Meeting Mr. Christmas (Collier’s Creek Christmas)

Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Oh my god, I’m so full.” Noel abandoned his third slice of pizza and slumped back into the sofa.

“Lightweight.” Jed rescued the slice. “There’s hardly anything of you. No wonder mom always wants to feed you up.”

“What can I say? I have a small appetite. Could handle another beer, though.”

Jed grumbled when Noel nudged him in the ribs to go get the beers from the fridge. “So, so glad the store’s closed tomorrow,” he said, handing one to Noel when he came back. “The floristry industry, it’s seriously hardcore.”

Noel laughed, and Jed grinned. He liked it when Noel laughed, but even more, he liked making Noel laugh.

“Poor baby, the stress of working with flowers and — more flowers. I’ll put a movie on.” Noel scrambled up from the couch. On all fours, he scanned the lower shelf of the cabinet, which held his DVD collection, and ran a finger across the spines. His ass stuck up in the air, moving from side to side; Jed’s gaze followed each slow sway, the tiny movements hypnotic?—

What the hell? Jed jerked his gaze away and ran his fingers through his hair. It was the beer talking, that was all. He glared at the bottle as though waiting for it to agree. He was halfway through his fourth, more than he usually drank, and maybe that was where it should stay.

“Got it.” A note of triumph sounded in Noel’s voice as he set the disc up in the machine, which responded with a disgruntled whine.

“Don’t you think it’s time you entered the twenty-first century? Maybe download your favorite movies? Because when that thing, which was old when my folks were still making out in the back of dad’s car?—”

Noel looked at him over his shoulder. “Please don’t tell me you think about Francine and Hank — you know, your parents — getting hot and sweaty doing the horizontal mambo.”

“No! Jesus, that’s, that’s just…” Jed hunched and squirmed, doing his best to banish even the suggestion of the image. “You’re weird, you know that? And sick?”

“But it was you, not me, who introduced the subject of your parents making out. Anyway, weird I can go with, but I prefer to say individual and unique. But it’s why you love me.”

Love me… And Jed did. He loved Noel more than anybody in the world. As his closest friend, as his best bud. Jed ran his fingers through his hair and gulped down another mouthful of beer.

Noel was standing by the couch and talking about something he couldn’t hear.

“What’s that?”

“Are you ready for this?” Noel held the remote aloft.

“Ready for what?”

“For the movie, you dope. It’s a rom-com but like I said, it’s a little different. If at any time you want to turn it off?—”

“Just play the damn movie, Christmas. It’s a rom-com. I already know what’s gonna happen.”

Noel turned the lights lower before snuggling down on the couch and pressing play. The big screen movie experience, Noel always said, but on a small screen, this time accompanied by the gentle pulse of the lights strung around the little Christmas tree, which sat in the corner of the room. Warm, comfortable, just the two of them doing what they’d done so many times before. Everything felt right, everything was as it should be. Jed sighed in contentment as they hunkered under the soft fleece blanket he’d woken up to find himself under that morning, as the opening credits rolled.

He’d seen every one of Noel’s sappy collection, but five minutes in, he knew he hadn’t seen this one. No cute girl, but a very cute… guy. A skinny little guy with dark hair and some definite awkwardness, and who owned a small dog. Peter, on the rug, wriggled into sitting and began a thorough investigation of his balls.

Jed grabbed his beer, the beer he wasn’t going to drink any more of, gripping the bottle hard.

Noel shifted, his thigh brushing against Jed’s. Noel’s thigh had touched his hundreds, thousands of times, but this time it burned. The dark-haired guy on the screen, who absolutely, totally, didn’t really look like Noel, smiled under a starlit sky as the other guy — the bigger, taller, fair-haired guy he’d been making heart eyes at and who’d been making heart eyes back, moved closer, and closer, as hands rested on hips, as heads tilted, as lips parted as they?—

Fuck.

Jed’s dick stiffened and pressed hard against the confines of his sweatpants. A fine layer of sweat covered his tingling skin, and his mouth dried as he watched, unable to pull his gaze away as the guys on the screen, the guys who really didn’t look like him and Noel, the guys who were so different to each other yet fitting together like the final two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, melted into each other in a never ending kiss. Jed’s hand drifted below the blanket and cupped his aching erection, and he gasped, squeezing down on the root to stem the first rush that if he let it go would be unstoppable. The movie stopped, the brush of the bigger guy’s thumb across the dark-haired guy’s plump lower lip frozen in time.

In the heavy silence, broken only by the hammer of his heart, Jed turned to Noel. His best friend, his best bud. A guy. A guy both his heart and lips screamed out to kiss. Not any guy, but this guy, and only him.

