Dec the Halls

by Gianni Holmes

  I didn’t go up with him and see what was there, but while I was at work, he’d sorted through the boxes and taken out some of the ornaments that we mixed with the ones from his former home. He’d explained he wanted the tree to have aspects from our old lives and also new ones to symbolize the newness of us.

  Our beginning.

  A new chapter in our lives.

  I never knew decorating a Christmas tree could mean so much, but now, looking at what we had created, I was positive I had done the right thing in taking down everything the designer had put up.

  It would have hung heavy over our heads if I hadn’t. Owen didn’t even mind the outdoors. The gleam was back in his eyes, and oddly enough, even I was pleased with what we had done.

  Seeing my mother’s items on the tree, I’d expected to feel the familiar anguish at her passing. Christmas used to be so much fun with her until it was just me and Charles. Then it didn’t matter anymore. Owen had reminded me how much more it could be if I wanted. And I wanted everything there was to have with him.

  “Declan?”

  I turned. Owen had entered the living room. A bit of sadness lurked in his eyes as he glanced from the Christmas tree to me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, slipping his arms into his coat. “I know you said using the ornaments was okay, but if they are going to ruin our holiday—”

  “It’s not.” I smiled to show him just how unaffected I was.

  “You sure?”

  “Positive, and I’m not just saying that to avoid hurting your feelings either. You wanting to use her ornaments is the nicest thing you could have ever done. I completely get why you were upset before. This feels so much better.”

  He returned my smile, placed his hands on my shoulder, and tugged me into a quick hot kiss. “It was fun putting up the tree and all the times you distracted me.”

  I groaned into his mouth as he kissed me again. Then I gently pulled away. “Let’s not start that, or we won’t get to the hospital in time.”

  He chuckled. “Right. Those kids depend on Santa to show up.” His smile relaxed. Owen lifted his hand and brushed my cheek, his soft glove ghosting over my skin. “You’re okay with accompanying me to the hospital too?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. You need not worry about me so much, you know?”

  He wrinkled at me. “You worry about me all the time. Owen, do you have your coat on? Owen, your gloves. Owen, take the driver; the road is too icy.”

  I covered his mouth with my hand, but he just kept up his mumble beneath. “It’s my job to worry about you. You’re my life.”

  His eyes softened, and he removed my hand. “As you are mine. Now come on before the hospital decides that even though you donate quite a penny to them, they can’t have us play Santa because we’re gay.”

  He grabbed the bag he had placed on the floor—I assumed it contained the Santa outfit he would change into—and walked out the living room.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I followed him closely, groaning at his jeans. He knew just the right fit to buy to feed my obsession over his fine ass.

  He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Oh—nothing.”

  “Doesn’t sound like nothing to me. Are you going to make me spank it out of you?”

  He chuckled as he opened the front door. “Oh God, please don’t be so tempting.”

  “Mistletoe.”

  He glanced up to confirm, but my mouth was already on his. I decided mistletoe alone made Christmas perfect. All the excuse in the world to kiss him.

  “You’re enjoying this way too much.” He pulled away and trudged to the car parked at the front. Our driver got out and opened the back door for us.

  “You still haven’t explained your comment,” I reminded him once we were seated.

  He gave a sigh. “Now, don’t go shooting steam out of your ears, but remember that caroling I was looking forward to on Christmas Eve?”

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  He glanced away from me and looked out the car window. “One of the guys just called me back today. Said they all voted and thought it best I didn’t join them this year.”

  “What? Why not?”

  He shrugged. “It’s pretty obvious. Only one thing has changed about me this year.”

  “Me.”

  He nodded, returning his gaze to me. “I didn’t bother to argue with them because if that’s the way they feel, then I don’t want to be a part of that experience.”

  I clutched his hand next to me, not as calm as he was about this dick move of his group. “That’s fucking stupid.”

  “Ditto.”

  “You were looking forward to caroling,” I pointed out. “Isn’t it one of your traditions?”

  “Yeah, I guess I’ll have to make new ones.”

  “I need names, Owen. Who—”

  “No. We’re not going to be bothered by other people’s stupidity and ignorance. We’re going to have a blast this Christmas, and we’re going to focus on that. Today is for the kids. All right? Let’s focus on that.”

  It was hard to stay focused on the kids when despite Owen’s calm composure, he had to be hurt by the response of people he’d known for a while. I tried to push it from my mind, but I couldn’t. I needed to make this right for him somehow.

  Once we got to the pediatric hospital, my attention shifted. Caroling became a distant thought as Owen and I entered the facilities and met with the director of the hospital and some members of the staff. Then they brought us to a room where Owen could change into his outfit.

  “How are you going to fit in that?” I asked him when he took out the Santa suit that was several sizes too small.

  I smiled sheepishly at me. “It’s yours.”

  “Come again.”

  “Now, don’t get upset,” he said, and I quirked my eyebrow. That opening line usually meant I was going to be. “I know we all thought I could make a better Santa, but you should do this. You should talk to the kids, and you should be the one to thank. You put all this together, and I’m not going to take credit for it.”

