A Gansett Island Christmas

by Marie Force

  “We’re being discriminated against for not having kids,” Grant said.

  “Yeah,” Adam said. “No fair.”

  “That means no naked boy, naked girl for us,” Grant said.

  “Shut up, Grant,” Stephanie said, putting her hand over his mouth.

  “Honestly,” Linda said. “When are you all going to grow up?”

  “Not today,” Evan said, accepting a high five from Grant.

  They got busy settling little ones, blowing up air mattresses and making beds.

  “We can use dresser drawers for the babies,” Linda said.

  “That’s freaking brilliant,” Tiffany said.

  “No kidding,” Maddie said. “She must be an expert on babies or something.”

  “Believe it or not, this is not my first circus,” Linda said.

  “That’s a good word to describe this day,” Quinn said, making everyone laugh.

  It took an hour, but they got Thomas, Ashleigh, Hailey and P.J. bathed and into pajamas. They were tucked into Linda and Big Mac’s bed for a story read to them by Big Mac before their moms came to collect them and put the sleepy kids to bed.

  Babies were deposited into towel-lined dresser drawers in the rooms assigned to their parents who snuck downstairs for a nightcap before calling it a night.

  “Spiked eggnog for everyone,” Janey declared.

  “You’re breastfeeding,” Joe said.

  “Oh my God,” Evan said, making retching noises. “Do not talk about her breasts in front of us.”

  “Seriously,” Grant said. “So gross.”

  “Nothing gross about it, boys,” Joe said, grinning. “Your sister has one hell of a rack.”

  “Joseph!” Big Mac’s bellow rang across the living room from his perch in front of the fireplace where he added more wood.

  “Oh shit. Didn’t see you there. Sir.”

  Mac and his brothers lost it laughing.

  Smiling, Janey stood so Joe could sit and then climbed into his lap.

  He wrapped his arms around her.

  “Thank you for defending my ta-tas,” she said, laying a hot kiss on him while her brothers groaned and threw pillows at them.

  “Your ta-tas are well worth defending, babe.”

  “Mom!” Grant said on a long whine. “Make her stop.”

  “Jane Elizabeth, stop disgusting your brothers.”

  “Why would I stop now when I’m so good at it?”

  “Let’s go to bed,” Joe said, waggling his brows suggestively.

  “You’re at mom’s house,” Mac said disdainfully. “This is a no-sex zone tonight.”

  “Is it?” Maddie asked, raising a brow.

  “Oh, um, well…”

  That set off more laughter.

  “My sides hurt from laughing,” Mallory said, hands on her ribs.

  “Mine, too,” Stephanie said. “I had no idea holidays could be like this until I met this family. Thank you, guys.”

  “We couldn’t be happier to have you as one of us,” Big Mac said.

  “Totally agree with the old man,” Grant said, kissing his wife.

  “Who you calling old, boy?” his father asked.

  “Evan,” Linda said, “will you play for us?”

  “Sure.”

  “Quietly,” Maddie said.

  “You got it.” Evan tuned his guitar while the others snuggled up to their loved ones.

  Grant slung one arm around Stephanie and the other around Grace, so she wouldn’t feel left out.

  “Don’t get too comfortable with my brother, Mrs. McCarthy,” Evan said, glowering playfully at Grant.

  “Shut up and play,” Grace told her husband as she leaned her head on Grant’s shoulder.

  “No respect,” Evan said, strumming the guitar and listening intently until he was satisfied with the sound. He sang a lovely, moody take on “Joy to the World” that brought tears to his mother’s eyes.

  “I loved that,” she said. “You should record it.”

  “You think so?”

  “Oh yes,” she said. “It’ll be a huge hit.”

  “Mother knows best,” Big Mac said, “but I agree with her. That was fantastic, son. What else you got?”

  He played for an hour, running through the old familiar Christmas songs and putting his own spin on each of them.

  “Time to record a Christmas album, bro,” Grant said. “Amazing.”

  “I’ll give that some thought the next time I’m here long enough to record.”

  “When will that be?” Linda asked.

  “March. We’ll be home for a couple of months before the summer tour.”

  “I could never stand to miss summer on Gansett,” Big Mac said. “Glad I don’t have to go on tour.”

  “We’re all glad about that, Dad,” Evan said.

  Big Mac was known for many things. Singing wasn’t one of them. “On that note,” Big Mac said, after tossing a few more logs on the fire, “I’m taking my lovely wife up to bed and keeping her there until sometime tomorrow after the day she’s put in today.”

  “Thank you, Linda,” Stephanie said, starting a round of quiet applause.

  “You are most welcome,” Linda said, taking a bow. “My day was made by having you all here.” She blew air kisses to everyone as she left the room.

  “No sex in the living room, boys,” Big Mac said over his shoulder as he followed her.

  “Said the guy who has private accommodations,” Grant mumbled.

  “You’ll survive one night without,” Stephanie said, crawling in next to him on one of the narrow air mattresses.

  “One night without.” Evan snorted. “Whatever.”

  “What can I say?” Stephanie smirked. “My husband is a stud.”

