Page 11 of All I Want For Christmas

But because he couldn’t resist the urge, kissing Cillian again -- once more for good luck -- he dropped his hands to Cillian’s sides, wiggled his fingers, and attacked.“Oh, are you still ticklish?”He dodged Cillian’s swipe at him and kept going, highly entertained by the way Cillian squirmed.“I had no idea, honest.”

“You, sir, are a bad, bad man,” Cillian informed him, then threw his arms around James’ neck.“And you’re still you.Still my friend.Who’d have thought?”His laughter ebbed away, back into desire.“So do something better with those hands before I do it myself.”

“I have a few ideas.”James took the hem of Cillian’s sweater and drew it upward, over his head.The white undershirt beneath, guarding his skin against scratchy wool, came free next, leaving him bared.He had small, dark pink nipples -- James had seen them before, sure, but not when he had the chance and full permission to lower his head and take them between his teeth, one at a time, and tug until Cillian moaned and clutched at him.“Sensitive.Good to know.”

“You are such a bastard,” Cillian sighed, moving against James like a well-beloved cat who’d taken on human form, sinuous and sweet and just a tiny bit unearthly in a way that drove James wild.

“Then do something about it,” James echoed him, nuzzling between Cillian’s pecs.“Now.”

“Bossy, bossy.”Cillian tugged at James’ clothes with less care than enthusiasm, but he didn’t have claws -- and if he had, James wouldn’t have minded a scratch or two.He wrestled his sweater off, casting it aside to land who-knew-where-and-nobody-cares, and somehow between the two of them they wriggled and kicked out of their jeans.

Cillian took the elastic of James’ briefs between two fingers, grinned wickedly at him, and let it snap back.“Payback,” he said, and slid gracefully to his knees.

After that, it wasn’t about grace or favor but it sure as hell was about beauty.Cillian’s curls were perfect for combing through, James being careful not to pull too hard on his hair but holding fast to the warm head beneath them.

Cillian had no mercy, and didn’t pretend otherwise.“Fuck, you have a pretty cock.Good and thick.I’ll be feeling the strain to my jaw for hours.I love it.”He mouthed at James’ cock, lipping beneath, tracing the tip of his tongue down veins, and drawing the whole of it between his sleek, wet lips.Technique of a master, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d sucked at sucking because he wasCillian, and he wasthere, and he was too good to take for long.

“Enough.”James pushed him back, light but firm.He could barely draw in enough breath to speak with.

Cillian set his jaw, which could have given James a whole new set of ideas if he didn’t already have his mind fixed on one.“Wasn’t done with that.”

“Neither am I.”James took Cillian’s hand and lifted him.“Follow me and I’ll show you what I mean.”

He thought Cillian would do as he’d been told, but he should have known better.Mischief lit up his face for a brief, beautiful second, and then he reversed their grip somehow so that he had control of James, and he used it to full advantage.One tug, then two, and they were on the floor together, drowning in the scent of tree sap and warm skin, salt and sweat, musk and cold air.A shove from one hand, maybe two hands, both of them working together, and they had the last barriers of boxers and briefs gone.Fingers, then, teasing around Cillian’s hole until Cillian grabbed for his jeans, swearing, and fished out a set of condoms and a sachet of lube.His warm hands made it all glide on like silk, and as soon as he could he wiggled his way beneath James’ body, sliding into his space and taking all his air.

James braced himself on his elbows, breathing hard, and then on his knees as Cillian let his legs fall apart, brought them up, wrapped them around.“You’re sure.”

“Never ask me that again.”Cillian stretched up his neck to kiss James.“I’m so sure.You and me.We’re going to see where this takes us.”

No one could ask for more -- except the slow, steady, heated slide inside Cillian, the sensation of being engulfed by tightness and warmth.He stretched beautifully to accommodate James’ girth and canted his hips to ask for more.They lay still for a moment, breathing, then Cillian moved beneath him in waves.His hips lifted and fell to meet James, moaning and grunting when James hit a sweet spot.Digging his fingers into James’ back and leaving scratches after all, urging him on, begging for more.He tasted sweet at the crook of his neck, the memory of cinnamon sugar tingling on James’ tongue, and salty there too from drops of sweat that dampened his hair.His body swallowed James’, over and over, and his laughter at James’ stream of kiss-muffled swearing was better music than the carolers had made.

“Love,” he breathed once, not finishing the thought, not needing to, but drinking down James’ reply as if it was the finest whiskey.“Love.”

If it could have lasted forever --

But even as it ended, as he came with a strangled moan, a hand slipped between them to finish Cillian too, James thought:it will last forever.This is only the first.The best Christmas gift I could ever have asked for.

Epilogue

Half an hour later, maybe two, or maybe far less than that, the carolers had wound their way back around the block.James lay on his back, Cillian draped halfway across him, in the bed they’d made their way to.Eventually.

He stroked Cillian’s collarbone idly.“We really need to put the tree up.”

Cillian made a vague noise.“Tomorrow.Busy now.You called your folks?”

James hummed.

“They all right with the delay?”

“I’d say so.”

Cillian chuckled, jostling both of them.“How much teasing did you take?Any comments like ‘took you long enough’?”

“Somuch.And a few.Enough that me and my bruised ego aren’t doing anything else tonight except staying here with you.That’s my reward.”

Cillian made an amused noise as he rested his chin on James’ chest.“You think we should get a different tree tomorrow?I dunno why I picked that one.It’s all flawed.”

“You might have a thing for the flawed.”James poked him in the ribs, not tickling, just making him yelp a little.“We’re not getting another tree.I like that onebecauseit’s flawed.Messy.So am I.So are you.”

Cillian sat up a little, resting on one elbow to gaze down at him.“For true?”

“For true.”James drew him back down for one more kiss.Maybe two.“And we seem to be doing just fine, now.All things need is a little work.Wait and see.It’ll be gorgeous.”

“Is that a promise?Not just about the tree, I mean.About us.D’you really think we can make it?”

“I don’t think either of us would be here if I didn’t, neither me nor you.So shush, and enjoy, and just you wait and see.”James drew an X over his heart, then Cillian’s, and was rewarded by the brightest smile yet, bright as a Christmas star.“This is only the start.I promise.”

It was a promise to himself, as well.He wouldn’t fail to keep Christmas in his own way, with Cillian, for as long they both should live.

And in the end, it was one he happily kept.