The Positions of Love Box Set

Book 1: The Positions of Love-6

Matt loved the holidays. There was an extra bounce in his step this time of the year, and his smile was contagious. Vic thought maybe watching Matt get all worked up about Christmas would be better than the big day itself. His lover dragged Vic to the stores, to buy tinsel and garland and strings of lights that he rigged around their apartment anywhere he could. Tiny multi-colored bulbs winked in the living room, hanging from the walls; they lit up the balcony off the dining room, adding a festive touch to the wintry chill outside. Matt even hung a few strands of red lights around the light fixture in their bedroom. With the bedside lamps off and the Christmas lights plugged in, the room was plunged in a sexy reddish glow that seemed to sizzle in Vic’s blood. The light burnished Matt’s skin, giving it garnet hues, and pinked Vic’s own fair flesh.

“I like this,” Vic sighed. He and Matt lay on their backs beneath the lights, staring up at the glow. Vic liked everything about this—his lover in his arms, the lights above them, the feel of the thin sheet covering their nude bodies, the darkened bedroom and the silent night beyond. If they never moved again, it would be too soon.

Matt nodded, settling himself closer to Vic. He curled alongside his lover with his head on Vic’s shoulder, one hand smoothing over Vic’s broad chest. His knee was drawn up onto Vic’s hip, and pressed heavily against the start of an erection that, for now, Vic ignored.

That ticklish hand on his chest trailed over to one n****e and tweaked it erect; Matt moved slightly and took the other n****e into his mouth. As his tongue swirled around the hard nugget, Vic felt a shot of pleasure spike through him, and blood rushed down to pound in his c**k. Running a hand through Matt’s thick black curls, Vic teased, “I thought we were just going to relax.”

Matt sat up a bit, just enough so he could flash Vic a quick grin. When his lips parted, Vic saw his own n****e caught between his lover’s teeth. Telepathically, Matt replied, ::You telling me this isn’t relaxing?::

Wrapping his arm around Matt’s head, Vic hugged his lover to him. Matt settled back against Vic’s shoulder and threaded an arm beneath Vic’s body to lock his hands together around his waist. For a moment he stared at the lights above them; then he turned and licked out, tracing the inky pattern of a Celtic knot tattooed just beneath Vic’s armpit. “Tomorrow,” he sighed, and his breath tickled the damp imprint on Vic’s skin, “we’ll pick out a tree. Biggest they have. We’ll probably have to re-arrange the whole living room just to fit it in.”

Vic tightened his arm around Matt’s shoulders and didn’t answer. He knew nothing about picking out a Christmas tree, or decorating it, or what to put beneath it. When they went shopping earlier for the lights, he’d felt like an alien in a strange new world where nothing made sense. He’d let Matt pull him along, his lover as excited as a child awaiting Santa, and part of him would have liked to feel something at the season, some inkling of what Matt felt. With all the seriousness of a man buying a new house, Matt went up and down each aisle, picking out the lights and ornaments and two stockings that now hung on the wall behind the TV. He grabbed wrapping paper, and Christmas cards, and CDs full of holiday songs. Time and again he’d alluded to the gift he bought for Vic. “You’re gonna love it,” he kept saying.

Here in the quiet of their bedroom, away from the bustling shoppers, tucked safe in their own bed, Vic allowed himself to admit softly, “Matty, I don’t know what to get you for Christmas.”

Matt laughed and cuddled closer to Vic. “You don’t have to get me anything,” he said with a grin. “I’ve got you for a full week, all to myself. That’s present enough.”

Vic sighed. “I’m being serious here. The last gift I gave somebody was twenty years ago. I just don’t know what to buy.”

Setting his chin on Vic’s shoulder, Matt stared at him, through him. Vic felt his lover’s consciousness ease into his mind like tendrils of fog, covering his thoughts before sidling between them. Matt moved gently, picking his way across Vic’s emotions, leafing through memories he could never put into words. His sister, Mary. His parents. The years they didn’t even bother to get a Christmas tree. The Malibu Barbie Vic had stolen from a drug store their last Christmas Eve together, just so his sister would have a gift to open the next day. Matt knew it all—he often strolled through Vic’s mind, picking over his past, seeing what made his lover tick. As if he could chase away the unpleasant memories with his love alone, he hugged Vic tight. “This Christmas will be wonderful,” he promised. “You’ll see.”

