I preened at the compliment. “I got them for us. Ari vetoed my original suggestion of matching She-Ra sweaters, but he would at least agree to red and green.”
“Ari, you should always listen to your man.” Nurys grinned, winking at my boyfriend.
“Oh I do. He won’t let me live if I don’t,” he said with a grin and lifted the cake we’d brought with us. “We got the coconut cake and some wine.”
“I can’t wait. Philmans cakes are the best.” She then pointed in the direction of the dining room where the sideboard and table were already laden with hors d’oeuvres and snacks, and there was probably a ton more stuff waiting to be brought out from the kitchen. “See if you can find room in the kitchen. We’ll bring it out after so we can have our ponche, coquito and cremàs taste-off.”
From somewhere in the house Minerva, Nesto’s little sister, yelled. “They all taste the same.”
Which had Nurys jumping around so she could project her voice in Minerva’s direction. “Oh we’re going to have a chat about how you found that out.” Nurys headed to the bedroom. “You’re not supposed to be drinking things with rum in them, niña fresca!”
“Ooohhh somebody’s in trouble.” Nesto’s voice sounded from somewhere, but he wasn’t in the living room.
“Shut up, Nesto,” Minerva called, her voice full of humor.
By this point we were all laughing at the hilarious exchange. Ari and I went to drop off our dessert contributions in the kitchen next to the now familiar bottles of Caribbean eggnog. After a few years attending this dinner I’d learned to expect the yearly argument of which one was the best: the Puerto Rican, Haitian or Dominican version.
“Don’t lie to my mother to make her feel better, guys,” Nesto proclaimed as he pulled a huge aluminum pan of perfectly sliced pernil out of the oven, after we found him in the kitchen. “Everybody knows Patrice’s mom’s is the best.”
“You got that right!” Easton quipped from the living room, a big grin on his face.
“Stop being such a kiss-ass, Easton.” That was Priscilla, Nesto’s cousin who had come up from New York City to spend Christmas with the family. “If you keep shit-talking Tia Nurys’s ponche you’re gonna eat your food in the street!” I loved having Pris around because she gave everybody shit and also hooked us all up with amazing sex toys from her shop.
Ari just smiled, shaking his head at the ribbing. Nesto, who had been working his magic on some rice, pointed at the pernil and the maduros on the counter. “Would you take those to the dining room?”
Ari and I got to work, as Nesto started commandeering people and soon we had what seemed like a ton of food arranged on the dining room table. It was quite a spread and smelled delicious. We all sort of stood there admiring it for a moment.
“I’m not gonna lie, my pasteles slap this year,” Carmen commented smugly. “I can’t believe you scrubs are gonna get to eat all that deliciousness.”
“Carmen, your humility is truly astounding,” Jude teased, making everyone laugh. The table did look amazing. We had my sister’s tea leaf salad and rolls side-by-side with the Haitian pikliz that Patrice and Easton had brought to go with the assortment of roasted and braised pork we would be consuming. It was truly a feast, and to be sharing it with so many people I loved felt almost like too much.
“Mami, come on! The food’s ready.”
“Ay Dios mio, so loud,” Nurys yelled as she made her way to the dining room, making everyone laugh again. We were all packed into the room, waiting for our hostess to give us permission to dig in and take our plates of food into the living room, and again I felt emotional. Every face in this room had slowly become like family, and I knew it was the same for Ari. I put my arm around his waist and looked up at him, knowing he’d press his lips to mine. We were free to do that here with our people.
Nurys finally took her place and stood next to Nesto and Minerva at the head of the table. “Ay mijo, what a table you set for us,” Nurys exclaimed, eyes already brimming with tears. “Thank you, familia, for being with us tonight. Jude, mi amor. Ven.” She extended a hand, beckoning for Nesto’s partner, who smiled at his mother-in-law as he reached for her hand. “We’re not too religious in this house, but we are full of gratitude,” Nurys declared, and the sniffling around the room started immediately.
