His Holiday Crush

by Cari Z

  As sweet as the puppy was, tonight was for cuddling, and I wanted Dominic all to myself.

  Chapter Ten

  Dominic

  Waking up to Max the next morning felt wonderful, dangerous, and strange all at the same time. It was wonderful because, honestly, who wouldn’t want to wake up to someone like Max lying next to them? He was good in bed—not just in-in bed, but as a person to sleep next to. He didn’t snore, he didn’t kick, and he wasn’t an octopus. In fact, I was surprised to find that I was the one who’d stealthed up to him during the night, cuddling against his back and waking up to find my forehead pressed between his shoulder blades.

  I’d never had the chance to learn that I was a stealth cuddler before, since nobody had ever stayed long enough to actually sleep, but I liked the warmth of being next to Max and the sound of his soft, steady breathing. I liked it so much my heart skipped a beat. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore the part of me that was clamoring about how dangerous all this tenderness was and how I shouldn’t give in.

  This was all going to come to an end, after all.

  Today was Christmas Eve—one more day of this and Max would head back to New York City, where I didn’t have the time, money, or inclination to go myself. All the crowds, the noise, the dirt…I hadn’t been a city boy before my time in the military, and now I really could not handle city life. I’d visit if it was the only way I got to see Max, but that begged the question of whether or not he’d even want to see me after he left. If I was just a fling, then it was better that I stay out of the way and not hope for more.

  The strangest thing of all was that I was letting myself feel these things, letting myself have fear and doubt and affection and happiness from someone who wasn’t family. I’d done such a good job of compartmentalizing over the years, ever since I first realized that I was a lot different from Hal. I was shy, I liked to be alone, and I was gay. Going into the army had been a split-second decision for me, and in the end, it was one I was vaguely glad I’d done but knew I wouldn’t do again if I could go back. I’d shoved the army and everything that had happened overseas into a box, like I did with a lot of things, and left it there.

  That’s what I should do with how I felt about Max.

  That’s where it should end.

  Instead, I laid there against his back and listened to his breathing slowly deepen, the shift of his body against the bed and the faint rumble of his stomach. He woke up and arched back into me with a little groan then laughed when he rubbed up against my erection. “Good morning to you, too,” he purred, and oh my god.

  I let myself rub against his ass, keeping it light. It was still early, but I had to get him back to Hal’s, had to get to work, had to…uh-oh. “Where’s the puppy?” I jerked my head off the pillow to look for her.

  “Relax,” Max said, “I let her out an hour ago in the backyard, got her some food and water, and now she’s in her crate chewing on one of her new toys. She’s fine.”

  Oh. I settled back in against Max and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in closer. He reached a hand back to my hip and held me still long enough to slot my dick firmly between his cheeks. I moaned and turned my face into his neck.

  “I don’t know if we have time for anything,” I said, yet my body was sure as hell on board for trying.

  “It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate,” Max offered. “We can stay like this, or I can roll over and blow you, or you can fuck me.”

  I shivered against his back, and it had nothing to do with being cold.

  His chuckle sounded slightly evil. “Yeah, I might have been awake a little longer than I let on earlier. It’s nice that you left some lube in the bathroom. I could prep myself without having to rummage around in your drawer.”

  “You’re…” Joking, kidding, fucking with me. But Max took my hand, slid it into his shorts and down the crease of his ass, then he guided my finger inside. Yeah, he was ready.

  “Mmm, fuck,” he murmured. “Fuck, yes.” He looked over his shoulder at me. “Do you want that? I’d love it, but like I said, we can do something else. Or nothing at all, if you’re not in the mood.”

  If I wasn’t in the mood…I didn’t even know morning sex was a mood you could actually be in before this, but I was all the fuck about it. It wasn’t easy to scramble for a condom and lube while leaving my finger inside of him, but I managed it. I stripped off my clothes and pulled his boxers further down, spread him on one finger, then on two.

