A Famiglia Christmas

by A. J. Daniels

“Can Lil and I go snowboarding?”

  “And Dylan and Skylar!” Lily chimes in.

  I glance back over at my wife and hope she takes pity on me and will volunteer to take them. It's not that I don't want to take the kids up the mountain tonight, but it's late and it was a long-ass travel day with the flights and then renting the cars. But the traitor just smirks and pats me on the shoulder before helpfully declaring that she'll call Toni and tell him to go with us which earns a round of loud cheering from Coop and Lily.

  I glance over to where Cam is happily playing with his Paw Patrol dog. "You're my favorite," I stage-whisper to the two-year-old which earns me a big, toothy grin from him and a backhand on the chest from my wife, the ex-Russian Assassin.

  “No sex for you!” I say to her in my best Soup Nazi voice.

  Jessika grins, patting my chest with her hand as she shuffles passed me. “Like you could go twelve hours without sex.”

  I start to rebuke her claim – even though she’s not wrong. That’s not relevant right now — but the voice coming from the other side of her phone gives me pause. A slow grin works its way across my face when I realize what’s happening.

  Damn straight, if I have to spend tonight being cockblocked by my son and Goddaughter then so will Antonio.

  “Well, he doesn’t sound very happy about it, but Kai says they’ll be here in ten.”

  “Kai’s coming too?” I ask, shocked. Kai’s not exactly the biggest fan of winter activities. In fact, he cursed up a storm when Toni told him the plan for Christmas this year. I think he even tried to convince Toni and Braxton that we should do Christmas in Belize instead. I didn’t tell them at the time, but I was completely, one hundred percent down with Christmas on a tropical Island.

  Jessika laughs. “No, Toni’s going snowboarding with you. Kai is coming over to help me wrap the last of the presents and rescue the baileys.”

  I lick my lips imagining the taste of the smooth liquor on Jessika’s tongue and the soft, hazy look that clouds her eyes when she’s had a couple of drinks.

  "Nu-uh, Soldier. You're getting your jacket on and taking the kids up the mountain."

  I swallow back the whine that threatens to escape my throat and remind myself that I'm a grown-ass man who doesn't fucking whine. To prove it to myself, I pin Jess with the look I know gets her instantly wet and stalk toward her, forcing her back until her ass hits the wooden corner of the kitchen island.

  Leaning in, I inhale the scent of strawberries on her skin. My teeth graze her earlobe and she shivers.

  “Are you sure, Angel?” I nip at her jaw, my fingers digging into the exposed skin between her black jeans and blue shirt. “Stefan and Brielle will be here by now too. We can have them take all the kids along with Toni and Kai,” I say as I place a hot kiss to the base of her throat. “We can have the house to ourselves.”

  My fingers trail a path up her side to cup a breast under her shirt. Jessika moans, tilting her head further back and allowing me better access. That is until the sound of boots thundering down the stairs breaks through our haze.

  “We’re ready, Uncle Alex!” Lily announces from the front door.

  “I love the kids,” I mutter under my breath, burying my nose in my wife’s neck.

  Jessika laughs, shoving my arm and I reluctantly take a step back. I do love the kids, all of them, but sometimes I wish Jess and I could have a few moments of uninterrupted… quiet. I need time with my wife that’s not just a stolen moment or two in the bathroom while we’re getting ready, or a quiet quickie when the boys are in bed. I want to take my time exploring her body the way I used to. I want to make her scream and pant, to hear my name on her tongue when she comes.

  “A couple runs. That’s all you have to do tonight. Tomorrow we’ll all take the kids up to the slopes before Cooper’s birthday dinner.”

  Cooper’s turning ten tomorrow. His birthday and Christmas were the sole reasons for us packing everyone up and hoofing it across the country and into the States for a week.

  Well, not everyone. Mason refused to dig himself out of the one-man pity party he’s been throwing himself ever since he allowed Sofia to get married to that prick. I volunteered to take him out, but Braxton said no. Asshole. Not like he trusts Simon either, but Simon can make things a lot harder for us with the Cartel if we don’t play things just right. If it were up to me, I would've killed the slime ball months ago, before he got his hooks into Sofia. I don't for one second believe she married the douche because she loves him. I know what a woman in love looks like. Hell, I just have to see the way Jessika looks at me or Klara at Braxton or Brielle at Stefan and I know. These women are in love. Sofia is sacrificing. But what the hell do I know? I’m just a man.

