Open Mind: Kink Chronicles Book One

by David, Luna

  Of course, Ronan was in the kitchen making them fancy-schmancy snacks to eat—most of which Jamie couldn’t pronounce the names of. Jamie had his very own kinky chef.

  “Ronan, come on! We don’t need snacks for twenty people. Get in here and open my gift!” Jamie called over to Ronan. He could see him in the kitchen, since the space was an open floor plan, putting food on platters and smiling. Always smiling.

  Ronan ignored him, of course. Finishing his task, he walked in carrying a platter filled with little tiny foods of all kinds. He placed it on the coffee table Jamie was sitting next to on the floor.

  “You know we can open gifts sitting on the couch, right?”

  “Umm…no, we can’t, Ronan. It’s sacrilege to do it any other way than sitting on the floor by the tree. Now, come down here, old man, and open my gift.”

  Ronan laughed as he sat down next to Jamie. “You can open my gift first.”

  Oh boy. Jamie really needed Ronan to open his gift first, but he could tell that even with that smile on his face, Ronan had made up his mind and nothing was going to change it. Jamie turned to look at the big box he’d wrapped just for this special gift. Maybe if he was really fast opening Ronan’s, it would be okay. That was a big maybe.

  “Okay, hand it over. I really need you to open mine soon,” Jamie said as he wiggled his fingers at Ronan in a gimme gesture. Ronan eyed him suspiciously but said nothing as he handed over the smallish box.

  The wrapping was in his favorite shade of blue, clearly wrapped by Ronan, if the messy bow was anything to go by. Jamie wanted to rip into it to get to his gift faster, but at the same time, the want and need to savor it was pulling at him. He smiled at Ronan as he opened fast but not like he was impatient.

  Last year had been their first Christmas together and a special one since they had gone through some ups and downs in the early part of their relationship. Ronan had given him a cooking class that they both took together. Jamie loved every moment of it, but he was no better at cooking than he’d been when Ronan was showing him what to do.

  When Jamie opened the box, all he saw was just an envelope. But when Jamie lifted the envelope, he could feel it was weighted somehow. Flipping it over, he saw a keychain in the shape of a large boat taped to the heavy cardstock.

  Jamie looked up, and it was his turn to eye Ronan with suspicion. “I love you, but if you bought me a boat, I will beat you with your own whip.”

  Ronan threw his head back and laughed. Jamie smiled and shook his head.

  When Jamie opened the envelope, he was confused at first. It was a brochure. Colorful and bright. Looking closer at all the pieces of paper inside, he realized what Ronan had actually gotten him.

  They had talked about their bucket lists at length over the last year. This was at the top of his list.

  “You didn’t…” Jamie whispered. Happy tears sprang to his eyes as his heart soared at what a wonderful gift Ronan had given him. “You can’t just…just…give this to me.”

  “Oh, Jamie, I would give you the world if I could. But since I’m not a trillionaire, this will have to do.”

  “Will have to do? You did not just call a two-week cruise around the damn Mediterranean something that will ‘have to do!’ Damn it! You’re making me cry!”

  Ronan laughed and gathered him in his arms, letting Jamie sniffle all over him. “God, I love you, you idiot.”

  “I love you too, boy. Always.”

  RONAN

  He kissed Jamie again, knowing he’d never get enough of those gorgeous lips. Over the last year, he’d been happier than he’d ever been in his whole life, and Jamie was the one who brought him such joy. Their first Christmas together had been wonderful and the three hundred and sixty-five days after, even better. He couldn’t have asked for a better man to be by his side and share the rest of his life with.

  Jamie wiggled on his lap, trying to get away, and Ronan grabbed hold of him, growling, “Where do you think you’re—”

  He was interrupted by a scuffle and then a yip coming from the huge box between the tree and the fireplace. What the…? Jamie looked anywhere but at him and started humming in a it-wasn’t-me, I-didn’t-hear-anything sort of way. Ronan snorted at his boy’s attempt at acting innocent. And if the last year had taught him anything, it was that Jamie was the furthest thing from innocent, and Ronan was a lucky man.

  Ronan glanced quickly at Jamie who was now biting his lip nervously. But before he could say anything, another impatient yip and more scuffling had him crawling over toward the box. The wrapped lid had a huge purple bow on top, the rest of the wrapping was a shiny metallic royal blue, and what he hadn’t seen until he was sitting in front of it, were the holes in the top of the box.

