Riding Tall (11 page)

“Well, it
is
the Christmas season. A time for giving. But you’re already down one arm. I think we should hang on to your fingers.”

“I’ll let her lick out the buckets after the cows are fed,” Joe said, and he heaved himself away from Mackenzie. “And the sooner we get to that, the sooner we can get back to the house for presents.”

So they fed the cattle, then trooped back to the house for breakfast and stockings and gifts. A year before, Mackenzie had spent his Christmas in Nathan’s glamorous, sterile condo overlooking the water in downtown Toronto. Now, he was in a century-old farmhouse, with shabby wallpaper and ancient furniture and warmth and love and family. He absolutely knew which place he preferred, and he leaned back against Joe’s chest, ignoring the sofa spring digging into his ass.

“T
HEY
’
RE
HAPPY
,”
Joe said, sounding relieved. He and Mackenzie were perched above the scene, looking down at the kids like they were puppies. Even Ally and Lacey had dropped their teenage dignity and were sitting cross-legged on the floor, comparing gifts and giggling.

Austin had opened one present, a plastic airport with planes and helicopters, and refused to take interest in anything else. Joe said he’d done the same thing last year, and they’d just stretched Christmas out for him, opening a present a day until it was over. “Maybe he’s destined to be Jewish, and he’s trying to start a Chanukah tradition,” Mackenzie had suggested, and it earned him a smile and a kiss to the temple.

Savannah was looking through her pile of gifts with a strangely mixed expression, and when Lacey finally noticed her, she said, “What’s up, Vannah? You didn’t get what you wanted?”

“There’s stuff from Santa,” Savannah said bemusedly. “I thought….” She cast a quick look in Austin’s direction, then said, “You know. Mom and Dad. I thought….”

“Whoever cares about you,” Joe said quickly, easing down to the floor near the girl and keeping his voice low enough that Austin couldn’t hear. “Santa can be anyone who cares about you, not just moms and dads.”

Savannah squinted at him, then whispered, “You?”

Joe smiled gently. “With help,” he said, nodding in Lacey’s direction.

“Lace?” Savannah said incredulously. When her sister nodded, Savannah sprang to her feet and launched herself into Lacey’s arms. She didn’t say anything, just burrowed in and hung on, her face hidden from view, while Lacey’s own face crumpled into smiling tears. Austin buzzed around them with a little red airplane until Ally tackled him and rolled him over for tickles.

“You didn’t tell her about Santa being a thief,” Mackenzie said quietly when Joe returned to the couch.

“He stole a lot out of my wallet,” Joe muttered. “That should count.”

“Do you want your present from me?” Mackenzie asked.

“I already know what it is,” Joe said. “And if I have the option of not accepting it….”

“You don’t.” Mackenzie said it quickly, lightly, and tried not to look hurt. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known it was a bad gift. Giving a shirt and tie and dress pants to someone like Joe… it wasn’t a gift at all, really, not when the only reason Joe needed the clothes was so he could dress the way Mackenzie’s parents would expect when they met each other.

“Hey,” Joe said. He waited until Mackenzie turned to look at him. “I want it.” He shrugged. “It’s good for me, right? I’m not a little kid. I should have real clothes. And I want your parents to like me.”

“It doesn’t matter what they think,” Mackenzie said, maybe a bit too loudly. Two teenage faces turned to look at him, then went back to their Christmas activities with a little too much casual disregard. Their eyes might not be directed toward the sofa, but Mackenzie was pretty sure their ears were. But that was how conversations tended to happen in this family. The bedroom was safe, as long as they kept their voices down, but everything else was pretty public. Mackenzie shrugged and spoke more quietly. “It doesn’t matter. They live three hours from here, and this is the first time I’ll be seeing them since I met you. That tells you everything you need to know about what a close family we are. It really, really doesn’t matter whether they like you.”

“And it wouldn’t bother
you
?” Joe looked at the chaos on the living-room floor, then back to Mackenzie. “Or maybe
this
bothers you. I mean, it’s a lot, I know. It’s a lot for
me
, and I’m used to a big family.”

“I like it,” Mackenzie said. He leaned in harder—enough pressure that if he’d been on Joe’s bruised side there probably would have been pain. “It doesn’t bother me. This is what Christmas
should
be.”