“We have good food to eat, gifts to exchange, and a whole lot of joy to share with each other tonight. We have our future nurse and attorney here,” she said, lifting her hands to me and Ari. “We are so proud of you two and will be coming to bother you all the time in Syracuse.” She wagged her fingers at us in admonition. “You better not think you can skip holidays here. Maiah and I already talked about it. We’ll go looking for you up there,” she said, winking at my sister, who nodded in agreement.
“Thank you for being here with us. We love you all—and now dig in and make sure you pack those plates, because I don’t have room for leftovers in that fridge!” Ari and I stayed behind for a moment, letting the rest of the group head to the table. His arms came around me, tight and protective as they always were.
“You okay, bébé?” he asked, probably sensing I was still in a weird mood. And I was sentimental, but it was hard to be anything but grateful for all I had. So I tightened my arms around Ari and leaned into him.
“I’m great.”
Chapter Five
Ari
“Oh my god, Priscilla, did you really come into my mother’s house, on this holiest of days with a flavored lube sampler?” Nesto’s horror had us all cackling, especially Priscilla. Once we’d each gotten our mountain of food and Patrice and Nurys had fought over who was the master of Caribbean eggnog, we’d moved on to the White Elephant party.
Given the name and the specific caveat that shitty gifts were welcome I really had no idea what to expect. I’d settled on a set of beer glasses—which seemed underwhelming but functional—and hoped for the best. But it had turned out to be not so much weird as it was chaotic. There was gift-stealing and lots of squealing over stuff that looked like it had come straight out of the Target clearance bin. Right now there was a full-on face-off going on for the flavored lube and Yin’s competitive streak was in high gear. If he could beat Nesto’s mom, that was.
“Ay Nesto, mijo. Don’t be such a prude. How do you think you got born, Papi, magic?”
That had us busting up again as Jude rubbed Nesto’s back like he was in physical pain.
“First of all, those are very high quality lubes and second, Tia Nurys is a healthy adult woman in a relationship.” Priscilla could barely get the words out from laughing so hard. Poor Nesto shuddered at the mention of his mother’s budding romance with his longtime business partner and mentor Harold Sheridan. We all knew his mortification was real, but it was too funny not to laugh.
He looked up as he grabbed the bottle of Presidente beer he’d been drinking from the coffee table. “I don’t know what I ever did to you, Priscilla.”
Carmen piped up then, “Oh my god, Ernesto, you do the most. Jude, you gotta rein in your man.” She said it with a lot more humor than heat. “Let’s get on with this because one of those is peaches and cream flavor and Imma have to take a closer look.”
Yin, who was sitting next to me and having way too much fun, giggled at Carmen’s words and moved us on to the next round of gifts.
“So what are you two doing for New Year’s?” Carmen asked, as we watched a vigorous exchange between Yin’s sister Maiah and Priscilla that involved what looked like a Passion Planner and an insulated wine tumbler.
Yin leaned so he could look at Carmen, ready to answer for both of us, and I was more than happy to let him. “We’re just going to chill. We were thinking of going to Rochester with some friends, but decided to just stay home. We’re both off next week, so it will be nice to relax.”
Carmen nodded thoughtfully. “That’s awesome, you two rarely get
any time off.”
Yin nodded and then looked up at me, that sweet smile that melted me every time on his face. “We’re going to do our very best to stay in bed and relax.” Carmen was not the first to check in on us about our plans for the few days off we had in the next week. Patrice had also taken a moment to check in on us, probably noticing Yin was a bit subdued. He had been my mentor for almost a year and had gotten to know Yin almost as well as he knew me.
“Your turn, Yin.” My love perked up at Jude’s call back to the White Elephant exchange. He was the last one in the group, so he had his pick of the choices. He made a big deal of going over everything that had already been unwrapped, like he wasn’t biding his time before snatching that lube from out under his boss’s mother.
With an extremely mischievous glint in his eyes he leaned over and took the lube sampler. I was grateful that my very dark brown skin did not blush too much and looked down as our friends gave us both amused looks. Then my boyfriend, who was truly shameless, leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Just upped the game for our New Year’s plans.”
