Tingle Bells

by Mardi Ballou

  Justin wiggled his ass in Ramon’s hands. “I want you in me,” Justin murmured when he’d pulled back from their kiss. “I want you to ram your big hard dick deep into me and fuck me senseless.”

  Ramon groaned. His cock ached with his need to comply with this request, pronto. The two men threw off their clothes. “Where’d you say those condoms are?”

  Justin reached into his night table. “Let me put this on you.” He knelt in front of Ramon and ran his tongue the width and length of Ramon’s erection. Ramon, his hands buried in Justin’s dark hair, had to hold on for dear life to keep from coming, so delicious were Justin’s ministrations.

  Licking each spot right before he unrolled the latex, Justin managed to sheathe Ramon before Ramon exploded in his release. “This is my favorite,” he whispered, handing Ramon a tube of clear lubricant.

  Hand trembling, Ramon prepared to squeeze out some lube as Justin got on his hands and knees on the bed and again wiggled his incredible ass.

  Ramon managed to put the lube in exactly the best place and threw the tube aside. Willing himself to breathe normally, he positioned his aching cock at Justin’s gel-slicked opening and prepared to enter.

  “Mmm,” Justin encouraged. Ramon slowly entered him, savoring Justin’s tightness and his initial resistance. Justin swayed, which was nearly enough to finish Ramon.

  “Hey, man, cut that out,” he begged.

  Justin let loose a devilish chuckle, but he stilled his ass. Ramon, wanting to extend the pleasure, pulled back. He loved looking at Justin’s body—his smooth, muscled back, the broad shoulders, the long neck, the back of his well-shaped head. Ramon stroked Justin’s side, starting in the soft hair under his arm down to his jutting hipbone. He wanted to touch his lover everywhere, to know his body in the most intimate detail.

  “That feels amazing,” Justin purred. “How’d you know my side is a particular erogenous zone?”

  “All of you is an erogenous zone,” Ramon panted.

  “Right on.” Justin pushed back with his butt, caressing Ramon’s dick. Sweat beaded on his lip and his forehead, Ramon pulled back then forged ahead. He’d been rationing himself, moving with whatever restraint he could muster. But now, with a triumphant groan, he thrust his cock all the way in and, for a moment, felt like he’d just crested a difficult peak. Shit, he couldn’t let himself think about mountaintops or he’d come far too soon.

  Bending over Justin, Ramon supported himself on one hand while he took his lover in hand with the other. Ramon’s nipples peaked as he rubbed them up and down Justin’s back. Justin groaned. His cock pulsed gratifyingly hard the moment Ramon touched him. “Oh, yeah, just like that,” Justin sighed.

  Ramon licked the nape of his neck and rained down kisses and nibbles on the bare skin. Justin shivered. He began to sway his hips, moving his cock in Ramon’s hand and massaging Ramon’s erection. The two men fell into perfect rhythm, each one attuned to the other’s pleasure in a way Ramon had never before experienced.

  He felt like all his senses had come into new awareness, alive in a way he’d never known before. Savoring Justin’s musk, Ramon ground his lips and nose against the dewy back of his lover.

  Though he wanted to keep the pace slow and steady, Ramon, overwhelmed with the erotic stimuli of being with Justin, couldn’t hold back. Each sway of Justin’s ass, each quiver at his kiss, each throb of the other man’s dick fed his immense arousal. Both men began to move faster, harder, demanding more of each other.

  Oh, mierda—Ramon stiffened with his gathering orgasm. He wanted to try any trick he could come up with to extend their time like this longer, but Ramon’s mind had turned to guacamole. Surrendering to the inevitable, he gritted out his thundering climax and then gave himself up to ecstasy.

  Justin urged Ramon on, bucking his hips and growing larger too. He seemed to derive as much pleasure as Ramon did from the come. Still engorged, he gasped when Ramon withdrew from his ass. But then Ramon grasped him around the hips, turned him and thrust his head between Justin’s legs so he could take his huge dick in his mouth.

  His hands on either side of Ramon’s head, Justin panted his enthusiastic response. Ramon gratefully sucked Justin’s cock and massaged his balls. Justin wove his fingers in Ramon’s hair, steering his head exactly how and where he most wanted it.

