Dreamspinner Press Year Nine Greatest Hits

by Michael Murphy

  A collection of chuckles answered. “Yeah, really,” Zoe said. “It’s not like we’ve ever seen you in love before.”

  Mal groaned.

  “Well, it’s true,” Jane said. “It’s a wonderful thing to see. And you’ve been so down since… well, you know.”

  “And hey, it’s about time we have blackmail like this on you,” Simon added.

  “You’ve been on us about our dates for years,” Ford agreed.

  “Die. In a fire. All of you,” Mal said, and I debated the possibility of spontaneous combustion from embarrassment.

  “All right, all right. You’re doing more to embarrass poor Kyle than you are your brother. Torment him over text or e-mail where Kyle doesn’t have to hear it.”

  I wanted to kiss Mal’s father.

  There was a general grumbling, but I finally felt like I could look up. There were still smiles, but it wasn’t quite the same staring and grinning as before.

  “Eggnog!” Jane announced, standing. “Kyle, would you be a dear and help me?”

  GLASSES DISTRIBUTED, everyone sipped as Zoe settled on the floor next to the Christmas tree. I sat back in my corner of the love seat to watch them open their presents. I’d never seen a Christmas like this.

  When I was very little, I vaguely recall a few mornings with piles of presents. That quickly disappeared as I got older, however. The only gifts I got at that point were a crocheted something or other from Anna, the housekeeper. Mother insisted I could have anything I wanted—as long as it was approved by her, of course—any time of the year. She saw no reason to treat that day special, with the exception of their formal dinner.

  Since we met in college, Mike and I traded gifts each year. But outside of that, I hadn’t done much in the way of gifts. And I certainly hadn’t experienced anything quite like the organized chaos of Mal’s family.

  “Okay!” Zoe said, voice loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “Jeff first!”

  Jeff jumped in place and clapped his hands. Zoe handed him a wrapped box, and he plopped his butt down and started patting it. Katy laughed and tugged him closer to help him open it.

  Zoe dug under the tree and pulled more gifts out, distributing them one by one. She handed one to Madison, who smiled and took it. I’d found out during dinner that Ford and Madison had been friends for ages. She claimed to be the most grateful, in fact, for my appearance this year because it meant they’d stop asking her and Ford when they were finally marrying. I suspected it would happen about the time people stopped asking.

  The next gifts went to Simon and Ford, and then she pulled one out, read the tag, and grinned as she passed it to Paul. He blinked, then blushed brighter than me and stammered a thank you to Jane and Jesse.

  Once Jeff had finished opening something that looked like it made a lot of noise—Simon and Katy both glared at Jane and Jesse over this—Zoe handed him another one. I couldn’t tell how many more were under there. She seemed to be pulling them from some kind of bag of holding or something. She pulled two more wrapped packages. One she handed to Mal, and the other she set in her lap.

  I turned to watch Mal open his gift, wondering what they would give him. He seemed to have pretty much anything he could want. It was a question that had been plaguing me for the last two days, since I realized we’d be celebrating Christmas together, at least in some capacity.

  Before Mal even tore the paper, though, Zoe was calling my name. I turned, raising my eyebrows. She was holding out a package. I stared, not quite comprehending for a moment.

  “Well, take it,” she encouraged me.

  I blinked but took the wrapped gift. It was heavy, probably nine by twelve inches and a good three inches thick. I frowned down at the tag.

  To Kyle, from Mom and Dad.

  Mom and Dad? I looked up at Jane and Jesse, who were watching me. “Uh, I… um… th-thank you.” I stammered as much, maybe more than Paul did. I knew I was red.

  Jane grinned. “You’re welcome, dear. Now open it!”

  “Yeah, baby, open it,” Mal said.

  I peered at him; he was smiling too. “Did you know about this?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. No clue.”

  I narrowed my eyes, but he did look innocent. I looked back at the gift, turned it over, and tugged at the end.

  Mal snickered. “You’re one of those gift openers, are you?”

  I blinked at him. “What?”

