Page 45 of Regret Me Not
I don’t feel like arguing either. If you show up here heartbroken I’ll need my strength. TTYL
And that was that.
PIERCE WOKEup the morning of the twenty-third feeling the sort of despair in his stomach he hadn’t felt since the hospital, except reversed.
In the hospital it had beenOh shit, I’m in the hospital, and I’m trapped here until they say I can go home, and then I’m with Cynthia and I’m trapped there, and then I’m home, and that’s worse.
Now, the day before Christmas Eve, it wasOh shit. I’m going to have a wonderful day with someone I love, and then I’m going to have to leave forever because….
Why again?
Because grown men who knew how the world worked didn’t fall in love in a month? In a week? In a day?
In the first hour, when I was pissed and he was hungover, and he helped me first and came on to me second?
“Hey,” Hal said at his side.
Pierce rolled over to smile at him, holding the sheet up in front of his mouth because he’d caught himself snoring once or twice the night before and his breath could give dragons a run for their money.
“Hey,” he said back. “Happy Christmas Adam.”
Hal grinned and pulled the sheet away. “The day before Eve,” he murmured, then touched lips with him.
Pierce gave up on protecting Hal and opened his mouth, all the things he wanted to say shorting out like a neon sign in a windstorm.
The kiss went long and deep, and Pierce moaned, needing.
Hal pulled away and smiled shyly. “So, you need to take a hot shower—”
“No workout?”
He shook his head. “No. No workout. Today is better than a workout. I’m going to get my massage table from upstairs—”
“You have a massage table?” Well, it was a good thing Pierce had chickened out, wasn’t it!
“Yeah. I thought you knew that—you asked me what I needed. Anyway. I’m going to bring it down here and heat up the oils.” He grinned as he swung out of bed. “That’s going to be my Christmas present to you,” he said, proud of himself. “A full-body massage, and then we’ll make Christmas cookies—”
Pierce frowned. “You bought ingredients?” Hal had gone shopping the day before, while Pierce had been answering some questions with the new bosses online.
“I did.” Hal grinned smugly. “And I bought a ham and some asparagus too, so we’ll make cookies and then cook Christmas dinner and then….”
He grinned at Pierce with a predatory quirk to his eyebrows.
“What?” Pierce asked, actually breathless.
“We’ll see how far you can stretch,” Hal hummed. He twisted in the bed, leaned forward, and placed his lips right up against Pierce’s ear. “I want inside you so bad.”
Pierce’s eyes honest to God rolled back in his head, and his chest tightened with the need to breathe.
“You want it too,” Hal said, those amber eyes lit up from inside with lust and hellfire and unholy desire.
“So bad,” Pierce moaned breathily.
“Merry Christmas to us.”
Pierce nodded, completely helpless, his heart full of words that meant forever, his brain full of that light from Hal’s smile.
THE MASSAGEtable didn’t seem like much—it came in folded, on wheels, with a little latch to hold it closed. Pierce got out of the shower and watched as Hal set up the table and put one sheet down on the bottom.