  In moments, Ramon felt Justin tighten and heard him howl as he exploded in Ramon’s mouth.

  When Justin subsided, each man simultaneously reached for the other. Though he valued his normal state—acute consciousness—just for tonight Ramon abandoned all thought processes. More than willingly, he surrendered to the intoxicating sensuality of the emotionally charged moment.

  After a night filled with more lovemaking than either man had experienced in the past year, both fell into a deep sleep.

  Morning came. Lying in the slumbering Ramon’s embrace, Justin, who kept drifting in and out of sleep himself, could almost believe things would work out. There was nothing like the optimism that came with a great new lover.

  So what if Clancy’s Fancies was going to go belly-up by Christmas and his family would be destitute? Justin thought briefly of putting up Uncle Fred, Aunt Claire and Pat in his cramped quarters. Not to mention, Justin would have to hang up his inventor’s hat and all his dreams in favor of a regular paying nine-to-five gig. Hell, it wasn’t going to be much of a holiday season for the Clancys. With his new lover, Justin would probably be the only happy Clancy. A stab of guilt tried to take root in his heart.

  Instead, reaching for Ramon’s early morning hard-on with his greedy hand, Justin figured they’d start the day in the best possible way.

  “Tempting as your offer is,” Ramon murmured, “we need to get to work. How exactly are we going to get Aunt Louise to reverse today what she did to the Tingle Bells?”

  Justin snorted. “Geez, Ramon, all work and no play.”

  “Hardly,” Ramon growled.

  But Justin was not the man to give up so easily. He figured if he couldn’t persuade Ramon to take advantage of a morning hard-on he might as well sign up for a chastity belt.

  “See,” he said, brandishing his own erection, “I’ve got one too.”

  Ramon’s eyes widened. “So you do.”

  “Mine’s bigger than yours.”

  Ramon’s brow furrowed. “What do you base that on?”

  “Careful eye measurement.”

  “I think we’d better examine the evidence.” Ramon shamelessly grabbed Justin’s cock with one hand and his own with the other.

  “You’re an impartial judge?”

  “As impartial as you,” Ramon huffed back. “According to the evidence of my carefully trained fingers, my cock’s definitely bigger than yours.”

  “Uh, exactly where’d your fingers get their training?”

  Ramon snorted. “These fingers have spent many hours in training, uh, stroking cocks. I have a certificate somewhere…”

  “I object.”

  “We’re not in court.”

  Justin clucked. “I know that. What I mean is, fingers are not deemed reliable here.”

  “What do you propose?”

  Justin removed Ramon’s hands from both dicks. “Side-by-side comparison. It’s the only way to go.”

  “My cock is ready, willing and able to stand up to that challenge.”

  “Talk is cheap.”

  In moments, the men had their ever burgeoning cocks side by side.

  “Hmm, I suppose it depends on the angle of observation,” Ramon noted.

  Justin, who favored shifting angles, rubbed his cock against Ramon’s.

  “No fair tampering with the evidence, my good man,” Ramon panted.

  “Says who?” Justin proceeded to tamper abundantly with the evidence, rubbing his cock up, down, across and every other way he could find Ramon’s.

  Between their extravagant moves, their growing arousal and the way they thrashed around Justin’s bed to measure each other’s cocks, Justin and Ramon soo
n gave up on figuring out exactly whose was bigger at any given moment.

  And then the fun got serious, and they both ended up orgasming, spraying each other with cum. Sticky and wet, they lay with their legs entangled and promised to continue their quest to find out who indeed had the bigger cock.

  Ramon laved Justin’s lips with his tongue. “Much as I’d love to spend today here with you, we’ve got places to go and things to do.”

  Justin groaned. “All right. Work. I don’t have a clue as to whether there’s any way to convince Aunt Louise to help us.” He shook his head. “Much as it fries my gut to say so, maybe I’ll just have to write the Tingle Bells off for this year. Maybe we can see if any of the insurance that hasn’t yet lapsed will pay for the loss.” Despite the fantastic start to the day, Justin felt his desperation grow with each word. Yeah, he knew he’d have to deal with all the practical stuff. But did they really have to get started on it this early?

