“Damn dude” Cash says from beneath us and Luc smirks.
He pulls me closer and heat blazes to life, making his brown eyes smoulder, his lips a hairs breadth away from mine.
“If you’re flexible enough, Firecracker, I can put you into all sorts of positions I can garun-fucking-tee you have never been in before” he growls smirking when my breath leaves me in soft a moan.
He kisses me hard and fast his lips caressing mine in a kiss that has my whole body tingling, and trying to get closer to his. My breath stalling as his skilled tongue tangles with mine.
“Dude normally I don’t give a fuck but could you not kiss her like that when you’re that far up in the fucking air” Atlas groans, making me and Luc pull apart.
Luc doesn’t take his eyes off of me as he extends his arm and sticks up his middle finger at Atlas. Making me giggle and the guys scoff.
I glance down and Atlas smirks at me.
“Come on then Firecracker, I guess we should get some decorating done, here” Luc says as he hands me a separate reel of lights that I hadn’t noticed before.
I take them and then scoot backwards along the beam and slowly get to my feet, not as comfortable up here as he is. When I finally get back onto the other beam I turn back to him.
“Oh Luc,” I wait until he looks at me before continuing, “I can’t wait to show you just how flexible I am” I smirk as his eyes widen and he steps towards me along his beam.
“Not whilst you’re up there!” Trick yells from the ground, “I don’t think the rest of us can handle it” he adds and I burst out laughing.
“Fine, assholes” Luc says smirking and shoots me a wink.
I giggle and start to wrap the lights around the beam I’m stood on, being careful about where I’m stepping, so I don’t fall. After about ten minutes I start to realise that no matter where I go, Riot follows beneath me his eyes still never leaving me.
It really is sweet but wanting to mess with him a bit, and hoping I can still pull this off, sober me wouldn’t even try since it’s been that long since I’ve done it, I hold my hands out to the sides and wink at him, he opens his mouth but it’s too late, I do a forward roll along the beam managing to pop back up to standing on the other end.
Still got it!
I grin down at Riot and he sends me a disapproving look but can’t quite hide the amusement in his eyes or the smile playing around his lips.
“Alright Sunshine, you’ve made your point. Hurry up and finish so you can get down here and I can stop panicking you’re going to fall” he chuckles and I smile.
I carry on down the beam and it doesn’t take me long until I’m wrapping the final string of lights around a short beam in the corner of the room. I stretch up on my tip toes and just as I finally manage to hook it around the thing, my foot slips and sends me careening backwards. I let out a squeak of surprise and hear it echoed by several shouts of concern from the guys as I prepare myself to land in a painful heap on the floor.
I close my eyes in preparation but instead I land with an ompff in Riot’s arms. He smirks down at me although I can see his pulse racing in his neck, I scared him.
“Thank you, Riot” I say softly my heart still pounding far too fast as the rest of the guys surround us making sure I’m ok.
“Anytime Sunshine, I told you I’ll always catch you” he smiles as he gently puts me back on my feet and I pull him down for a quick thank you kiss.
“Probably shouldn’t drink and climb” I shrug and his eyes widen in realisation as he grabs his glass, which he had the forethought to put on a table before he grabbed me and downs the entire contents shaking his head but grinning at me.
“You’ve been drinking?” Atlas asks incredulously from behind me.
I turn to face him as Riot wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me back against his firm chest.
“Duh dude, what did you think was in my glass?” I chuckle.
Jensen snorts and the others grin at me.
“Well your Irish hot chocolate is here if you still want it?” Rafe says as he holds out a mug to me, the others stepping back and going back to their tasks.
“The tree’s nearly finished, Il mio Cuore, do you want to do the last few decorations and the star?” Cash asks from by the tree.
“Yes to both” I reply, taking the hot chocolate off of Rafe and immediately taking a sip, he watches for my reaction and grins as I start doing the happy food dance.
Of course in my slightly intoxicated state it hadn’t occurred to me that I’m still pressed up against Riot, his chest to my back so I’m effectively rubbing my ass all over his junk right now.
Riot groans and buries his head in my neck as his grip tightens and his dick hardens against me.
“Whoops” I say making my eyes wide in an attempt to look innocent whilst I wriggle my ass one more time.
Jensen bursts out laughing from the other side of the room clearly having been watching me.
“If that was a mistake why are you smirking right now?” Rafe chuckles, stepping closer and not giving me a chance to answer as he kisses me, and Riot starts kissing up my neck.
“No fair” I grumble as Cash pulls me gently out from between them and over to the tree.
“You’ll thank me later, we need to get the tree done before dinner” he chuckles when at the mention of food I start tugging him towards the tree.
He pulls me back gently, kissing me once and then turning me to face the decorations.
I love Christmas.
Everything is just so pretty, I think the world needs more pretty, mine certainly did anyway. I used to love going to the mall and looking at all of the Christmas window decorations when I could get away from my dad. I’d pretend I was someone else, someone who didn’t have the life I did. It would always suck massively when I had to face reality again but it was worth it, for those few minutes that I got to pretend.