  “Are you really ready?” I asked, and I knew I sounded like I’d just drunk a shot of whiskey.

  “Yes,” he said, rolling a little more onto his front and lifting his top leg so that I could get my hips close enough to slide inside of him.

  Oh god, he was so tight, oh, damn. Helpless sounds came from the back of my throat as I thrust into him until I couldn’t go any further.

  “That’s it,” Max said, and he sounded a little punchy himself. “Goddamn, it’s been…way too long. Fuck me, Dominic.”

  Damn, I loved the way he said my name. I loved the feel of his body around my dick, the sound of his breathing, the heat trapped and rising between us as I did as he asked. I fucked him, but this didn’t feel like any fuck I’d ever had before. Fucks were fast, something I did in a bathroom so late at night it was nearly morning, or in the back of a car, or maybe if I was lucky in a hotel room. They didn’t happen in my ramshackle house, in my comfortable bed, with a man I’d crushed on for years and had somehow inexplicably gotten together with.

  How could this be a fuck, when a fuck had never felt this good before?

  Max had his hand fisted around his cock, and every time I drove into him, he rubbed his thumb over the head of it, which was so slick I could hear the wetness of skin against skin. I wanted to go harder, longer, wanted to make it good for him, but it was already too good for me. “Max, mmm, Max, I’m gonna—”

  “Yeah, do it,” he said, jerking his hips back and clenching down, and that was it for me.

  I was done and gone. I came, and it felt so unbearably good that I had to bite my lip to hold in something I knew I’d regret popping out.

  It took a minute of recovery for me to realize that Max was very patient and also very hard. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry—” I pulled out, but he immediately rolled over and pushed me down flat on my back.

  “It’s fine, it’s—I’m so close,” he panted, straddling my hips. “Can I—”

  “Yes, do it,” I said, and then he was sinking down on me again, angling himself so my dick hit just the right spot, even though it wasn’t as hard now as it had been a minute ago. I watched him work his cock then reached up and tugged on his balls—he did it to me, so I assumed he liked it—and a few seconds later, he came, fist clutching the head of his cock as he shook through his orgasm.

  “Holy shit,” he said, finally opening his eyes and looking down at me with something between smugness and wonder on his face. “Tell me that wasn’t a great idea.”

  “It was a great idea,” I said, completely honest. “But now we really have to clean up, or I’m going to be late to work. And we still need to sneak the puppy back to Hal so he can take her for the day while you watch the girls.”

  “Good point.”

  We raced through a shower, let the puppy out one last time—and damn, this dog was an angel, way too composed for her youthful age—and hightailed.

  Hal was waiting in the driveway for us.

  “Cutting it close,” he muttered as he took the crate out of the back of the Jeep. “How’s the baby?”

  “The baby?” I asked, lifting one eyebrow mostly because I knew it bothered him that he couldn’t do it. “Is this dog for the girls or for you?”

  “It’s a family dog, obviously,” Hal said a bit defensively. “It’s for all of us, and I figure I’m gonna be doing most of the walks and feeding and grooming and all that for a whi
le, so I’d better damn well like the thing, right? Hey, baby,” he crooned into the front of the crate, where the dog was happily licking at his fingers. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you? Who’s my baby, huh? Who’s my sweet baby?”

  “You’re such a sap,” Max said with a smile on his face. “Were you this ridiculous when your daughters were little? I don’t remember this level of small talk when you came to visit and Steph was still nursing.”

  “He was worse,” I said. “He wore Marnie around in a sling for, like, three months straight. Ariel had to pry her out of there with a crowbar just to feed her.”

  “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “I came home on leave and I got to hold her all of, like, twice,” I told Max.

  “He lightened up by the time Steph came around, right?”

  “You try juggling two kids instead of one and see how much uninterrupted snuggling you have time for,” Hal retorted, but he was grinning, too. “You feed her?”

  “Yes, and watered her and let her out to do her business, and everything you could ever need for her is in that bag, which you know because you gave it to us last night,” Max told him. “Now get your ass to work before the girls get curious and come outside.”

