Of Love

by Sean Michael

  “Damn. Soon as I am no longer a total limp noodle, I’ll take care of you.” Dex was pretty damn melted into the mattress at the moment and wasn’t sure he could even move.

  “I’m cool with that.” Kent hummed softly, eyelashes tickling him.

  “Oh good.” He grabbed Kent’s hand and hugged it to him. “Love you, yeah?”

  “I love you too.”

  “Oh good. Then my Christmas is complete.”

  Kent slid up, kissed him between his shoulder blades, and settled.

  “I brought champagne and orange juice so we could have mimosas.” He’d heard it was a tradition.

  “Mmm. Decadent.”

  “Yeah. We deserve it.”

  “We totally do.”

  “This Christmas has been really special for me, Kent. And it’s all down to you.”

  Kent grabbed his fingers and squeezed. He squeezed back, this moment just about as perfect as could be.

  “Merry Christmas, honey,” Kent said.

  “Merry Christmas. Love you.”

  So much.

  Chapter Sixteen

  THEY SHARED appetizers and mimosas for Christmas brunch, feeding each other bites, laughing together. It was the best holiday Kent could remember. They were sitting on the floor now, Dex’s head in his lap, his lover smiling up at him.

  He stroked his lover’s forehead, the bridge of his nose. Chuckling, Dex licked his finger.

  “Quick little tongue,” he teased.

  “You should see what else it does.” Dex waggled his eyebrows.

  “I have, gorgeous.” Of course, he’d showed Dex a couple of things this morning.

  Laughing, Dex slipped an arm around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Still smiling up at him, Dex asked, “You want your gift?”

  “Uh-huh.” He wanted Dex to just keep grinning at him.

  “Good. I hope you like it.” Dex wasn’t reaching for it, instead smiling up at him.

  “I will.” He had no doubt.

  “You’d better.” Dex laughed, winked at him.

  “Flirt. I could do this for weeks.”

  “Months,” Dex suggested.

  “Forever.” But that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Yeah.” Dex pulled him down slowly, bringing their mouths together, lips soft on his.

  He settled down along Dex’s side, humming deep in his chest. God, this was perfect.

  “This isn’t getting you your present,” Dex noted, rubbing against him.

  “I thought you were my present?” Kent would be happy with just Dex, he truly would be.

  “I got you something too, though.”

  “Yeah?” Kent let his hand slide down the curve of Dex’s hip, petting.

  “Yeah. I think… I hope you’re going to love it.” Dex pushed into his touch. “It’s a good thing we’ve got sweats on, or I’d be jumping your bones before you could unwrap it.”

  Oh, they could have sex during the Rudolph cartoon. Or Frosty. The Grinch was the only one he paid attention to.

  Dex stretched his arm up, reaching for a large, rectangular, mostly flat gift under the tree, his T-shirt riding up out of his sweats and exposing his belly. Oh, pretty. Kent reached out, fingers playing on the fuzzy skin.

  “Mmm.” Dex snagged the gift, but stayed stretched out, letting him touch.

  “Pretty, pretty.” Man, Dex wrapped nicely. Kent was a chunk in a bag sort of guy.

  “I wanted it to be special for you.” Dex shifted to curl around him from behind.

  “It is. Can I open it?”

  “That’s why I gave it to you, doofus.”

  Kent chuckled and handed Dex his box, the new running shoes something he knew Dex would want.

  “All right!” Dex tore into the bag and pulled out the box. “Oh man. These are awesome! They’ve got the extra comfort sole—I’ve been wanting to try them.”

  Kent nodded, but he was focused on unwrapping his present. The frame held a blown-up photo of his babies’ ultrasound. Oh. Oh God.

  “I e-mailed myself the picture the other day when you were sleeping. Is it okay?” Dex looked nervous.

  “Oh, love. It’s perfect. It’s….” His eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.”

  “Good tears?” Dex asked, fingers sliding on his cheeks to brush them away.

  “Yes. Yes, it’s the babies.”

  “Yeah. I thought you’d like to hang it over your mantel.”