I start to decorate the tree taking my time and wanting to get it right so it looks perfect for the guys and me. I can’t believe how thoughtful they’ve been planning this whole thing and my affection for them grows even more. I’ve just placed the last bauble on the tree when I’m suddenly picked up and somehow find myself on Rafe’s shoulders. It was done so smoothly that I feel disorientated for a second.
“Holy fuck Rafe you should see her face she looks like she’s just seen an alien or some shit” Jensen laughs which of course sets everyone off.
“Well excuse me, I didn’t expect to suddenly be twenty feet tall!” I exclaim exaggeratedly as I cross my arms over my chest.
I know Rafe won’t drop me, he squeezes my thighs and an unexpected pang of heat spears through me. Once again I’m made aware that I’m still only in panties and a tank top and Rafe’s head is between my thighs, damn. He may be facing the wrong way but that makes no difference to my dirty mind and my thighs tighten around him involuntarily.
“What are you thinking about up there that just made your thighs clench like that?” he smirks as he turns his head, his hair tickling my thighs as he place a kiss on the inside of my thigh.
Son of a bitch.
It takes incredible self-control for me not to clench my thighs and to keep my voice even when I reply.
“Nothing, just don’t want to fall off” I reply casually and internally high fiving myself for managing to do so.
“Sure, Baby. Whatever you say” he chuckles, the smug bastard.
“Why am I up here anyway?” I ask trying to distract them.
“We thought you’d like to put the star on top of the tree?” Cash reminds me.
“I’d love too” I grin taking it off of him.
Even on top of Rafe’s shoulders I only just reach but once I have it up he steps back and we all admire it. As if it was timed perfectly the timer in the kitchen goes off to signal that the foods done and my stomach growls in appreciation.
“To the kitchen!” I exclaim reaching down and tapping Rafe on the shoulder, he chuckles but carries me the
re without complaint.
The others all following behind us and continuing their own conversations.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rafe lets me down as we enter the kitchen so he can start taking things out of the stove and plating everything up into serving dishes, which in all honesty I’m surprised the guys own.
“We bought them in town today” Atlas murmurs seeing where my focus is and guessing correctly what I was wondering.
I burst out laughing and he just shrugs completely unrepentant as he smiles down at me.
“Come on guys lets lay the table whilst Rafe dishes up” I suggest when the guys just stand around and hungrily watch him pile delicious smelling food into the dishes.
The kitchen is suddenly a hive of activity as we all get out plates, cutlery, glasses and drinks and start laying the table. With all of us helping it doesn’t take long at all and soon me and the guys are helping bring over the various side dishes, as Rafe brings over a huge turkey. I’d be worried that all of this food would be wasted but I’ve seen these guys eat, we’re more likely to not have enough food than we are to have anything left over.
“This looks amazing” I compliment him as we all start loading our plates, passing things to each other around the table as Rafe dishes up the turkey as he carves it.
His cheeks tint pink slightly and my heart swells. I don’t think I will ever not find it cute when a giant man blushes.
“Thanks, Everleigh” he says sending me a shy smile.
There’s not much talking between us for the first part of the meal, all of us too busy stuffing our faces with honest to god the best Christmas diner I have ever eaten and yes that includes the catered meal at Cash’s and Jenny’s Christmas dinner.
“Holy fuck you can cook. People would pay hundreds of dollars to eat your food and I’m not being overdramatic” I can’t help but compliment.
“I hope so. I want to own my own restaurant one day” he tells me smiling.
“Dude with food like this you aren’t going to have any problem” Jensen compliments around a mouthful of food.
The others are soon complimenting the food too and start to give him ideas on where they think it would be best to open his first restaurant and after shooting me a slightly nervous look, Jensen starts in on the financial aspect of it saying all sorts of really intelligent, complicated things and hot damn my underwear is practically incinerated.
I don’t know why it affects me so much. I think it might be because he’s so laid back all of the time that to hear him be so passionate and knowledgeable about such a complicated subject is damn impressive. That and I know that he doesn’t like to show a lot of people this side of him and although I can’t understand why he doesn’t, it makes me feel damn special that he’s being completely himself around me.
I focus back on my food, not wanting to embarrass him by staring in awe, I’ll make sure to tell him exactly how hot I find it later. Trick’s hand squeezes my thigh under the table, gaining my attention and I peek up at him, he just smiles softly and places a sweet kiss against my temple that has happiness bubbling up inside me.
These guy’s are going to spoil me with all their sweet affection if they aren’t careful. I’m not going to be the one to warn them. Rylie can do it.
Speaking of Rylie, I still haven’t heard anything from her. I’ve sent her a few messages since I’ve been here and got one, two word response back. It’s bumming me out but I refuse to focus on it now. I’ll deal with it when we get back.
Dinner doesn’t take long to finish and although we manage to eat the majority of it. There is quite a lot of turkey left since it was ginormous. As we help clear the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher, thank fuck we don’t have to hand wash all of this, I turn to Rafe.
“Ever made a turkey curry?” I ask.
“Nope. I haven’t tried to make any curry’s yet, there’s so many different spices that it just seems daunting” he shrugs.
