Page 18

I hadn’t anticipated for how much joy a tree would bring Tommy. He was obsessed with getting the decoration just right, and he wouldn’t put a single strand of tinsel of row of lights on it until he’d first drawn it out on paper to see what would look best. His excitement also might have had something to do with June ruining the surprise I’d had planned for him. I hadn’t picked out the teddy, but I knew June wouldn’t have steered me wrong with her choice.

Tommy sat in his underwear and a blanket around his waist, after I’d forced him to undress out of the snow wet clothes. He’d been too excited to notice how wet and cold they were at first, but I was adamant about him not getting sick, and he seemed to fight me on it with his actions at every turn with his lack of gloves or a scarf, and sometimes even too few layers.

As Tommy drew and showed each of them to me for suggestion, I was unboxing all the treats I’d asked June to get for me. I knew candy canes were a must for the tree, and also from an old recipe of peppermint hot cocoa. I wanted to make to make Tommy feel at home here, and that thought still surprised me considering how I’d been so willing to let him live in the cabin without any interference.

“The other option is just to throw everything in the box at the tree and then hope it sticks,” he said.

“And that would create a mess,” I reminded him. “I like the options you’ve shown me already.”

“Yeah, but they’re not amazing. And the back of the tree will be naked.”

“The tree is already naked.”

He snorted. “Born naked and the rest is drag.”

“That sounds familiar.”

“Well, it’s a quote from drag queen, RuPaul,” he said. “I guess you are gay then if you’ve heard it.”

“What do you mean I am.” I laughed, wondering if he’d been thinking this entire time that I was pretending.

“I just mean, you’re you, and I’d never have expected you to know how RuPaul was,” he said.

In my defense, I didn’t know who that person was, I’d only heard the phrase in passing or conversation while in the city on the couple of times a year I ventured off the ranch to visit one of the many cowboy associated conferences. A lot of them were to show off livestock, and when I worked with cattle, they were much more useful to visit. Now, I visited to see old friends and horses. The stable had room for four, but I was getting on in age now to be breaking in new horses.

Tommy eventually settled on a design for the tree, just as I made him one of the peppermint hot chocolate, topped with crushed candy cane, marshmallows, and a thick spiraled layer of whipped cream. And I was again went back on my word, from saying I wouldn’t help to wanting to give him my help. He needed it, the tree was tall and he was short.

I couldn’t recall the last time I’d helped dress a tree. It must’ve been back when I was a teen. On all the ranches I’d worked growing up, now many of them had Christmas trees, especially not in the bunk houses I’d lived in. The main houses where the owners lived often did because they had kids. I never had any particular jealousy toward it because I found the holiday season to be forced, everyone had an idea of what it should be, and how happy you had to feel. If you didn’t fit in that idea or feeling, then you didn’t belong.

In this moment with Tommy, I belonged.

Tommy had peculiarities for putting the tinsel, baubles, and lights on the tree, making sure they were accurate to the drawings, and the drawings weren’t to scale, so it was difficult. The only thing I could get right was the large star to go on top of the tree, but even that was scrapped for a new idea.

“We should put a teddy up there!” he said, grabbing me.

“You have a spare?”

“I do, but I—” he paused, breaking eye contact.

“Go on,” I said. “What’s the problem now?”

“If I put a teddy up there, it’s gonna stay,” he said. “And I’m gonna have to leave it behind.”

“You can take it when you go,” I told him. “I don’t know how long it’ll stay up once you’ve left anyway.” Either it would stay up, or all the needles would fall off, becoming bare and all of it would be thrown out, decorations and all. “But we don’t have to talk about you leaving, because it’s two weeks away.”

Tommy smiled again. “Good idea. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Perfect.” I pulled him in a squeeze of a hug and kissed him.

“Where’s the Santa hat?”

Stuffed in the back pocket of my jeans, the Santa hat was about to make a reappearance. I hadn’t intended on putting it back on, but if it meant seeing Tommy’s big smile, I’d wear it proudly, inside and where it was just the two of us.

Tommy grabbed the hat from my hands and then jumped up my body, wrapping his legs in place at my waist. “I might glue it on,” he giggled, fixing the hat to my head. “And that way you can never take it off.”