  Braxton said I couldn’t kill Simon, but he didn’t say anything about Mason. If only the idiot could stay sober long enough to get his head out of his ass and realize it himself. I saw the pain, regret, and guilt he carried around after Emily died, if he’s not careful it’ll be the same with Sofia.

  “The sooner you go, the sooner you can get back and maybe I’ll let you do naughty things to me sooner than twelve hours,” Jessika whispers, her lips brushing the shell of my ear.

  “You were serious about that?”

  “Like a heart attack,” she grins mischievously.

  “Don’t play with me, woman,” I growl, not liking where this is going.

  “Twelves hours, Alex. If you can go twelve hours without trying to get into my pants, I’ll reward you.”

  Ignoring the kids hollering from the door, I cage my wife between the counter and my body again. “Reward? What kind of reward?”

  Her fingers play with the three buttons of my Henley. She bites the corner of her lip while looking up at me from under her dark lashes. “You’ll just have to be a good boy and find out,” she rasps in that sexy, sultry voice she knows does me in. Then she ducks under my arm and goes to greet Toni, Kai, Brielle, and Stefan who’ve just walked through the door.

  Twelve hours. Twelve-god damn-hours!

  I breathe deeply through my nose and let it out. I can do this. I got this. If I can survive a lifetime of believing that I was responsible for my own brother’s death, and being forced to take a life at sixteen, I can survive a twelve-hour sex ban. When I head over to where everyone is still congregated by the front door to grab my jacket, Jess is bent over picking something up off the floor. I turn around so my back is facing everyone and try to discretely adjust myself. It’s going to be a long fucking twelve hours.

  Toni, Stefan, and I bundle the kids up and the seven of us take the gondola up to the beginner hill. Once we get to the top, we all strap onto our boards. I look around, searching for Lily so I can help her with her board but find Dylan and Skylar already gathered around her while she sits in the snow and Cooper straps her boots in.

  Toni and Stefan slide up on either side of me and the three of us watch as the boys help Lily to her feet and get her steady. This isn’t the first time she’s gone snowboarding, but it is her first time going without Braxton here to help her. Dylan takes both of her gloved hands and looks like he’s giving her a refresher course. He shows her how to bend her knees when she’s going down the hill. Her head tilts to the right and she sticks the tip of her tongue out while she concentrates on copying what Dylan’s doing. Next, Skylar explains to her how to stop if she needs to and how to turn so that she doesn’t hit a tree. While the twins give Lily a refresher crash course in snowboarding, my son is scowling at where Dylan still has a hold of Lily’s hand, with his arms crossed over his chest. He may be turning ten tomorrow, but you’d never know it by the way he’s acting.

  “Should we be worried?” Toni asks from my right while Stefan chuckles on my left.

  "They're just kids," is the only answer I can come up with.

  “You know as much as I do that, that doesn’t mean shit in our world,” Stefan chimes in, grinning when Cooper shoves Dylan aside, takes Lily’s hand and whispers something to her that makes h
er smile bright.

  Fuck my life.

  Braxton’s going to kill Coop, and if he doesn’t then he’s definitely going to kill me.

  Chapter 4

  Brielle

  “You didn’t!” I have to put my wine glass down or risk it toppling over from laughing so hard.

  Jessika grins triumphantly. “I sure did.”

  “Twelve hours?” I ask between laughing bouts.

  Kai snorts into his wine. “You really put Alessandro Ferrara on a twelve-hour sex ban? The Capo to the Famiglia?”

  “Yup,” Jess nods like she deserves a gold medal.

  “Poor guy.” I take a sip of my rose wine and lean back in my chair.

  Jess waves a hand in the air. "He won't be able to go for twelve hours. He'll come home from taking the kids snowboarding and want to get the boys in bed as soon as they get in so we can be alone."

