Texas #4_Texas Christmas (10 page)

“A bit.” Robbie didn’t want to give all his private thoughts away.

“Me too.” Eli went and stood against the far wall and turned with his hands flat on the wood. He waggled his ass. “Remember this wall?”

Robbie blinked as he made sense of what Eli was saying; then he recalled exactly what had happened against that wall not more than a week before. Instantly hard at the memory of pushing Eli around and fucking him until he begged, Robbie swallowed hard.

“Yeah,” he said.

Eli turned around and leaned back, then crossed his arms over his chest. “The new place has walls too,” he said helpfully. Then he ruined the seriousness of his words with a smirk. “And a walk-in shower big enough for two men at a time and a queen-size bed and a yard that isn’t overlooked.”

“Are you trying to say that it doesn’t matter where we are, it’s the fact that we’re together that matters?” Robbie deadpanned.

“Nah,” Eli huffed. “I was just thinking about all the new places we could make love.” He pushed himself off the wall and crossed to Robbie for a hug.

“You’re an ass,” Robbie said without heat.

Eli looked up and Robbie stared into the green depths of Eli’s eyes that sparked with laughter and promised sin.

“But you love me.”

“Yeah.”

“So, big guy, let’s take this last box over and get ourselves settled.”

After one last look at the apartment, they walked the distance between the D’s main ranch and their new house. The place was set back and away from the D to give privacy but was close enough to the stables for Robbie to keep an eye on things the same as Jack did. It was a similar L-shape to the ranch house, but only one story tall and painted the red of the closest barn. Two bedrooms meant Eli had somewhere else to store his crap, and yeah, the shower was as impressive as Robbie remembered. Robbie hung up clothes, only because Eli made him do it, and they finally stood in the large kitchen with coffee in hands.

“I need to get back to work.”

“I thought Jack and Liam were covering for you today?”

“They are, but Liam’s all mooning over Marcus, and Jack is Max this, and Max that. Seems like neither of them are concentrating much.”

Eli moved to trap Robbie by the sink. He pressed against Robbie and grinned up at him. “An hour won’t hurt. We could go christen that new bed?”

“It’s eleven am.”

“So we live dangerously.”

“But the horses—”

Eli stopped Robbie’s talking with a kiss so erotic it made Robbie’s head spin, and before he knew it, Eli was pulling him backward, still
midkiss
, toward the bedroom. They stopped only to pull the drapes, then fell onto the bed. Eli arranged himself and pulled Robbie between his legs. They fit perfectly and Robbie deepened their kiss and ground himself down against Eli’s hard cock.

They were good together, in bed and out, but this time would be special, the first time they made love in their new house. They stripped clumsily, not breaking the kiss, and when Robbie settled back between Eli’s legs, he let out a moan of need.

“Your turn, cowboy,” Eli said.

“Do we even have lube in here?” Robbie groaned. They didn’t even have tables next to the bed yet. Eli slid a hand under the pillow, and concentration creased his forehead before he pulled out the lube.

“Hid it when I made up the bed,” he exclaimed with a grin. “You didn’t know I was a boy scout, did you?”

“Stop talking,” Robbie said without heat. He was slicked and pressing fingers inside his lover before Eli managed to get any other words out. After he crooked his finger to tap inside Eli, that was the end of coherent talking.

“In,” Eli managed and that was it.

Robbie chuckled as he pressed his cock inside, but amusement soon gave way to the mind-blowing need to come straight away. He couldn’t get enough of Eli, he never would. They pushed and slid, and only when Eli bowed upwards with a soft sigh and Robbie felt his come between them did he let himself go. Three strokes and he was done.

“I love you,” he shouted as he came.

“I love you too.”

Cleaned up and lying flat on their backs, the two men held hands.

Eli snapped the fingers of his other hand. “I had an idea, tell you what we need.”

“Besides sleep?” Robbie murmured, then yawned. Orgasm always left him boneless and tired.

“A housewarming. We’ll have everyone over after the nanny arrives, maybe get Jack and Riley to relax a bit.”

“A housewarming.” Robbie sighed. Nothing Eli organized ended well. “Really?”

