Secret Santa Surprise: Book 29 in the Kindred Tales Series

by Evangeline Anderson

  Melanie thought about asking them what they really wanted from her—where they were going with this. Did they honestly want a permanent relationship—the three of them together for life?

  But then she found that the warm embrace of the twins on either side of her drowned out all the questions and worries and fears for the future. She had expected this experience—being naked in bed between them—to be wholly sexual, no matter what they said about “healing.” So she was surprised when she felt a current of warmth and tenderness flowing between the three of them as the twins held her close.

  “Now, little one,” Strong rumbled, turning her on her side to face him and stroking her hair as Clear caressed her back and shoulders. “Let go of any worry or fear. Forget the anguish of your past.”

  “Be one with us,” Clear murmured in her ear. “Let our love erase your pain.”

  Their words and actions were so soft and soothing that despite herself, Melanie’s anxiety seemed to float away and her body began to relax and lose its tension. Their hard forms against hers felt right in a way she couldn’t explain or deny and she found herself melting against them, exhaling a long sigh of relief as they cradled her in their arms.

  I am loved, she thought. I am cared for…I am cherished.

  “So beautiful, little one,” Strong murmured, kissing her forehead.

  “Gorgeous,” Clear whispered in her ear as he pressed against her back. “Relax, Melanie—just let us hold you. Just let us heal you.”

  And to Melanie’s surprise, she was able to do exactly that. All her body issues and uncertainty and anxiety seemed to melt away as she sank into the sweet, three-way embrace and at last drifted off to sleep in the arms of her lovers.

  21

  Melanie didn’t wake up until dawn the next day.

  Christmas Morning, she thought and felt a tingle of anticipation, just as she had when she was a kid. Then she realized what had woken her up—there were only two of them in the bed instead of three.

  “Hey,” she murmured sleepily, looking at the empty left side of the bed. “Where’s Clear?”

  “Hmm? Oh, he had to go back to the Mother Ship for something,” Strong rumbled. “Don’t worry—he’ll be back soon.”

  Melanie thought of rolling over and going back to sleep, but it didn’t seem right when they were missing Clear. Besides, she could hear Aunt Marge already banging away in the kitchen. She decided to go down and help.

  Leaving the Dark Twin drowsy, she got dressed in jeans and a sweater—since there was a cold snap and it was actually chilly, even in Florida for once. Melanie had always loved cold weather and she felt completely revived after a night spent between her guys, so she was in a great mood as she came downstairs.

  “Good morning, Aunt Marge,” she said, smiling as she walked into the kitchen, carefully avoiding the cats strewn around the warm stove.

  “Good morning, Melly.” Aunt Marge peered at her and then nodded. “You look good this morning. Hell of a lot better than when you came moping in here yesterday, anyway.”

  “I feel a lot better,” Melanie said, smiling. She wanted to say she felt healed—both physically and emotionally—but she wasn’t sure if her practical aunt would quite understand that.

  Aunt Marge nodded again.

  “Might have something to do with those two young men, I think,” she remarked, with a sly smile.

  “Maybe,” Melanie admitted, feeling her cheeks get hot. She had the urge to tell her aunt that the three of them hadn’t actually done anything the night before except sleep in each other’s arms. But she and Aunt Marge had never had the kind of relationship where they talked about any kind of sex, so she kept her mouth shut.

  Aunt Marge frowned at her.

  “They’re nice enough young men, but what are you planning to do with ‘em, Melly?” she demanded. “Marry ‘em both?”

  “I…I don’t know,” Melanie admitted, her cheeks getting even hotter. “We haven’t really decided anything like that yet.”

  “Well, you’ll figure it out, I’m sure,” her aunt said, after one more piercing look. “Come on and help me with this turkey—it’s a monster and it’s gotta go in now if we’re gonna eat it before midnight.”