  When Ronan leaned over the box and peered through the hole closest to him, a more solid, though still timid, bark came from inside and the lid popped up on that corner. Two large paws and the cutest little face he’d ever seen poked out. An adorable, happy-puppy smile greeted him, a tongue lolling out. Ronan lifted the lid to see the happy was traveling all the way down to the wagging tail of the English mastiff puppy.

  “Jameson Gray.”

  Jamie snorted. “Ronan Kincaid.”

  Unable to look away from their new baby, he asked, “How did you know?”

  “Well, Doc, you’re not exactly super stealthy with your search history.”

  Ronan lifted the most perfect, wriggling puppy out of the box and held it in his lap. Looking down at her round belly, he realized he was holding a girl and glanced quickly over at the love of his life. “But you never use my laptop. You use your own.”

  “I do, but remember about six months ago when you were trying to bake a chocolate souffle after one of our baking classes and you asked me to bring you your iPad because you wanted to pull up the recipe our instructor sent us?”

  Distracted by puppy licks to his chin, all Ronan managed was, “Uh huh.”

  “Well you had an English mastiff website up.”

  He turned and grinned at Jamie. “I love her. But I thought you weren’t ready to have a puppy yet?”

  “Well, after I saw that, I had to do a lot of research to find a good breeder. When I found the one I wanted to do business with, I called and set it up. I had to wait the nine weeks gestation and the eight weeks to bring her home. She’s been living over at Tate and Kai’s for a week and a half, having fun frolicking around the vineyard.”

  “That’s where you went earlier.”

  Jamie smiled, now sitting facing him on the floor, his chin in his hand, and his eyes sparkling with happiness. “It is. And she’s been in that box for the last thirty minutes or so. Fell asleep on the pile of blankets at the bottom of the box in the car on the way home. She did her business before I left their place, but I don’t know how long puppies can go between potty breaks.”

  Ronan turned and kissed Jamie, a grin on his face as he stood up to take their little girl outside. “Does my little princess have to go potty? Does she? Yes, she does. Oh, yes, she does.”

  “I knew you’d use a puppy voice!”

  He turned, mock-glaring at Jamie’s teasing. “You knew no such thing.”

  “Come on, princess, Papa is teasing us so we’re gonna just ignore him. Yes, we are.” He walked out the front door and onto their front lawn, setting his girl down.

  Jamie followed and headed toward his car. “I’ve got loads of supplies in the car already. A crate, food, toys, food and water bowls, a ridiculously huge dog bed…because she could eventually weigh almost as much as I do…a leash, and this collar thing called a gentle leader, shampoo, and a pack of puppy-training pads.”

  “You thought of everything.”

  Jamie smiled as he walked toward them, two full bags of puppy supplies weighing his arms down. “I hope so. I’m sure you’re going to spoil her rotten, so I just got enough to get us by. You can go crazy at that cute little pet boutique on the way home from work that I’ve seen you eyeing with yearning.”

  �
��I was not.”

  “Oh, you were. You so were.” He continued up the porch steps and into the house with the supplies.

  “Do you hear that, princess? He’s making fun of Daddy again. I think I’ll have to punish him later. What do you think? Yeah, I thought so too.”

  “I heard that!”

  Ronan grinned and hollered back, “Good, you won’t be surprised later then.”

  He heard Jamie make a rude noise at him and chuckled. Grabbing the huge bag of puppy food and the dog bed out of Jamie’s car, he shut the car door. Turning, he couldn’t keep the giggle…yes, giggle…from slipping out as he watched their little princess try to navigate the porch stairs. He moved the big, fluffy bed to the hand holding the food and helped her up the stairs where she ran into the house, excited yips coming from her as she ran around her new home.

  Setting down the food and the bed, Ronan approached Jamie. He turned off the faucet Jamie was using to fill the water bowl, took the bowl and set it down, and pulled Jamie toward him and into a tight hug. “Thank you, sweetheart. I’m already in love with her.”

  Jamie rested his cheek on Ronan’s chest, snuggling deeper into his embrace. “I knew you’d love her. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she? What do you want to name her?”