Chapter Six
Yin
“Bébé, that’s really creepy,” Ari said with a yawn, as he looked at me from his one open eye. “Did you even sleep, you goober?” he asked, smiling despite his clear effort to sound annoyed.
We’d gone to sleep late, after we’d put some of that surprisingly effective crème brûlée–flavored lube to good use. But I’d been up at the crack of dawn, too eager to get to the gift exchanging to settle down. Ari, on the other hand, was Mr. Calm Cool and Collected.
I knew part of it was that at the detention center he’d learned to fall asleep no matter what was going on around him. He’d told me some nights people were so agitated and there were so many scary noises late into the night, that he’d gone without more than a few hours of sleep a night for weeks. In his logical and reasonable manner he’d gone to the small library at the center and found books and resources to help him figure out how to get some rest. He discovered progressive muscle relaxation and meditation which he faithfully did every night. So yeah, he was going to get his sleep no matter how much I was trying to wake him up.
“How can you be this unbothered, Ari?” I screeched, from my perch on the edge of the bed, still looking down at him. Well what I could see, anyway, because he was covered in a nest of blankets up to his neck. “It’s our first Christmas morning living together.”
Ari’s expression softened at that and he sat up, his eyes still bleary from sleep. He leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek, “Merry Christmas, cher.” It was hard not to melt when he looked at me like that and called me dearest in French, very hard. But it still drove me a little nuts how nonchalant he was about everything, always. “I’m going to get all minty fresh so that I can give you a proper first Christmas morning kiss.” He signaled to the door of the bathroom and pushed off the blankets as he moved to get up.
I watched him go as I sipped from my too-sweet hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, smiling at his reindeer pajama bottoms. When we were still just friends I would have fantasies about what it would be like to live with Ari. How we’d wake up naked and I’d get to see that strong and muscled body as much as I wanted.
I imagined our apartment as a nudist colony for two where my boyfriend walked around bare-assed for my personal delight. The reality was that Ari was always cold, and most of the year he slept in flannel pajama pants and long-sleeved T-shirts. He also piled blankets on top of us until we were practically ensconced in a cocoon.
And even if those fantasies had been nice, the reality was so much better. No matter how stressed things got sometimes, trying to juggle as many things as we did, I got to come home to this man who loved me and who I adored. After a minute he came out of the bathroom looking fresh faced and gorgeous. Since we’d met three years before, he hadn’t changed much. He was still tall, and strong, all rippling muscles and ebony skin. And I was still a goofball.
“Finally,” I said, dramatically, prompting an eye roll from Ari as he got into the bed.
“You needed something?” He loomed over me, and my heart raced, as it always did. Even now that he was all mine, his body—the way it felt to have him on top of me—still made me short of breath.
I groaned as he laughed. “You’re definitely not giving off gift-opening vibes.”
“I love you, but you can be a real smug bastard.” I wasn’t sure why I was complaining. In response Ari gave me that predatory smile which usually meant he only had one thing on his mind. He took the mug of hot chocolate from my hands and placed it gently on the table by the bed.
“What if I want to open a different kind of present first?” he asked, making me gasp as he tugged on the hem of his shirt and smoothly peeled it off. And then with the practiced efficiency of a man who knew exactly what the sight of his cock did to me, he made quick work of the rest of our clothes in a flurry of kisses and touches that had me squirming against him by the time he was done.
“The gifts, Ari,” I reminded him distractedly, as he hooked a hand under my knees and held me open.
He looked up from where his fingers were pressing at my rim, which was still slippery from the lube he’d used to get me ready for him last night. “Can I have this first, bébé?” he asked, already pressing a thumb to my hole. “I want to taste you, lick you. Make you feel good.”
“Mmmm,” I moaned, already lost to what he was doing to me. “But I want to taste you too.”