  Hal nodded, transferred everything into his truck, and drove off, leaving me and Max alone on the snowy driveway.

  “So…will we see you at the festive fusion play tonight?” Max asked, taking a step closer to me. “I know the girls don’t have parts in it, but they’ll have more fun if you’re there.”

  “I’ll try,” I said, completely sincerely. “Lauren is taking off an hour early to get her family there, which makes sense since one of her kids is actually in the play, so I volunteered to make the time up for her. I should get there before the end. Send pictures in the meantime, okay?”

  “I’ll do that.” Max stepped in close enough that the frost of his breath poured over my face, obscuring me to everything except the warmth of his presence. “Have a good day, okay? Be safe.”

  “I will. You, too.”

  He smiled. “I won’t even get my car back until the day after Christmas, so as long as there’s no risk of me trying to maneuver my BMW around these streets, I think I’ll be okay.” He leaned in, tilted his head just so, and—

  I kissed him before he could close the distance. I wanted to, wanted it badly enough I almost screamed with it. This morning had been…incredible, amazing, like everything I wanted and nothing I’d thought I could have. Max was too good for me, but a big part of me—a growing part of me—wanted to keep him regardless. It made me think all sorts of crazy thoughts, and stealing his kiss before he could give it to me was the least of it.

  Max put a hand on the back of my neck to hold me still—God, I loved that—and took control, sliding our tongues together like a dance or sex. I was going to be thinking of sex all day, at this rate. “You’ve got to go,” he said, a little breathless when he finally pulled back. “I know you’ve got to go, but I wish you could stay.”

  Fuck. “Me, too.” I stepped back and turned toward my car before I could do something dumb like call in sick and make Lauren cover for me, which would probably end with her committing justifiable homicide.

  …

  I ended up being only a little late to work, which Lauren did give me some grief over, but not nearly as much as I’d expected. “You’re happy,” she said with a shrug when I asked her why as we headed out on patrol. “It’s nice to see you that way. I’m not going to haze you over it, that’s for damn sure.”

  There was a reason I liked Lauren the best.

  It was a fairly slow day, all things considered—the worst thing we had to deal with all morning was two shoppers getting into a fistfight outside Build-A-Bear after one of them allegedly swiped the last, highly collectible Superman bear out of the other’s hands. We were also called to the scene of an elderly woman who slipped on the ice outside her daughter’s home and fell on the sidewalk, breaking a hip. We were closer than the ambulance, so we stayed with her and made her comfortable while her daughter fussed up a storm.

  “Isn’t it the city’s job to clear these sidewalks?” she almost shouted at us. “I should sue!”

  “Actually, ma’am, the sidewalk in front of every person’s home is their own responsibility, legally speaking,” Lauren said, handling it like the pro she was—and because I was currently holding a hot cup of ginger-chamomile tea for Evelyn, who looked fairly comfortable with two pillows under her head and a blanket. “Technically, if anyone is liable for damages here, it’s you.”

  “I…what…my own mother isn’t going to sue me,” the woman blustered. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Darlene, nobody’s getting sued here,” Evelyn informed her daughter. “Now stop having fits and get back in there to check the ham. I might not get to eat it, but I’ll be damned if any ham I bake is going to burn because I tried to catch the pavement with my butt.”

  I stifled a grin. Not a day went by without running into some Edgewood drama or neighborhood silliness, but it kept things lively, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

  We kept busy until about three, when all of a sudden the calls dried up and we were left twiddling our thumbs in the station. “You should head out,” I told Lauren when I caught her looking at her phone for the second time in under a minute. “I’ve got this.”

  “Are you sure? I said I’d stay until four and I meant it.”

  “You’ve got to go get the head wisewoman ready for her stage debut. It’s fine.”

  “Thank you,” she said as she stood, her voice full of gratitude, probably more than I’d earned, to be honest. “Jimmy can handle almost all of the preparations, but little things like the buttons on the back of her costume are still a bit beyond his motor control, and God forbid Pippa ask one of her siblings to help her out. That would be like starting World War Three.”

