by Meg Harding
Colin looked down at his plate of potatoes, bread, lasagna, and ham. “I’m good,” he said. He was sure his mom would force him to eat plenty of vegetables when he finally made it to her. “It’s Christmas. It’s a day for not doing the healthy thing.”
Logan laughed at him. “Does that mean you’re going to make yourself sick with cookies again?”
“You bet your ass I am.”
By the time he finished eating, he felt like he was going to explode. He leaned back in his chair with a loud groan. “This is how I’m going to die,” he said, rubbing his stuffed stomach.
Logan bent to kiss him as he walked around the table, picking up Colin’s plate. “Go lay on the couch.”
Colin grabbed for his arm. “Come lay with me.”
Logan kissed him again, bumping their noses together. “Let me do the dishes first.”
“Dishes later,” said Colin. “It’s Christmas. Be lazy.” He kissed him back. “I’ll do them later for you, promise.” He could see the look of temptation on Logan’s face, so he pushed that last step. “I’ll watch one of your ridiculous Christmas movies.”
His plate made a clanking noise as it was set back down. Logan grabbed his hands and tugged. “You’ve got a deal.”
Bought: hook, line, and sinker.
Colin let himself be tugged into the living room and splayed overtop of Logan on the couch. He kissed his neck lazily, nuzzling into him. Logan tilted his head up and away, swatting at him.
“You’re not getting out of this that easily,” he said.
Colin let his head thud down against Logan’s chest. Well, at least he’d gotten him on the couch with him. He could call that a partial success.
“How about Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer again?”
Colin nodded, resting his head on Logan’s chest and settling down. He wriggled to get comfortable. Logan could watch Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Colin would take a nap. Everybody won.
Chapter Five
“I THINK it’s stopped,” said Logan.
Colin snuggled against Logan’s neck, mumbling under his breath.
“I didn’t catch that.”
He pulled back and kissed the side of Logan’s face just because he could. “I don’t want to leave. Isn’t that absurd?”
Logan nosed at his jaw, tilted his head to kiss his lips. “Not absurd at all. I don’t want you to leave either.”
They were curled around each other in Logan’s bed, legs entwined and bare torsos pressed together. Outside the window, the sky had settled, and snow had ceased to fall. In a couple of hours, the roads would probably be useable again. Colin would need to call for someone to come get his car.
It was insane that he wanted the blizzard to start back up again. He’d been wishing for more snow since he’d woken up and looked outside to see that all had calmed. The last three days had been an odd type of perfect, a peaceful bubble that he was loath to pop.
“It’s not the end,” said Logan, rolling them till Colin was on his back and he could look down at him. “We’ll text and call, go on dates.” He smoothed his hair back, scratching at Colin’s scalp.
Colin nudged his head into the contact. “Is this your way of asking me to be your boyfriend?”
“Yeah.”
Wrapping his arms around his neck, Colin tugged Logan down and kissed his chin, then his mouth, drifted to his cheekbones, his forehead.
“I’ll take that as you saying yes,” said Logan. “It’s not too fast for you?”
Colin let his head drop back into the pillows, stared up at a pleased and smug-looking Logan. He brushed his fingers over where Logan’s dimple would be if he were smiling. “Nope, not too fast at all. It’s a little too late to be asking that anyway.”
“Good.” Logan rolled off of him to the side, slinging a leg over Colin’s hips. “So we pulled off a pretty good Christmas, I’d say.”
He ran his hand over Logan’s leg, tickled behind his knee, laughing as Logan twitched and tried to yank his leg away. “Yeah,” he said. “I think it was pretty good. Definitely in my top three Christmases.”
“Oh yeah? What beat this one out?”
“Who’s saying this one isn’t number one?”
Logan pinched his side. “If it’s number one then you’d say so, you said top three. Ergo….”
“Ergo,” mimicked Colin, rolling his eyes. “Fine. It’s the best. I was trying to save some face. Obviously that’s beyond you.”
Patting the side of his face in sympathy, Logan leaned in for a quick kiss. “You’re so easy.”
Huffing, Colin rolled away from him, presenting Logan with his back as he feigned outrage. Logan took the opportunity to kiss his back, biting at his shoulder blades. Colin’s shoulders twitched with the touches. He was just getting ready to roll over to initiate a round two, when his phone trilled on the nightstand.
“Ignore it,” he said, but Logan was already moving away, reaching for it and glancing down at the screen.
The phone hit his arm, then bounced off to land in front of his stomach.
“Your mom,” said Logan. “Don’t be an ass. Pick up.”
Colin picked it up, greeting his mom all while making grabby hands at Logan as he rolled naked from the bed. He watched his ass flex as he strode to the closet, wanted to laugh a little at the sharp tan line. He’d spent quite some time the night before—and that morning—biting that ass. It was a stellar ass. Perhaps the best one he’d ever seen.
