by Pepper Paris
“Look, we can work out the details later, but I’ve got to get some lunch and get back to work. The army is pretty strict about that.” Kelly glanced at his watch.
“Go, bro. We don’t want you in trouble and we’ll let know when we’re doing it on Christmas morning” I urged him.
“Great. Thanks for asking us.” Kelly waved and then his screen went blank.
“Oh, Roxie doesn’t know I was talking to you and I’m pretty sure she’s going to mention the Christmas invite so don’t let on that you know.”
“Will do. I think you’re on the right track.” Wade confirmed.
“Look, I’ve got to get back to work as well.” Carter looked a little rushed as he checked something behind him.
“Yeah, guys, go back to your stuff and we’ll chat later.”
“Congrats man.” Carter waved and Wade chimed in, “To all of us man.”
The screens went blank and I was sitting there overwhelmed.
All that worry and nervousness, had been for nothing. They had agreed and I hadn’t really had to do much in the way of discussions or arguments. Now, everything that Roxie was trying to tell me made much more sense. It was like someone had finally given me the code book and I could read all of the messages.
They loved her and I loved her so we were all willing to make her feel as special as possible.
Whew, I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to process everything. I’d better get that list taken care of because they would be expecting me back eventually and sitting in the car wasn’t going to get everything taken care of.
Never once in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I would be asking her to marry me. Life was full of surprises.
Chapter 8
Roxie
The holiday spirit invaded the Marsh house and I watched with envious eyes as a Christmas miracle unfolded in front of me.
Jay and his brothers may have had issues or hated each other on occasion, but as Christmas Eve arrived it appeared that they put those aside in anticipation of the holiday.
Pop George, as I’d taken to calling him was up and moving about. Slowly, but he was making progress toward a successful recovery.
“Roxie, sweetie, do you think you can keep an eye on the food preparations while I take George to his appointment?”
“Certainly, Jay will help me and we’ll keep everything on track for dinner tonight.” I agreed easily.
“When will Wade be arriving?” She asked collecting her purse and phone from the counter.
“Um, I believe he was leaving a little bit before noon, so he should be here just in time for dinner.”
“Wonderful. He can join in the fierce competition in our game marathon after dinner.”
“It was a way mom figured out to keep us busy until it was time for bed so she didn’t have to hear was it time for presents yet all evening.” Jay laughed, “She’s pretty smart. It took us years before we realized she had an ulterior motive.”
“Well, you’d better prepare Roxie for how crazy things can get when the Marsh family starts trying to beat each other in a game of cards.”
“Yes, ma’am. Now, get dad to that appointment so we can get this party started.” Jay ordered.
“I’m going, just remember…”
“We’ve got it mom. You’re only going to be gone a couple of hours. What Roxie doesn’t know about our family traditions, I’ll fill her in and we’ll have the food all ready for the oven at the right time.”
She shook her head at us and turned to leave.
Once the front door shut behind them, Jay turned to me and pulled me into his arms.
“Now, we can finally be alone.” He tugged on my hand pulling me toward the stairs.
“Jay,” I protested, “You just promised that we’d have everything ready. That won’t happen if we go upstairs and play around.”
“Just a quickie?” He pouted with one foot on the stairs.
I’d never seen him so confident before and I wasn’t going to let all that hard work go to waste.
“All right, but we can’t be long. I don’t want to see that disappointed look on your mother’s face if we don’t get it all done.”
The door had barely closed on the room when he started pulling my clothes off.
“I’ve been waiting to do this for a while.” He murmured.
Slightly out of character for him, but I wasn’t about to stop him from pursing this course.
His fingers moved lightly over my exposed skin until he reached my breast. Instead of taking them out of my bra, he nibbled through the fabric teasing me.
I let him lead pushing me back toward the bed gently laying me on my back. As he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck lifting my head slightly to meet his hungry lips.
Becoming lost in the moment, I almost didn’t notice when his free hand moved down to enter my panties lightly sliding over my folds and making my twitch in anticipation.
“Jay,” I moan hoping to hurry him into relieving my growing need.
“Hmm, you like that huh?” He grinned mischievously as he pulled off his shirt and pants before unhooking my bra and releasing my breasts the rest of the way.
I could only nod not wanting to break the spell that he was creating between our bodies.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been planning this for a week and I’m not going to leave you wanting.” He warned moving toward my body with an eagerness that I’d never seen before.
A shiver raced over me as I took in the determination fixed on his face.
He gently traced a finger down my jawline as he moved his member into place rubbing against my already sensitive nub with only the thin material of my panties separating us.
Taking his time, he traded between kissing and nibbling his way across my body making me wiggle against him in an effort to speed things up.
“Hold still,” He commanded placing his hands on my wrists to keep me from reaching down to rub myself.
At his words, I stopped and concentrated on being motionless as he continued to kiss my neck and nipples.
Even though I was trying hard not to move, the friction of his movements against my lower parts was speeding up and my body couldn’t help arch into him.