  Ramon patted the inside of Justin’s thigh. “We’ve got to think creatively. Every problem has a solution.”

  “And every cliché has its day. You heard how the bells sound now. I’m not sure anything’s going to restore them even if Aunt Louise agrees to help, which she may very well refuse to do.”

  Ramon rolled slightly away, which exposed Justin to a blast of cold air. Justin scooted closer to Ramon.

  “I know I’m onto something here,” Ramon insisted, putting distance between them again. “But something keeps eluding me. Tell you what. Seeing as this is a family problem, how about we bring your family in on it? After all, numerous heads are better than a few.”

  Justin wagged his brows. “I’m all in favor of multiple head.”

  Ramon growled. “Later. I’m serious about consulting with your family. After all, your Uncle Fred and Aunt Claire knew Louise. For Pete’s sake, Louise and Claire are twins. That should be worth something. For now, let’s gather the forces and see what brilliance the Clancys en masse and I can come up with.”

  Damn. Ramon evidently had a one-track mind. He seemed relentless in search of the answers Justin’s gut told him would be complicated to come up with, assuming they existed. He got very serious. “Trust me, if it’s brilliance you’re in search of, my family is will disappoint you. Oh, Pat’s bright in the medical school kind of way. But no one’s going to have any helpful ideas. And we’ll upset my family with the truth about our financial situation. They don’t yet realize we’ll be lucky if we can even manage coal for everyone’s stocking this year. Not to mention how upsetting any mention of Louise will be.”

  “You think not telling them is going to improve that situation?” Ramon shook his head. In moments, he was out of the bed, wiped off and dressing.

  “Burying your head in the ground works for ostriches.”

  Ramon threw Justin’s jeans at him.

  “Gather your family. Let’s go and talk. You can’t possibly know what wisdom they’ll come up with.”

  Justin had run out of excuses. Of course, once Ramon got to know the Clancys, he’d probably head for the hills at record speed. Ramon seemed to have little taste for the messy or eccentric, the two kindest words Justin could come up with to describe his family. Well, he should have realized what had started between him and Ramon was far too good to last.

  Hoping maybe his family would have other plans or otherwise put him off, Justin groaned when he heard they were all available and would love to have company.

  * * * * *

  Justin had picked up his car at the shop first thing after breakfast. As he drove Ramon to Uncle Fred’s place, Ramon experienced a rare case of nerves. Of course, he reminded himself, he wasn’t about to meet the Clancys as Justin’s latest lover. Justin wasn’t even out to them yet. He’d introduce Ramon as a detective helping them with the holiday season. But anyone who didn’t sense the chemistry between him and Justin would have to be oblivious to the point of catatonia. For heaven’s sake, despite the showers both men took, they still bore traces of their recent lovemaking—stubble burn, the under-eye shadows of insufficient sleep and an ineffable glow. On the other hand, based on his previous limited experience, such oblivion appeared to describe many families.

  Geez, he was really doing a number on himself. Usually, he made a practice of not using up a lot of psychic energy in worry. But when it concerned Justin, Ramon found nothing was business as usual.

  Justin’s mouth formed a straight, grim line as he pulled up to the curb in front of a hulking Victorian and parked. “The house needs work,” Justin pointed out unnecessarily. Even in the less than brilliantly sunlit morning, Ramon could see the house had known better days. But he consciously turned off his inner critic and resolved to focus on the reason for this visit.

  They climbed the rickety stairs of the porch in silence. In addition to the quasi-haunted demeanor of the structure, Ramon sensed something strange, almost uncanny about the atmosphere. For a moment, he felt like it should have been Halloween, not nearly Christmas. He wondered if he was picking up on some manifestation of the family’s witchcraft. He stole a sidelong glance at Justin to see if anything of the place’s unusual vibes showed on his face or in his bearing. Justin seemed intent on getting the visit over with but otherwise didn’t register much affect.