  Melanie spent the morning and early afternoon helping her aunt cook and bake. More than any other year she could remember, Aunt Marge seemed determined to make the most impressive Christmas meal possible, with all the fixings. Besides the turkey there was a honey-glazed ham, homemade cranberry sauce, dressing, both green bean and sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade yeast rolls, and of course pumpkin pie.

  By the time they all sat down to eat, it was well past noon and everyone’s stomachs were growling. Strong and Clear had both been shooed out of the kitchen several times, when they asked if they could help. So instead, they had spent the day doing yard work and decorating the Christmas tree which Aunt Marge hadn’t had time to see to earlier.

  Melanie felt a warm glow as she looked at all the old, familiar ornaments the guys had hung on the tree. And Aunt Marge puffed up with pride when the twins praised everything on the table and asked for seconds and then thirds of all the dishes.

  “They certainly do have nice manners,” she said to Melanie, nodding approvingly after Clear had asked for her recipe for turkey gravy which he called “delicious Earth bird sauce.”

  “Yes, they do.” Melanie smiled at her aunt.

  “Much nicer than that Steve.” Aunt Marge sniffed. “Did I tell you he’s been coming around again?”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about him anymore,” Melanie said, smothering a smile. “He came over here last night and Strong, er, explained to him that he was no longer welcome.”

  “He’s gone for good then?” Aunt Marge demanded.

  “Yes, Ma’am.” Strong nodded at her.

  “And he won’t be back,” Clear added.

  “That’s good.” She gave them both a smile of approval. “He never did treat Melly right. She ought to be treated like a queen.”

  “She will be,” Strong assured her. He gave Melanie a significant look. “If she wants to be, she’ll be treated like a queen the rest of her life.”

  Melanie wasn’t sure what to say to that, especially when she saw that Clear was giving her the same look. She took another bite of green bean casserole and the conversation moved on, though her heart kept pounding.

  After the Christmas feast, the twins helped clean up and then they all gathered around the Christmas tree.

  “We hope you don’t mind, but we have some presents for you both,” Clear said, nodding at Aunt Marge and Melanie. He picked up a brightly wrapped package and handed it to Aunt Marge. “For you, kin of our female.”

  “For me?” Aunt Marge’s wrinkled face broke into a wide smile that showed every one of her false teeth. “You shouldn’t have!” But she was already tearing into the wrapping as she spoke.

  Inside was what looked like a stack of multicolored bowls in red, yellow, green, orange, pink, and blue. The bowls were small and held together by thin, silver, mechanical arms.

  “Eh?” Aunt Marge frowned at the stack. “What’s this, then?”

  “Put it down on the floor and see.” Strong’s dark blue eyes were sparkling and Clear was smiling widely.

  Aunt Marge did as they said, placing the stack of bowls down on the floor in front of her.

  At once, the bowls began unstacking themselves lengthwise, until at last there were fifteen of them laid out neatly in a long row among the wrapping paper. Then, to Melanie’s surprise, a tiny opening appeared at the top rim of each bowl and about half a teaspoonful of tiny, hard brown specks tinkled down into the bottom of each one.

  “What—?” she began but Strong held up a hand.

  “Wait—it’s not finished yet.”

  As Melanie watched, another pinhole-sized opening appeared at the top of the bowls and a trickle of water ran into each one. As soon as the water touched them, the tiny brown granules began to
grow and swell until each bowl held a very respectable amount of what appeared to be pet food.

  Aunt Marge’s cats noticed at once and came, mewing, from every direction to dine on the impromptu Christmas feast.

  “That’s amazing!” Aunt Marge’s eyes were wide. “What in tarnation is it?”

  “This is a self-filling, self-cleaning pet bowl set,” Clear explained. “I filled it with a year’s worth of feline mix that’s specially nutritionally formulated to keep cats of all ages healthy.”

  “You say it’s self-cleaning too?” Aunt Marge demanded.

  “Just watch.” Strong pointed to the last two bowls on the right side, which had already been cleaned out by two of Aunt Marge’s fatter cats—a tabby named Sylvester and a Norwegian Forest cat by the name of Mr. Flufferpants.