  “You know, you don’t actually tear the paper?”

  I scowled, grabbed the corner, and pulled. He laughed. I decided to be an adult and stuck my tongue out. This earned a round of laughter from the room.

  I ignored them and turned back to my gift. Once I had the paper open, I stared, eyes wide. It was a three-ring binder. The front had a clear place you could put a piece of paper under to make a cover. This one had a neat border in blues and greens. And right in the middle, three words.

  Tate

  Family

  Recipes

  I opened it and my mouth dropped open. Tab dividers told me there were sections on cookies, cakes, pies, casseroles, dinners, side dishes, appetizers, soups, meats, and other. And there, in front, a section labeled Basic Directions.

  I looked up at Jane, trying not to let the emotion overwhelm me. Mal had to have told her I wanted to learn to cook. She’d obviously put time and effort into the cookbook, and she hadn’t even known me. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and managed a quiet, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome dear. But you might not want to thank me yet.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Oh?”

  She nodded, her smile crafty. “Yes. Because I expect a dinner invite sometime in the not-too-distant future.”

  The blood drained from my face so fast I got a little dizzy. I heard a choking sound and realized it’d come from me. Clearing my throat, I managed to get a hold of myself. “Uh, you’ll give me a bit of time to, uh, practice first, right?”

  This got me laughter from everyone in the room. Mal kissed my cheek. “You’re awesome, baby.”

  I don’t know what got me that, but I wasn’t going to argue. I looked over at Mal and squinted at him. “You did know about this.”

  He held both hands up in a placating gesture. “No! No. She asked what you were like, asked about you. I happened to mention you wanted to learn.”

  I stared at him another moment, smirking internally at the idea that I could actually make my Master sweat. Then I smiled. “Thank you.”

  He let out a sigh of relief, pulled me in, and kissed me soundly. “I love you.”

  I smirked. “I love you too. Now, open yours.” I was still hoping for a hint to what to get him myself.

  Mal tore the paper off his box, tossing it aside, and pulled the lid off. Inside was a stunning, deep-green sweater. “Oh, Mom, you outdid yourself! This is gorgeous.” He looked up. “Cashmere?”

  The only way to describe Jane’s facial expression was “bitch, please.” “Of course it’s cashmere, silly.”

  Mal laughed. “Of course,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s gorgeous. When did you learn cables?” He ran a finger over the line of them down the center of his sweater.

  Jane looked thoughtful. “About… six months ago. When I started that.”

  “Well, apparently, you got it right.”

  She chuckled. “You ought to see the skein of yarn I mangled before I started on that. Glad you like it, sweetie.”

  Well, that didn’t end up very helpful for a gift idea for him after all. I couldn’t exactly knit him a sweater. I didn’t know how to knit, and I definitely couldn’t learn and make him one in the short time I had left. I had just over a week. I’d think of something.

  I spent the next hour lost in my gift while Jeff opened more and everyone else chatted. I’d never have thought I’d be engrossed in a cookbook, but I ended up reading the entire Basic Directions section and paging through most of the other recipes. I had no idea if my little kitchen was equipped for doing half of t
his stuff, but I doubted it. I saw myself raiding the kitchen store before too long.

  Finally, it was time to go. I think I got hugged at least twice by everyone, and a good three or four times by Jane. She pushed a bottle of her homemade eggnog into my hands, insisting she had too much for just them. I’d seen the inside of her fridge and knew she didn’t. I guessed I’d made too much of a pig of myself over the stuff.

  I was quiet on the way to my loft. I didn’t want to go back to it. After two nights with Master, sleeping with his warmth, the thought of going to my cold bed was depressing.

  “What’s in that gorgeous head of yours, baby?”

  I sighed. “Family. Yours is… amazing.”

  He smiled. “Yeah, they pretty much are. They have their issues. But what family doesn’t?”

  “For some families, that’s all they have,” I said quietly.

  “Yeah, I know. They’re… that’s not family, Kyle.”

