by Bethany-Kris
All that excitement today had really done him in. That was the thing about kids. They spent their whole day in a constant state of movement and then when nighttime fell, they were out because of it.
Not that he was complaining.
Setting Tommaso on the bed, Tommas went about pulling all the curtains down to give the boy a sense of privacy. Plus, it helped to block out some of the light that was still shining in through the windows. It wasn’t even dark yet, but that didn’t matter.
It was eight.
Eight meant bedtime for Tommaso.
“Do you want Papa to read you a book before bed?” Tommas asked as he helped his son undress.
“No, I sleep.”
Tommas smiled. “All right, buddy.”
Soon, Tommaso was dressed, and under the covers. All that could be seen was his dark hair and bright blue eyes peeking out over the edge of the blanket as he stared up at his father.
“Papa?”
“Hmm, what?”
“Will Santa still find me?”
Kneeling down beside the bed, Tommas rested his arms along the edge and met his son’s gaze. “Why wouldn’t he, Tommaso?”
“I not home, Papa.”
“Santa can find you anywhere. He’s magic like that, you know?”
“How?”
“He just is.”
“But why?”
Tommas laughed under his breath. Fucking kids. If he kept this conversation up with his son, Tommaso would find a reason to ask how or why for every single answer Tommas gave him. That’s just how it worked with these little monsters.
“Santa is going to find you, I promise,” Tommas said, leaning forward to press a kiss to his son’s forehead before smoothing down his unruly hair with his palm. “But only if you go to bed like a good boy. Got it?”
“Okay, Papa.”
“Night, little man. Love you.”
“Night.” Tommaso rolled over in his bed. “Wuv you, Papa.”
He waited for an extra minute, until Tommaso’s shoulders lifted and lowered rhythmically with even breaths. If the kid wasn’t sleeping already, then he was damn close to it. Slipping out from behind the curtains without making a sound, Tommas was quick to find where his wife had set herself up.
In front of the small Christmas tree, Abriella sat cross-legged with a cup of green tea in her hands. She lifted the cup up to take a sip as Tommas came to sit beside his wife. Silently, he snaked an arm around her waist, and pulled her closer to his side. When even that wasn’t enough for him, he pulled her into his lap altogether.
This was the best part of his day, usually. Quiet time with his wife when he could just enjoy her being close, and nothing more. Resting his lips on the back of her shoulder, he soaked in the silence and her. For a long while, the two of them said nothing, only watched the twinkle lights on the small tree blink and flicker with life.
Abriella broke the silence first. “He went to bed easily, then?”
“He’s tired,” Tommas murmured. “A lot like the rest of us, I think. Big day, baby.”
He felt her nod, and then her hand came around to find his clasped at her waist. Without saying a word, she unfurled his fingers, and snuck her palm in against his. Weaving their fingers tightly together, she held on tight to his hand. Tommas pressed another kiss to her shoulder just because he wanted to feel the softness of her skin on his lips.
“A big day is one way to put it,” his wife said softly.
If there was one thing about Abriella that a lot of people didn’t know, it was her strength and ability to appear fine even when it felt like her whole world was burning down around her. Not that their world was coming down around them, but it wasn’t like his wife had been in the dark about this vacation, either. She knew there had been business going on behind the scenes even if she didn’t ask too much about it. No doubt, she had been silently stewing in her mind over this whole thing.
Would it be okay?
Would this go bad?
And yet, she had never breathed a word to him either way about it. Maybe that was partly her raising, but he also liked to believe it was because of him, too. Not because he didn’t allow his wife an opinion on his business or choices, but rather, he had proven time and time again that he would always walk back in through those doors to greet her at the end of every day.
So, she kept her worries quiet.
She let him go.
And she waited for him to come back.
Like all the times before.
“Ella,” Tommas said, trailing kisses up the back of her neck.
“Hmm?”
He decided he didn’t like talking to her like this. Not with her back to him, even if she was sitting in his lap. Snatching the cup of green tea from her hands, he set it aside, and turned her on his hip so that she was facing him. Her legs straddled his waist, he cupped her face, and brought her in for a slow kiss that had her grinning against his mouth.
“You know I’m always coming back,” he told her.
She nodded. “I know … but it was Christmas, and we weren’t in Chicago. I just got stuck in my head, I think.”
“Ella.”
She sighed. “I know, it’s silly.”
Not silly.
Understandable, really.
“I’m always going to be home for Christmas, too, Ella.”
Abriella smiled. “I know, Tommy.”
Good.
That’s all he asked for, really.
TWELVE
Lily and Damian
DAMIAN
“Give it an hour, and they’ll be sleeping hard,” Damian said to Theo.
Theo chuckled. “They’ll be fine, D. Don’t worry about them.”
Easier said than done. That was just a part of being a father, he figured. He was always going to worry about his kids whether he should or not. Even if was only leaving them for a couple of hours.
“And thanks,” Damian added, “for coming over on Christmas Eve to keep an eye on them.”
Theo shrugged. “We don’t mind.”
