The Rules of Gift Giving Read online

  “I said break it up!” he bellowed.

  Elliot ignored him. His expression was absolutely livid. “Screw you, Mark! What the hell do you even know about my life? We haven’t had a decent conversation in two decades!”

  “Who’s to blame for that? I’m not the one who moved two thousand miles away!”

  “Shut up, both of you!”

  All four men froze like little boys caught hurling mud. As one, they turned wide, frightened eyes to the porch, where Angie Smith stood with her hands on her hips.

  The frilly apron printed with dancing gingerbread she wore around her waist gave an impression of softness, but the look in her eyes was like the gates of hell opening wide. Her mouth was pressed so tightly that her lips had almost disappeared.

  “You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

  Elliot dragged his sleeve across his nose and sniffed hard. “Mom—”

  “No! Be quiet! We almost lost your father this week, and you two can’t put your petty differences aside for five minutes!”

  “We were just—”

  She jabbed a finger in Mark’s direction and made a zipping motion. “Zip. It. You’re both grown men and yet you still act exactly the same as you did when you were children, always pecking at each other. If you can’t say anything nice to each other, then don’t speak at all. But if I hear one more argument while your father is supposed to be resting, I will personally ship you both to the North Pole and you can spend your holiday there, making each other as miserable as your hearts desire!”

  She whirled on her heel and stomped inside, leaving them in mortified silence.

  Lucas caught Kevin’s eye. “Why don’t you and I finish up out here while these two chuckleheads clean up?”

  Kevin shook his head. He still hadn’t released Mark, and Lucas suspected he was enjoying keeping him in a chokehold. His eyes twinkled. “We’ve been through this before. They’re just going to go at it again unless we keep them separated for a while.”

  “Elliot, go get your father’s prescription,” Angie ordered, storming back outside with her hands full. She threw him a gel pack wrapped in a damp paper towel, and he scrambled to catch it. “Put that on your nose.”

  The bleeding had already stopped, so Elliot obediently wiped his face and pressed the ice pack to the bridge of his nose. He took Lucas by the hand and gave Mark one last glare before saying, “Come on, let’s go.”

  “The cars are that way, babe,” Lucas said, pointing to the driveway.

  “We’re not taking the car,” Elliot muttered, voice muffled by the ice pack. He gave up with an aggravated huff and tucked the pack into the oversized pocket of his winter coat. His fingers prodded his nose, and he sniffed, as if testing its resiliency. “The pharmacy is part of a little market less than a mile down the road. We’d be back in five minutes if I took the car. There’s no way I’d be calmed down, and then I’d be forced to murder my brother.”

  “Okay.” Lucas wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed. “Let’s go for a walk in a Winter Wonderland.”

  8

  Lucas

  Lucas had only been half-joking about the wonderland.

  The Smith family home sat at the end of an old residential neighborhood filled with tidy homes and sheltered by the branches of mature trees. The snow had added a pillowy, marshmallow softness to the acres of lawn stretching out between the homes, and the air smelled fresh and clean. The sky had cleared, and the sunshine was blinding as it bounced off the snow.

  He wrapped an arm around Elliot’s shoulders, gratified when he leaned into him and matched his slow stroll. Elliot’s chest heaved with a few deep, calming breaths, and something in his frame seemed to unknot.

  “Feeling better?”

  Elliot grunted. “Feeling fucking embarrassed. I’m sorry, Lucas.”

  “Why are you apologizing to me?” Lucas kissed him on the side of the neck without breaking stride. “I’d have given him worse, if he weren’t your brother.”

  “But he is my brother.” Elliot sighed. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper. But hearing him say those things about you—”

  “Oh, no.” Lucas squeezed him gently. “Don’t blame this on me. Everyone could tell that dustup had been brewing since way before I got on the scene.”

  Elliot jammed his hands into his pockets and hung his head, watching the snow crunch beneath their feet.

  Lucas watched him from the corner of his eye, concerned with how downtrodden he seemed. He reminded Lucas of that guy from It’s a Wonderful Life, tall and dark and disheveled, but with the biggest heart known to man.

