Naughty or Nice

19. Rora

19

RORA

DECEMBER 25

H enry follows me into the kitchen, our arms laden down with hot chocolate mugs and snacks plates with nothing more than crumbs and empty candy wrappers left. I dump the mugs in the sink while Henry empties the plates into the trash and stacks them. There are a million dishes to be done, wrapping paper and packaging to be thrown away, and glitter to be vacuumed, thanks to Noelle’s wrapping paper choice, but it can all wait. I’ll come back in the morning to help clean up.

I stretch my arms above my head as I lean back against the counter, fighting a yawn.

Henry chuckles, bracketing me with his arms. “Sleepy, sugar?”

“Relaxed,” I correct, running my hands underneath his shirt, lightly scratching his back.

He hums and ducks his head to kiss the tip of my nose, but I tilt my chin up and capture his mouth. We’ve been sneaking away for a second here and there to steal kisses all day, acting like those couples in high school that had to find each other between every class because they couldn’t spend too much time apart. A lot of couples were like that senior year. There’s not much going on in Wintermore, and Wyoming college options are limited. Most people went out of state for college, and everyone knew the odds of their high school relationships surviving long distance. Noelle and her girlfriend spent every second they could together during senior year, then went to colleges on separate coasts and broke up two months later.

I had no illusions that my relationship with Kenny was anything more than a high school fling, so I never really understood the impending doom of graduation day.

I get it now.

Henry tastes like chocolate and peppermint, warm and comforting, and I breathe him in as we break apart, swiping my tongue over his lower lip.

“I should probably go before it gets too late,” I say begrudgingly, making no move to untangle myself from him.

Henry frowns, but before I can ask if he wants to come home with me, Kate’s voice rings through the kitchen. “It’s already late. You should stay, honey.”

Henry and I jump apart. Charlie is behind her in his wheelchair, which Felix decorated with tinsel for Christmas.

Where did they even come from? And how long have they been here? Shit.

“Oh, uh…” I have no idea what to say here.

“Stay,” Charlie says before I have to think too hard. He gives us a wry smile. “I’ll pretend you’re sleeping in your own room.”

I want the ground to swallow me up, but not as much as I want to spend the night with Henry, so I just nod. “That sounds good.” I avoid making eye contact with Charlie.

Kate steals Henry to help her move their cars onto the street, since it’s supposed to freeze overnight and the Whitten driveway is notorious for turning into an ice rink, leaving me alone with Charlie. Wonderful.

I busy myself at the sink, rinsing hot chocolate residue from the cups and stacking them in the dishwasher.

“Don’t worry about that, kiddo. We can get everything cleaned up in the morning.”

“I don’t mind,” I tell Charlie, moving onto the bowls.

“Rora. ”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry.”

I pause, the last bowl in my hand.

Damn it. We’re going to have to talk about this, aren’t we?

I finish up with the bowl and close the dishwasher before turning to face Charlie. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I’m…” I almost apologize but stop myself. I’m not sorry for anything that’s happened between Henry and me. “I know this is weird.”

“It is,” Charlie agrees. “But I made it weirder by reacting so badly.” He crosses his arms and sighs. “It’s hard for us—hard for me, I guess. I know you’re not really our daughter, but you feel like it. And you’re all grown up and traveling the world, which is terrifying and stressful even though we’re so proud of you, but you still feel like our little Rora. I love Henry and I trust him a hundred percent, but I can’t imagine ever finding out you were seeing someone so much older than you and not finding it difficult.”

I pull out a seat and turn it so I can sit facing him. “I don’t say this enough, but I’ve always felt so lucky to have you and Kate. I basically have two sets of parents, and I love you, just like I love my mom and dad. Should I have considered this more before … approaching Henry? Probably, yeah, but I honestly never expected it to turn into this.” And I have no idea how to handle it now that it has.

“What exactly is this ? Because you’re both leaving soon, and Henry doesn’t…” He trails off, but I can finish the sentence.

“He doesn’t do long distance, I know. Neither do I. I know what I want, but I can’t see a way to make it a reality, so right now, I’m just going to enjoy the time I get to have with him. We’ll try to make it less weird for everyone else.”

Charlie gives me a sad smile. “You don’t have to. I’ve seen enough today to know that whatever is between you two… It’s a go od thing. Don’t write it off just because you can’t see a path through the trees.”

I don’t get the chance to process that before the front door opens, Henry’s warm laugh washing over me like a ray of sunshine. My eyes are drawn to him the second he walks in the room, his smile making my heart race, as always.

“You ready to head up to bed, sugar? I’m beat.”

“Yeah. Night, Charlie. Night, Kate. Love you.”

“Love you. Night, honey.”

Henry follows behind me as I grab my stuff and start up the stairs.

Charlie and Kate’s room is on the ground floor, which is just as well, considering he can’t make it upstairs right now. The second floor has three bedrooms. Felix and Noelle’s bedroom doors are closed, so they must have come up to bed while we were in the kitchen. My bedroom isn’t used much these days, but Charlie and Kate have always promised I’d have a place of my own in their home.

I jump into the bathroom and grab the bag of toiletries I keep here just in case, before heading up to the attic guest room, where Henry has been staying.

I toss my bags on the bed, and Henry wraps his arms around me from behind. “Thank you for today, baby. I know you hate Christmas, but having you around was really special.”

His chest is soft and warm as I lean my head back against him, covering his hands with mine. “I enjoyed it.”

“Even the Christmas movies?”

“Definitely not. But I enjoyed being with you all. It made me realize I need to make more time for family. When I do come home, I usually keep myself so busy that I never get time to just sit and chill with everyone.”

“Does this mean you might come home next Christmas?”