  It meant so much that Dex would do this for him.

  “Now we get to thank each other properly.” Dex waggled his eyebrows.

  “Oooh.” Kent touched the frame again, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

  “You want to hang that first?” Dex asked.

  “No. No, I was just admiring.”

  “You sure?” Dex touched his fingers, stroking them before sliding a hand up along his arm.

  “I am. Thank you, honey, so much. It means so much.”

  “I thought it would. I wanted to give you something special for our first Christmas together. I mean, you’ve made the whole holiday special to me in a way it’s never been.”

  Kent hugged Dex hard, so in love he couldn’t breathe.

  The hugging turned into kissing, their mouths and bodies clinging. He felt like he was wrapped in love.

  They pulled and tugged, getting their clothing off, and Dex pressed him down into the floor. All this furniture, beds, and they loved doing it on the floor. He raised his knees to cradle Dex, who rocked and rolled against him. Kiss after kiss opened his lips. Lord, he wanted this, wanted to have this man in his life, in his bed. On his floor.

  Dex’s hands found his, their fingers twisting together. Kent held on, squeezing tight. They rocked together, cocks sliding along their bellies, bumping into hips and each other.

  “I love you. Did I say that already?” Kent asked.

  “Oh, you can say it as many times as you want.”

  “Good.” He might say it a lot.

  “Uh-huh. It is.” Dex brought their joined hands to Kent’s nipples, and flicked his thumbs against them.

  “Harder.” Kent loved the way Dex touched him.

  Dex pressed Kent’s own knuckles against his nipples.

  “Uhn.” Kent rolled up, rocking into the touches.

  “Feels good, huh?” Dex rubbed harder.

  “Uh-huh. I like feeling.” Okay, that was a stupid thing to say.

  Dex laughed softly, eyes twinkling. “I have you all incoherent.”

  Dragging his right hand down, Dex wrapped their still twined fingers around both their cocks, pulling them together. Kent nodded. He felt amazing—loved and sensual and supported.

  Dex set the rhythm, moving slowly and building the need in his balls by increments. He stole kisses that moved from lazy to desperate, and he could feel his orgasm coming, faster and faster the longer they stroked and kissed.

  It wasn’t going to be long now. He tried to warn Dex, but the orgasm pushed from him, making him cry out.

  “Oh God, yes!” Dex jerked, more spunk splashing between them.

  They rested together, sticky and sweaty and sated.

  “Best. Christmas. Ever.” Dex punctuated each word with a quick kiss.

  “God, yes. Our first Christmas together.”

  “Yeah. Never thought I’d care about the holiday all that much.” Dex’s kisses moved to his collarbone.

  Next year there would be babies. Three babies. Maybe there’d be Dex too.

  Kent could dream and hope and wish. It was Christmas after all.

  Chapter Seventeen

  DEX HAD just wrapped up an app and delivered it to Tech for Life. It had been an intense week, trying to get his app finished up and also training hard for his upcoming races. He and Kent just hadn’t been able to connect during the last six days, and he hated that, hated it deep in his heart and soul.

  Kent had called a couple of hours ago, though, totally excited and wanting to see him. Grinning wide as he went into Kent’s building, Dex was sure
everyone could tell he was entirely besotted and about to be with the man of his dreams. He was still grinning when he took the elevator up, knocking smartly on Kent’s door.

  “Hey, lover!” Kent kissed him, just happy and lit up. “I got to see the babies today!”

  Kent’s joy was irresistible, and Dex wasn’t so freaked out by the idea of the babies anymore. Nothing that made Kent so happy could be bad. And he’d liked Kent’s adorable little nieces.

  “Yeah? Very cool. Are they bigger peanuts now?” He wasn’t trying to be mean; they just didn’t actually look like babies.

  “Come see!” Kent pulled him in, drew him to the lit-up office. “Two boys and a girl, can you believe it?”

  Dex looked, and the screen was filled with… faces. They had faces.

  “Oh my God, they’re real babies.” Dex reached out, tracing their little faces with one finger. He’d never seen anything like it. “That’s incredible.” Could these really be the same little peanuts that were in the blown-up picture over the mantel?