  “Mom was right,” Elliot conceded after a long silence. “I’m old enough to ignore him. But family’s always able to hurt you, aren’t they?”

  Lucas shrugged, turning his gaze to an elaborate manger scene as they passed. “I don’t have much experience with it.”

  Elliot’s eyes were wide. “But that always hurts, doesn’t it?”

  “Less so, these days.” He smiled through his embarrassment and added, “Now that I’ve got you.”

  “Yeah?” Elliot glanced at him sideways, looking pleased. “Even after I dragged you halfway across the country and made you sleep in a house that looks like Christmas barfed on it?”

  “That’s glass-half-empty talk, right there. You also got me a piece of your mom’s pumpkin pie, and I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun trying to fit in that little bed with you.”

  Elliot laughed and stopped walking. “What would I do without you?”

  “You’ll never need to find out.”

  He tried to be careful of Elliot’s tender nose as they kissed, but quickly lost the thread of everything except the warmth and taste of Elliot’s mouth. The scrape of his stubble and his rough breathing was such a turn-on that Lucas’s dick began to harden right there.

  His hands dropped to Elliot’s hips to pull their pelvises flush against each other.

  Elliot groaned into their kiss and sucked on Lucas’s tongue, pulling it into his mouth as if he could swallow him.

  “If you didn’t grow up around these people, I’d be pulling you into that stand of trees over there right now,” Lucas panted against his mouth.

  Elliot examined the small grove of yellow pines that separated two lots.

  He’d only been kidding, but Elliot’s speculative expression made him consider their options more seriously.

  The weather had kept traffic off the street, and not a single car had passed them so far. The houses in both lots were set far back from the street, and the space between the trees was thick and dark.

  He quirked a brow at Elliot. “You up for it?”

  Elliot chuckled and rubbed the hard line of his cock against Lucas’s hip. “I’m definitely up for it, but…”

  “I dare you.”

  “What?” Elliot sputtered. “We’re not kids.”

  “Did you ever make out in public when you were a kid?”

  “Well, no.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t come out until senior year. Before that, I was too petrified to date.”

  “That’s a damn shame.” Lucas pulled off his glove and stroked Elliot’s face with the back of his fingers. “But it’s never too late to give it a try.”

  “We’ll get arrested for public indecency.”

  “I know a good lawyer.” Lucas winked and pulled him into the thick shadows of the trees.

  He pushed Elliot’s back against the bare trunk of a pine and pressed up against him, taking his mouth in a fierce kiss. Elliot melted into him, arms coming up around his neck, and kissed him back.

  The snow muffled all the ordinary background noise of the day, leaving the world in curious silence.

  Their thick winter clothes were a frustrating barrier. Lucas rucked up Elliot’s coat and shirt enough to slide his bare hand against his stomach, smiling into the kiss when he felt Elliot shiver.

  “Cold?” he rasped into Elliot’s mouth.

  “No.” Elliot kissed him again, as
if he just couldn’t help himself, before whispering, “We need to hurry.”

  “Okay.” Lucas dropped to his knees in the snow and set to work unbuttoning those obscenely tight jeans. “You need to bring these home with you,” he muttered as he lowered the zipper.

  He blew hot breath over his fingers to warm them and then freed Elliot’s cock, wrapping his fingers around the hard, hot length.

  “Whoa-kay, that’s a little cold,” Elliot yelped, jolting in his grip.

  “Big baby,” Lucas teased, stroking his thumb over the damp tip. “Is this better?”

  Without warning, he sucked Elliot deep into his mouth.

  Elliot groaned and threw his head back, banging it against the tree. His hands hovered over Lucas’s head for a moment, as if he wanted to rest them there, but in the end, he dug his fingers into the bark behind him instead.

  Sometimes Elliot could be delightfully bossy in bed, like their little escapade earlier that week. But he generally preferred to feel like Lucas was the one in control, even when Lucas was the one on his knees in front of him.