“I can teach you the one I know how to make if you’d like. We can use the leftover turkey too and slow cook it in the oven, it tastes amazing when it’s done like that. It would need to be done in the next day or so though because we don’t want the turkey to go bad so it depends if Luc wants curry on his birthday tomorrow. Although I suppose it would keep, so we could have it the next day but still make it tomorrow” I mutter my thought process out loud.
“Curry just happens to be one of my favourites, Firecracker. I’d love it for my birthday” Luc says as he gives me a quick kiss on the way past to load some more dishes in the dishwasher.
“I’d love to learn how to cook it too. I’m not sure if we have the ingredients though” Rafe frowns slightly.
“I planned to make it anyway so I grabbed the stuff when we were in town. We can use the chicken I bought for something else” I say and he grins.
“Sounds good, Dragonfly.”
“Awesome. We’ll make it in the morning so it has all day to cook, tastes so good that way.”
He nods in agreement.
“Right, everyone go and get your presents and bring them down!” Trick yells once the kitchen and table have been sorted.
“Wait!” I yell and everyone stops and turns to me, “I know it sounds silly but can we put them all under the tree still and then take a picture. I want to remember today” I say shyly and the guys share one of their looks as Rafe wraps an arm around me and pulls me into his side.
“Of course, Dragonfly. We were going to put them all under the tree anyway and a photo to remember our first Christmas together is a brilliant idea” Trick says and everyone starts to leave to get their presents again.
My heart explodes as butterflies swarm my stomach. The way he said that made it seem like there would be many more Christmas together and I want that so bad.
I start to get a bit nervous as I follow them out, I really hope they all like what I’ve gotten them and I can’t help but feel glad that I got Trick a back up present in case I chickened out giving him the drawing stuff because not surprisingly, I’ve just chickened out. I take the stairs two at a time and pull out the suitcase with the presents from under my bed. Fishing out Trick's unwrapped present and quickly wrapping it before putting it back in the case and starting to lug it back down the stairs.
Damn it’s heavy.
By the time I finally get it down there, the guys are already putting their presents under the tree and I take a moment to admire the different wrapping styles. They range from Cash’s that look like they been wrapped by a blind t-rex to Atlas’s which are wrapped with such precision and honestly look like some perfect crap you’d find on Pinterest, it’s quite impressive actually. The rest of the guys wrapping skills range between the two. At least mine aren’t the worst. I don’t put that much effort into wrapping gifts though since it’s just going to be ripped into anyway.
When there’s a gap between them, I step forward and start to empty my presents from the suitcase. Pulling out the extra tickets that go with Cash’s present and tucking them into my bra to give to the rest of the guys when Cash opens his. When all of the presents are under the tree I step back and admire the image of the decorated, lit up tree with all of our presents underneath it.
It looks perfect.
“Ok, Cash take a picture of the presents under the tree and then set the timer up so we can take one of us in front it” Trick suggests, looking at me for approval and I grin happily.
I love that idea, It hadn’t even occurred to me to get a picture of us all.
“Done the present one, everyone by the tree, Il mio Cuore in the middle” Cash instructs as he sets up his phone so that the tree and all of us are in the frame. Whilst we all move to do as we’re told, I brush against him as I walk past.
“Yes, Sir” I whisper and his head snaps towards mine heat instantly darkens his eyes and he reaches for me. Pulling me in and kissing me deeply. When he pulls back he smirks at my slightly dazed expression.
“I’ll get you back for
that later, Il mio Cuore” he promises.
“I can’t wait” I grin as I go and stand in front of the tree and in the middle of the guys.
I end up with Atlas stood directly behind me, since he’s the tallest. I lean back against him my head coming to the middle of his chest and he tangles our fingers together, Rafe and Riot are stood either side of him being the second tallest guys, then I have Jensen on one side and Trick on the other as Luc and Cash stand next to them.
“I set it to do a burst of photos, in case someone blinks or something” Cash tells us.
“Good idea.” Trick replies just as the flash goes and I try to keep my smile in place and then give up and stick my tongue out.
The guys disperse and take seats on the huge sectional and I go to the join them, ending up sat between Luc and Riot, as Trick and Cash stay by the tree.
“Ok so like normal when we give presents to each other. Me and Cash will hand everyone’s out and then once everyone’s got all of theirs we’ll open them at the same time, that way there’s none of the awkward staring whilst one person opens a present” Trick explains, more than likely for my benefit since the guys have been giving each other gifts for years.
Everyone nods in agreement and I smile as the guys start handing out gifts and Jensen gets overtly excited for each one he gets. It’s incredibly cute. I’m glad the guys do presents this way, I would have felt super uncomfortable if we did it one at a time. I absolutely would’ve reacted inappropriately under that sort of pressure. I’m not comfortable when all the focus is on me and I always end up making a giant ass of myself.
My own pile grows as the presents get handed out and I’m probably more excited than Jensen by this point. I distract myself by watching the guys. My gaze lands on Atlas as he gets more presents, I watch as he counts them realising there’s more there than just presents from the guys and his eyes flash to meet mine. I catch the surprise in his eyes before my own dart away.
“Alright guys dig in” Trick announces and everyone starts talking and laughing as they open their presents.
Secrets Worth Keeping (Finding my Home Book 2) Page 23