Page 27 of A Surprise for the Holidays
AJ had no idea how long they moved together for, filling his bedroom with quiet groans and moans of pleasure, but it didn’t feel like anywhere near long enough when his orgasm seemed to take him by surprise. He’d felt the pleasure building, had known that he was close, but it still seemed to come out of nowhere, making him cry out into Bailey’s mouth.
“Fuck, August…” Bailey’s voice was strained with awe and desperate need. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”
He pulled out from AJ’s still spasming body, and AJ watched through glazed, hooded eyes as he stroked himself to completion, until his release met the mess on AJ’s belly in hotsplashes. The whole experience had AJ wishing he was fifteen years younger and able to go again.
Bailey kissed him as he collapsed back against his pillow and, as he drifted off to sleep, he felt the warmth of a damp washcloth dragging over his stomach before strong arms pulled him into their embrace.
“Merry Christmas, August,” Bailey whispered into his ear, and AJ smiled.
“Merry Christmas.”
Epilogue
Bailey
Boxing Day at the beach was Bailey’s favourite family tradition. It always had been when he was a kid, and it was even better now that he was an adult.
“Daddy, watch!”
Scratch that, it was even better now that he had an insta-family of his own.
He settled back under the shade of the navy and white striped CoolCabana he’d bought after the previous year’s Boxing Day fiasco (wherein AJ had gotten terribly sunburned) and watched with an indulgent smile as the little girl did a cartwheel on the hard-packed wet sand a few meters ahead of him. After righting herself, she did a little happy dance in the whitewash lapping at her feet. The ocean itself was clear and inviting, a deep blue-green colour which relaxed Bailey even further.
Home.
“Great job, princess!” he called out, watching as she repeated the cartwheel again.
“I’m going to have to suffer through gymnastics lessons, aren’t I?” AJ sighed as he stepped under their shelter, three already melting soft serve ice-cream cones held in his hands. “She hasn’t stopped asking since that Hudson kid told her he loves it.”
“That Hudson kidis her best friend,” Bailey laughed and accepted one of the vanilla ice creams, then whistled shrilly for Ava’s attention. She raced towards them as soon as she spied the treat. He turned back to AJ. “Besides, she’s good at it and she doesn’t want to go back to soccer training.”
Much to AJ’s horror, his daughter showed no interest in playing the sport that he and Bailey loved, though she did still enjoy watching the games, at least. Bailey thought it was hilarious. (Bailey felt vindicated when Jack and Leo, Hudson’s parents and soccer fans themselves, also thought it was ten kinds of amusing.)
“Think of it as a reward for finally ditching the pull-ups,” he added as the little girl approached, gratefully taking her treat from her dad’s hands and plopping down onto the soft, white sand beneath their shelter to eat it.
AJ cringed. “You couldn’t have sat on your towel?”
“Nuh-uh,” she answered, her face somehow already smeared with ice-cream, “my bum’s wet from the ocean.”
“Yeah, and now all the sand will stick to you.”
Ava shrugged. “It’ll wash off in the water, Daddy.”
“Fine,” AJ sighed. “Daddy Bailey’s going to go in with you, though.”
Bailey fought the urge not to snicker. Even after a year together, he hadn’t been quite able to convince his lover that the beach was the best place ever. But AJ was looking into having a pool put into the backyard, seeing as Ava really loved to swim, and Bailey saw that as a compromise.
Bailey leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Once the pool’s built, you’ll swim with us, won’t you?”
“If I have to,” was the grumpy reply, but Bailey saw right through it.
He pressed his lips to the shell of his coach’s ear and practically purred, “Wait until I introduce you to late-night swims.”
The backyard was private, shielded from view of potentially nosy neighbours by large trees and strategic fencing. Bailey couldn’t wait to take advantage of that. By the growly groan AJ let out, it seemed as though he felt the same way.
It still amazed Bailey that this was how his life had turned out. He and AJ had declared their relationship to the team and the team’s owners and, after filling out a bunch of paperwork and AJ conceding to have a secondary coach come on board, things went smoothly. Sure, there had been some raised eyebrows from the team at first, but nobody had caused a fuss.
The worry over it all being forbidden felt quite anticlimactic, though AJ still said that if it had gone to shit, he would have retired completely and lived off his savings to keep Bailey in his life.