  Evan and Adam made gagging noises.

  “That’s right, baby.” Grant pulled the sleeping bag over them and put his arm around her. “Turn over,” he whispered.

  * * *

  * * *

  Stephanie turned to face her husband. “What?” she whispered.

  “I wanted to see you.”

  “You saw me all day.”

  “Not enough.” He slid his hand down her back and tucked her in tighter against him, arranging them so her leg was between his. “That’s better. Now kiss me.”

  She gave him a chaste kiss.

  He squeezed her ass. “Not good enough.”

  “That’s all you’re getting tonight. Go to sleep.”

  “How am I supposed to sleep in this condition?” he asked, pushing his erection against her belly.

  “Tell him to stand down.”

  “He doesn’t listen to me.”

  Stephanie began to laugh and couldn’t stop.

  “Are you two having sex over there?” Evan asked.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” Grant said.

  “If he’s doing it, I want to do it, too,” Evan said.

  “Not happening,” Grace replied.

  “Everyone’s having sex but us,” Adam said. “It’s not fair.”

  “This is like the sleepover straight from hell,” Abby said, laughing.

  “You guys,” Stephanie said softly. “I just want you to know that being part of this family is… Well, it’s the best thing. The very best thing.”

  Grant hugged her tightly and kissed her softly. “You make us better.”

  “I don’t know about that…”

  “I do.”

  “I agree with him,” Evan said. “And you know how rare that is.”

  “Same,” Adam said. “You certainly make him better.”

  “Whatever,” Grant said. “I was pretty good to begin with.”

  “She definitely makes you better,” Abby said, sparking a wave of laughter. As his ex-girlfriend, she ought to know.

  “Well played, my love,” Adam said, laughing.

  “Gracie, you could make me better if you just—” Evan’s words were muffled by his wife kissing him. “Yes, just like that only more.”

  “Mom
!” Grant said. “Evan’s having sex!”

  “Shut up,” Stephanie said. “No one is having sex.”

  “I am,” Adam said.

  “No, you’re not,” Abby replied.

  “I hate this sleepover,” Adam said. “It’s no fun. If we were home, we could have sex.”

  “No, we couldn’t because it’s freezing at home, and there’s no way I’m getting naked when it’s freezing.”

  “I could get you naked.”

  “No, you couldn’t.”

  “Could.”

  “Couldn’t.”

  “Oh my God,” Evan said. “Shut the fuck up, will you?”

  “Did someone say fuck?” Grant asked.

  Grace began to laugh. She laughed so hard she went silent.

  “Your laughter is highly inappropriate,” Evan said indignantly. “My boner doesn’t find any of this funny.”

  Grace snorted. “I can’t,” she said, gasping for air. “I can’t take any more. Just shut up. All of you.”

  Meanwhile upstairs…

  * * *

  “Not in your father’s house,” Quinn said as Mallory kissed his chest, moving lower.

  “He won’t know.”

  “Yes, he will. He’s incredibly perceptive.”

  Mallory laughed softly. “He’s at the other end of the hall.”

  “He’s under the same roof, and he’s a big dude.”

  “You’re a big dude.” She wrapped her hand around his hard cock to make her point.

  Groaning, he said “Mallory…”

  “Yes, dear?”

  “Don’t.”

  She stared at him, hoping her shock registered. He never said no to her. Ever. “You’re serious. You really don’t want to?”

  “I believe you’re holding ample proof that I want to.”

  She giggled at his use of the word ample. “So what’s the problem?”

  “It’s disrespectful for me to fuck you in your father’s house.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “I’d like to ask him to be sure.”

  “Stop it. You’re not going to ask him. And P.S. I’m almost forty years old. I can fuck my fiancé, as you so elegantly put it, anytime I want to.”

  “Under normal circumstances, your fiancé would completely agree, but with your six-foot-something father down the hall and in possession of two working legs, I’m going to take a pass.”

  Mallory positioned herself—naked—on top of him, sliding back and forth over his cock until he whimpered. That’s when she knew she had him.

  “If he guts me with that big fishing knife of his, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”

  “I’ll take the risk.” She sunk down on him, and shivered from the impact the way she always did. “There we go.”

  Quinn put his hands behind his head and gazed up at her with amusement. “Go ahead and have your fun.”

  “Thank you, I will. I’m feeling rather fertile today. Must be all the little ones. Maybe this will be the night. Wouldn’t that be something?”

  “Yeah, babe. It would be. Hopefully, the father of this child you want will live to raise him or her with you.”

  “Stop it. My dad loves you as much as I do. He wants me to be happy.”

  “Are you? Happy that is?”

  Mallory stopped moving and stared down at him. “How can you ask me that? You know how happy I am with you.”

  “Just making sure.”

  Mallory leaned in to kiss him. “Living and working with you is the most fun I’ve ever had.”

  “Me, too. I love everything about it—and you.”

  “Good, then prove it.” She swiveled her hips, drawing a sharp gasp of pleasure from him.

  He moved so quickly, she never saw it coming. One minute she was on top of him and the next she was pinned to the bed with him on top and in charge.

