Rowan can’t help but stare, because Leo’s pants are down around his knees, and Nix is 100% naked. Has he missed the revelation of a new kink? He hates when that happens.
He feels the press of Tsuki’s nose to his palm, and he almost drops the paper bag. “Hey, girl. What’d I miss?” She blows hot air out of her nose. It’s got smudges of red on it, and when her tongue lolls out, it’s red, too. Rowan swears she rolls her eyes. “Well, they’re naked-ish; it has to be something good.”
No one has seen him yet, which is good, because Rowan has zero interest in cleaning this shit up. Gideon is going to have a heart attack if he gets home before they finish. Rowan hopes he hasn’t had a text from the security company already about the fire alarms. “I’m just going to…” he whispers to the dog, before slipping past the cacophony of explanations toward the basement stairs.
There is a room in the basement where Leo stores all the little things he likes to use to give gifts. From boxes to gift bags, and a towering shelfof vases where Gideon has put all the vases he’d received with his weekly (daily?) flower arrangements from Leo.
It actually looks like Santa’s elves could walk in and wrap all the gifts for everyone, everywhere, all around the world. There’s a long table with tape and ribbon in every color of the rainbow. Rolls of paper for every occasion line the wall opposite the wall of vases, and it’s there that Rowan stops.
“Well, which one? This one?” He asks his companion, who just looks at him like the one with the tiny frogs on it has offended her deeply. “Fuck, okay. No need for the ‘tude. What about this one?” Tsuki declines ducks, purple flowers, tiny candy canes, and a weird one that looks like camouflage. “Well, you choose, then,” he grumps.
He wants this wrapped and under the tree so he can just get on to thinking about other shit. Maybe feed Nix something from the snack cupboard. He must have missed dinner, and the wolf insists they do something before Nix eats again.
Tsuki turns around, and Rowan follows her to the end of the workbench. There’s a tall cardboard box from an expensive fancy paper company (it actually saysFancyPaper Companyon the side). When he pulls the box open, there are ten different rolls of fresh paper in there, and not one frog or duck. They smell good, actually. Like the forest, and ink. He pulls one after the other out, until Tsuki finds one she likes by pressing her nose on it, like she’d done all those months ago with her first doggy bed.
“Fucking finally. You are one picky dog.”
She huffs again, as if to say,I picked you, didn’t I?And that’s 100% fair.
The paper rolls out smoothly on the table top, a river of rainbow colors. Not in a repeating pattern like many of the others, but like a river. It’s really pretty.
“Okay, now a box and that paper shit.” It takes him twenty minutes to find the box, put the tissue in, and get it wrapped. The corners aren’t neat, and the tape is bunched up, but the pattern flows endlessly around the box. Tsuki pulls a curling rainbow ribbon off the rack, dropping it on his foot before sitting patiently by the door.
“Okay, okay. I’m ready. Don’t tell anyone you helped me, yeah? Ialready had help with the gift part,” he says as he turns the lights out and closes the door. He runs his hand over her head in thanks. As he’d expected, Tsuki is a very loyal friend, because he knows for a fact she didn’t tell a soul.
Jay: I
There are rude awakenings, and then there is being woken up at 6:00 AM by your hyper, over-caffeinated mate, who is more excited about giving a gift than receiving one, and whose elbows are bonier than anyone’s have a right to be.
“Get up, get up, get up!” Luca lifts the covers and wiggles himself up the bed.
Jay feels a lick on his morning wood, and then his head—complete with green elf hat—pops up between him and Grayson.
Grayson had crawled in with him shortly after midnight, the scent of paint and paper strong on his skin. He’d been putting the last touches on the gift he’d been working on for weeks.
Jay had felt bad about that. By comparison, his own had taken under an hour. Even with the single addition he’d made earlier this week, he’d still been done several days before anyone else’s had appeared under the tree. Rowan’s gift had only brought the total to six before Jay had finally made it to bed.
After the near-disaster in the kitchen, they’d only just gotten the worst of the mess cleaned when Gideon had rolled in smelling like Quest, though Jay was sure the restaurant had closed the day before. Dressed in Jay’s leather jacket and biker boots, Gideon had looked like he’d been out committing felonies instead of making quiche. It was worrying that both Leo and Nix had whimpered, while Luca had just climbed on his soulmate’s back, declaring he’d been a bad, bad boy.
Hotter than fire, sure—but Jay had caught thunder and lightning in hisscent and something like sadness behind his eyes.
“Hey—hey—hey,” Luca giggles before sliding right on top of Jay, sitting up so that Jay’s morning wood slides right up between his cheeks. Jay can feel the rough edge of a plug, and the idea that someone has enjoyed his mate already sends a slither of desire coiling through his belly.
“What the fuck time is it?” Grayson groans, rolling out of the way of Luca’s excited bouncing and occasional flailing knee. He pinches Luca’s nipple in retaliation for the disruption and grins at the outraged squeak. Satisfied, he vanishes into the bathroom without another word.
Jay and Luca’s twin sighs follow him—and his work-of-art-ass—out.
“Hey, baby. What’s got you feeling good this morning?”Besides the obvious plug, no doubt pressed up against his prostate.
Luca’s tiny dick is hard against the front of his long red T-shirt, chosen for the festivities. It saysYou Can Cum Down My Chimneyon the front. The image is of an actual chimney with a bare-assed pair of legs sticking out, upside down. The tiny ass looks remarkably familiar.
“I like your shirt, by the way.”
“Ooh, me too! I got it at the mall when I went to get a jar for my—”
“Luc.” Gideon appears at the doorway, arms crossed, the scent of cinnamon buns following him in from the kitchen.
Jay’s stomach rumbles at the thought of freshly baked treats, but if Gideon says there’s time, he’s going to fulfill Luca’s T-shirt’s invitation and open his first Christmas gift of the day.