  “I know that. But they’re all I’ve got.” I hadn’t meant to say that last part, and I bit my lip before I thought about it.

  “First, that’s one.”

  I sighed, nodding.

  “And second… my family would happily take over that.”

  I looked over at him. “I’m sorry, Master. About the lip.”

  “Of course you are. You’ll still get the swats.”

  “I know. Uh… do you think so?”

  “That they’d want to be your family?”

  “Yeah.” I frowned. “They don’t know me. How… how can they want me?”

  “They know enough. They’ve seen you all day. Mom’s an excellent judge of character. If she still gave you the cookbook after spending the day with you, then that’s all you need to know.”

  I blinked at him. “But… it was wrapped already.”

  “Yeah, but she didn’t have to actually give it to you, did she? You had no idea it was under the tree, right?”

  That was true. I conceded the point. “I’m not sure I’d know what to do with a family like that.”

  He laughed. “I’m not sure what to do with them sometimes, and I grew up with them.”

  I grinned at that. “That’s comforting.”

  He snickered. “You’ll get used to them.”

  He pulled into the spot in front of my loft and climbed out of the car. My feet felt like lead as we gathered my bag, the eggnog, and my gift and went into the building. We stepped into the elevator, and I leaned into him, wanting as much closeness as I could get before he left. When a hand shot through the opening, I quickly stood up again.

  To my dismay, the one man I really did not want to see stepped into the elevator. He gave me his oily smile, nodded at Mal, and hit the button for his floor. “Kyle.”

  “Lewis. Good evening. How are you?” I could be cordial. I’d grown up with the King and Queen of Cordial. I’d learned the fine art of small talk—which I could normally carry on with anyone, except, it seemed, for Mal and his parents—at my mother’s knee.

  “Great, I’m great. Well, Dane’s been throwing parties again, but….” He shrugged in fake nonchalance.

  Dane, the only other tenant on Lewis’s floor, threw legendary parties. Everyone from the building—except Lewis—was usually invited. Which was why Lewis hated them. I didn’t blame Dane, though. Lewis didn’t just look like a rat—he was one. I’d never in my life hated anyone, but Lewis sure made it difficult to keep that.

  He’d thrown more than a few not-so-subtle hints that he wanted my loft. The neighboring loft on my floor had been empty for about a month, but apparently it wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted mine—with the view. If I had even the slightest interest in having him as a neighbor, I’d have seriously considered buying the other loft and selling mine to him.

  But he was nosy enough in the few minutes we met on the elevator. I had no wish to let him see more. Especially because Lewis knew my parents.

  I shook the thought off and tried to return Lewis’s smile. I managed to give polite nonanswers about Mal—my friend—my job, and a few other things, finally breathing a sigh of relief when Lewis got off the elevator. I would have sworn he managed to slow the damned thing down somehow.

  “I wonder, was his mother actually a weasel?” Mal asked.

  I burst out laughing. “If you saw her, you wouldn’t have to wonder. Her face is even pointier than Lewis’s.”

  He snorted. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

  “Oh, it is.”

  We got off the elevator, and I managed to unlock my door.

  As soon as I shut it, Master looked at me—and I knew it was Master, just by the look—and said one word. “Strip.”

  My cock stood at attention before I ever removed a single article of clothing. As soon as I was naked, he bent me over the bar, running his hand over my ass. It was still a bit warm and sore from my spanking that morning—and the one the day before.

  “How many, boy?”

  “Five, Master. For biting my lip.”

  “Very good, boy.”

  He used his hand, but as sore as my ass was already, they hurt. I stuttered on three, whimpered hard on four, and cried out on five. Five swats with his hand and my ass throbbed again. He pulled me in as he always did, and I burrowed into his arms.

  I wanted, a little desperately, to ask him to stay. But I knew he hadn’t brought clothes, and he wouldn’t have time to go home in the morning. And the last thing I wanted him to think was that I was some kind of clingy, wimpy thing.