“Without all the puking,” Joe said, wrapping his arm tight around Mackenzie’s shoulders.

“Yeah, less puke would have been nice. But that just means we have room for improvement. Next year, all the family fun, less vomit. Let’s see if we can do it.”

Joe nodded in agreement, then pulled a slightly crumpled envelope out from somewhere in the seat cushions. “Yours,” he said like a bashful kid. Actually, Austin’s presentation of flowers and leaves was quite a bit more sophisticated than Joe’s delivery. “You can exchange them if you want. I made sure.”

Mackenzie wasn’t sure what to expect, but he opened the envelope with a smile. It was the thought that counted. Then he saw the tickets, and his smile got a little more real. “
Les Misérables
? In Toronto?”

“You liked the movie,” Joe said quickly. “But you’ve already seen it, so I wasn’t sure if you’d really want to see the play too….”

“Of course I want to see the play,” Mackenzie said quickly. “I
love
it. I love theater, I love live music! I love this gift!”

“You get to see
Les Mis
?” Ally said enviously. “You know, Mackenzie, those are
your
tickets. One of them doesn’t have to be for Joe. You can take anyone you want. Gifts don’t come with strings attached. You could take someone who might appreciate the show a bit more….” She smiled winningly.

“I watched the movie,” Joe protested.

“You watched Hugh Jackman!” Ally shot back.

“Not true. I’m not saying I was totally caught up in the singing, but not Hugh Jackman.”

“The other one,” Mackenzie said sagely. “The young one, with the lips.”

Joe shot him a look, then shrugged casually. “Yeah, more him.” He nodded at the tickets. “But you can change them if you want. See something else, or get a refund….”

“Joe.” Mackenzie put his hand on Joe’s arm and waited until he had his full attention. “I want to see this show. I love this gift. And the best part? Now you have
two
places to wear your new clothes!”

Joe nodded. “That had occurred to me,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to be all dressed up with nowhere to go.”

Mackenzie snuggled back into his Joe nest and smiled in satisfaction. The tickets were perfect, an excellent way to begin his new way of experiencing the city. Nathan hadn’t liked theater much, so Mackenzie had never really gone, not since his mom had dragged him to things when he was a kid. But now he was an adult. He and Joe would drive down to the city a couple times a year, catch a show, maybe stay in a boutique hotel. A different one each time, until they found their favorite, and then they’d become regulars. They’d eat at a different restaurant each time, though, because they didn’t get to eat out enough to crave familiarity. They’d make friends with other people who liked the theater, and they’d go for drinks after a performance, probably scotch or something like that, and they’d discuss what they’d seen and debate the relative merits. It was new, but it would be excellent.

The happy glow lasted all through the afternoon and evening. They played with the new toys, and Austin even got around to opening a second gift. They cooked together—each person in charge of his or her own side dish while Joe concentrated on the turkey—and they set the big table in the dining room and ate until they were ready to burst.

The holiday spirit was dampened a little when Joe and Ally had to go to the barn for evening chores, but Austin insisted on going with them, and then Savannah thought she should go to, and finally Mackenzie and Lacey gave in and started bundling up, so the family unity was maintained.

“That was a good day,” Mackenzie said quietly as he lay next to Joe in bed. Their hands were roaming, casually exploring and appreciating each other’s bodies, but their heads stayed close together, their conversation gentle and easy.

“It was,” Joe agreed, and he kissed Mackenzie’s cheek, then down to his lips. “Thank you.”

“Thank
me
? Thank
you
. You did most of the work.”

“Nah,” Joe said. “Team effort, as usual.” He was getting a bit bolder now, less exploring and more claiming territory. “But if you think differently, maybe it’s time
you
did a bit more work.” He rolled over onto his back and tugged gently on Mackenzie’s hip, making it clear what he had in mind.

Mackenzie had no intention of arguing. He threw a leg over Joe’s hips then leaned over to the bedside table for lube. As his chest brushed past Joe’s face, Joe caught his nipple between his strong lips, sucking and nipping until Mackenzie’s whole body arched and twitched in pleasure. Joe wrapped his hand around Mackenzie’s cock and jacked it in time with his tongue. No matter what position they tried, it always ended up like this, Joe taking charge and giving pleasure, Mackenzie receiving.