  Lucas was on board with that. There was nothing he enjoyed more than watching a man come apart for him. Holding a trembling Elliot close, restricting his movement, forcing his body react the way Lucas wanted it to… well, it was an addiction like no other.

  He grabbed Elliot’s hips in both hands and pinned them back against the tree, refusing to let him thrust the way he knew Elliot was dying to do. He went deep, but pulled back off his length quickly, until only his lips touched the weeping head of Elliot’s cock.

  “Damn, it’s cold when the air hits,” Elliot hissed, trying to twitch his hips back into the heat of Lucas’s mouth.

  Lucas pinned him effortlessly. “You said you wanted it quick,” he murmured, licking the flared ridge beneath Elliot’s plump tip. “How quick do you think I can get you to come?”

  “That’s not much of a challenge,” Elliot laughed. “I feel like I can come as soon as you look at me.”

  “Hmm.” Lucas slid his lips down the side of Elliot’s cock, rubbing his cheek against the satin skin.

  Elliot was on fire, hot as a live coal. Lucas imagined how warm he’d feel inside once he drank down every last drop of his come.

  His own cock throbbed painfully against the restriction of his fly. “Maybe I should see how long you can hold out, then?”

  “No, please, no.” Elliot gave an aborted thrust, but Lucas merely tightened his hold to keep him still. He blew a gentle breath over Elliot’s inflamed flesh, grinning to himself when a full-body shudder wracked him.

  “How does that feel?” he whispered.

  “You know how it feels, you bastard.” He held onto Lucas’s shoulders with both hands, as if he didn’t trust himself to remain upright without the support.

  “Tell me, anyway.”

  “Hot… and cold… at the same time,” Elliot panted, taking himself in hand and rubbing his cock against Lucas’s closed lips, desperately seeking the entrance he was being denied. “The cold is almost too much... but at the same time, it’s not enough. Let me in, Lucas.”

  “Say ‘please.’” His tongue glided across Elliot’s glistening slit, but he drew back out of range when Elliot gave an aborted thrust.

  “Please.”

  Lucas rewarded him with a long, slow lick up the underside of his shaft. “You always beg so prettily.”

  “Lucas Kelly, I swear to God, if someone spots us because you were toying with me, I’ll—”

  Lucas chuckled and swallowed him down, cutting him off mid-tirade. Elliot’s hands flew to Lucas’s hair, fisting there, and he gave a heartfelt groan.

  He gave everything he had to Elliot. He always did.

  He sucked long and quick and deep, dripping saliva down the molten length of his shaft, glorying in the dirty slickness of his fingers as they stroked the root he couldn’t fit his mouth around.

  Elliot’s head was thrown back, face tipped toward the sky, body straining helplessly in Lucas’s control.

  His cock ached painfully beneath the confines of his zipper. He dropped a hand to his fly and squeezed hard, soothing and aggravating the ache at the same time.

  If it were up to Lucas, he would spin Elliot around, brace him against the tree, and sink deep into his body, right then and there.

  But this wasn’t for him. It was for his big-hearted lover, to distract him from the pain of never feeling like he belonged in his own family, to center him in the here-and-now.

  He wanted to make sure Elliot remembered how loved he was every minute of the day.

  “Lucas…” Elliot pleaded. “I’m going to…”

  The muscles in his hips, thighs, and ass began to tremble beneath the bite of Lucas’s fingers.

  Lucas pushed just a little further down the hard length, until the head brushed against the back of his throat, impaling himself on Elliot’s cock. The sudden pressure triggered his gag reflex, but he fought it, and the spasms of his throat muscles wrung a shout from Elliot.

  “Oh, fuck!”

  Lucas barely tasted it when he came, he was nestled so snug and deep. He swallowed around Elliot’s pulsing cock, greedy for the warmth in his belly.

  Elliot hung onto him, barely standing under his own weight, as his orgasm twisted him into knots and then released him all at once.

  He whimpered when Lucas slipped his mouth off him, affectionately kissing the tip before tucking him back behind the protective barrier of his clothes.

  Elliot slumped against the tree, feet braced haphazardly in the snow, and Lucas kept one hand on his waist, since his lover’s legs didn’t seem ready to fully support him just yet.