  “I never wanted credit for this,” I said as he reached for my belt. “Hey, stop that. Unless you’re undressing me so you can give me a BJ.”

  “I can. If that puts you in the mood to do this for the kids.”

  “Owen.” I groaned.

  “Declan, please. I think that if you give it a try, you’ll enjoy being Santa. You already give so much of yourself to everyone.”

  “I don’t know the slightest about being Santa.”

  He released my buckle and popped the button on my pants open. “It’s easy since we already have everything from the list that the hospital sent over. I have a list of all the kids and what they look like, so I’ll tell you their names when they approach. They’ll get a kick out of you knowing their names. They tell you what they want for Christmas, and you hand them their gift. Voilà!”

  “Jesus, Owen, that sounds like a lot.”

  “It’ll get easier after the first one. You can do it. I believe in you.”

  I scowled at him and helped to remove my pants so I could slip on the red atrocity I was meant to wear. “And while I’m dressed as Santa, what will you be?”

  He beamed at me as he rose to his feet. “I’m glad you asked. As you know, there’s no Santa without a Mrs. Claus.”

  “Huh?”

  He fished into his bag and came out with a wig, all powdery white and ringlet curls. I gave a bark of laughter, thoroughly amused despite my earlier grumpiness about being Santa. Owen be Mrs. Claus? This I had to see.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, undoing his shirt buttons. “Don’t think I can pull it off?”

  “I’ll definitely love to see the kids’ reactions.”

  We both got dressed quickly. Owen dropped his pants and put on tights. I had no idea where he’d purchased them to fit his size. “A little help,” he said, clutching his dress. I had a feeling he should have put on the tights first.

  “Stop wi
ggling, and I’ll help.”

  It turned out not to be such a good idea to kneel before him and pull up tights over his thick legs. I might have gotten distracted by his bulge and might just have slipped his cock out of his tight briefs and captured the tip in my mouth. His legs might have buckled a bit as he reached for a file cabinet behind his back to lean heavily against. He might have held up Mrs. Claus’s outrageously fluffy dress to his waist so he could stare down at my head while I sucked him off, and he might have shot his load into my mouth just a few minutes later.

  And by might…oh yeah, we definitely did.

  When his knees stopped trembling, we finished dressing him, and he fished into the bag where he had stashed the costumes and handed me a bottle of water he’d brought for us. We passed the bottle between us. Then I tossed him a mint from the pack I carried in my pocket.

  Owen would have suited more as Santa Claus, but he did cut quite a figure in the Mrs. Claus’s outfit. He looked more uncomfortable than I’d expected, and I caught him tugging on the bust of the dress several times.

  “I think I got a size too small,” he whispered as I took a seat in the chair the staff indicated in the children’s playroom. “And these tights are killing my balls. Fuck, I should have learned how to tuck.”

  “But you look so lovely, my dear,” I teased him.

  The kids who were able to join us in the room lined up and were chaperoned by nurses.

  At first, I was nervous about the whole talking to sick kids, some of whom I knew from the assistance of our charity foundation suffered from cancer. But I was always reassured by Owen’s presence, by his hand on my shoulder, the smile he would give me whenever I glanced his way, the look of pride, love, and joy that radiated from him.

  And one of the things I learned from each child was how happy they were despite whatever illness they had. They laughed, they were excited, and they were hopeful. They filled my heart with a lighthearted feeling that had me smiling, even after we had delivered all the gifts and were on our way home.

  I couldn’t thank Owen enough for that special gift. A reminder of how resilient the human spirit was in the face of adversity.

  Nine

  Owen

  Every Christmas Eve, I took my kids to the PNC Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, but with the kids all on their cruise, having the time of their lives, it was just Declan and me that night. At first, I didn’t want to go, but Declan insisted. A spanking and a butt plug inserted later, I followed Declan into my car, and we headed to the gardens.

  We arrived at almost nine, paid the admission, and it didn’t take much for me to be sucked into the moment.

  “See, you’re happy we came,” Declan said as we watched the synchronized show on the lake, holiday music floating on the air around us. He stood behind me, his arms around my waist so he could do that thing he liked—snuggling his face into my neck and nosing me.

  “Yes, I should be used to it by now,” I replied. “But every year, the wildlife show is different, and the kids and I usually try to guess what it will be about before we go.”

  “That sounds like fun,” he said. “I remember one year Charles, Mom, and I came.”

  I glanced up at him. “Really?”

  “Yeah, but not on Christmas Eve. They usually entertained on that day.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes, I used to think they had the most awesome parties.” He chuckled. “All these well-dressed people would show up. I remember thinking that my parents had to be important people because of these parties and their friends. They would let me stay around until nine, and then Charles would put me to bed.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  His chest shook from his laughter. “Nothing like your family traditions, I bet.”

  “That’s true. We are a bit more like normal people.”

  He squeezed my waist and bit my neck. “Hey, are you saying I’m not normal people?”

  I tilted my head away from his teeth and kissed him hard once. “Well, now I’ve normalized you.”