That must have been the trigger he needed, because he paused long enough to put protection in place as he shoved my panties to the side and entered my now wet folds.
“Ah, that feels so amazing.” He groaned holding still to let us both adjust to the difference.
With my hands free, I lightly ran my fingers up his back with my nails leaving no marks.
He looked at me fiercely enjoying the sensation and with a growl rapidly started thrusting in and out.
My hands gripped his back in an attempt to hold on for the ride as my body quickly rose to meet him as the sound of his balls hitting my flesh made me move faster.
The flame between us erupted and I could feel my body begin to clutch his member as the waves inside me wanted more of him.
With a groan, he held still his arms holding his body from crushing me as I came down slowly until the aftershocks became a tremble. He gently pulled away and landed beside me as we both tried to catch our breath.
“That…was…amazing.” He spoke between breaths. “I thought the guys were always exaggerating the intensity, but I think that was my fault.”
“Your fault? I’m pretty sure that was the best sex we’ve had yet. Not that any of the others were bad, but that was one for the books.” I leaned my head on his shoulder basking in the glow from the moment.
“It was my fault that it was the best we’ve done because I’ve been holding back. Until my talk with Wade last week, I don’t think I had fully committed to you. My heart really wanted to, but I was so afraid of getting hurt that I didn’t let you past my outer shell.” He laced his fingers through mine.
“Can you forgive me? For not believing you and holding back?”
“Of course.” I frowned, “I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t know how to
fix it.”
“Since then I’ve been trying to find a way to show you, but with my parents home it hasn’t been easy. I mean I know we’ve snuck a few moments here or there, but it isn’t the same as this was.”
“Well, I’m just glad that you were able to get past it because I want to be able to do that with you for the rest of our lives. Speaking of that, we won’t live long if we don’t go started cooking the food.” I giggled at the thought of his mother getting upset at us. She was always so quiet in nature that I didn’t think she could get that mad ever.
“Shower first and then we’ll cook up enough food that nobody will have a clue, we snuck away for a little nookie time.” He grinned as he raised my hand to his lips.
-------
We managed to make it back to the kitchen in enough time to get all the food ready before they made it back.
Craig and Wade had arrived and Noah even showed up just before we put the food on the table.
I’d never seen a family have that much fun trying to outdo each other, but Wade had jumped right into the fray while I’d stay on the outside playing it safe.
Carter had invited me to be with his family, but the amount of Christmas joy was different. Each family had their own traditions and it was nice to see how much it could bring a family together. I had made mental notes all evening because I wanted to make sure that our family could make those same kind of feelings happen when we were together.
It had felt strange when Mom Laura had sent the three of us to bed without a second thought. It was one thing for her to let me stay in Jay’s room, but to allow Wade to join us had been the best present I could have had.
I fell asleep tucked between two of my loves hoping the others were okay. I’d sent them a quick text before we went to sleep, but they hadn’t responded before I’d fallen asleep.
The bed started to move as Jay began to bounce next to me.
“What’s going on?” I grumbled pulling the pillow over my head.
“It’s Christmas. Time to wake up.” He hopped right in the middle of Wade and I, pushing us to each side with another bounce.
“What time is it?” Wade tried to find the clock, but Jay was blocking it.
“Mom’s already in the kitchen with the coffee going and we open presents before we make breakfast which is always pancakes.”
“Sounds like you have it all planned out.” I groaned from under the pillow.
“Get dressed and we can go downstairs.” He added another bounce to his words before springing off the bed. “I’m going to be the first in the shower. You might want to hurry because my brothers will take up all the hot water otherwise.”
“Is he always so chipper in the mornings?” Wade peaked out from under the covers.
“It’s the Christmas spirit, I think. We had a great time yesterday and evidently he’s still in the glow with holiday extras energizing him.”
“At least he’s not bouncing anymore.” Wade sat up, “We might as well join him because he’s right. Otherwise, we won’t get any hot water.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Not much happened at my house for Christmas, but if last night was an indication, the Marsh family goes all out for this stuff.”
“Don’t you want to see what we got you for Christmas?” He winked and left the room leaving me no choice but to follow.
I tapped on the door before I entered, because it would be my luck to walking on one of Jay’s brothers instead and that wasn’t something I wanted to see this early in the morning.
Jay’s voice answered and I was surprised to see both of them in the shower as if there wasn’t anything unusual about it.
Any issues that Jay had had were definitely gone because he wasn’t trying to hide or cover up anything from me or Wade.
“Enjoying the view?” Jay shook his junk at me and I burst out laughing.
“Yeah, that’s not the view I was looking at.” I answered as I pulled my top off gaining their attention.
They both watched as I took each piece of clothing off before stepping into the now crowded shower.
I’d just gotten my hair wet when a knock at the door startled us.
“Hey, I know all three of you are in there. If you’re not out in ten minutes, then I’m going to come in and watch the show. I’d hurry if I was you.” Craig chuckled from the other side.
