by Haley Walsh
The Skyler Foxe Novels by Haley Walsh
Foxe Tail
Foxe Hunt
Out-Foxed
Foxe Den: A Holiday Collection (Novella)
Foxe Fire
Desert Foxe
Foxe Den 2: Summer Vacation (Novella)
A Very Merry Foxemas
A Skyler Foxe & Friends Holiday Novella
HALEY WALSH
Foxe Press
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.
Copyright © Haley Walsh 2015
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Cover design by Jeri Westerson
This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. The eBook version cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this eBook version can be shared or reproduced without the express permission of the publisher.
Foxe Press
To my Long Suffering Husband
who makes the season bright
A BRIEF WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
Before you go any further, you really need to have read some of the Skyler Foxe Mysteries or you won’t know who any of these people are, let alone get the joke. If I were you, I’d be reading this after at least FOXE FIRE so you know who all the characters are.
However, if you don’t mind reading a bunch of random Christmas stories with a group of hot men then don’t let me stop you.
Unlike the previous novellas in the Skyler Foxe universe, this little book doesn’t move the character arcs along. This is just a sticky sweet confection for the holidays. No murder, no angst, just holiday cheer. This is dedicated to all the fans of Skyler Foxe who have supported me with your love and encouragement. A gift to you for the holidays. Enjoy! Have a very Merry Foxemas!
Check out all my books at my website: SkylerFoxeMysteries.com.
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
SKYLER FOXE SLOGGED THROUGH the snow. Each time he lifted his foot and set it down, it sank deep into the icy cold. His jeans were getting soaked and freezing.
And just why was he slogging through snow?
He had to think about it for a moment before… Oh yes. His car had broken down along the road and wouldn’t you know? Deep in the snowy woods there was not a soul on the highway. But he had seen a light amid the trees. And since the sky was growing pink with the sunset and with no bars on his cell phone, he decided that making for the light was his only option.
He didn’t realize that the snow would be so deep once he got off the road. Jeans were definitely not good for snow-shoeing. Not that he was snow-shoeing. Didn’t that usually keep you above the snow? At least he had a warm parka, and a knit cap and gloves. But he worried about the sun going down. He’d surely reach that light before that.
But what was that light? It hadn’t been all that clear through the trees. He hoped against hope it was a cabin. A nice warm cabin with no ax murderers for miles and miles. And just as he made the rise, the trees opened up to a meadow and it was indeed a cabin. It looked like a Christmas card. The soft light from the sunset bathed the snow blue, glittering with the last of the sun’s rays. The gentle snowfall of lacy flakes was becoming heavier, speckling Skyler’s lashes. He swiped at them with his gloved hand.
The cabin’s windows shone in a golden comforting light, and white smoke feathered upward from the rustic stone chimney. The cabin was small and steeply pitched, with a porch wrapped around it with wooden chairs hewn from logs, though there would be no porch-sitting today. It would have been charming if the situation wasn’t so dire.
With renewed strength, he pushed uphill and trudged to the porch steps, stomping off the snow before he knocked on the door.
Sooner than expected it swung wide and a tall, broad-shouldered man stood in the doorway, blinking ice blue eyes curiously at him. His hair was black and fell haphazardly around a face covered in a dark, thick beard. Dark hair sprouted from his sweater collar, and Skyler’s tired legs nearly buckled. Hadn’t this been a fantasy of his? Being snowed in at a country cabin with a dark-furred gorgeous man?
The silence had gone on too long between them. “Sorry,” said Skyler. “But…my car broke down.” He raised his phone. “No bars. Would you have a phone I could use to call a tow truck?”
“Sure,” said his deep baritone. “Come on in.”
Skyler stepped over the threshold and peeled off his gloves. It was deliciously warm inside. A fire was crackling happily in the stone fireplace, and a Christmas tree—pine scent gloriously filling his senses—stood off in a corner with small twinkly lights and construction paper chains draped over it.
Jeez, the inside was a Christmas card, too!
The furniture was early American cowboy with a few Stickly pieces thrown in. A warm rag rug sat before the fire and there were a few paintings on the walls of buffalo and Indians on horses.
“What a charming cabin,” said Skyler, unable to help himself.
“Thanks. Phone’s over there.” The man gestured toward a half-wall dividing the great room from the kitchen. Skyler looked up to the loft above. The only bedroom in the place, it looked down to the great room below.
Skyler moved to the phone and picked up the receiver. He punched in the number for the Auto Club and told them his predicament and approximately where he was, but they said the roads were closing and they couldn’t get a plow out there till morning. Glancing out the window, it did look like the snow was coming down harder. The flakes were bigger and sticking to the windows in wet sluggish flakes.
He hung up and turned toward his host. “I…I don’t know what to do. They said they couldn’t get to it until morning. I guess…I could sleep in the car with the heater on…”
“Yeah, that’s a good way to asphyxiate yourself. Don’t be a hero. You’re welcome to spend the night here.”
“I couldn’t put you out.”