“Hush with your fretting,” Eli chided. “It’s going to be great.”

Jack and Riley had waited so long for this day that somehow Rebecca dropping Max with them was both anti-climactic and the single most terrifying moment of Riley’s life. They’d done all the paperwork, met with the placement team, and Carol was settled into her small apartment taking care of the twins today. Which left Jack, Riley, and Max.

“Want to see the horses?” Jack asked. Max hurried alongside him, and Riley heard Jack mention
Hatty’s
name as they left. He watched from the door as Max and Jack tacked Hatty. At each stage Jack placed Max’s hand where things needed to be checked, and Max didn’t hesitate each time to help. He even put Thomas down on the floor and covered it with straw. Probably so no one would steal it, although Riley couldn’t be sure. Max settled in the saddle and Jack checked him over, then gently led Hatty out to the corralled paddock. Max had a look of intense concentration on his face, but he didn’t stare down at
Hatty’s
neck or at the ground, nope, their new son was staring straight ahead as if daring the world to bring it on.

Riley went back indoors and found Eden in Max’s room finishing off the walls with adhesive Thomas characters, including a large James, steam, hills and rails, and every so often a fluffy cloud. They’d painted the walls a pale blue and the quilt cover and curtains all matched the Thomas design.

“Looks amazing,” Riley said in appreciation. He held his arms open for a hug, and Eden was quick to walk into them. They’d been closer since Riley had gotten his head out of his ass over the Eden/Sean situation. “You should do this for a living.”

“I don’t need a living,” Eden murmured. “I just need to be useful. Speaking of which, I went and volunteered at the hospital.”

“You did?” Riley released his hold on Eden.

“We had so many appointments in the eye clinic with Sean and there is this special place for the kids, so I decided that is what I want to do. Work as a volunteer with the kids, designing stuff with them, helping them if their sight is affected in both eyes. I anonymously donated a whole bunch of money to the hospital to cover medical bills for the kids who couldn’t afford it. I like it there.”

“That’s amazing,” Riley said with pride. His little sister with the big heart was finally getting to be happy for real. “What does Sean think?”

“He likes it that I’m busy.”

“What is he doing now?”

“Still convinced he’s writing another book, about PTSD, he’s maybe fifty percent in, but he won’t let me read it.” She shrugged like it didn’t matter to her, but Riley knew it had to hurt that Sean wouldn’t share some of what he was writing with his fiancée.

“You want me to talk to him?”

With an accompanying grin, she poked him in the stomach. “You need to stop scaring him.”

Riley grimaced. “I still scare him?”

Eden laughed. “Not really. Just, you can be overprotective still even after promising you won’t be. I’ll get to read the book when it’s finished, but at the moment it’s cathartic for him. Anyway, big brother, changing the subject and deflecting to you, what’s it like to be a family of six now?”

Riley wasn’t sure how to answer. Six of them, when it just used to be him, was something that hadn’t happened overnight. Slowly his and Jack’s little family had grown, and judging by the grin he could feel split his face, he was feeling more than okay about it.

“It’s great.”

“And Carol?”

“She’s great,” he said immediately.

“So everything is
great
then,” Eden deadpanned.

Riley poked her in the side, and she jumped sideways.

“Everything is more than great.”

They made their way to the kitchen. Carol was at the sink washing breakfast dishes and humming along to a song that sounded suspiciously like Christmas music.

“Washing up dishes isn’t in your job description, you know,” Riley said.

She turned to face him with a smile on her face. “Dishes are therapeutic. Anyway, the twins are quiet and I finished a book, what else could I do?”

“Start another book?” Riley answered. He leaned on the sink next to her and peered out the kitchen window to see if he could spot Jack and Max. They were in the far end of the paddock, and he could see that Hatty was moving slightly faster than a walk with Jack quickening his pace to keep by her side.

“Max loves horses,” Riley commented. “Jack has this idea of opening the ranch up to have other kids here for the horses.”

“That’s an awesome idea,” Eden agreed. She leaned next to Riley and nudged his arm. “All you need now is to open up a mini oil exploration center for kids, and you’ll be set as a working ranch.”

Riley huffed. “Ha freaking ha.”