Jed’s breath caught in his chest as he met Noel’s silent gaze. His eyes drifted to Noel’s lips. Slightly parted, red and so full it should be illegal. How hadn’t he noticed Noel’s lips before? But he had. He’d noticed them plenty, always had, before he’d always looked away and tried to tell himself he was being a jerk.

But not this time.

Placing his hands on either side of Noel’s face, he gently tilted his head to the side. Up close, Noel’s eyes were bigger and bluer than ever, his nose more button, the freckles scattered over the bridge more like little golden grains of sand. Why hadn’t he noticed this before?

Another lie, because like all the other things about Noel he’d tried to convince himself he’d not noticed, he had.

“Jed—”

He stopped Noel with a kiss.

Lips crushed and tongues twisted, Noel was kissing him as hard as he was kissing Noel.

Jed eased Noel down further onto the couch, not breaking the kiss, his hands holding Noel tight. Lips that were both soft and firm, the rasp of light stubble, the writhing of a body that was muscle, and flat plains, no hint of a soft curve. It was like no kiss, no body , he’d ever before felt, and all he wanted was more.

They broke apart, gasping for air as their gazes locked on each other’s.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… this. Us,” Noel said, his eyes wide and dazed. “Maybe we should, you know, cool off a bit? I mean, it’s the beer and the movie, and because things have been so hectic lately for both of us, with work and?—”

“Noel?”

“Yeah?”

“Just shut the fuck up and let me kiss you.”

Throwing the fleece blanket aside, Jed straddled Noel, refusing to think about what they were doing, the why and how they’d got here, only wanting for it not to end. Because it, them, the two of them, felt so totally, absolutely right. His dick, heavy and pulsing with need, brushed against Noel’s own iron hard shaft. Jed sucked air between clenched teeth, hissing against the shot of electricity that seared through him, igniting every single nerve ending. Beneath him, Noel’s hips bucked, their dicks rubbing together.

“Ah, fuck,” Jed gritted, squeezing his eyes closed as he ground against Noel, dredging all those sweet, sweet sighs and moans out of the guy who just minutes ago was his best bud and was now?—

“Christ! Jesus fucking Christ!” Jed yelled as Noel snaked his hand down the back of his sweatpants and glided the tip of his finger along the crease of his butt cheeks.

Beneath him, Noel laughed. Deep and dirty, it was a laugh he’d never before heard break from Noel’s lips. Noel, but not the Noel he’d ever known. A delicious shiver raced through Jed as his balls tightened.

No way, no fucking way, was he gonna come in his pants. He pulled himself up, making space between them, and fumbled for Noel’s jeans. But Noel was ahead of him. Unbuckling, unbuttoning, unzipping himself, he pushed his jeans down over his hips, his boxers following, letting his dick spring free, the tip glossy with pre-cum and begging for attention.

Jed caught his breath, his hands stilling on his own clothes. He’d seen Noel buck naked before, he’d seen his dick in locker rooms and skinny dipping in the mountain lakes, at summer camp — but never, ever like this. Jed swallowed hard and ran his shaky hands down his face.

“Jed?” A quiet, uncertain voice. Noel stared at him, his eyes wide, filled with the fever of knowing they’d crossed a line neither of them had seen coming. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how things got so far.” Noel’s voice was as fast and jittery as his hands, fumbling to pull his jeans up.

It was Jed’s get out of jail free card. He could take it and back away. It had been the beer, that was all, and the movie. They could laugh it off, shrug, and not meet each other’s eye just as they’d done with the Truth or Dare kiss. It would be so easy to step away, no harm done. Lies, it was all lies, because he didn’t want to back away, he didn’t want to shrug any of it off. He wanted this, and he wanted it only with Noel.

His Noel, who’d always been so much more than his best bud.

Jed grabbed Noel’s hands, holding them still, brushing them with a soft sweep of his thumbs, wanting to allay all of Noel’s panic that he’d somehow made a mistake when nothing about this could ever be called that. “Don’t be sorry. Don’t ever be sorry. But…”

“But what?”

Fuck. The note of panic was back in Noel’s voice. But . That little word that had the power to wreck everything, yet he needed to say what was bubbling away inside him.

“This… Us, I mean, like this. It’s new to me, you know. Me and you, I mean…” And I just don ’ t want to fuck up…

“ You know, I kinda think I’d have noticed if we’d done this before.” Noel arched a brow, all his panicky nerves nowhere to be seen as his lips twitched in a barely held back grin.

Smart ass .