  A younger, bespectacled and bearded Justin look-alike answered the door. “Pat, glad you’re available,” Justin said by way of greeting, then introduced Ramon to his cousin. The med student, Ramon reminded himself.

  A woman on the far side of middle age and an elderly man sat in ancient upholstered chairs complete with antimacassars on the arms and the backs. Must be Aunt Claire and Uncle Fred. Warmth surged in Ramon’s heart at the sight of them. He had a feeling the multiple holidays spent with these two would provide many snapshot moments and memories. Along with the warmth and comfort, he also sensed something a bit strange around the edges. Could this be the eccentricity Justin appeared to have a love-hate relationship with? The witchcraft? Or just typical family strangeness?

  After they sat down on the couch, Justin introduced Ramon as a private detective and nothing more, which Ramon had expected but didn’t necessarily like. Reminding himself again that this visit was for professional reasons only, Ramon focused on the matter at hand. They turned down Claire’s offer of refreshments.

  Justin rose and announced that Clancy’s Fancies—and thus the Clancy clan—faced a major challenge and outlined the parameters.

  After mumbling incoherently for several moments, Fred said, “I can’t understand how this has come to pass.”

  Justin pointed out it behooved them all to deal with the matter at hand rather than try to assign blame. Ramon nodded his support.

  “What exactly is wrong with the Tingle Bells?” Pat asked.

  “Sorry, I thought I was clear about that.” Justin explained about the product. He rang the hexed bells. Everyone cringed at the unappealing noise. Ramon saw Fred and Claire exchange a very intense look.

  “I hate to break all this to you at Christmas, but I don’t have much choice,” Justin concluded.

  Pat was the first to break the ensuing silence. “Justin, there has to be something I can do. I mean, you’ve been carrying the burden—”

  Before Pat could complete his thought, Fred cleared his throat. “Louise and her spells,” he muttered.

  Ramon’s ears pricked up at this mention of Louise before Justin had even gotten around to telling them what they’d learned about the hex.

  “How did you know it was Louise who hexed the bells?” Justin sounded incredulous.

  After sharing another fraught look with Claire, Fred told Justin to sit. “This smacks of Louise’s handiwork.” He scowled with distaste, and Ramon thought the family estrangement sad and bitter, especially at this time of the year.

  In response to Justin’s and Pat’s bewilderment, Fred said, “I guess the time has come to tell you the family history. Claire and I haven’t spoken about it much, but you know Louise has been estranged from the fam
ily for many years.”

  “Louise?” Pat asked. “Who’s she?”

  “I’ve heard her name before,” Justin said. He turned to Pat. “Aunt Louise is Aunt Claire’s sister. They’re twins.”

  Pat’s eyes opened wide with shock. “I had no idea there was anyone else…”

  Fred ran a hand through the salt-and-pepper fringe around his bald head and pursed his lips. “That’s right. They’re twins.” He stood and began pacing around the room, which Ramon took as a family reaction to stress.

  Aunt Claire removed a lace-trimmed hanky from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes. “It’s all right, Dad. Why don’t you sit down? I’ll explain.” Fred sat and Claire took over.

  “Mom died when Louise and I were young women. Louise took Mom’s death very hard and started running around with a rough crowd. She brought home a horrible man.”

  Ramon cringed. Had the long estrangement come about simply because Louise had brought home a man Fred and Claire didn’t approve of? What if they had the same reaction to his being with Justin? Would Justin at some point have to choose between his family and Ramon? He had to remind himself not to jump to conclusions.

  “So that’s the source of your estrangement?” Justin asked. “Aunt Louise had a boyfriend you didn’t approve of?”

  Claire and Fred frowned. Ramon felt peculiar, being the only outsider present for this personal family moment. Though a voice inside said he should slip out quietly, he didn’t want to leave. Of course, as a detective, he was used to being exposed to people’s most intimate secrets. He also felt privileged to share this time with Justin and thus get deeper into his life. And they were moving in the right direction to salvage the Tingle Bells.

  “It wasn’t that simple. You see, Louise’s boyfriend knew about the family craft. He managed to convince Louise to use witchcraft for commercial gain—which went against every principle of our family and the coven we owe allegiance to.”