No, Damian supposed not. Theo and Eve were always quick to help someone with their kids whenever they needed it, and without complaint.
“How much longer are they going to be in the bathroom?” Theo asked.
Damian laughed. “Until Eve feels satisfied that Lily looks great.”
His brother-in-law only shook his head, but said nothing. Where was the lie, though? Lily was happy just to get out of the hut with Damian for a couple of hours. She wouldn’t have cared what she looked like or wore as long as she could put on one of those comfortable maxi dresses she liked. Eve, on the other hand, came over armed with a bunch of dress bags.
There was only the click of the bathroom door opening that drew Damian’s attention back across the room. Lily came out of the bathroom wearing the same maxi dress she had gone in with, but her hair had been let down around her shoulders in soft waves. She wore little to no makeup, because frankly, Damian didn’t think she needed it anyway but especially tonight.
“What were you even doing in there?” Theo asked. “She looks the same as she did before, Eve.”
Eve shot her husband a look. “Talking—none of your business.”
Theo only sighed.
Damian just chuckled. Fact was, Lily probably indulged Eve a bit, and then chose to wear what she wanted to wear. And he didn’t even care as long as his wife was comfortable and happy.
“Ready whenever you are,” Lily said, crossing the room to come to him. He held out a hand for her, and she took it without question, offering him a brilliant smile as she did so. He still loved her smile the best. That, and her legs. “And since you didn’t tell me what we’re doing, I hope what I am wearing is okay.”
Damian grinned, and leaned in to catch his wife’s lips with his own. Her mouth moving against him was a familiar dance, now, and he loved it the same way he always had. All too soon, he had to pull away because if he started this with her right now, they were never go
ing to get out of here. “What you are wearing is perfect. Plus, I can always get it off if plans change.”
“Yeah, that’s enough of that,” Theo grumbled. “Don’t wanna hear that about my sister. Get out.”
Waving a hand at Theo as if to shoo him off, Damian said, “In a minute.”
Lily winked.
Damian kissed her again.
“Say goodbye to the boys first, right?”
“Sure, sweetheart.”
Joe and Cory had set themselves up under the hammock with their trucks. For now, they were getting along. But how long that would last was anyone’s guess, really. Lily kneeled down to say goodbye, and kiss both boys on the top of their heads. They were too interested in their game to realize their mother and father were leaving, but Damian considered that a blessing.
“Be good for Aunt Eve,” he told his boys, “but give Uncle Theo hell, yeah?”
Cory grinned like he understood exactly what his father said. Joe, on the other hand, went back to quietly playing like nobody had spoken to him at all.
“I heard that,” Theo muttered behind Damian.
He just waved a hand again.
Not wanting to waste one more minute, Damian grabbed tight to Lily’s hand, and headed for the door without as much as a goodbye or even another thank you tossed over his shoulder. Lily’s light laughter followed him out of the hut, and into the night air. They hadn’t really gotten a single moment alone since coming on this vacation—he was not waiting one more second for five minutes with his wife.
“A little impatient, aren’t you?” she asked.
Damian smirked. “You have no idea.”
• • •
“Mmm, fuck.”
Lily’s high, breathless laughter colored up the boat. “I told you, didn’t I?”
It was a hell of a lot harder for him to talk when his wife was seated on his dick, and the boat they were in was rocking like crazy from their frenzied fucking. Not that Damian was complaining because he sure as hell was not.
“You did. You told me.”
Lily’s sexy little smile colored up his vision. Well, her, and the black, inky skies with the stars in plain view splattered across the dark backdrop. Large on the horizon was a white moon that Damian thought, had never looked clearer or nicer.
“I was right, then?”
Damian grabbed tight to his wife’s hips, and flexed his hips upward hard. He wanted to hear her sweet little gasps again when he filled her as full as he could get her. He loved the feeling of stretching her out with his cock. There was nothing quite like sex with his wife, really. Nothing compared.
This was heaven.
“You were right,” he murmured, reveling in the way her pussy clenched around him as her mouth grazed over his jaw. “Sex definitely helped to take my mind off the water.”
Or, he was going to let her believe that, anyway. He didn’t really have a reason to worry about the water tonight, but when she climbed into his lap with a promise of fun and sin, he was not going to turn her away. Not when she was going to ride him until he couldn’t fucking see straight or breathe right.
That was too good to pass up.
No man in his right mind would refuse.
Simple as that.
The tremors from Lily’s last orgasm finally started to subside when her hips began to move again. Unlike last time, she didn’t ride him hard and fast, though. No, she sat down on him until he was deep inside her, and then circled her hips into his lap just slow enough to drive him crazy. Her hands came up to cup his jaw, and then she was kissing him again. There was no mercy in her kiss—nothing easy or sweet about the way her tongue lashed inside his mouth to find his.
The kiss felt like war, really.
Never once did the movement of her hips slow. Even as her kiss burned him hotter, and he couldn’t fucking hold onto her tight enough. Oh, he was going to come like this, and it was going to be insane.
God, he loved his wife.