He leaned in and kissed me, his tongue sliding into my mouth, drowning everything else out. That was how it always was with Ari, so good. So consuming nothing else mattered when we were together.
I had never been with anyone before him. I’d kissed boys and I’d tried things on my own, but I’d never had anyone inside me before Ari. He was my first everything, and I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to be with anyone else.
He knew my body as well as I knew it—hell, he knew it better. I could’ve never imagined the pleasure I could feel until Ari. And it wasn’t like we jumped into it either. It took almost a year before we went beyond oral. We were both new at this and fumbled those first few times we tried full intercourse, but we’d gotten the hang of it eventually and now, it was sometimes a matter of minutes before Ari had me begging for him. And I could do exactly the same for him.
He pulled back and ran a thumb over my hole as he looked at me like he was about to maul me. “Turn around, bébé.”
Without argument I did as he asked, presents forgotten until we’d both gotten off. I’d barely settled into position with my head resting on my forearms and hips propped up by pillows when I felt Ari behind me. I heard the snick of a bottle and then the smell of caramel wafted up to me. I laughed as his slippery fingers ran along the cleft of my ass. “You’re a fan of that lube,” I teased.
He groaned, too focused on what he was doing to respond. And he made sure that soon I wasn’t in the mood to talk either. I let out a long breath and slid into that headspace where my entire life just whittled down to what Ari made me feel. He massaged my hole, opening me up more for his tongue, licking in and sucking as I moaned. He pulled one finger out and then pushed two in, until he found that spot inside me that made my whole body throb with pleasure. Everything he did, every caress, did exactly what it needed to, pleasure building and building until every muscle in my body was coiled up tight, poised for the release I knew Ari would give me.
“Touch me, baby,” I begged. And because my man always gave me what I needed, soon his big hand was stroking my cock tight and hard just like I loved. He kept licking into me as I fucked into his tight fist.
“I’m coming. Oh my fuuuuuuck, Ari.” My brain was about to turn over, just on the precipice of release when he loosened his grip. “Goddammit, Ari,” I balked. “Edging is not appropriate Christmas morning etiquette.”
I heard him huff out a laugh from behind. But
soon he was stroking me again, not tight enough to bring me off, but definitely keeping me extremely hard and aroused.
I heard the crinkle of a condom wrapper from somewhere in my sex addled brain, and soon he was pressed up against me, making me shiver with anticipation. When Ari and I were like this, with his massive chest plastered to my back and his dick just at my entrance, the world fell to nothing. I couldn’t imagine anything being more perfect.
“Do me, baby,” I moaned as he pressed his mouth to my temple.
When he started talking my whole body trembled so hard my teeth shook. “Mmm, bébé, you’re so tight. This is what I needed this morning. You feel so good, cher.”
“So do you,” I said breathlessly as he slowly seated himself to the hilt. We’d played the night before, but neither of us had been up for this. Now with Ari thrusting into me, his big hands gripping me hard as he fucked me, I had to admit, delaying our gift opening had been the right call.
“I love you. You are the best gift. The only thing I need.” He gasped as he pistoned his hips in that tight grind that made all my brain cells turn to dust. But this time the force of his words was like a powder keg, too much feeling to keep inside.
“I love you so much.” I was practically sobbing from the storm of emotions swelling in my mind, body and heart. I felt Ari everywhere, as his hands gripped me and he slammed into me in a frantic rhythm. I thought, “I don’t need anything that isn’t just this.” Us together, uninhibited and free with each other. I didn’t want this to ever change.
I came with a cry just as Ari surged into me one last time whispering a litany of words in French and Lingala into my ear. We lay there breathing in unison, locked together so tightly that I couldn’t tell where I ended and where he began. This was perfect. He was perfect, even if at times it felt like we were both so busy we barely had an hour to enjoy each other. But moments like this made it all worth it. With a groan he carefully pulled out, then cleaned us up because I was a bit high-maintenance when it came to “post-sex fluids.” A minute later we were on our bed side by side.
American Christmas (Dreamers) Page 4