  She hands Kai and I each a roll of tape and scissors so we can help her wrap birthday gifts for Cooper and Christmas gifts for all the kids.

  Kai grabs a toy box from the pile on the floor and settles in to begin wrapping. “Okay, one of you bitches better spill the tea about Mason and Sofia.”

  I pause with a hand halfway to reaching for my own box. Jess and I lock eyes before we both turn to look at the handsome, blue-eyed man.

  “Spill the tea?” I ask, fighting to keep my lips from twitching into a grin and raise a brow.

  Kai's head snaps up and he notices both Jess and me starring at him. "What?" He shrugs; then sighs. "I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos lately."

  I can’t hold back the laugh that’s bubbling up again. Jess joins in a couple seconds later.

  “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up,” Kai groans. “But seriously, what the hell’s going on? Toni is being all mum about it.”

  Jess and I both sober up, all laughter fading. I’m sure she knows more than me, being married to Alessandro and all, but the little I do know is enough to make me squirm in my seat. Jess takes a seat at the head of the table and pushes her glass of baileys closer to the middle to make room for the boxing gloves she’s about to wrap for Cooper.

  "The guys aren't saying much, but from what I can gather… Simon isn't the greatest guy, actually, he's the worst of the worse. Worse than Dante."

  Kai’s eyes bug out at the confession. Neither he nor I were around for the Dante fiasco, but we've heard plenty about it. Enough to know that Dante made the devil look like an angel again.

  “It sounds like he blackmailed Sofia into marrying him. None of the guys have been able to find out what he used on her, but they’re guessing it has something to do with Mason.”

  "Jesus," Kai breathes, before taking another long sip of his wine.

  “Yeah,” Jess agrees. “Braxton and Alex have been trying to figure out a way to get Sofia out of this mess, but—”

  “She’s stubborn,” I cut in.

  Jess lifts her glass and tips it in my direction in agreement, and we drop all conversations about Mason and Sofia. My heart hurts for them both, but I get it. If it meant breaking Stefan's heart to save his life, I'd do it. I'd do anything and everything in my power to make sure he isn’t harmed. Which is ironic, actually, considering his line of work and the danger he and all the men face every time they walk out the front door in the morning.

  The three of us continue wrapping presents for the kids and not two seconds after we’ve put the very last present away do the guys come back with all the kids and with Braxton and Klara in tow. Stefan and I play Uno with Cooper while Jess and Alessandro get Cameron ready for bed. Braxton and Klara take Lily next door to do the same, and Toni and Kai do as well with the twins.

  We all congregate back at Braxton and Klara's Chalet a couple hours later, the kids all in their PJs. Lily, Cooper, Dylan, and Skylar make a nest of all their blankets and pillows on the floor between the fireplace and the brown leather couches and the kids all sprawl out with little Cameron flopping himself down in the middle on one side of Cooper while Lily is snuggled up against Coop’s other side, her purple bunny clutched against her body.

  “Alright, what will it be tonight?” Braxton asks, walking into the room with drinks for the men while Klara trails behind him, a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

  “Frozen!” Lily yells from the floor and the rest of the kids groan except for Cameron who’s nodding along excitedly.

  “Lil, no,” Coop says, shaking his head.

  Lily sits up and frowns down at the boy. Her bottom lip begins to wobble.

  “Dad brought The Polar Express with us. Why don’t we watch that one tonight and Frozen tomorrow?” Cooper suggests, draping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her back to where she was.

  She huffs, “Okay. Deal.” Lily lays her head on Cooper’s chest.

  A choking sound drags my gaze from the kids on the floor. I have to bite down hard on my bottom lip to stop from giggling. Braxton’s glaring daggers at his wife while she pats his back and smiles sweetly at him. From beside me, Alessandro groans into the curve of his wife’s neck and mumbles something that sounds a lot like, “I’m a dead man.”

  Stefan chuckles on my other side, gripping my hips and pulling me back into the couch and against him. I settle into my husband and try to pay attention to the movie playing on the big screen above the fireplace mantel, but my gaze keeps darting to Braxton and Klara.