  “This is boy one, and this is boy two. And this? This is our wee girl.”

  Our? Was that what Kent wanted? They hadn’t really talked about it at all aside from him trying to be positive and happy for Kent. Which he totally was—Kent’s anticipation was honestly infectious. And God, just look at them. They were little people now, not little blips.

  “You have names yet?” Dex asked.

  “No. No, I want to… I want to wait. Meet them. I mean, I have ideas.”

  He liked that—waiting to meet the kids before naming them. It was a… romantic notion that suited Kent.

  “It almost feels like you have met them, doesn’t it?” He touched their little faces on the screen again. They were beginning to feel more real.

  “Almost. They’re beautiful already. Three more months. I need to start getting ready.”

  “You do.” Three babies. Three. There was no way this place was big enough. Dex looked around critically. “You need a bigger home.”

  “You think? My mom thinks I should get something less urban. A house with a yard.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Dex did; Kent’s mom had all sorts of opinions about Kent’s babies.

  “What do you think? I mean, I’ve never been a dad before,” Kent said.

  “Me neither. You don’t want to live in the country, though. You’re a city boy through and through.” Dex thought Kent would hate living in the country. He grabbed his phone and looked up houses for sale with yards. “The houses down at the river have yards but are still in the center of the city.”

  “Yeah?” Kent pressed close, snuggled against his shoulder. “Any good-sized ones?”

  The houses he found were all pretty big, with the odd exception. They were a good-sized price too, but he knew money wasn’t really an issue for Kent. The man owned this building and wouldn’t have a problem renting his awesome condo out.

  “Oh wow, look at this one.” Dex made sure Kent could see.

  Taking up two and a half lots, it was a large older home with a huge fenced-in yard and a well-maintained front garden. “It’s got five bedrooms, four and a half baths, an updated kitchen, finished basement, and three fireplaces.”

  “Oh wow. Wow. Think of the runs we could have along that path that the place backs onto, huh?” Kent said.

  “Yeah, I run along there now and then, but it would be super easy access from there. Look, it says the street ends in a cul-de-sac too, which means there wouldn’t be any through traffic.” That would be good for kids, fewer cars.

  They scrolled through the inside shots. The place was all renovated but done tastefully, all the wood gleaming, built-in bookshelves lining the fireplace in the main room. The kitchen looked enormous in the picture, with a big walk-in pantry and a breakfast nook that was all windows. The back porch was enclosed and more like a sunroom than a porch. The rooms on the top floor, while small, were charming with sloped ceilings, one boasting an amazing window seat.

  “This would make a great master,” Dex noted, pointing to the rooms in the attic space. “And you could turn the little half bath into a full en suite and knock out the wall to this second little office, really give the master a nice roomy feel.”

  “Oh wow. I. Come see it with me? I mean, please?” Kent reached for his hand, squeezed it. “I want…. Oh, it doesn’t matter. Come see the house?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Let’s go.” The place was empty, so as long as the agent could swing it, they should be able to see it today. Dex hit the phone number, leaving the phone on speaker.

  In minutes they had an appointment to see the place in a half hour, which would give them enough time to get there and walk around the neighborhood a little, just to check it out, and before he knew it, they were in Kent’s car, heading for the river, hunting a place to park.

  “What do you think of the neighborhood?” Kent asked.

  “I like it. I like how close to downtown we are, and to the running paths, and yet it feels like an old, genteel neighborhood. Man, look at the sizes of these trees.” Dex pointed at the huge elms that lined the streets.

  “Yeah. It feels grand, but not stuffy, not cold at all.” Kent parked and took his hand. “Can I tell you something?”

  “Anything, sweet.” He meant it too.

  “I really want to ask you to move in. I won’t, because I know how you feel about a built-in family, but if I slip up, it’s just because it’s a dream of mine, to be a family together. You’ll have to forgive me.”

