Chapter 16

Sixteen

A quick note of appreciation from the administration for our wonderful Lights Festival and the hard work of all the students and teachers involved. Come Monday, we’ll have many pictures to share!

NOLAN

I had worked with Tony-winning actors and on award-nominated shows. I’d played to packed houses and had some decent reviews. But few accolades lived up to the night the holiday festival came together. I’d been a mess of nerves before we opened the doors to the parents and community members, but as the evening ended, all I felt was a sort of pride I wasn’t sure I ever had.

I’d been proud of my fellow performers before, of course, but this was deeper, a pride in the values we were displaying in the school and its mission. I wouldn’t call the emotion parental, but my affection for the kids had certainly grown over our time together. I’d always seen substitute teaching as a stopgap, a necessity to pay bills, but for the first time, I understood why longtime educators called teaching a calling.

“Thank you, Mr. Bell!” Family after family came up to offer congratulations and thanks. “That was beautiful!”

“Can’t wait until next year!” Liam K.’s mother had the same mischievous smile as her son and was accompanied by a trio of younger siblings. My hands clenched along with my jaw. I wouldn’t be here to see next year. Someone else would take the credit, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. The festival had become my baby, and giving it up would be difficult.

“Hey, next year, I can be a surfer!” One of Liam’s brothers spoke up, apparently looking forward to middle school.

“Yeah.” I gave a weak smile.

“Mr. Bell is tired.” The mother patted my arm as she led her quartet of kids away. And eventually the courtyard dwindled to only Merry and me. The boys had left with the family hosting the sleepover, and Cara and the girls had walked home with the sleeping baby. Several teachers and parents had helped with trash pickup, but there was still much to do, including moving all the decorations, lights, and the sound system indoors.

“Oh my, this is a lot of cleanup.” I resisted the urge to slump in one of the chairs and not move until Sunday.

“We can do it.” Merry pushed the sleeves of his long-sleeve T-shirt up, revealing toned and tanned forearms. All right, now I was paying attention. “And besides, we’ve got a good incentive to hurry.”

“We do.” I wanted to see a heck of a lot more than those sexy arms, so I put some effort into putting away decorations while singing an old favorite about waiting to be alone together. I danced around with one of the candy canes simply to hear Merry laugh.

“You really do have a nice voice.”

“Thank you.” Somehow, his praise meant more than any reviewer or producer. Showing off a bit, I launched into another song, this one a seasonal tune.

“You must be incredible on stage.” Merry’s smile positively glowed under the lights, warming me from the inside out.

“I’m something.” I basked in his gaze before sobering. “All I ever want is the audience to leave happy.”

“Well, you make me happy.” Merry matched my serious tone, and I melted like a snowman on a beach. Done. Gone. I was his as long as he kept giving me those smiles.

“Me too.” Caught up in the moment, I stepped over to the stereo we still hadn’t brought inside. I linked it to my phone again and hit my Christmas Romance playlist before stretching my arms wide. “Dance with me?”

“Me?” Merry shook his head. “You’re the performer, not me.”

“I’m not asking for a performance.” I took his hands anyway. “I’m asking you to dance with me.”

“Oh.” Merry nodded and let me lead us into a slow dance. Well, he let me lead at first, but after a few bumped feet, we figured out I was better at following. Which was fine because I could rest my head against his neck, sway to the music, and pretend this might become a holiday tradition for us. It was achingly romantic under the archway of lights. I wanted the song to last forever, but like all good things, it ended, and Merry released me.

“I almost don’t want to pull these lights down.” I sighed, and Merry hugged me from behind.

“I get it.” He dropped a kiss on my ear. “But the faster we do it, the sooner we can be in my bed.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” I started scooping up decorations with a bit more purpose.

“And I have cookies for after.” Merry waggled his eyebrows at me.

“Sugar cookies with icing?” My tone was so hopeful Merry laughed again.

“You’re worse than the kids. Yes.”

“Someday, I’ll take you to my favorite bakery,” I said off-handedly like there was a chance Merry would find himself in New York someday, holding my hand and gazing into a bakery shop window. “The black-and-white cookies are to die for.”

“I bet. I wish…” Merry matched my casual tone before quickly changing the subject. “Here, help me wind this strand.”

In short order, we had all the pretty lights wound into coils for easy use next year. The courtyard was back to normal, magic packed away, and I was understandably a bit down on the drive to Merry’s place. I brightened after he parked, and I remembered we had a whole evening in front of us.