“It’s the law of the forest. You expect these kinds of things when you live out here. The sofa makes into a bed. I have an extra tooth brush. You’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? I really don’t want to impose.”
“It’s really no problem. I was just about to make dinner. Hope you like stew. Take your things off. You may want to dry your jeans by the fire.”
Skyler paused.
The man stopped and chuckled. “Before I get you out of your pants, I really should introduce myself.” He reached over with his hand. “Keith Fletcher.”
Skyler took his warm hand in his and shook it. “Skyler Foxe.”
“Skyler? That’s a name you don’t hear too often.”
“Yes, well, my mother is an original herself.” He looked around, wondering about his pants. It was starting to give him a chill.
“Listen,” said Keith, puttering in the kitchen. “We’re grown-ups here. You really can take off your pants. I have sweats upstairs though they’ll be a little big for you. Or you can wrap yourself in the quilt over the sofa back.”
Skyler glanced toward the leather sofa cushions and spotted the crazy quilt. “This is so much like a fantasy, complete with all the trimmings.”
“What kind of fantasy?” asked Keith, chopping oni
ons. He scooped them up in his hand with the knife and dumped them into the iron pot on the stove. They sizzled with the savory scent of herbs and cooking meat.
God, the man was so…masculine, gorgeous, sexy…
Skyler was about to open his mouth when he thought better of it. Yeah, right. Tell this total stranger about your big gay fantasy. Then watch him turn into the ax murderer of your nightmares. Instead he said aloud, “Oh, you know. Christmas cabin, snow outside, fire in the fireplace, quilt…” He turned away and stepped out of his wet shoes. “I’m sure hot chocolate is next…”
He turned and Keith was holding up a steaming mug. “I was about to ask. One marshmallow or two?”
Skyler offered a weak smile. He put his shoes and socks on the hearth, watching the socks steam. “One’s fine.” He grabbed for his belt and paused. Come on, Skyler, don’t be a big baby. He quickly unzipped and slipped the trousers down. He happened to look up and caught Keith’s reflection in one of the watercolors hanging over the mantle. The man was watching him avidly with something like a hungry look in his eye.
Skyler shook it off as his imagination. He quickly stepped out of his pants, laid them before the fire, and scooped up the quilt to wrap it around his waist. Sloughing off his embarrassment, he turned to the man again. He seemed busy chopping vegetables. The mug of hot chocolate was sitting on the counter between them. Skyler approached and took the offering. He sipped and nearly groaned at its rich dark flavor.
“So what were you doing on this road?” asked Keith, his back to Skyler. “I don’t get a lot of visitors this way.”
Skyler couldn’t help running his gaze over the delicious muscled back, the fitted jeans that accentuated a tight round ass.
“You mean on the highway?” he asked between sips.
Keith shook his head with a chuckle. “That’s not the highway. You must have missed the cut-off.”
“What?” Skyler set down the mug and grabbed for his jacket and phone until he remembered that he had no bars. “How could I have missed it?”
“It’s easy to do, especially when it’s snowing and getting dark.”
“Oh shoot! Then I told the Auto Club the wrong thing.”
“That’s okay. Call them back in the morning. They can’t get through now anyway.” He pushed the curtains aside. “I’d be surprised if they can even make it then. The snow is really coming down.”
Sighing, Skyler leaned against the back of the sofa. “This is sure nice of you.”
“Well, to tell you the truth, it does get a little lonely up here. I can’t say I mind the company.”
“So…what do you do here?”
“I paint. Those,” and he gestured with his spoon toward the buffalo paintings Skyler had noticed earlier. “And those,” he said, pointing to a series of watercolors featuring scenes not unlike his snowy cabin and autumn-leafed forests.
“Wow. Those are really good.” Skyler wandered over and examined the autumn-themed pictures. “I like this one a lot. The details are so remarkable with so few brushstrokes. You really have a wonderful talent.”
“Thanks. I sell a lot of prints of that one, as it happens.”
“So you’re an artist. And you live here. Sounds perfect.”
“It is, though it makes it hard to meet people.” He slid the pile of vegetables off the edge of his cutting board and added them to the pot. “Want a beer?”
Skyler thought he had a mug of hot chocolate somewhere but after a cursory look around didn’t see one. “Sure. Might as well get comfortable… while standing around in my underwear.”
Keith smiled and with that dark beard and the creased dimples in his cheeks, Skyler was completely charmed. Calm down, boy, he’s probably a happy hetero.
“If it would make you more at ease,” said Keith, handing him a bottle of cold Corona, “I could always get out of my pants, too.”
Skyler looked up at him wide-eyed. Okay, maybe not so hetero.
Keith’s smiled faded. “Sorry. That was a joke. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“No! No, I’m…I’m fine.”
“It’s just not…easy to meet men way out here. And I couldn’t help but notice how…attractive you are. Wow, just stop me if I get too far out of line. Obviously, solitude has completely shut down my filter.”
“No, I’m gay, too!” Skyler slapped his hand over his mouth. “Sorry, I seem to have lost my filter as well.”
Keith stared at Skyler for a moment before he burst out laughing.