  “I can’t believe we did that,” Elliot groaned, covering his face with both hands.

  “You’re a wild man, Mr. Smith,” Lucas said, rocking back on his heels and grinning up at him.

  “What about you?” Elliot’s eyes gleamed as he studied the bulge beneath Lucas’s jeans, but he looked guilty as he glanced around their hideaway in the little copse of trees. “I can…”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Lucas rose easily to his feet, brushing snow off his knees and grimacing at the cold, soggy denim. “You feeling better?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Shhh.” Lucas grabbed him by the chin and planted a hard kiss on his mouth. “Don’t worry. You’ll be taking care of me later.”

  “I will, huh?” Elliot’s smile was dazed. His cheeks were flushed red from the cold and the orgasm, and Lucas had to resist cupping his face in both hands and kissing him. It would just lead to more than they could get away with, out in the open.

  “You bet your ass.” Lucas winked. “When we’re home and you can be as loud as you want, I’m going to stretch you out beneath me and destroy you.”

  Elliot’s eyes widened and he laughed breathlessly. “You have a way with words.”

  “Damn straight.” Lucas straightened his disheveled clothes, smoothed down his hair, and kissed the swollen bridge of his nose. “Come on. Let’s get that prescription and get home. It’s cold.”

  The air was frigid, but Elliot’s hand was warm when he removed his glove and threaded their fingers together.

  They stayed that way for the rest of the walk, holding hands, strolling quietly in their own winter wonderland.

  9

  Elliot

  Visitors began arriving on Christmas Eve morning, and the nonstop stream of friends and relations didn’t let up the entire day.

  Mark’s wife and children arrived with luggage and sleeping bags in tow, and Elliot was kissed by more cousins and aunts than he even remembered having.

  The well-wishers had worn his father out fast, and he’d spent most of the day kicked back in his recliner with a flannel throw draped across his lap.

  He pretended he was hamming it up just to escape his sisters, but Elliot wasn’t fooled. His father had dark shadows beneath his eyes and a strained expression that had never been there before.

  “I just nee
d some rest,” he assured everyone who asked, and eventually, when his patience ran out, he bellowed, “Y’all wear me out even when I’m healthy! Now shut up and let me watch my show!”

  By mid-afternoon, Elliot had eaten so many Christmas cookies he felt both jittery and exhausted, so he stretched out on the couch beside his father’s chair and closed his eyes.

  He and his father didn’t talk, but the silence between them was companionable and pleasant.

  It made him think back to when he was a kid, and he’d longed to spend time with his overworked, irritable father. They hadn’t played ball or worked on cars the way Lucas had with his dad, but once in a while, after a hard day, they’d drive out to the pond and go for a walk, just the two of them.

  There’d never been much to see beyond some ducks and giant snails, but the fresh air and the silence had been soothing. His father’s quiet presence and undivided attention had been a comfort.

  The last walk they’d taken had been right after he’d come out.

  His mother had cried, Kevin had been confused, and Mark had been angry. But his father hadn’t reacted at all. He’d risen from the table and quietly left the room. A moment later, they’d heard the revving of his truck’s engine.

  Elliot had known where he was going, so he left his mother blowing her nose into a handful of sodden tissues and headed to the pond.

  He’d found his father there, sitting on a log, watching a snapping turtle with distant eyes.

  He didn’t say a word when he spotted Elliot, but he stood, brushed off the seat of his pants, and began to walk. Elliot had fallen into step beside his father, hungry for his approval, desperate to hear that it didn’t matter. He’d needed to hear that his father was proud of him, no matter what.

  Those words had never come. But that wasn’t his father’s way, he supposed. They’d taken that walk together, and they’d never spoken a word about Elliot’s sexuality until this week.

  He wondered why it had taken him so long to accept that big gestures and heartfelt talks just weren’t his father’s way.

  Something brushed his lips, and Elliot’s eyes snapped open just as a crumbly morsel was stuffed into his mouth. The flavor of ginger and molasses exploded over his tongue.