Merry quickly dealt with a very excited Barney, who was easily distracted by a chew after his outside time.

“Boy, this place is much quieter without the twins.” The foil tree twinkled in the corner, and Merry hadn’t bothered flipping on the overhead light.

“I know.” He pulled me to him, dropping a soft kiss on my forehead. “Love my kids, but I love adult time too.”

“Mmmm.” I made a purring sound because being in his arms felt that good. “I like the sound of adult time.”

“Come on, time you met my bed.”

“High time.” I let him lead me to the smaller of the apartment’s two bedrooms, which was just big enough for a queen-size bed, a dresser, and two mismatched nightstands. He tugged at my shirt, but I stepped back. “I…um…it was a long day.”

“Want to meet my shower first?” Merry accurately guessed the reason for my hedging. I knew what I wanted, but fucking wasn’t necessarily compatible with having spent all day directing kids in the muggy courtyard.

“Yes.” I smiled hopefully.

“It’s a tiny tub-shower combo,” he warned. “Definitely not built for two. But I’ll get you a towel.”

“Bless you.” I grabbed the backpack I’d dropped by the door and took a fast but thorough shower. Wearing the towel around my waist, I returned to the bedroom to find Merry stretched out on the bed in his boxers, face and hair damp. “Did you use the kitchen sink to rinse off?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged as Barney and his chew toy wandered into the room and settled in the corner, apparently to watch the action. “It was that or the hose on the patio, but I couldn’t let you be the only semi-clean one.”

“Oh, I’m more than semi-clean.” I stalked to the bed, letting the towel drop once his attention was riveted to me. “I’m squeaky clean enough for all the things.”

“All, huh?” Tone teasing, he patted the bed next to him. “We have the whole night, which is an awesome luxury. What did you have in mind?”

“Any interest in fucking me?”

“Much.” His eyes darkened with fresh heat. “You’d like that?”

“Definitely.” A blush spread up from my chest. “I know it’s a bit cliché, the theater diva loving to bottom, but it’s my favorite thing, especially with someone I care about. Like you.”

Admitting the caring part made my skin feel a little tight, so I had to look away at the sky-blue pillowcase.

“I care about you too.” Sitting up, he pulled me down for a kiss before tumbling me the rest of the way onto the bed. “And I’m more than eager to fuck you. It’s been a long damn two months of wanting you.”

“And like a month of everything but the butt.” I laughed, and he did too.

“Yup.” Looming over me, he kissed me again, slow and perfect. “I might have made a trip down the condom and lube aisle earlier.”

“Bless you.” I’d also brought some, but I appreciated his thoughtfulness and the subtle hint that it had been a while for him.

Supporting himself on his arms, he swept his gaze over me, a slow memorization like some sort of machine. I resisted the urge to squirm and instead preened from the appreciation.

“You look at me like you’ve never seen a naked person before.”

“I haven’t seen you naked enough.” He dipped his head for another kiss. “And even outside of bed, you’re always the impatient one. You want it how you want it right now.”

“Are you calling me spoiled?” I faked outrage.

“I like spoiling you.” He dropped kisses down my chest, intent rather clear from the way he slithered lower in the bed. “But no, you’re more of a friendly perfectionist.”

I gasped as he licked a stripe up my cock. “Well, if this is what it gets me, I’ll take any label you want to give me.”

“Okay, schmoopy.” Chuckling, he swallowed my cock for real, which would have been delightful enough but turned out to be a prelude to him licking my balls.

“Oh, I like that.” Moaning, I resolved to do the same trick to him as soon as possible. Later. Because right now, Merry apparently thought I was bendier than I looked as he pushed my legs up and back and dropped a kiss right over my rim.

“This good?” he asked, like I might halt the proceedings.

“Very. I’m all-in on all the prep.” I might have been called a pillow princess a time or seven, but as Merry said, I liked what I liked.

“Noted.” He made a motion on my thigh like he was ticking off an imaginary list, and I would have laughed, except he was apparently a rimming expert. He licked and nibbled and swirled, and suddenly, my demand for prep seemed downright silly in light of an overwhelming need to get him inside me as fast as possible.

“Wow.” I moaned and rocked up to meet his talented mouth. “Now. You can fuck me anytime now.”

“Nope.” He chuckled against my rim, lightly teasing it with his stubbly chin. “You requested all the prep.”

I made an indignant noise. “I lied.”

