Page 22 of A Kiss For The Holidays

Now, I’m holding him on my lap while he kisses my neck and I can't get the image of him beneath me earlier out of my head. My dick throbs as I remember the tight vice-like grip he had on me. And now as he rubs his growing erection against me, I want to throw him down on the floor and do it all again. Touching Asher is different now, but I need it - him - just as much.

“Hmmm…” he murmurs, “I’ve loved it here with you.” He circles his hips and I moan. It's been two hours since I was last inside him, and Asher hasn't left my side. We've been kissing and groping each other ever since and if I hadn't noticed the way he flinched when I rubbed a finger along his hole a moment ago, I'd be fucking him right now.

“Same,” I say, rubbing my nose along the sprinkling of stubble on his neck, “I’ve loved it all, I love -” Beate’s yappy bark followed by a banging on the door has Asher pulling away from me and turning towards the sound.

“Hello? Asher, Dalton, are you in there?” He climbs off my lap, straightening his clothes, trying to hide the bulge in his jeans and flattening his hair while I quickly stand just as the door flies open. Our dads and a man I don’t recognise, dressed in full winter gear, walk in, closing the door behind them.

My dad reaches for me, pulling me into a hug and kisses the top of my head. “Dad,” I say, really happy to see him even if slightly disappointed too because I wasn’t ready to return. Dad releases me and looks around, taking in what has been our little home for the last few days.

“Not a bad place to be trapped, but it sure is good to see you both safe.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Asher hugging his dad too.

“Let’s get you two boys back up to the resort,” the guy I don’t recognise says. “We’ll send some staff down to sort the place out later.” The sound of tiny paws on hardwood alerts the newcomers to the other inhabitant of the cabin. “Who is this?” The man bends down to pat Beate.

“She’s part of the reason we’re here. Asher followed her from the resort, but I have no idea who she belongs to. Her paw is hurt. I can’t see anything stuck in it and we tried to keep her fed but I’m sure she’ll be happy to be out of here soon.”

The man pulls out a chunky looking radio and calls someone, the sounds of ringing on the other side loud enough for us to hear in the quiet room. “Anna?” he says as the call connects. “Yeah, Roger here. Down at the summer cabins. I’ve got the two stranded boys and they have a dog. Any reports of a missing pet?” He’s silent for a moment before he speaks again. “Good, I’ll bring her back with me, if you can ring the owner. Thanks.”

Roger ends the call then scoops up Beate. “Her owners have been so worried about her. She took off into the trees and they couldn’t find her before the storm came. Their Christmas is about to get a whole lot happier.”

My eyes meet Asher’s across the room and he returns my smile with one of his own.

“Come on,” Asher’s dad says. “Your mums have ordered enough food to feed a football team and your sisters have been really worried about you.”

We grab a few of our things, including the homemade garland and some of the snowflakes then climb into the large truck belonging to the resort. As we do so, a pang of wistfulness hits me. Though being stuck in a cabin was not how I ever envisioned spending my holiday, there is no denying that our time there changed the course of my life, and now I’m a little sad to say goodbye to it.

Coming back to the villa is somewhat overwhelming. Everyone is excited to see us, and there's an electric energy running through the room as each person takes a turn to hug us, our mums doing their best - and failing - not to scan us for injuries. Asher’s mum has put salve on the blister from his burn and is now checking his ankle.

“We’re okay, Mum,” I say for the thousandth time as my mum smooths the hair from my face, studying me to make sure I’m not lying to her. “We were gone for three days, not a month. And we were warm and we had food and we had each other. I promise, it’s no big deal.”

“What were you thinking, taking off away from the villa with a storm coming?” Asher's mum asks him. Content that his ankle is okay, she wraps him in a tight hug and I grin because while our mothers can be over the top sometimes, we’ve never not felt loved. I let my own mum pull me in for another hug, accepting that it's in their nature as mums to worry about us.

“I guess I wasn’t,” Asher shrugs under his mum’s intense stare.

“Don’t do anything like that again,” she reprimands while patting him on the head.

Our dads walk in with food delivered by the resort's cafe, breaking up the hug fest and everyone - Suzie, Lane, their parents and our sisters included - take a seat near the fire in the large main room. The smell of spicy chicken, bratwurst and fries has my mouth watering and I am the first to start digging in.

Asher is sitting on the opposite side of the room from me, Lane next to him, sitting cross legged on the shaggy rug. We haven’t had a chance to talk since we got interrupted this afternoon and I’m so eager for a moment to have him alone.

“How was your Christmas Day?” Asher asks and his mum replies, followed by Suzie and Clem, who regale us with stories of the food they ate and the gifts people received, making sure to drop in that we were greatly missed. They tell us that Daddressed up as Santa and stayed in character all day and by the time they’re done, I have tears of laughter escaping from the side of my eyes.

“And how was your Christmas, and your time in the cabin?” Suzie’s mum asks and my gaze shoots to Ash.

“It was amazing, better than I could have ever imagined,” he says and I can practically see the hearts in his eyes as he looks at me for confirmation. Suzie and Lane are both watching us closely, their eyes flicking from me to Asher and back again.

We talked about this, about telling everyone about us, so what I should say is that yes, the past few days, alone with Asher were amazing. That they changed my life. That it may have been a short break from our usual lives but that I learned a lot about myself in the short time. I should say that not once did I wish for it to be over, and that I’ve never felt happier than when I was holding my best friend,kissingmy best friend.

But as I scan the room, eleven pairs of eyes land on me, my throat goes dry and the words won’t come. It’s all suddenly so real. I’ve never introduced my parents to any of my girlfriends, I’ve never been serious enough about anyone to bother. What if they don’t believe how I feel for Asher? What if they think I used him to pass the time? What if they don't get that this is the most sure I've ever been in my life. That this isn't just another one of my whims. I know I'm flaky sometimes, I've just never felt settled about anything except Asher. Always Asher.

Suddenly, I want to hit pause so he and I can talk this over properly, so we can bring it up with our parents without the Yorks and our sisters here, but as I have that thought Asher adds, “Dalton and I have something to tell you.” And he looks so fucking excited as his eyes bore into me and he waits for me to say the words I know he wants to hear. The ones I promised him I had no problem sharing.

It’s then that all the words I should say get replaced by the words I actually say. “It was fun,” I shrug, and because I couldn’t possibly make it seem like I cared less about the time we spent together, I add. “We had fun, it’s always fun with Asher.” My chuckle is awkward and I inwardly cringe because I dropped the f word three times in those short sentences. Hurt crosses Asher's face moments before he drops his expression and turns away from me. I hate that it’s Lane he turns towards.

“O-kay,” my dad says, drawing out the word, “What did you want to tell us?”

Asher looks at me again before he says, “Oh, nothing important. Just that Dalton and I think we should visit this place in the summer. Their cabins are really nice.” And with that he turns back to Lane and starts picking at the food on his plate.

“We’ll look into it,” my mum says, none the wiser to the fact that I’m sure I justfucked up big time. “I was so worried, please do not ever scare me like that again.”

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