  Ronan continued to hug him, rocking them back and forth, and finally answered, “Well, I’ve been calling her Princess since I picked her up, so I guess that’s her name.”

  Jamie snorted out a laugh. “Princess…for a dog that will be upward of a hundred and thirty pounds.”

  Ronan chuckled and replied, “It’s perfect.”

  His heart melted when Jamie nodded against his chest and said, “It is.”

  He pulled back and looked down at Jamie, kissing his lips tenderly. “Thank you for the best gift I’ve ever received. I love you, Jamie.”

  “You’re welcome, and thank you for the best gift I’ve ever received. Love you, Ronan.”

  Their embrace was interrupted by the sound of the bells on their Christmas tree. They both glanced over and gasped, watching the tree start to tip over.

  “Oh, shit!”

  THE END

  Custos Securities

  Trusting Cade

  Protecting Braden

  Custos Securities/Catharsis Novel

  Saving Sebastian

  The Boys Club Series

  Let Me In

  A Begin Again Novel

  A Different Light

  Risking It All

  Standalones

  Letting Go

  The Fates Design

  The Fates Design (Coming Soon)

  The Kingdom’s Divide (Coming 2019)

  Thank you for reading Open Mind (Kink Chronicles Book One). This book was so much fun for us to write. We fell in love with Ronan and Jamie and we hope you did too.

  Please take a moment to leave an honest review, if you’re so inclined.

  We welcome contact from readers. Here’s how you can contact us via social media.

  Luna David

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  Morningstar Ashley

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  To our readers, we can never say thank you enough for each time you pick up a book of ours to read and then fall in love with our characters the same way we have. We’re never sure how we got to be so lucky to have your support, but we never take it for granted. Thank you for reading our books and supporting us each step of the way.

  Thank you to our beta readers Annabella Michaels, Jenn Gibson, Jen Barten, Lisa Neal, Brittany Lewis, and Melinda James Rueter for your amazing feedback and help in making Jamie and Ronan shine. We appreciate everything you’ve done for us.

  And of course, to Allison Holzapel and Steph Marie, you are now called the clean-up crew because y’all found all the little things that made us giggle wondering how the other nine of us didn’t see them. Hugs!

  And Jaclyn Quinn, you were everything in this process. We know how crazy we drove you with our insistent questions and “holy moly what was that supposed to say” sentences. But you stuck it out, made our baby shine, and even learned a few new dirty things for your pervy mind. You deserve hugs and wine every day for life!

  And to our families who had to listen to us laugh and talk loudly for hours on end…deal with it! I’m joking…sort of. We love you and will try to be quieter next time. Maybe.

  Luna David is a true romantic at heart who was fortunate enough to find and marry her soul mate. Most of the time she considers herself lucky to have been blessed with having g/b twins, but they’re giving her a run for her money. She’s a stay at home mom and an author, so when she’s not begging her little monsters to behave, you’ll most likely find her writing.

  She loves anything book, coffee or dark chocolate related and can’t think of a better way to pass the time than to combine all three. She reads romance novels voraciously and while she prefers contemporary romance with strong Alpha males finding their soul mates, she’s a sucker for any well written, romantic story regardless of genre.

  She created the Custos Securities Series because she loves to write what she loves to read. Her books feature strong dominant males and the men they would die protecting. Toss in some BDSM and kink and you’ve got her Catharsis Novel Series, The Boys Club Series, and Kink Chronicles Series. She loves nothing more than making her readers feel a wide range of emotions with her words. And she hopes you enjoy reading her books as much as she loved writing them. Happy Reading!

  Morningstar Ashley is a transplant from the Yankee-controlled territory of New York, and now finds herself in the heartland of cowboys and longhorns—Texas. Armed with her imagination, wit, and trusty sidekicks in the form of her two crazy kids, devoted dorky husband, big lap dog, and rambunctious cats, Morningstar spends her time reading the books she loves, crafting her own characters, and arguing the merits of hot chocolate over the bitter brew known as coffee. (Hot chocolate wins, FYI.)

  After a lifetime of trying to get people to realize her first name wasn’t Ashley, Morningstar decided the best way to settle the debate was to put her name on a book cover. Now she finds the accomplishment of publishing so satisfying her mind won’t stop creating stories of love across the spectrum of LGBTQA+.