“That would be awful,” I told him. “You’ll pull my hair out and everything. That doesn’t sound kind.”

He took the hat off and ran his fingers through my hair. It was slicked back, as it always was. He ruffled it before placing the hat back down. “I promise I won’t,” he said. “Can I take a picture of you in it? Just to remember what you look like in it.”

No hesitation, I agreed. If it meant I didn’t have to wear it so often, I was absolutely ready to make his day more than I already had with the tree and the teddy by saying yes . As Tommy went to get his phone, the dogs chased him and pulled the blanket from his waist, revealing his cute little ass inside the briefs. I resisted the urge to chase after him and take a bite.

I resisted until after the picture. Once it was taken, I pulled him into my arms and carried him through the house, pit stopping by the kitchen and taking a fistful of candy canes before we headed to the bedroom.

“You’ve been a little naughty,” I said.

“Sorry, Daddy Santa, what have I done?” he asked.

I laid him on the bed and shooed the dogs out of the room. They weren’t going to play witness to what was about to happen. From the close door, I approached Tommy on the bed. “Well, I’ve made a list, and I’ve checked it twice,” I said, pulling the belt from around my waist. I dropped it to the floor. “And on that list, you’re listed as naughty and nice.”

Tommy wiggled around, pulling the duvet around himself. “That can’t be true. I’ve been good. I promise.” He eventually pulled the duvet over his head to hide.

“You were walking around in your underwear,” I stated, unbuttoning my shit. “And that’s being naughty.”

Peering out at me, he giggled. “The Santa hat has to stay on.”

“Demanding,” I said. “I don’t think good boys are demanding. Are they?”

“Yes, you said I was a good boy before,” his words muffled.

“Mhm, when?” I tugged at the duvet, teasing his head out of it.

He only giggled, struggling to stay hidden. “It depends, are you Daddy Santa, or Daddy Hardin?”

I winked at him. “Come on out and see.” I kept the hat on, down to a tank top and my boxer briefs, I stood at the side for the bed.

“Oh, hello, Santa.” He rolled over in the bed to the side and looked up at me, big eyes blinking. “I’m sorry for being naughty. Please don’t give me a lump of coal.”

“I have another lump I want to give you,” I said.

Licking his lips, he nodded, his gaze dropping to my crotch where my chubbed cock might’ve been on view through the button hole in the briefs. “I’ll take that lump.” He placed a hand on my thigh and looked back at me to see if he could go any further.

“Go on,” I said.

I liked to make sure Tommy was well-fed while he was staying with me, but that didn’t stop him from being voracious to the point he nearly tore the briefs off by the seams of the fabric for a taste of my cock. He took my cock with one hand and cupped my balls with another, a technique he employed when he was trying to get a taste of precum. It really worked at all.

With my cock hard, I climbed onto the bed and whipped the duvet back to see his briefs down his ankles and a little wet patch on the bed from where he’d been rubbing his erect cock.

“You love leaving you mark don’t ya?” I asked.

“It’s not like I can help it,” he said, pouting again. “I’m just a boy in need of a Daddy to show me how the world works. And all these feelings inside me can’t be controlled.”

“I have something for you,” I said, reaching over the side of the bed to take one of the candy canes. “I’m gonna ask you to suck it a little, and then I want to play with it in your ass.”

Tommy moaned. “Really?”

“I want to eat your ass, and I also want to taste this on you,” I told him.

He nodded. “You had me at eat ass.” He positioned his head back on a pillow and unwrapped the candy cane. “I hope it doesn’t tingle like minty body wash.”

“We’ll have to find out together,” I said, positioning myself between his thighs. His soft skin only showing remnants of the purple bruises he’d acquired on the back of Belle. I gave each length of his thigh kisses, putting all that healing down to the magic of Daddy’s lips.

Tommy passed me the candy cane once he’d sucked it wet. Between his legs, I pushed them up to get better access to his ass. It was all puckered and ready for me. I gave it a lick between going in with a finger, and then the sticky candy cane. It went in like a pinky finger would, and had him moaning more than a single finger ever had made him.