Jed freed his own cock, and wrapped his palm around himself, shuddering as his thumb pad swept over the juicy slit, all the time keeping his gaze locked to Noel’s, who stared back at him with eyes that were wider than the ocean and as dark as midnight.

Jesus, but he ’ s beautiful. Jed’s heart jumped and twisted so hard he gasped. But he’d always known that, as hard as he’d shoved that thought aside in the past, Noel had always been the most beautiful person he’d ever known.

Noel whimpered as his gaze fell to Jed’s hand, tight around his dick. Jed smiled, he just couldn’t help it, as Noel made that little sound again. Releasing himself, not to quit what he was doing but to make it a million times better, he shuffled forward and palmed Noel’s slick erection, pressing it to his own, encircling his hand around them both. The heat, the pulse, slick with pre-cum. He had another guy’s dick in his hand… Noel’s dick… and Christ, if it didn’t feel right.

Tunneling his fist, Jed slid his palm all the way up to the tips of their pressed together dicks, feathering his thumb pad over their wet slits, squeezing and massaging.

Noel hissed through his teeth, letting his head fall back as he muttered something incomprehensible.

“Oh shit,” Jed whispered, his voice rough and ragged. If they stopped now… If they… There was no way he was going to stop. He picked up the pace.

“Two cocks in the hand.”

“What?” He blinked down at Noel, who stared up at him.

“Like that saying. Two cocks in the bush are worth one in the hand.”

Jed blinked again, as the rhythm he’d been setting faltered and stalled. Laughter bubbled up inside him, smoothing down the scant remains of his jangling nerves.

“Grabbing another guy’s cock isn’t something I do every day, Christmas, so give me a break. And it’s birds, not cocks.”

“Whatever, but I do grab other guy’s cocks. Sometimes. Not so much lately.”

Jed furrowed his brow. Noel and some random guy’s dick? No way?—

“Jed?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you just growl?”

“No.” Maybe a little.

“I just, erm, think — know — that things would be helped along with a little lube. Don’t want any friction burns.”

“Friction burns?”

Noel flushed hard.

And don ’ t you look like Mr. Fucking Adorable…

“Where is it?”

“In the bedroom. The nightstand drawer.”

Bedroom. Which would mean waddling away with his pants around his ankles and his dick bobbing and bouncing. He had a better idea.

He spat in his palm, once, twice, three times, all the time keeping his gaze locked to Noel’s. He smothered them both, the warm spit mixing with the viscous pre-cum before he pushed Noel onto his back.

Jed set a rhythm. Hard, soft, slow, fast. Squeezing, kneading, feeling every inch of Noel, the heat and the pulse, every juicy moment. Beneath him, Noel gasped and moaned, uttering incoherent words on ragged, tattered breaths as he thrust up into Jed’s tunneled fist.

Jed’s fist pistoned, faster and harder, chasing the orgasm that was a storm cloud on the horizon, gathering pace and rolling in fast as it got ready to blow itself apart. Noel’s thrusts, like his hands raking through Jed’s hair, were frantic and desperate. Breathy moans and urgent grunts, the wet slap of skin on skin as Jed’s climax raced towards him. He buried his face in Noel’s neck as Noel’s back arched and his head rolled back, exposing the pale, thin skin just above his collarbone. Jed covered it with his mouth, sucking hard. Noel’s wild pulse beat against his lips. Jed sucked, nipped and stretched the bruising skin, and sucked again.

Noel cried out, and Jed’s climax hit him with the force of a truck hurtling down the mountainside. His hips spasmed out of control, his body jerking in a seizure of ecstasy and release as hot, sticky cum filled and overflowed his hand, soaking groins, hips and bellies.

Jed rolled off Noel, falling to the floor, not caring about the bang on his head or the jolt through his body, because he was boneless. Sated, rung out, and as boneless as jello. He flung his arm across his face, the low, soft lighting suddenly too bright.

Movement, shuffling, but distant, brought him back to himself. Pulling his arm away, he looked up. Noel leaned over him, his face flushed, his lips red and swollen, his hair a mess. And a bruise, a dark bruise where he’d… Jeez. He’d never done anything like that before, but from somewhere deep inside, somewhere dark, Jed was proud to have marked Noel out as?—

“Here. To clean up.” Noel handed over a wet washcloth and a small towel. “A shower would be best, but…” he shrugged, letting the suggestion go. “We can share my bed. If you want. I mean, it’s a king, so plenty of room. For sleeping.” Noel bit down on his lower lip.

“That’d be good.” Pushing himself up on spaghetti legs, Jed staggered after Noel, his foggy focus only on the here and now, incapable, or refusing, to think of what the morning would bring.