garbled, so he settled for grinning his encouragement and trying rather feebly to rock back. He gave that up pretty soon, though, content to just lie there and take it.

  It didn't take Robert all that long before he was jerking and then holding still again as he filled Sam with heat. God, Sam loved watching Robert's face as he came: the slack jaw, the pleasure-glazed eyes...

  "Oh, boy." Sam pet him, on lazy hand stroking over Robert's chest. "God, you're beautiful. Best present ever, and all mine."

  Robert gave him a lazy smile and rubbed their lips together. "Love you, too, Sammy."

  "I know." He did. "Presents?" He just knew Robert was going to love what wasn't under the tree. Well, there was a picture under the tree, but the component parts wouldn't fit.

  And Robert wouldn't get it until summer.

  When Sam's dad came to stay and help build it.

  Still. It was going to be cool to see Robert's face when he unwrapped the picture.

  "We could just lie here and snuggle awhile."

  "Okay." That was good, too. Robert could find out about the sauna later. "Tell me what you got me, then?"

  Sliding out of him and rolling to the side, Robert dragged him close. "No. You can wait until you open it."

&nb
sp; "But when will that be?" Sam burrowed in, pretty sure there wasn't a part of him left cold any longer. "Christmas morning is going to turn into Christmas afternoon before you want to get out of bed. Next year, we'll bring all the presents into bed, okay?"

  "Sammy. What time is it?"

  "Um. About eight? Maybe? It's almost light outside."

  Robert looked at the dark window and snorted. "I see the clock radio has somehow mysteriously been turned so we can't see it from the bed." Sam got a poke in the ribs. "Come on, then. I can see you're not going to let me go back to sleep. But you owe me a nap with full-body contact."

  "Is there any other kind of nap?" Sam bounded out of bed without hesitation, reaching for the thick terry cloth bathrobes they used when Sam was too busy to bother with clothing. "C'mon, c'mon. There's stuff to unwrap!"

  Robert hauled himself out of bed and hid that magnificent body behind the thick robe. "Is there hot chocolate or a hot toddy or anything, at least?"

  "Coffee brewed. We could put whiskey in it, I suppose, but if you want sweet, there's some peppermint flavoring." Sam grabbed Robert’s hand and started tugging. "I'll even put holiday music on."

  "Oh, peppermint flavoring would be Christmassy." Robert finally came with him, hand warm, fingers curling with his as they headed downstairs. "You can open my gift first."

  "Okay!" Like he was going to turn that down. Robert always thought he played things so cool, but Sam knew that this gift was a big deal; the relief that had taken the strain out of Robert's posture the other day had been a clue that it had arrived, as much a clue as the frown and tension for the four days before that, indicating that the present hadn't been in the mail.

  Sam got them each a cup of coffee as quickly as he could, wiped up the mess where he'd splashed on the counter, added flavor and hurried in to the living room, mugs in hand. "Here you go, one fancy coffee. Christmas flavor."

  "Mmm... thank you, Sam." Robert buried his nose in the coffee and breathed in for a moment before taking a cautious sip. "Tastes good." Then Robert grinned and nodded at the tree. "Let's see if you can find it, then."

  Sam put his own coffee down untouched and went to stand before the tree. "On, not under," he mused. The lights were on, which was nice, but they kept distracting him as he tried to see into the branches. He was looking for an envelope as he circled the tree, something flat. "Did you get another cruise?" Oh, that would rock. But it wouldn't fit in with Robert worrying about delivery.

  "I'm not telling you. That's the point." Robert grinned, looking happy, looking eager, too.

  "Will I get in trouble if I shake the tree?" He grinned and then spotted something, before any tree shaking could happen. Not an envelope but a box. Long and thin, wrapped in silver paper with very tight corners, like someone with a lot of practice had wrapped it. "Oh, boy." He took the box out of the tree and went to sit next to Robert, holding his present carefully. "What did you do?"

  Laughing, Robert put an arm around him. "I bought you a present. Go on, you've found it -- now open it!"

  Sam peeled back one edge of the paper and tried to go slowly. As with most things, though, he jumped right in and, instead of carefully dealing with the tape, he accidently ripped the paper and then he just slid the box out. Jewelry. Man. Robert was getting all sentimental on him, and Sam couldn't help smiling and wiggling as he lifted the box top.

  "Oh. Oh, man." Sam stared for a moment and then lifted the bracelet out. "It's... it's us. This is... It's..." He looked up at Robert, blinking rapidly. Utterly gobsmacked. "Wow."

  Robert beamed at him. "You like it."

  "I love it!" Sam launched himself at his husband, still holding tightly to his bracelet. "It's amazing. It's perfect. You're perfect." More amazing than perfect. Perfectly amazing. "Wow."

  Robert caught him, holding on tightly. "I wanted it to be special."

  "It is." God, was it. "It's you and me. It's beautiful and wonderful and I love it." Sam held Robert just as tightly. "I love you."

  "Love you, too, Sam. Merry Christmas." Robert took the bracelet from him and wrapped it around his wrist, closing the clasp before tugging him in close again. It was heavy around his wrist and felt good.

  Sam beamed and curled in, suddenly content to just sit there all morning with his man. Presents were nice, and he loved his. He simply loved Robert more, and the warmth of their home life was the best gift he could ever have. "Merry Christmas, Robert."

  Joys of the Season: An On Fire Christmas

  Copyright © 2008 by Drew Zachary

  All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Torquere Press, Inc., PO Box 2545, Round Rock, TX 78680

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Torquere Press, Inc.: Sips electronic edition / December 2008

  Torquere Press eBooks are published by Torquere Press, Inc., PO Box 2545, Round Rock, TX 78680