  The curvy blonde is snuggled on her husband’s lap with her head resting on his shoulder. The bowl of popcorn balancing on her lap between them. Braxton shifts his head slightly to the right and kisses the crown of her head. Klara’s shoulders visibly relax even further, and she practically melts into the man. I feel my lips tip up into a smile. That’s the kind of relationship I want for Stefan and me. The kind that doesn’t waver. The kind that grows and gets stronger despite all the obstacles acting against it.

  Alessandro pops in the DVD and we all settle in to watch the first Christmas movie of the season.

  Chapter 5

  Kai

  “Give it back, Sky!”

  I groan, rolling over and snuggling into my husband’s side.

  “Why do your kids have to get up so friggin early on Christmas vacation?” I grumble, trying to ignore the argument coming from outside our bedroom and down the hall in the living room.

  Toni chuckles, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me in closer. “Why are they only my kids when they’re up to something?” He asks, sounding way more awake than I want to be right now.

  I peel an eye open and squint to read the glowing red numbers on the alarm clock sitting on his side of the bed. 6:00am. Seriously!?

  “They’re only yours before ten.” I yawn and roll back over, pulling the comforter with me.

  The bed dips and moments later, a strong arm wraps around my waist to pull me back against him. I can feel his already hard length pressed up against me, so I wiggle my ass further into him. Toni groans, the pads of his fingertips digging into my hip. His breath fans the side of my neck when he leans down and starts to nip and suck up my neck and along my jaw. I moan and turn my head so I can capture his lips in a kiss.

  “Dad!”

  “Dad!”

  The twin’s voices call from the hallway, followed by racing feet as they try to tackle each other to be the first one through the sliding barn door that separates our bedroom from the rest of the Chalet.

  “I want to go snowboarding!” Skylar declares. Apparently, whatever they were fighting over earlier all forgotten.

  “But I wanna go tobogganing!” Dylan argues, glaring daggers at his twin.

  “Snowboarding!”

  “Tobogganing!”

  “We should’ve gone to Belize,” I say, slipping in my two cents.

  Toni sighs, resting his forehead on my shoulder as we listen to our sons argue and banter back and forth about which one is better and why we should do it. A year ago, an argument like this wouldn't have happened… at least not in front of Toni an
d me. A year ago, the twins still weren't sure about Toni and I being their new parents. They were constantly watching and waiting for the shoe to drop and for us to send them back in to foster care because surely, a newly married couple would want a newborn baby rather than a set of four-year-old twin boys. But slowly, over the last twelve months, they've become more and more comfortable around us. Despite our rocky start, I wouldn't trade these boys for anything in the world.

  “Alright. Enough,” Toni finally says, his tone holding no argument and the boys instantly quiet down.

  Something flips and heats in my core at Toni’s take no shit command, and I have to bite down on my lip to keep from getting hard in front of our sons. The bed dips again as he rolls on to his back and sits up against the headboard. I breathe a sigh and do the same, making sure the comforter is covering everything from my waist down.

  “It’s Cooper’s birthday, which means he gets to decide the activities for today.”

  "But—" Skylar pouts, stomping a foot. He's definitely the more dramatic one of the two.

  Dylan is the quieter, more reserved one. Where Skylar is more like me, Dylan is definitely more like Toni. They hold shit in and bury it down deep to let it fester until the smallest thing sets them off then it's like a volcano erupting. The last time Toni erupted was just after our first Christmas together.

  We had gone out to a club for some dancing after a nice, romantic dinner and while I was in the bathroom some guy said something about wanting to take me out back and force-feed me his cock. Toni lost it, punching the guy in the face and breaking his nose before proceeding to break a couple ribs. Luckily, the club happened to be one of many under the De Luca umbrella so everyone there knew Toni. I guess the other guy also had a reputation for being an asshole, so nobody was in a hurry to help him. After effectively kicking his ass, Toni and Stefan threw him out with a warning to never show his face in any of the De Luca clubs again.

  Of course, I missed it all and Stefan ended up filling me in on all the excitement after everything was already said and done because Toni refused to. He was ashamed that he had acted in that way. He never fought, not if he could help it and even then, it was only if Braxton sent him along on a job and there was no one else.