  As they watched, more water ran into the bowls and washed away all the crumbs. Then they stacked themselves together again, the silver mechanical arms lifting the first bowl to nestle it into the second. As the cats finished their food, the other bowls did the same. Any food left in the bottom of the dishes was instantly dehydrated and sucked in the form of tiny granules back into the bottom of the bowl for later use.

  “As you can see, none of it goes to waste,” Clear explained as the last of the bowls stacked themselves, resulting in a single, colorful stack again.

  “Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” Aunt Marge breathed.

  Strong frowned.

  “You will?”

  “How can you be the male relative of a primate?” Clear asked, also frowning in confusion.

  Melanie laughed.

  “It’s an Earth saying, you guys. I think Aunt Marge is just overwhelmed by your present.”

  “Overwhelmed? Why, I’m amazed!” the old lady cried. “Do you know how much my back pains me when I’m bending over all the time, feeding these ungrateful critters?” she demanded, looking at Melanie. “And those big bags of cat food aren’t easy to lift, neither! Or cheap! And now your two new fellas have solved all my problems at once!” She gestured to Clear and Strong. “You two come here right now and let me give you a hug! I just don’t know what to say, I’m so happy!”

  Both the twins hugged the old lady gently and Melanie felt another warm glow in her heart. Steve had never touched her aunt if he could help it—he didn’t even want to help her up the stairs when her knees were bothering her. But Strong and Clear treated her with respect and tenderness…which she supposed shouldn’t surprise her, since they treated her the same way.

  “I just feel bad I didn’t get anything for you two,” Aunt Marge said, when they had sat back down on the couch at last.

  “That delicious meal was the best gift we could have received,” Strong told her, patting his flat stomach.

  “Oh, I know!” Melanie exclaimed. “I feel like I’ll never have room to eat anything ever again.”

  “Well, Strong and I were hoping you might have room for just a few more bites of something sweet,” Clear murmured. He and his brother exchanged looks and then he handed Melanie a silver wrapped box that had something heavy that rolled around inside it.

  “What’s this?” she asked, mystified as she tore off the wrapping.

  “Think of it as another Secret Santa gift,” Strong told her, smiling. “From both of us this time.”

  Inside the box, cushioned in tissue paper, were three perfect bonding fruit.

  “Ohhh,” Melanie breathed, lifting one of the peach-colored, triangular fruits out and pressing it to her nose. “These smell amazing!”

  “They’re perfectly ripe,” Clear assured her. “But they actually have another present that goes with them.”

  “They do? Oh!” Melanie looked up from the bonding fruit to see that both of the twins were on one knee in front of her—Strong on the right and Clear on the left.

  “Here you are—please unwrap this too,” Clear murmured, handing her a much smaller present this time.

  Heart pounding in her chest, Melanie tore off the crimson wrapping paper to see a small, black velvet box inside. When she opened it, she saw the most exquisite ring she’d ever beheld.

  “Oh…” She looked up at the twins as she picked the ring carefully out of its box. “Oh, it’s so beautiful!”

  “We were told by Sonja that when a male proposes Joining to a human female, he must give her a ring of engagement—to show that he is serious,” Strong told her.

  “And this one is actually three rings—look.” Clear showed her how the ring came apart into a gold, a platinum, and a diamond band which all locked back together when twisted in the right direction. “I hope it’s the right size,” he added shyly. “I had to guess and the jeweler aboard the Mother Ship wasn’t too happy about being woken so early on a holiday to open his shop.”

  “Will you try it on?” Strong asked hopefully. “Will you allow us to put it on you, little one?”

  Melanie’s heart swelled until she thought it was going to burst.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “If…if you really mean it? You want the three of us to be together forever?”

  “Forever,” Strong assured her, slipping the lovely, three-banded ring onto her finger, where it fit perfectly. “We know we haven’t known each other for long, Melanie…”

  “But this feels right,” Clear said, finishing his brother’s sentence. “And we want to Claim you as our bride, if you’ll take us as your mates.”