  “Go on. Maybe I’ll see you at the play tonight.”

  She nodded. “I hope so.” After a second’s hesitation, she walked over and hugged me. It was a good hug, warm and tight, and I breathed out and held her back, quiet and thankful. “Have a merry Christmas, Nicky.”

  “Have a merry Christmas, Lauren.” I patted her shoulders as we released each other. “Tell Jimmy hi for me.”

  “I will.” She winked. “Tell Maxfield hi for me, too.”

  “I won’t, because I don’t want to get beat,” I replied. She laughed and walked out, and I pulled out my phone to see if there were any new messages. Nothing. Maybe I was getting spoiled, thinking that Max had nothing better to do than send me cute texts. He was watching the girls, of course he had a zillion things to do, and if they were going to eat an early dinner and get to the play on time then he was probably—

  My phone buzzed with an incoming message from Max. Perfect timing. I opened it instantly—hell, I already had the message app open—and read, I didn’t know picking out dresses for a play was such an involved process.

  I snorted a laugh and leaned back in my chair. It’s that show they watch. The older bunny is a diva about her clothes, so Marnie likes to be a diva, too.

  She says there has to be a matching tiara. And gloves. Elbow-length gloves. Does she have gloves like that?

  Her mom does. I paused before I sent it, wondering whether it was worth the hassle he might get for reminding the girls about Ariel right now, but finally pressed send and followed it up with, I think there’s a box of stuff like that in Hal’s closet, by the rest of Ariel’s shoes.

  I didn’t get a reply for almost five minutes, and by the time it came in, I was practically pacing the floors. It was a picture this time, of Marnie and Steph grinning into the camera while holding up their gloved fingers. Marnie’s were blue, Steph’s were pink, both were obviously too big, and clearly neither girl cared. Marnie had her Frozen tiara and her Elsa dress on, and Steph was in a rainbow-colored tutu.
Beautiful, I sent, and I meant every syllable of it.

  Thanks for the advice, Uncle Nicky ;)

  Aw, a winking smiley face. Shit, when had I become the sort of person to appreciate a freaking winky face? Another text came in while I pondered the fact that I might, just might, be head-over-heels for Max. We’re about to have dinner. I’ll let you know when we head to the church. Hope we see you there.

  I hope so, too, I sent back. Miss you, I added before I could second-guess myself.

  I got an emoji blowing a heart back at me, which I took as a good sign.

  Four o’clock crawled by. Five o’clock was punctuated by Hal getting home—apparently, he’d received permission to leave the puppy at Phee’s house until tomorrow morning, which was lucky. It meant I could take Max home and not have to worry about waking the dog if we got busy. Which…fuck, that would be nice. Everything was nice with Max so far, but the sex we’d had this morning was revelatory for me.

  I had never been like that with another person, felt so powerful and open and soft all at once. I’d never been welcomed like that, either. It might be possible, just possible, that Max liked me almost as much as I liked him. I wasn’t the type of guy to believe in happily-ever-afters, not after the way my parents’ relationship imploded and my brother’s wife dropped everything and ran, yet with Max, I wanted to be that guy.

  Five thirty came and went, and everyone at Hal’s was getting ready to head to the church. It was a little early for them to be leaving, but it had started snowing again about an hour ago, and Hal liked to drive like an old lady when the roads were slick. I stared anxiously at the clock—half an hour. I could be at the church from here in fifteen minutes; the play would have just started. I could sidle in and grab a seat next to Max and watch the festive fusion unfold, and we could try to make sense of it together. It was going to be perfect. Five forty-five. Five fifty.

  The next shift showed up—Amos and David were nice guys, especially because they could have pulled rank and shoved their shift off onto me for Christmas, but they hadn’t. Amos brushed some snow off the shoulders of his jacket as he nodded to me. “Getting cold out there,” he said cheerfully.