More than anything else, Vic wanted it to be. He’d never dated a man before Matt—yes, he’d had one-night stands and heated hook-ups with buddies, but nothing serious, nothing permanent, and sure as hell nothing that warranted the exchange of gifts. As his lover rummaged through his mind, Vic puckered his lips and blew a kiss at the tip of Matt’s nose. “Tell me what to get you,” he murmured. “Or give me some ideas, at least. Maybe even some guidelines, you know? Do you want a cruise? Satellite radio for your car? What?”

“Oh, Vic.” Releasing Vic’s waist, Matt scooted up to press his lips to his lover’s mouth, silencing him. One hand caressed the top of Vic’s bald head, the other brushed over his smooth, hairless cheek, massaging his face as Matt licked into him. Their kiss deepened; Vic found himself pinned back to the bed as Matt climbed onto him, his legs sliding open to straddle Vic’s girth, his buttocks mere inches from the tip of Vic’s thick c**k. When he rocked back a little, breaking their kiss, Vic’s length bumped between Matt’s ass cheeks, exciting them both. “Guidelines,” Matt murmured, kissing Vic’s chin. “As long as this isn’t some sort of ploy to find out what I got you…”

Vic’s hands came up over Matt’s hips to knead his ass. “Please. I could easily find out.”

He closed his eyes in mock concentration, then expanded his mind until it pressed against Matt’s. “No!” his lover cried with a laugh. Instantly Vic found himself battering against a solid wall of resistance as Matt mentally held him back. “It’s a secret. You promised me you wouldn’t look.”

Relaxing his thoughts, Vic squeezed Matt’s ass in both hands and leaned toward him for a quick kiss. “I’m just playing. I don’t want to look—I want it to be a surprise. So you have some guidelines for me?”

Matt pouted, and Vic kissed him again, lingering this time. With his lips on Matt’s, he opened his mouth to part his lover’s. His tongue licked over his own lower lip first, then tasted Matt’s. When it moved to the top lip, its touch feathery, Matt took over. Turning his head to one side, he covered Vic’s mouth fully with his own, his tongue insistent as it ran over the roof of Vic’s mouth. Vic held him close, his arms encircling Matt’s narrow waist; between them, Matt’s c**k hardened, piqued by their mounting passion.

Then Matt trailed tiny kisses along Vic’s jaw to his ear, where he took the pierced lobe between his teeth. Nibbling gently, he purred, “First off, keep it under fifty bucks.”

Vic had almost forgotten about those damn guidelines. Another kiss or two and he’d flip onto his stomach, spread his legs wide, and give Matt a real present. But apparently Matt wasn’t ready to let the conversation devolve into s*x just yet, so Vic pulled away from the mouth on his ear to frown at his lover. “What? That’s not much.”

Propping his head up on one hand, his elbow buried in the pillow beside Vic’s head, Matt gave him a slow smile. “This is year one, Vic. You don’t go all out at the beginning or how do you top yourself next year?”

“Now you’re speaking my language,” Vic teased.

Matt slid off Vic but snuggled close to him, unwilling to go very far. Trailing a hand down Vic’s stomach, he plucked at the bulbous head of Vic’s c**k. Each pinch, each squeeze, sent a shiver of delight through Vic. When the first beads of translucent pre-c*m bubbled from his tip, Matt wiped them away with his hand, then put his finger in his mouth to savor the taste. “Fifty bucks,” he repeated. “That’s about all I spent. I mean, our anniversary’s a week later.”

Vic sighed. s**t. That meant another present. But Matt kissed his cheek, his breath warm on Vic’s skin as he whispered, “Don’t worry, dinner and a movie will suffice for that.”

“What about Christmas?” Vic asked.

Matt’s hand traveled back down his stomach as if drawn to his crotch by a magnet. As he fondled Vic, he said, “Fifty bucks or so. And it has to be something sexual.”

Vic laughed. “What?”

“You heard me.” Matt shrugged. Lowering his cheek to the pillow beside Vic’s, he draped his free arm around Vic’s head to toy with his right ear. The other hand encircled his shaft, kneading gently to work him hard. “Something s****l. I figure we got plenty of time to use it, right? You’re getting off the whole week.”

Raising his hips up from the bed, Vic thrust into Matt’s hand. “I’m close to getting off now,” he admitted. “If you want to come with…”

Matt stretched across Vic, reaching for the half-empty tube of lubricant on his bedside table. As he squirted a generous dollop into his palms and began to slick his c**k, he laughed. “I’m already there. Turn over, big boy. Let me at that sexy ass of yours.”

Vic hurried to comply.