With a glance at the boys, I grinned. “Sorry, you’re going to have to wait ‘til later to open your present. Maybe we can go for a drive to the old treehouse?”
“You’re such a tease.” Wade fisted his member working quickly with the soap as I turned back to cleaning up.
Jay snatched a kiss and took advantage of the situation to tweak my nipples before he jumped out of the shower.
That had been the extra Wade needed and he ejaculated into the water running down the drain.
“Hmm, that was nice.” He whispered coming to stand behind me. “Think I can rinse off and so you can finish up?”
Wordlessly, I moved over and continued to lather my hair up. I‘d gotten used to having someone in the shower with me and even better at ignoring them while they appreciated my body.
Jay slid out of the bathroom while Wade was drying off. I took the few seconds alone to gather my thoughts before going downstairs to face all of the happiness.
Christmas hadn’t meant much to our family for many reasons. We didn’t have money for presents and other than the fact I was home from work and school there wasn’t anything to separate it from any other day.
Even with Carter’s family it hadn’t been a big affair, just a small gathering of a few of us to eat and let the guys watch the football games.
Something about this Christmas felt different. Maybe it was the fact that Jay’s family had almost lost their loved one and it was more special that they had him there, but I still couldn’t put my finger on it.
Shrugging it off as being nervous, I got out dressing quickly so that the other two guys could still get shower before everyone started in on the presents.
Craig’s threats weren’t real because he’d already showered and Noah had used their parents while the three of us used the ‘kids’ bathroom.
Thankfully, I had a dressier outfit planned for today, but styling my hair or doing any makeup would have to wait. The sounds of excitement pulled me toward the direction of all the Christmas energy.
“Ah, good. Now, that we’re all here, I’m going to do things a little out of order. Roxie, at our house we always start with the youngest which is normally me. So this time I’m going to skip my present and give you one instead of taking my turn.”
I glanced around to find Mom and Dad Marsh smiling at me encouragingly, while Craig and Noah only looked confused. Wade had the phone out and was recording for some crazy reason.
“Okay,” I gulped embarrassed. Not really wanting to be the center of attention.
Jay had been sitting on the floor with a pile of presents around him. He moved to get up on one knee and held out a gift to me.
I nervously ripped off the bow from the box and opened it to reveal a jewelry box.
That’s when it hit me, Jay was about to propose.
He took the box from my hand and opened it.
“Roxie, as you know it’s been a little crazy over the past few years and I’ve had lots of doubts because well, I’m an idiot. I love you and can’t imagine my life without you by my side. So if you think you handle living with all of my issues and love, I’m asking you to spend the rest of our lives together? Will you marry me?”
I hadn’t even looked at the ring, but was focused on Jay’s face. He’d just professed his love for me in front of his family and Wade.
Wade. I hurried to look in his direction, but he was all smiles. My heart gave a sigh of relief. He would be okay with it.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Yes.”
Jay scrambled to get the ring out of the box and onto my finger before sealing the deal with a kiss.
When the clapping and hoots brought us back to the fact that everyone was watching, I realized that most of the noise was coming from the phone in Wade’s hand.
He turned it toward me and the screen filled with the faces of Kelly and Carter.
“Whoo!!” Carter congradulated at me.
“Great job, Jay.” Kelly added.
“We love you, Roxie.” They both mouthed kisses at me.
I was so overwhelmed, “You all knew?”
“Jay talked to us about it and yeah we’re all on board. We’ll do some sort of ceremony together, and unless you have a problem with it Jay will be your legal husband.”
Tear streamed down my face as Wade and Jay both held me making a family circle with just us.
“Okay,” I nodded, “I love you all and we’re going to have to talk about this having secrets behind my back thing.” I gave them all a little pout.
“Yes, ma’am.” Kelly saluted sarcastically.
“Oh, did you get your presents, I sent you?”
“Yes,” Carter nodded, but we’ll open those later. Finish Christmas with Jay’s family and we’ll do ours right before the football game comes on.
“I love you.”
“You too,” They echoed before disconnecting.
Once we all settled down, Noah’s remark could easily be heard, “Didn’t think you had the balls.”
Ignoring him, Mom Laura came over to give me a hug.
“That was my mother’s ring. Jay asked if he could give it to you a few days ago and I said yes. I’m so glad to finally have a girl in the family for a change.”
“Oh, my goodness. I’ll take good care of it.” I gushed returning her embrace. “We girls do have to stick together.”
She had barely released me when Pop George took his turn and then Craig. A very reluctant Noah followed suit.
“How you put up with him, I’ll never know. But he’s certainly getting the better end of the deal with you.”
“That’s sweet of you.” I acknowledged his backward complement.
“Now, can we get back to the presents? It’s my turn and I’ve been waiting forever.” Craig whined playfully.
I laughed at his expression as I settled in next to Jay with Wade at my side.