  Melanie felt her eyes filling with tears.

  “Oh, Strong, Clear…I don’t know what to say!”

  “Say yes, you ninny!” Aunt Marge interjected. “You won’t get another chance like this again!”

  “Of course I say yes.” Melanie’s eyes and heart both overflowed as she put out her arms to both of her guys. “Yes, with all my heart,” she said as the three of them held each other tightly.

  When they finally broke apart, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Even Aunt Marge was sniffling suspiciously into her Kleenex.

  “I never asked you, Melly,” she said to Melanie. “But what do these two new space husbands of yours do for a living?”

  Melanie smiled.

  “Well, Strong, here is a doctor and Clear is an accountant.”

  “Really?” Aunt Marge’s eyes widened. “I always did tell you that you ought to marry a doctor or an accountant or some such professional man like that—remember, Melly?”

  “Yes, Aunt Marge.” Melanie smothered a grin. “You did tell me that.”

  “I just didn’t expect you to marry both at once.” The old lady shook her head but then she grinned at Melanie. “Melly, the first time you struck out—that Steve was a real stinker. But this second time you did good. I’m proud of you.”

  Melanie laughed.

  “Thank you, Aunt Marge. That means a lot to me.”

  She gave her aunt a hug and then picked up one of the bonding fruits and winked at Strong and Clear.

  “And now I think I’ll have a little dessert.”

  22

  By the time they got back to the Mother Ship that night, it was getting late but Melanie knew she wouldn’t be getting much sleep. That was because she was beginning to feel the effects of the bonding fruit she’d eaten that afternoon. In fact, she was feeling them very strongly as a throbbing between her thighs and a tenderness in the tips of her nipples.

  This time when she shed her clothes and the twins did the same, she knew she wouldn’t just be sleeping between them. This time she needed to have them in her—both of them at once—in order to bond the three of them together for life and complete the promise she had given them.

  “I have to warn you, guys,” she told them, as the three of them climbed into the huge bed in Clear and Strong’s suite together. “I want to have babies—lots of them. And I need to have them fairly soon—my biological clock is ticking.”

  “That should be no problem, sweetheart,” Clear murmured, running his hands over her bare body.

  “We’ll do our best to make you pregnant tonight,” St
rong rumbled, bending to lay a gentle kiss on one of her nipples that sent a tingle of pleasure through her. “We’ll swell your belly with our seed when we bond you to us.”

  “Which means this time next year, you’ll be having twins,” Clear pointed out. “Christmas twins.”

  “Mmm, that would be perfect,” Melanie whispered.

  “You’re perfect, sweetheart.” Strong kissed her other nipple, sucking it briefly and swirling his tongue around the tight point.

  “Ahhh…” Melanie moaned softly, arching between them. “You know, I’ve been thinking about this all day—wondering what it would be like when the three of us make love. I’ve wondered how it would go, exactly.”

  “It can go any way you want, little one,” Strong told her. “After all, there are many, many ways for two males to pleasure their female, and we’ll be happy to try them all with you.”

  “All of them?” Melanie writhed between them seductively. She was very aware that the tips of her nipples were brushing against Strong’s hard chest and the fact that two long, thick shafts were branding her belly and her ass.

  “All of them,” Clear assured her. “Or as many as you’d like, sweetheart.”

  “Tell me,” Melanie whispered, shifting against them so that her breasts pressed harder against Strong’s chest and her bottom rubbed more firmly against Clear’s cock. “Tell me…what you’ll do to me before we bond.”

  “Well, the two of us can suck your nipples together, as we did the other night,” Clear pointed out. “Do you remember us doing that, sweetheart, or are your memories blurry because of the drug?”

  “Maybe…a little bit blurry,” Melanie murmured, shifting against them again. “Maybe you should…should show me what you mean? Just to jog my memory,” she added, biting her lip.

  “With pleasure, little one,” Strong growled. “Here, sit up against the pillows so we can reach your sweet peaks.”