He realized his mom was talking, asking him something, and he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. Forcing himself to look up at the ceiling, he asked, “Could you repeat that? Sorry the service is in and out here.”
“Are you coming today?” she repeated. “We missed you yesterday. Was your Christmas okay? Did you eat?”
“Yes. I missed you too. My Christmas was fantastic, and Logan cooked. He’s really good at it.”
“So mystery guy has a name,” she prodded.
Colin sighed. He let his head roll to the side to see Logan coming back to the bed—sadly fully dressed. “Mystery guy has a name,” he said.
Logan mouthed, “Lucky me.” He crawled onto the bed.
“Are we going to get to meet him?”
“Eventually,” said Colin, realizing he would like that. “He’s going to go spend a late Christmas with his family too.” Logan sprawled next to him, resting his head on Colin’s chest. Colin sank his free hand into his hair and rubbed.
“Well tell him I said thank you for making sure you had food and company. I’ll see you later.”
When he got off the phone with her, Logan asked, “Eventually what?”
“She wants to meet you,” he said, reaching out to pluck at Logan’s shirt. “Why did you get dressed?”
“Ooh, I get to meet the parents? Aren’t you moving things right along.” He laughed, ducking to kiss Colin’s bare stomach. He trailed his tongue down to Colin’s belly button, laughing as Colin sucked his stomach in, hips twitching. “If I didn’t get dressed, we’d spend all day in bed.”
“That doesn’t sound bad to me.”
“Not feasible,” reminded Logan. He pulled away and smacked Colin’s stomach. “Call the tow people to come get your car. You can borrow mine to get to your parents. I won’t be going anywhere, anyway.”
“Look at you, ensuring I come back to see you soon. What if I just keep your car?”
“You’ll come back,” laughed Logan. He got off of the bed, tugged on Colin’s arms to half drag him toward the edge. “Get a move on. I don’t want your mom thinking I held you up.”
Reluctantly Colin dragged himself from the bed, making sure to stretch in front of Logan, flaunting his naked body. Logan looked him up and down, his lips curling with amusement. A second later a T-shirt hit Colin in the face.
“I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“PLEASE,” SAID Logan, “don’t wreck my car.” His arms were wrapped around Colin, his body pressed tight to him as they hugged. Colin couldn’t
see his face, but he imagined Logan probably looked amused. He’d never get tired of making fun of him.
“I won’t,” he assured him, burying his nose in his hair and breathing in. They separated a moment later, Logan taking a couple steps back. Colin forced himself to turn and make for the car.
He’d gotten all of ten steps when something wet and cold collided with the back of his head and slithered down his neck. Logan’s laughter was loud and bright behind him. That bastard…. Colin bent and scooped up a large ball of snow, pivoting quickly to try and nail Logan.
He missed.
Logan sent another snowball sailing toward him, Colin dodged, returning the volley. That time he hit Logan, grinning triumphantly as it shattered over his chest. Logan took off running, Colin following as they scooped up snow and proceeded to drench each other.
Colin laughed so hard he could barely breathe when Logan tripped and went sprawling. He followed him down, smushing him into the snow. He kissed his face, skin like ice against his lips.
“I’m going to see you soon,” he said.
Logan’s arms wrapped around him once more, squeezing him through his parka. “I’m holding you to that.”
Don’t miss the 2015 Advent Calendar:
31 stories of holiday love!
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MEG HARDING is a graduate of UCF and is completing a masters program for Publishing in the UK. For as long as she can remember, writing has always been her passion, but she had an inability to ever actually finish anything. She’s immensely happy that her inability has fled and looks forward to where her mind will take her next. She’s a sucker for happy endings, the beach, and superheroes. In her dream life, she owns a wildlife conservation and is surrounded by puppies. She’s a film buff, voracious reader, and a massive geek.
Blog: megharding.wordpress.com
Twitter: @Cumberstone61
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MegHardingWrites
Also by this author
Max moved away from his family to be with Michael, and his family never got over it. Now, for the first time in almost a decade, he’s going to return to London for the Christmas celebrations. He’s confident his family will welcome Michael with open, loving arms. At least that's what he tells himself.
Michael doesn't have his head buried in the sand. He knows he has a lot to prove this Christmas, and he’s not sure if he’s up to the task. All these years and he’d never considered having to spend a holiday with Max’s family. Now that it’s happening he’s not scared to admit it—he’s terrified.
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Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Trip to Remember
© 2015 Meg Harding.
Cover Art
© 2015 Bree Archer.
http://www.breearcher.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63476-953-2
First Edition December 2015
Printed in the United States of America