“It tickles,” he giggled, a hand reaching down to pull his balls back. “I like it though.”

Licked his ass around the candy cane inside him. The curved shape to the end of the cane gave it a great push and pull mechanic. He eventually went in with finger of saliva, giving the stickiness a little more lubrication. His hole had a nice, minty taste, and a definitely sugar rush. I wanted to devour it from the inside out.

“Have I been good enough for a treat now?” he asked.

“I suppose you have,” I said.

With the candy cane still in his ass, I laid beside him and kissed him. Our minty lips and tongues exchanging sweet saliva, back and forth as I took his cock in my hand and he took mine in his. We jerked each other until Tommy pumped the breaks.

“What happened?” I asked.

“The candy cane snapped,” he said.

The end of the candy cane had crumbled under the way his ass had been gyrated and pushing into the mattress. Thankfully, he hadn’t swallowed it up inside. I pulled it out and saw the relief on his face. “I guess I’ve gotta keep on eye on that if we do it again,” I said, looking up at him from below the waist. I gave his ass another lick, going up to his balls. “Still tingles?”

He nodded. “Can I have you candy cane cream, Santa?”

“My cream, ay. Well, let’s see how much of a good boy you’ve been first.”

Pulling out the pout he sighed and nodded. “I’ve been the best boy, I promise. If my other Daddy was here, he’d say it was true.”

I wish I had candy cane cream, and hoped in his world, it tasted just as he imagined.

Once the broken candy cane was tossed into the trash, we laid on the bed in a sixty nine, I was on my back and he was over me, sitting his ass on my face and giving me the best angle throat his cock and even tickle his balls with my beard. I knew how much he liked that, and he worked harder on my cock.

We’d been having sex for days now, growing more aware of each other’s bodies and the spaces we could touch to get each other a little more horny, I also knew where not to touch because of how ticklish he was. But I hadn’t accidentally done that since he was cumming and I grabbed him by his hips a little too light. He bounced with laughter, making even more of a mess than usual.

I tried, each time to contain the lengths at which Tommy would blow his load. This time, I aimed for it to go right down my throat. With a finger in his ass, hooked to play with his prostate, I tasted his precum slide across my tongue and down my throat. He went deeper, gagging, and then back again in his attempts at my candy cane cream, although at this point the red Santa hat had fallen off my head.

For the first time, I blew my load before him, right down his throat. He played with my balls and got awfully close to my ass on a couple occasions. He came right after as he repositioned himself on my face, his cock balls deep into my throat. I didn’t even mind that in some ways it subverted the dynamic, I just needed something of him to exist inside me, and his cum would do that.

Tommy moaned so loud that the dogs began scratching at the door to investigate. It was also another change, he was no longer trying to stay quiet. It was one of the benefits of being so far away from anyone else.

“It’s in your beard,” he said, throwing himself down beside me. “Oh god. I didn’t meant to do that.”

I wiped my chin with the back of my hand and then licked it clean. “It’s not too bad,” I said. “Next time, I might put the candy cane on your cock and see if I can get the taste to transfer over.”

He kissed me on the lips and threw his arms around my chest. “As long as I get to do that to you as well,” he said. “I wished you tasted more like a candy cane.”

“It’s a shame we can’t change that,” I said.

“You’re not Santa,” he gasped. “Where’s your hat?”

“Surprise,” I said, hauling him on top of me. “It was me all along.”

“This makes it easier,” he said. “Now I don’t have to tell you that Santa seduced me.”

“Santa seduced you?” I asked, stroking a hand through his hair covered in sweat. “Are you sure you didn’t try and seduce Santa?”

“I mean, Santa is the ultimate Daddy,” he said, kissing me. “He gives you toys, he always has cookies, and he loves the please. I guess you’re a bit like Santa, except I’m the only one wishing for you to come down my chimney and surprise me on Christmas morning.”

For all that I dismissed about Christmas, I could never take away the optimism it gave everyone. I knew Tommy would be back home before Christmas, and I wouldn’t be anywhere near his or anyone else’s chimney come Christmas morning. I wished he didn’t have to leave, but wishes were for littles. All I could do was waste time on the idea that he’d decide to stay a little longer.