“What if I wanted to fuck you sometime?” Mackenzie asked, trying to cling to a coherent train of thought through the waves of sensation.

That got easier when Joe released his nipple and stared up at him. “You can,” he finally said. “If you want. We’d have to go slow, though. I haven’t done that in a long time.”

“Do you like it?” Mackenzie had no idea why he was pushing this.

Joe shrugged. “Sure, I guess. It’s not my favorite, maybe, but we can mix it up.”

“I don’t want to,” Mackenzie said. It was the truth, but Joe’s expression didn’t seem appreciative of that fact.

“So why are you asking about it?”

“I just wanted to know. You know, some tops are all macho about it, like it makes you less of a man if you can take a dick up your ass.”

“I don’t think you’re less of a man, Mack.”

“But you’re always in charge. I mean, I could bottom and still take charge of things. If I wanted.”

“
Do
you want?”

“Not really,” Mackenzie admitted.

“We could be fucking, but instead we’re having this conversation,” Joe mused. “I really don’t understand why that’s happening.”

“If I bought something… toys, or something. Could I use them on you?”

Joe squinted at him. “Depends what they are, I guess.”

“Butt plug?” Mackenzie hadn’t known he was thinking about that, but once he’d said it out loud, he liked the idea. A lot. “Not a big one, maybe. But with ribs, or something.” He sat back up and squirted lube into his hand, then slowly set the bottle on the bed beside him and lined their cocks up together, running his lubed fingers along their matched shafts. “Something I could use to make you squirm. Play with you, tease you. Then maybe I’d fuck you, maybe I wouldn’t.” Joe’s cock was hardening, but that could just be because it was getting a massage. Hard to be sure what messages Joe’s brain was sending it. “Could we do that?”

“Yeah,” Joe said. His arm with the broken wrist was out to the side, out of the way, but his other hand was strong and comfortable on Mackenzie’s hip. “Sure.”

“Do you
want
to do that?” They were both hard now, and Mackenzie shifted up onto his knees, guided Joe’s cock to his opening, and teased them both by gliding it just past his hole, letting it catch a little, then pulling it away. “Or are you just willing to make me happy?”

“I want to make you happy,” Joe said. “Mostly. But maybe I’d like it more once we got started.”

Not the most enthusiastic response ever, but at least it was an honest answer. And as long as they were being honest… “And maybe I won’t like it at all,” Mackenzie admitted. “Maybe it’s one of those things that seems good in my mind but ends up being gross or too much trouble or something, in reality.”

“Be kind of ironic if I ended up loving it and you didn’t like it at all,” Joe said with a grin. “You might regret having started this.” His smile shifted into something different as Mackenzie sank down, letting Joe’s cock stretch him and slide inside. Joe’s head flopped back as he closed his eyes. “God, you feel good,” he said, running his hand over Mackenzie’s stomach and chest before sliding it down to wrap around his cock.

Mackenzie couldn’t talk, not while they were like this. The sensations were too intense, and it took all of his mental energy to just keep himself moving in something approaching a rhythmic manner. His cock and his ass were joined in a glowing orb of pleasure, and nothing else mattered, nothing except the friction and the movement and the glorious pressure. He leaned back enough that Joe’s cock was hitting his prostate dead-on; almost too much but not quite. As long as he was in control, he could handle it, taking himself right to the edge of overstimulation and then easing away. He could hear his breathing, the soft whining sounds that came unbidden when he was driving right into his prostate, the grunting moans that escaped his lips as he changed the angle enough to give himself a break. If he got too loud, Joe would shush him, but that hadn’t happened lately; he was getting used to having sex in a house full of kids. So he was free to let himself go, let the sensations wash over him.

His orgasm caught him almost by surprise, and it wasn’t completely welcome. He’d been enjoying the buildup so much, and he’d thought he’d found a plateau where he could stay forever, basking in the pleasure and warmth. But one thrust too many against his prostate and he was off, his body shaking as he spurted over Joe’s hand, his stomach, his chest. As always Joe seemed to be able to time things perfectly, gripping Mackenzie’s hip and thrusting up a few extra times before his own body arched and he gasped in perfect completion.