  Dex squeezed Kent’s hand hard. “I have to admit that I chose this house from the listings not because it looked perfect for you, but because it appealed to me. The things we could possibly do with the master especially….” He wanted to say he’d come around to the kids thing, but the thought of being responsible for three little lives… that scared the fuck out of him.

  “Yeah.” Kent kissed him on the corner of the lips. “Let’s go look. Who knows, we may hate it.”

  “Yeah, could be.” He snorted. The place was going to have to be seriously misrepresented, full of rats, and need millions of dollars’ worth of repairs for that to happen.

  They headed down the street, the sun pouring down on them, the day seeming to just bless them both.

  “Look how well-maintained these houses are. People in this neighborhood care.” There was a shaft of excitement going through him; he didn’t just want this for Kent. He’d maybe fallen in love with the house from the pictures.

  “I love the way you can hear the water too.”

  “Yeah.” He nodded, listening to it as they made the way toward the house.

  The front garden was breathtaking, and he imagined the whole place lit up for the holidays. Between the two of them they would be able to afford the house and a ton of renovations.

  A silver Buick pulled up and a lady in a pink blazer, a ton of makeup, and a hairdo out of a sixties magazine got out. “Hello, darlings! You’re here to see the house, hmm?”

  “We are!” Kent walked right up, held his hand out. “I’m Kent McMann.”

  “And I’m Dex Lochland.”

  She shook their hands. “You two are a lovely couple. And this is a great area to start a family. I’ll give you the key, and you can look around on your own to start with, and then I’ll be here to answer any of your questions, okay?”

  Dex took the key. “That sounds great.”

  “Thank you.”

  They headed up the stairs hand in hand, and Dex handed Kent the keys. “You do the honors.”

  “No. No, you found it. You open it.”

  “Yeah?” He took the keys from Kent, looking down at them. These could be the keys to a whole new life. One with a lover and his kids. Was Dex actually thinking about this? Kids tended to dislike him, and he always felt awkward around them. On the other hand, Kent’s nieces had seemed to like him.

  He’d never wanted kids. That wasn’t even really true—he’d never even considered kids before. It had never, ever come up in any of his r
elationships, and his mom sure wasn’t looking for grandkids.

  Dex put the key in the lock, then, smiling at Kent, turned it.

  “Look at this place….” Kent walked in, eyes wide. “It’s… it’s totally different from my flat, but…. Look at this place, honey.”

  He just nodded, taking it all in. The pictures hadn’t done it justice. And it felt…. Shit, walking in with Kent at his side felt like coming home. Honestly and truly, and he couldn’t imagine himself settling anywhere else or with anyone else.

  They wandered from room to room. There was a media room, a huge office, a place for everything.

  “There’s even room for a nanny slash housekeeper, for the kids,” Kent pointed out.

  “You can get help with the kids…?” Dex had never even thought of that.

  “God, yes. I mean, I don’t want to be one of those hands-off dads, but I’ll need help.” Kent shot him a look. “You don’t think that’s bad, do you? To hire someone to help?”

  “I think it’s the most amazing idea I’ve ever heard.” Grinning, he pulled Kent to him and kissed him. “Let’s go see the top floor. I want to see if we could renovate it like I’ve envisioned.”

  Kent nodded, looking dazed, flushed, gorgeous. Utterly gorgeous.

  Bending, he brought their mouths together, kissing Kent hard. This was their home, he didn’t need to see the potential master to know it; Dex could already feel it.

  “Let’s buy it together.” The words blurted out of him, straight from his heart.

  “Dex? I. You mean it? You want to be a family?” Kent’s eyes were wide, and he looked like he was holding his breath.

  “You already are my family, Kent. I can’t imagine a life without you in it. If that means kids too, then I’m willing to give it a try.” Scared as hell he was going to fuck it up, but he was certain he had to try.

  “Two little boys and a girl,” Kent said.

  Dex nodded, heart thumping hard. Three babies. Three. Was he crazy to be doing this?

  “She’s going to be seriously outnumbered,” he noted.

  “I bet you’re going to be her favorite.”

  Dex snorted. “They are all going to adore the hell out of you.” He’d be happy with them just not hating him.