  Gotcha, she thought, smiling as she wrapped her arms and legs around him, thrilled to let him take the lead.

  * * *

  “Are you happy now that you got to have Christmas with your family?” Joe whispered to Janey. He had her spread out under him, her body soft and pliant as he throbbed inside her.

  “So happy. But this is the best part of the day—time alone with you at the end of it.”

  “Couldn’t agree more.”

  They were in the room that’d been hers growing up. “I’ve never had sex in this bed.”

  “Never?”

  “Nope.”

  “I can’t believe you and what’s his name never snuck up here, not that I want to think about you doing this with him.” Joe gave an extra push of his hips to make his point.

  “I had parents and four older brothers. There was no way we could pull that off.”

  “Well, I’m glad to be first for something.”

  “You may as well have been first for everything. I barely remember what it was like to be with him. You’re the only one who matters.”

  “Good answer, babe.”

  Vivienne let out a squeak from her makeshift crib next to them.

  Joe froze even as he throbbed with desire for his sexy wife. He dropped his head to Janey’s chest and took a deep breath, fighting for control.

  She ran her fingers through his hair.

  He thought she was soothing him until she clamped down on his cock, nearly making him come.

  “Stop,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Don’t wanna,” she whispered, her lips brushing against his ear giving him goose bumps.

  “You’re going to wake her up before we get to finish.” That had happened far too often lately.

  “Then you’d better get moving.” She pinched his butt to make her point.

  She made him crazy, especially when they had to be quiet. Well, she made him crazy much of the time, if he was being honest.

  He moved with her until they both gasped with satisfaction that ripped through him the way it always did when he made love to his wife. How was it possible that it just got better all the time? He’d waited so long for a chance to love her, and now every day with her made that long wait worth it.

  “Love you love you, Janey Cantrell,” he whispered, recalling when he’d told her he wanted her to love him love him—and not as an extra brother.

  “Love you love you, too, Joseph. Merry Christmas.”

  “And a very happy New Year.”

  * * *

  Blaine had his hands full of Tiffany’s spectacular ass, but she’d forbidden him to collect on the spanking she owed him until they were in the privacy of their own home and couldn’t be overheard.

  “This ass is so mine when we get home tomorrow.”

  “Yes, dear,” she said, smiling up at him.

  “Do I need to be concerned about how much pleasure you take in disobeying me?”

  “You take just as much pleasure from setting me straight.”

  “Yes, I do,” he said, nuzzling her neck.

  “Did you stop by your mother’s earlier?”

  “Yep, everyone was there.”

  “We’ll see them tomorrow.”

  “Your ass might be too sore to go out.”

  “Haha, no way. I’m not afraid of you.”

  “Good,” he said kissing her. “Earlier, I was remembering that long awful winter I spent thinking about you and wishing I could be with you. I don’t care what we’re doing as long as we’re doing it together.”

  “Speaking of doing it…” She raised her hips suggestively. “You wanna?”

  “Um, yeah, I wanna, but we’re not gonna.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because, you were very, very naughty today, defying your police chief husband, and you need to be made to pay the price.”

  “I thought the price was the spanking.”

  “Hell no, that’s not the price. You enjoy that too much.”

  Tiffany laughed. “Yes, I do. But may I point out that you enjoy this,” she said, rubbing her belly against his hard cock, “so maybe you could make
a little exception since it’s Christmas.”

  “I suppose I could allow it this one time.”

  “You are just too good to me.”

  * * *

  After feeding baby Mac, Maddie conked out while the baby remained wide awake. Mac sat up in bed, holding the little guy who had brought them so much joy since his arrival.

  He grasped handfuls of Mac’s chest hair and pulled so hard his daddy winced.

  “Ouch, buddy.” Mac no sooner disentangled the little fists than they had grabbed another handful.

  Taking the baby with him, he got up to find the T-shirt he’d discarded earlier and put it on. “Much better.”

  Baby Mac reached for the hair on Mac’s head and pulled. “Yep, you’re a McCarthy boy. We start the hair pulling at a young age around here.” He could remember wild wrestling matches with his brothers that included hair pulling and various other dirty tricks.

  “Let me tell you a bedtime story about a guy who thought he had his life set up just the way he wanted it until he knocked a gorgeous woman off her bike—totally by accident, of course. And that accident turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to him. You know who was on that bike, buddy? That’s right. Your mommy. She had terrible boo-boos, and Daddy moved in to take care of her and your brother and he never left. Well, except for a short time after Daddy did something stupid and Mommy got mad at him. Luckily for him—and for you—she decided to forgive him for that and many other stupid things he’s done since then.”

  Mac stood the baby up on his chubby legs and let him bounce around, hoping to tire him out.

  “Your mommy is the best mommy ever. She loves you and me and Thomas and Hailey and she takes such good care of us. When you grow up, I hope you find someone just like your mommy. Watch for gorgeous girls on bikes. They’re the best.”

  “What’re you telling him?” Maddie mumbled.

  “The best bedtime story ever.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Um, nope. He’s wide awake.”

  “You want me to take a turn with him so you can sleep?”