  I stepped away from him before he could swat at me. He followed me and grasped my hand, and we continued our viewing of the lake. There was so much to see and do, and when we passed the “North Pole” where the Clauses were, Declan and I looked at each other, then burst out in laughter. We attracted a few stares, but to us, our inside joke was worth it.

  “They look more like the real thing,” he whispered in my ear. “I had to think fast on my feet when that little girl asked me why Mrs. Claus looked so funny.”

  “Yup, telling her I was under a curse that could only be lifted when we delivered all the toys around the world was pretty smooth. You’re a quick thinker on your feet, Mr. Moore.”

  When it got too cold, we grabbed chocolates and holed up in the reptile house until we were warmed up enough to go back out to finish our tour. By the time we returned to the car, I felt re-energized, like I could go for the entire night, and I knew why. After catching the show, the children usually stayed next door while I went out with the other carolers to spread a little bit of the holiday cheer.

  “Are you tired?” Dec asked as though reading my mind.

  “Nope, why? Are you?”

  “Not in the least. What do you want to do now?”

  “Movie marathon on Hallmark?” I suggested. “We can make a blanket fort in the living room.”

  “Let me guess, something you did with the kids?”

  “Sometimes.” I was glad he couldn’t see my flushed face in the car.

  He turned on the radio and holiday music poured from the speakers. The sound was good enough for us to drive home in silence. I even ignored Declan tapping away on his phone. He always worked, and I wasn’t surprised that on Christmas Eve, he’d have found something to do.

  As we neared our house, I stared at the couple of cars parked in the driveaway. I had seen them enough to know one belonged to Pierce and the other to Heath.

  “Declan, you invited over company?” I asked him.

  “Dammit, they were supposed to park in the garage,” he mumbled.

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “You know how you really wanted to go caroling?”

  “Yes?” I edged by Heath’s car and drove us into the garage.

  “We’re going caroling,” he replied.

  “What?” I gazed at him, the light from the garage illuminating his face.

  “I didn’t like it that those assholes got to push you out of something you really wanted to do,” he said. “So, I invited our friends to go along, and we’re going caroling.”

  “You did that?” I choked on the words, on my happiness. I would never get used to this. Someone who saw me and saw my needs. Someone who cared that I wasn’t just settling, but wanted me to have what I thought I couldn’t.

  “Yes, now, don’t expect too much.”

  We got out of the car, and he took my hand, leading me toward the door. He stopped me and glanced up with a smirk.

  “Let me guess, mistletoe?”

  He chuckled. “Pucker up, Mrs. Claus.”

  He didn’t need to tell me twice. He deserved more than just a kiss. I gripped the back of his neck and pulled him toward me. Our lips drifted over each other’s, and I poured all my love into it.

  When the kids told me they had booked the cruise trip together, I’d thought this Christmas wouldn’t be the same. It wasn’t. But it was just as good, and all because of Declan.

  “Ahem.”

  At the clearing of a throat, I released Declan’s lips and turned my head. Our friends were standing in the doorway, laughing.

  “Uh, I’m going to be pissed if the real reason you called us over here was to engage in a holiday gangbang.” Pierce’s grin contradicted his words. “I thought we were going caroling.”

  “I can’t believe you all agreed to this,” I said, releasing Declan.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Heath grumbled. “Ridge made me.”

  Rid
ge shrugged. “Well, he’s got the best voice out of all of us. You should hear him sing to me in bed.”

  I laughed, so happy I could kiss them all. “Well, let’s get started.”

  “Let’s hope this gay choir doesn’t suck,” Heath said.

  “Pretty sure we all do,” David responded in his usual quiet way.

  We all guffawed at Heath’s double meaning, and even he managed a grin. Damn, this was what Christmas meant. Friends. Family. And doing this with them.

  Ten

  Declan

  “Hmm.” Owen rose onto his knees. Was he awake? He wasn’t. I smiled, listening to the soft sexy purrs he made while I teased his hole.

  He might be asleep, but his body was reacting to every brush of my fingers, every stroke of my tongue. He was a heavy sleeper, and it had been late when we dropped into bed last night. No wonder he hadn’t woken up yet despite my licking his ass for the past five minutes or so.

  I’d made him go to bed with the butt plug in, and the first thing I had done when I woke up was slowly ease it out of his body. The plug had kept him slack and accommodating when I fucked him slowly with my tongue, taking my time to kiss and caress him.

  He twitched, and I stroked a finger down his taint and cupped his balls. Carefully bringing his cock backward, I lay on the bed and sucked the plump head into my mouth.

  “Arrgh,” he mumbled words that didn’t make sense, his hips now moving restlessly.

  It wouldn’t be too long now until he woke up fully.

  I released his dick and used my saliva to stroke and caress him while I kissed his taint, the round curves of his generous ass.

  “Daddy?” he moaned, raising his head and peering at me with sleep-glazed eyes.

  “Hmm?”

  His head dropped back onto the pillow. “Feels so good. Don’t stop.”

  I wasn’t planning on it. He hovered between sleep and wakefulness as I trailed kisses down his back to his hole once more. I pressed my palms to his ass cheeks, spreading them so his body opened up to my view.

  Fuck, if I wanted this man any more than I already did, it would have bordered on being an obsession.