Feeling like an idiot, Skyler reddened. But Keith’s laughter helped to ease his embarrassment. “Now that that’s out of the way…” Skyler muttered.
“Yeah,” Keith agreed. They both seemed to relax after that.
Keith stirred his pot and looked at Skyler over his shoulder. “So you didn’t tell me what you were doing way out here.”
“I’m a writer and I was on my way to a conference. I…don’t seem to quite remember where it is, though.”
“Montana is full of those kinds of retreats.”
“Aren’t we in Colorado?”
“Colorado?” He looked at Skyler quizzically. “Okay, Colorado.”
The exchange seemed strange to Skyler for a moment until the feeling faded.
“I knew someone who used to live in Colorado,” said Skyler dreamily. He took a swig of his beer.
“Yeah? Who?”
He narrowed his eyes, thinking. “Can’t recall now.”
“Stew has to cook. Want to sit by the fire?”
“Absolutely. This is so beautiful. The cabin, the tree. It’s a perfect getaway.”
“Yes, I love it here.” Keith had been wearing a soft cable knit sweater before, Skyler was sure of it, but now he was wearing a red plaid flannel shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing the muscles of his forearms flexing under a pelt of dark hair.
“Uh…I like your shirt.”
“Thanks,” Keith rumbled. “It’s what all us lumberjacks wear.”
“Lumberjack? I thought you were a painter.”
Keith looked as if he was thinking about it before he nodded. “I’m a lumberjack and a painter.”
Skyler glanced at the watercolors and oils on the walls, and instead of the buffaloes and Indians he was certain were there before, framed landscapes with waterfalls and wide expanses of timber now hung there. He dismissed it and turned back to gaze at Keith. Mmm mmm. He was better than the Brawny paper towel guy. Lumberjack fantasies flickered through his head. Keith with that dark beard and that flannel shirt—that now appeared to be unbuttoned exposing a toned and furred chest and abs—made his heart thunder and his dick harden. He tucked the quilt around him, using the folds to hide his condition.
Keith sat next to Skyler on the short sofa. They both had beer bottles in their hands as they looked at one another.
Suddenly, the lights flickered off.
“Damn,” said Keith. “That’s the power gone out. At least the stove is propane and we have plenty of firewood. I do have a generator if…if you’re worried.”
“No.” Skyler looked up into the man’s remarkably handsome face, now lit from the blaze in the fireplace on one side in golden light, while the other side fell to shadow. The effect was terribly sexy. Somewhere between the kitchen and the living room, Keith also seemed to have lost his flannel shirt. The firelight glinted off the hair on his chest, giving them a golden halo. “I’m f-fine.”
Keith leaned in, eyes tracking over Skyler’s face. “It sure gets lonely out here. I haven’t seen a good-looking man in these parts for a very long time. Not until…today.”
“Really?” said Skyler dreamily, leaning in.
“Yeah. Skyler, I hope you don’t mind my saying this. I mean we both just met, but I think you’re gorgeous.”
“That’s okay. I think…you’re pretty easy on the eyes yourself.”
Keith scooted closer and set down his beer. “Look, the snow is coming down hard. The tow truck won’t be getting through t
ill morning…or later.” His voice fell to a dark sultry tenor. “Why don’t we…get to know each other?”
Skyler edged forward. He reached blindly for the coffee table to set down his beer…and missed spectacularly. The bottle hit the wood plank floor and seemed to bounce. Beer spattered the both of them and kept on coming, foam everywhere.
They jumped apart and sprang from the sofa. Skyler stumbled, catching his foot on the table’s leg and fell backward, legs flying up in the air.
Keith tried to reach for him and ended up knocking his head on the edge of the table.
All fell quiet except for the crackling of the fire in the hearth. Until Keith started to laugh.
Skyler sat up, tucking the quilt around his exposed legs again.
“Well that was smooth,” Keith managed between chortles. “I’m quite the operator. Maybe a bit out of practice.”
“It was my fault,” said Skyler, grabbing the beer bottle. “Your rug is soaked. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He leaned an arm on the table and smiled.
Skyler fell into that smile and those eyes, so enticing in the firelight. That naked chest was begging to be touched. He scooted closer. “Let’s try this again.” He cupped Keith’s bearded face and reached up to press lips softly to his. Keith opened gently and just the tips of their tongues met, merely touching tenderly for a moment before Keith leaned in and opened his mouth wider, enveloping Skyler’s and sucking on his tongue. His arms slid around Skyler’s torso and dragged him in, pressing them chest to chest.
Skyler moaned at the touch. He struggled to get out of the quilt and straddled Keith, trying to get closer and he found a rather impressive bulge in those jeans meeting his own erection through his tighty-whities. He ground against it and Keith moaned deep in his throat, the sound rumbling pleasantly over Skyler’s skin.
Keith raised his face and began nuzzling Skyler’s neck and ear. Skyler never even noticed when Keith rose, but when he began walking and carrying him, Skyler wrapped his arms and legs around the man and let him take him up the stairs.