I spin in his hold, tilting my head to look up at him. “Will you be here? ”

“Charlie wants us to take turns doing Santa shifts next year. I think he’s enjoyed having time off.”

“You in the Santa suit? I could be convinced to make an appearance,” I say, but I’m already convinced.

Usually, I’d find a photography gig as far away from Wintermore as possible, but even if Henry wasn’t coming back next year, I’d probably come home anyway, just for how happy it made the rest of the Whittens this year. I can handle tinsel and candy canes and Christmas music for them.

Henry steps back from me with a twinkle in his eyes. “Close your eyes, sugar.”

I raise an eyebrow curiously but walk backward until my legs hit the bed, and sit down, closing my eyes. “What are you doing?” I ask, listening to the rustling of Henry moving around.

“Have you considered having a little patience?”

I’d roll my eyes if they were open.

I feel Henry’s footsteps as he crosses the room, stopping in front of me. “Since we didn’t get to spend Christmas Eve together…” he says, placing a finger under my chin and tilting my head up.

I open my eyes, and my mouth waters. His Santa suit will be the death of me.

The velvet is perfectly soft as I stand up, running my hands over his jacket. “God, Henry…” I stand on my tiptoes so I can draw my finger along the faux fur band of his Santa hat.

“That’s Santa to you, sugar,” he murmurs, a wicked smile spreading over his face.

Sweet mother of god .

“Well, Santa ”—his pupils flare as I emphasize it—“you’ve been working pretty hard lately. Big time of year for you.”

Henry watches me curiously as I spin him around, pushing him down so he’s sitting on the end of the bed, but his curiosity quickly morphs into surprise, then desperation, as I drop to my knees in front of him .

“Feels like someone ought to thank you for all your hard work,” I continue, watching his breath catch as I part his knees and crawl between them.

I take my time, running my hands up his strong thighs, unfastening the black leather belt around his waist, and pulling the waistband of his pants down. No underwear—why bother?

I wrap my hand around the base of his cock, slowly dragging it up the length and running my thumb across the tip. Henry lets out a shuddering breath. I flick my gaze down his body, making a game plan, so to speak. I’ve wanted to do this since the second I laid eyes on him, but he’s so quick to pounce on me that I’ve never gotten the chance.

In all the times I’ve thought about taking his cock in my mouth, I haven’t considered the size issue. As much as I love running it, my mouth is on the smaller side. And Henry is … not. But if I don’t get him between my lips, I might actually die.

I lower my head, looking up at Henry through my lashes. Any nerves swirling around my stomach disappear when I meet his eye; he looks stunned, like he’s never seen something so incredible and he has no idea how to process it. I take it slowly, teasing the head of his cock with the tip of my tongue, but he’s already coming undone.

“Fuck,” he groans, his hips jumping.

Urged on by his reaction, I lick my way down his length and up again, before finally taking him into my mouth. I can only take him so far and my jaw is going to be sore as hell in the morning, but I wrap my hands around the base of him, drawing them up and down as I bob my head, taking as much of him as I can.

“Rora, baby. Fuck.” Henry moans. He looks like he might actually chew through his lip; he’s trying so hard to stay quiet. Thank god we’re in the attic. He presses a pillow against his face.

I’ve never really understood the hype around oral, giving or receiving. Henry quickly made me understand the receiving hype, but watching him struggle to keep it together, trying not to lose control, fist my hair, and take over? Oh yeah, I get the giving hype now.

I want to drag it out, to keep him on the edge for as long as I can. As if I can keep us stuck in this beautiful, torturous moment forever. But Henry’s thighs are trembling, and I’m not that sadistic.

Drawing in a deep breath, I relax my throat to take him as deep as I can. Henry’s answering groan is loud even with the pillow, and I’m so caught up in his reactions that it’s hard to care about the discomfort of him pressing against the back of my throat. Muffled sounds of what sounds like my name and “fuck” over and over fall from his lips, and I can’t help but think he’s holding back. Like he’s trying not to come in my mouth like a gentleman. And I can’t have that.

I hum around his cock, tightening my hands around him. Henry goes stock-still before a shiver ricochets through his body and he comes with a gasp, spilling down my throat. I swallow him down, my lungs screaming at me to pull back and take a goddamn breath. When Henry stops shaking, I do, licking every drop of cum from him as I go. We wouldn’t want to mess up his Santa pants, after all.

When I’m finished, I look up to find Henry breathing heavily, his arm flung across his face.

I kneel on the bed, leaning down to press a kiss to his forearm. “Still with me, Santa?” I tease.

Henry removes his arm, and I only have a second to prepare myself at the blazing look in his eyes before he’s on me, spinning around with a surprising amount of agility, considering how spent he was a second ago. He pins me to the mattress, peppering messy kisses over my face before finally pressing his lips to mine. He runs his tongue over the seam of my lips, groaning as he presumably tastes himself.

Sparks shoot up my body, eliciting a curse from my mouth as he grinds against me. “How the fuck are you hard already? ”

“Because,” he replies, the words muted because he refuses to remove his lips from me, “you are a goddamn miracle, sugar. Fucking hell.”

He sits back on his heels, kneeling between my legs and looking down at me like I really am made of magic. I reach for his cock, resting between us, but he stills me, grasping my hand.

“You reckon you can be nice and quiet for me, baby?” His voice is toe-curling low.

I consider lying; I need him all over me. But being in the attic only affords us so much privacy.

“I honestly don’t think I can,” I answer, and Henry chuckles, his eyes lighting up like that was the answer he wanted.

He slowly removes the belt from his pants, his eyes never leaving me, and wraps it around his palm. When he slides it from his hand, he flattens it so it’s an inch thick.

I realize what he intends before he taps the underside of my chin, and my heart races with excitement.

He brings the belt closer to my mouth. “Open up, sugar.”