“Ha.” He got right back to the business of rimming me, adding a teasing finger that wasn’t nearly enough.

“I might die of waiting.”

“I’ll take the risk.” No matter how much I thrashed and moaned, he took his sweet time. Finally, he switched from kissing to slick fingers delving deep. And when he found my spot, I damn near levitated like I was back in Pan, soaring above the stage.

“Merry. Please.”

The infuriatingly wonderful man didn’t listen to me, of course, adding a scissoring motion and taking enough time stretching me that if I’d had brain power, I could have done my taxes. But instead, all my focus, every last neuron, was on how damn good this felt. I’d always liked prep, being taken care of and played with, but Merry took things to a whole new level.

“Okay, now , you might be ready.”

“Might.” I made a snappish noise and rocked shamelessly on his fingers.

“Oooh, impatient and needy. I like it.” Merry took a moment to roll on the condom and slick up his cock.

He slowly pushed in, but honestly, he’d prepped me so well that it didn’t take much effort. My body welcomed him in like this was a dance we’d performed a hundred times before, him leading, me following. Sweet and sexy, just like Merry. His cock was hard and thick, and Lord, did the man know how to use it, thrusting slow and sure.

“Good?” He looked at me with a question in his eyes, like there could be any doubt.

“So good.” I wrapped my legs around his hips, surprising even myself with my newfound flexibility. “Dying again, but it’s so worth it.”

“Yeah?” Merry’s eyes took on a mischievous glint. “What if I do this?”

With no further preamble than that, he moved, or rather undulated , in such a way that he could bend forward and lick the very tip of my cock, something I’d heretofore thought was special effects sorcery in porn.

“How in the hell did you just manage that?”

Merry kept right on fucking me like he hadn’t done the sex trick equivalent of parting the seas. “Years of stretching for surfing combined with a lot of teen boredom trying to do it to myself.”

“Again.” I needed to watch and experience this another time to properly appreciate it.

“Demanding.” Merry said it so fondly that the word felt like a compliment. And to my delight, he did it several more times before switching to his hand on my cock. He sped up his thrusts with a perfect angle for hitting my spot, so much so that I forgot all about his oral trick and lost myself to how good he felt inside me.

“Merry.”

“Yeah?” He responded to the urgency in my tone by fucking me harder. “You gonna come for me?”

“And how.” Always the dramatic one, but I was like three strokes away, no matter what he did.

“Tell me what you need.” His voice was rough and broken like he was also on the edge.

“This. You. Go hard.” You was possibly the most honest thing I’d ever said. He was all I needed, all I’d ever needed, and in that moment, I never, ever wanted to let him go. He’d made me laugh in the middle of the best sex of my life, and my soul sang with the pleasure he’d created.

“If I go hard, I’m gonna come too.” He slowed down as if to draw this out, and I hooked my legs behind his back again to prevent such a thing.

“Good. Do it.” I urged him on with my heels, and yup, I was right. Three more thrusts and I came all over his fist. And my own stomach, face, and chin. A bit of overkill, but I always did like the big finish.

For his part, Merry didn’t stop when I started to come, instead going harder, milking every last drop out of me as he came with a shout.

“It’s good I don’t have to leave.” I suppressed a groan as I unhooked my legs and he slid out of me. He handled the condom and passed me the towel I’d discarded. I made the world’s weakest effort at mopping up, so he took the towel back and finished the cleanup himself. “I’m not sure I could move.”

“No one’s kicking you out, schmoopy, but you do gotta give me a pillow.” Merry gestured at how I was now in the center of the bed with both pillows behind my head.

“Oh. Oops.”

“No worries.” He settled behind me, tossing a leg over my hips. “I already know you’re a natural bed hog, and I better pin you in place.”

“You better.” I gave a happy wriggle against his strong hold. Ordinarily, I might be up for another round, but I wasn’t sure I had any more come in me after that little demonstration. “Yep. Tired. But some other time, feel free to pin me down for…other reasons.”

“Oh, I will.” Merry lightly bit my ear before whispering, “Night, Nolan. You did good tonight. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you.” My heart gave a hard twinge. It, and I, might not survive Merry. But as I’d said earlier, if I had to go, this was the way to do it. “For everything.”

“Anytime.” He flipped the light off. The dog was snoring nearby, and I drifted off, secure in Merry’s embrace, all the way through to him shaking me lightly.

“Nolan? You awake?”

“For you?” I mumbled sleepily, trying to rouse myself for whatever he had planned. “Always.”