  We stood there for a while without speaking, and then he pulled back. “I know I won’t be able to wait a week to see you again. How about dinner Tuesday?”

  I smiled. I wouldn’t have him in bed with me, but it was something. “I’d like that.”

  “Maybe you drive this time, hmm? And, uh, toss an overnight bag in the trunk.”

  I beamed, throwing my arms around him. “I’d like that a lot,” I whispered.

  He hugged me. “Good, then I won’t feel so bad for denying you the next two days.”

  I swallowed. “Yes, Master. And will you—”

  “Tease? Oh yes, boy. As much as I can. Good boys….”

  “Should always be horny,” I replied, grinning.

  He grinned back at me. “I can’t wait until Tuesday.”

  “Me either, Master.”

  Chapter 15

  Mal

  I WAS bypassing ridiculous and going straight for “absurd.” Two days. Yet again it had only been two days since we last saw each other, and already I was missing him like crazy. And that was despite the text messages, dick pics, and e-mails we’d been exchanging.

  My favorite out of the pictures was the one with the green ribbon he was wearing that morning around his cock and balls. I knew he wore that one most often because it was my favorite color, and I enjoyed showing him the results of just how much I liked it.

  I flipped back through his pictures as I waited for the knock on the door. Traffic had been a nightmare for me, so I had no doubt it was for him too. I could be that patient, at least. I knew I was acting like a lovesick teenager, but I really couldn’t care. I was in love.

  And if I nearly ran to the door when the knock sounded, there was no one to see me but me.

  I opened the door to see him grinning at me. “Hello, Master.” I yanked him into my arms and crushed our mouths together. He didn’t even hesitate to open to me, our tongues tangling. I couldn’t seem to get enough of his taste or the feel of him in my arms and decided I didn’t want to.

  When we broke apart, he was panting.

  “Hello yourself,” I said, grin wide.

  He laughed. “I like those kinds of greetings.” His cheeks reddened adorably at that and I kissed each of them.

  “So, would you like to drive your car, or would you like to take the Z?” I asked, taking the suit bag from him and hanging it on the hook on the wall next to the door.

  He licked his lips and hesitated briefly. “I’d love to take the Z, if you do
n’t mind.”

  I beamed at him, thrilled he gave me his opinion. “The Z it is, then. Is there anything else in the car?”

  He shook his head. “No. That has everything I need. I still have some underwear here.”

  “You do. I washed it yesterday.”

  Kyle stepped back and I grabbed my keys and locked the door. As we approached the Z, I grinned at him. “Want to drive?”

  His eyes widened. “You’d… really? You’d let me drive your Z?”

  I didn’t laugh at his expression, but it was a near thing. “Sure.”

  “Um… yes, please!” He nodded eagerly and I tossed the keys to him.

  He opened my door first, earning himself a kiss. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you for letting me drive,” Kyle murmured, then went around to his side.

  He was careful, probably driving slower than he would if it had been his car, but he handled it well and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him do something he was confident in. He told me about his day as he maneuvered through traffic and I made him laugh more than once over some of the tech candidates I’d interviewed.

  “Go ahead and use the valet,” I said as he pulled into the parking lot of the sushi restaurant.

  When he brought the car to a stop, he hesitated briefly, then glanced over. “Stay?”

  I smiled. “Okay.”

  He came around to my side and opened my door before tossing the key to the valet. We waited to get the ticket, then turned to the door. I was surprised when he took my hand as we approached the building.

  “Are you okay to do this?” I asked, lifting our hands.

  He gave me a small smile. “My parents wouldn’t deign to appear at a mall.” He wrinkled his nose when he did and I chuckled. “The same for most of their friends. Sure, there’s always a chance for someone to see me, but here, it’s not likely.”

  I nodded, opening the door for him. “I can see that. I just don’t want to get you in trouble. I can’t beat your ass for you if I can’t see you anymore.”

  He laughed, which I was going for. He didn’t comment beyond that, but I didn’t push. I knew how hard things were for him. I just hoped in the not too distant future, I could make it not an issue anymore.