• • •
“Okay, this better be good,” Lily said. “When you said you had a surprise tonight, I didn’t think you meant this.”
Her voice was faint which told Damian she wasn’t very happy at the moment. Or maybe it was just because he had put her on a boat, and blindfolded her.
“You don’t even like the water, Damian.”
He didn’t.
At all.
But he did know how to steer a boat with a small engine, and he could fucking swim now. So could Lily. That took away a lot of the worry he had been feeling. Also, his kids weren’t on the boat so that meant there were two other little people he didn’t have to concern himself over at the moment. That all helped.
He chuckled. “I know, but this will be worth it, Lily.”
“Can I take off the—”
“No.”
His wife huffed, and he only grinned despite the fact she couldn’t see it. A simple call to the trip advisor they had hired to arrange most of their vacation had given him all the information he needed to make this night perfect. He had the boat, he knew where to go and what time would be best to see the show, and had no doubt once he got his wife there, she would understand just fine why he had needed to blindfold her for the half-hour boat ride.
“Almost there,” he promised.
Lily smiled a little, but kept quiet.
Damian hadn’t been lying, though. It took another five minutes, but as soon as he steered the boat near the small island where a colony of plankton had gathered to grow near a beach. Keeping the boat back just enough that it wouldn’t beach itself in the sand, he tossed out the cinderblock attached to a rope that would act as an anchor for them.
“Okay,” Damian murmured, “I’m going to get you out of the boat. The water is going to be waist deep, so don’t freak out.”
“What?”
“Lily, I will be right there the whole time. It’s only for a second, and then I will take your blindfold off. I promise.”
“But—”
“Relax.”
She sighed, but kept quiet as he helped her out of her dress to at least keep that dry for the moment. He made quick work of stripping down to the board shorts he’d slipped on earlier as well. First, he exited, then he helped to pull her down into the water, too. Once the two of them were in the water, and he had one hand tight on her waist, Damian reached up and pulled the blindfold off. It took Lily a minute, but once her gaze locked on his, he smiled.
“Keep looking at me, okay?”
“But why?”
“Just … for a second, sweetheart.”
Lily smiled, and shook her head. “What are you even doing?”
“You’ll see.”
He led them closer to the beach, and all the while, Lily kept looking at him like he had told her to. He saw it first—the glowing plankton resting under the clear blue water. Given the dark skies, the plankton gave off a bright neon blue against the sand.
“Okay, go ahead and look, Lily.”
He’d already seen the plankton, so he was much more interested in watching the way his wife’s eyes lit up when she saw what he had brought her here for. The Maldives really were a special experience in that way—beautiful beaches, fantastic people to welcome them, and once-in-a-lifetime sights.
Kind of like this.
The glowing plankton seemed to stretch on along the quiet beach of the island for a good mile or two. Almost as far as their eyes could see, really.
Going in further until they were just ankle-deep, every step they took lit up the plankton even more. Lily laughed, bending down to trail her fingers through the water and sand, causing lines to glow like little trails from where she had touched.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “That’s amazing.”
It was.
But she was better.
Standing straight again, Lily tucked herself into Damian’s side. He kissed the top of her head, and when she tipped back to stare up at him, he kissed her lips, too.
�
��Merry Christmas, Lily.”
“Merry Christmas, Damian.”
THIRTEEN
Eve and Theo
EVE
“No, no, no, Cory,” Theo said, his laughter echoing through the hut as he chased the naked toddler across the floor. Eve could have stepped in to help her husband, but watching him try to get Cory into the bathtub was way more fun. And far more amusing. “You swam in the water yesterday, didn’t you? It’s the same thing, kid!”
“Nos, Uncle Theo, nos!”
And with that, Cory threw himself to the floor, and immediately rolled under the bed just out of his uncle’s reach. Eve listened as Theo tried to convince Cory to come out, and then when that didn’t work, he thought using bribery might change the kid’s mind.
“Uncle Theo will give you soda if you come out, Cory.”
“Nos!”
“We won’t tell Ma, either.”
“Nos!”
“Get out here right now, kid.”
“Nos!”
Eve let out a quiet laugh, but the second Theo’s head popped up and his narrowed gaze landed on her, she pretended like she hadn’t made a damn noise. He wouldn’t appreciate her amusement at his troubles.
“You’re still smiling, you know,” he told her, “I can see it.”
Was she?
Well, shit.
Eve tried to hide her smile by looking down at Joe as she ran a towel through his hair. A far easier child than his younger brother, Joe sat happily and quietly, all too willing to let his aunt get him ready for bed. He was easily pleased, and fine to follow the rules of his bedtime routine. Unlike his little brother.
“Ha!”
Theo’s triumphant exclamation brought Eve’s attention back to him just as he stood up from the floor with a wiggly, naked Cory in his arms. The kid kept his fight up all the way to the bathroom, never once letting his uncle think he truly had the upper hand on the child. And strangely enough, Eve knew that out of all the kids, Theo was most fond of Cory … even if he would never admit that out loud to her, or anyone else.