“You could even build a miniature oil platform,” Carol offered with a sideways smile.

“And everyone could wear those adorable yellow hats.” Eden was clearly getting into this.

“And every hour on the hour you could have the oil erupting, only it isn’t oil, it’s chocolate,” Carol added.

Riley shook his head. “Not going to happen, ladies. I will not create a chocolate oil well just so the two of you can stand under it and drink the stuff.”

“Damn,” Eden said teasingly without heat, “he saw right through us.”

Carol laughed. “Damn is right. Speaking of chocolate, I have coffee brewing and made cookies yesterday when you were out.”

“Where?” Riley said immediately. “I didn’t see any cookies.” He had told Jack he could smell cookies and had hunted for them in all the obvious hiding places. Riley admitted to anyone that he had developed a cookies-baked-by-Carol addiction in just the short week she’d been here.

“I put them in the cookie jar,” Carol said.

“But you never put them in the jar because you said…” He trailed off when he realized what he said. Bashfully, he bowed his head and tried to hold back the laugh.

“I put them in there because I knew you’ve found all my other hiding places. Plain sight is always a good place.”

Riley pretended to sulk for at least two minutes, until Carol took pity and sent him to his office with a plate of cookies and a coffee. He had reports to file that needed to be done by five pm, which meant Jack had time to spend with Max.

Unbidden, his own words rose up to bite him in the ass. Max loved horses, and that was his and Jack’s thing. What did Riley have to give to him? A chocolate oil well was not on his list of options. Maybe they could do something with Thomas. Get a layout or something. As soon as he’d filed his reports, he opened Google and searched for Thomas the Tank Engine.

There were sets for every age, babies, toddlers, Hayley’s age, then it skipped until there were die-cast
Thomases
that belonged in a collection somewhere. Max was five in November, should he buy the toddler stuff? The Thomas Max loved was plastic and sturdy, and that was part of the baby collection. Decision made, Riley placed one of everything into his basket and added loads of the plastic track. He had the idea in his head that he could find a flat space somewhere and maybe build a layout. They could probably add it to Max’s bedroom.

He paid for the basket and immediately rang William, their builder who had heard it all.

“Can we get an extension to Max’s room over the good room for a sensory room and train layout?” Riley asked immediately.

William went quiet for a little while. “I can fit that in,” he said. “I have a space in January.”

Riley swallowed. The poor guy had already fitted getting things done for the twins then Carol and Max at a fast pace.

“Any chance of having it done by November?”

“November?”

“The second.”

“The second of November.”

Riley could go elsewhere, but he liked William, and best of all he trusted him with everything here, him and his crew.

Finally he heard William chuckle. “I’ll add it to the work order,” he said. “What kind of extension?”

“One window with a permanent blind and soft lighting and a train layout with hills and flats. Max should be able to climb on the hills and it be smooth to touch, so it will be like a sensory room with Thomas trains and other things that are good for a child with autism, a peaceful place for him to have some quiet time.”

“Consider it done, Riley.”

“You and your crew, at Christmas I booked the Rusty Nail out, drinks and food on me as a thank you.”

“You pay me well; you don’t have to do that.”

Riley shook his head even though William couldn’t see him. “I do. I want to. The twentieth of December if that is okay? Check the date and book it as your Christmas event. Don’t tell the guys it’s from me.”

When the call was finished, Riley sat back in his seat and closed his eyes to imagine the finished room. He needed to do more research on sensory rooms and talk to Jack, but he would be doing something for Max, with Max, and that was important.

“You okay?” Jack’s voice broke into Riley’s thoughts, and he opened his eyes immediately.

“I’m good. I have this really cool idea for Max’s birthday.”

Jack crossed to him and kissed him firmly. “We’ll talk about it in bed. Cookies in the kitchen.”

Riley eyed his empty plate; somehow he’d already eaten five of the damn things. But he guessed he could find room for more. Patting his stomach, he looked up at Jack.

“Will you still love me when I get fat?”

Jack smirked. “Of course. That would be just before I put you on a diet,” he teased.

“For better or worse,” Riley reminded his husband.

“We never actually said that.”

“True.”