Page 42 of Gemini Christmas
“We merely exchanged Secret Santa gifts within the polycule,” Zephyr explains, at his most regal. “After all, ‘tis our first Christmas together as a family. Naturally, my bride wished to establish our holiday traditions.”
“Of course, of course,” Theo agrees heartily, with a respectful nod my way.
All the while, the senator keeps sneaking covert looks at the fur-lined leather slave collar and handcuffs, done in gorgeous green dragonscale, that Vasili commissioned from an Avalon craftsman for Zephyr’s Secret Santa gift.
Practically speaking, that gear is a gift for Ash too, since Zephyr is Ash’s dom, and the items were custom-made to fit the big man.
Zephyr hasn’t stopped stroking his gift since he unwrapped it. And while V was pretty casual about handing the loot over, Ican feel through our bond that my snake is deeply gratified by Zephyr’s reaction.
Turns out another holiday tradition we’re establishing is second breakfast.
Max and Ronin sit down at the dining room table for an encore round of pancakes and bacon with the senator, RT’s moms, and the girls. I wander over too, just to be polite, and pour myself another glass of the pulpy fresh-squeezed OJ I can’t seem to get enough of.
Dez is passing the maple syrup to Racetrack when I catch the icy blue-white glitter of a diamond, striking against her sorrel skin, flashing on Dez’s finger.
Yeah.Thatfinger.
“Nice sparkly you got there, Desdemona,” I point out, giving both girls an interested look.
“Crikey, isn’t it?” Dez glows happily and extends her hand to show off her ring. “Best Christmas surprise I’ve ever had in my life.”
“I popped the big Q last night,” Racetrack confirms around a mouthful of pancakes. “Lucky as fuck she said yes.”
“What’s lucky about it? I’m bonkers in love with you, aren’t I?” Dez says, with a dreamy look at RT from her big olive-green eyes.
While Lucius fetches a bottle of champagne from the cottage’s miracle fridge for a celebratory toast, the two girls snuggle together over their pancakes. Vasili finally saunters over, with a sleepy Gemini curled against his chest, and relinquishes the kitten into my arms for a cuddle.
Even now, my dominant alpha looks only minimally traumatized by his close encounter with a feline.
Relieved and thankful to see this latest evidence that we’re getting his ailurophobia under control, I scooch over on the bench to make room for V beside me.
“Good job with the kitty, Goblin King.” I tilt my juice glass toward him in a salute.
“It isn’t so much fear of cats, you know,” Vasili murmurs, under the general outcry that breaks out across the table, due to Ronin stealing Max’s last strip of bacon. “Not really.”
“Oh, of course not.” I snuggle a snoozy Gemini in my lap and lean into V for added closeness. “You’ve never been afraid of anything as long as I’ve known you. But, uh, you never really explained about the cat thing, so…”
Vasili sips his tar-black coffee, lids lowered to hide his eyes. “I had a cat once before, when I was very young. She was my first friend. And my only one, for quite some time.”
He pauses for another slow sip. I very carefully don’t push or probe the solid mental barriers he’s got up.
“Losing her was… not pleasant,” he says eventually. “So I promised myself I’d never risk repeating the experience. I suppose it was easier to cultivate a fear of cats than admit to a fear of loving them.”
My heart swells and rises, bumping against my esophagus like a hot-air balloon. For the second time this morning, my vision blurs with tears.
I know what it cost my snake to admit to having a weakness. A vulnerability ofanykind.
I slip an arm around his slender waist and lean into him harder.
“You can love us all now, including Gemini,” I tell him softly. “It’s safe to love us, bad boy.”
“I know,” he answers, just as softly. Under cover of the table, his cool hand closes over my knee in a tight squeeze.
Then my snake gives me his sly sidelong smirk. “If I ever have cause to regret it, darling, Krampus will make you suffer.”
You’d think it’d be hard to laugh and shiver simultaneously.
But I manage that shit.
