Page 36 of Karma Kitty Christmas
Isaac brightened. “Really?”
Luca chuckled. “I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?”
“So much,” Isaac said, nodding. “Is it…. Is it okay if we do it?”
“Course,” Luca murmured. “Just know I’ve got my own sad day and my own movies. You good with that?”
Isaac’s smile was still sad—but it was also luminous. “It’s a deal,” he said.
FOR THEfirst movie—an old teen comedy that Luca had never seen but really enjoyed—Isaac and Allegra each took their places, Allegra on the couch and Isaac on the chair he’d settled Sophia in, while they did their yarn thing.
After the first movie, Allegra yawned and excused herself, after telling them both they were on to help her pick out curtains and a new area rug in the morning.
After she left, Luca, who had sprawled on the opposite corner of the couch, spoke up.
“Isaac?”
“Hmm?” Isaac paused while piloting the remote control.
“You and Allegra, you’re making progress on your blanket, right?”
Isaac smiled. “Yeah—both of us are working pretty fast. Why?”
“Because I was wondering if you, uhm, maybe wouldn’t want to sit next to me on the couch?”
Isaac paused and frowned, but he stood up. “Why would I have to stop yarning? I could simply move—”
“Okay, let me rephrase that. I was wondering if maybe you wouldn’t want to sitonme on the couch.”
Luca shoved himself back into the corner and lifted his leg—and his bare foot—so that Isaac could fit himself in the vee of his legs. “I’ll behave, I promise.”
Isaac’s smile went shy, and he set down his project and moved to fit himself against Luca’s body. Luca sighed, the other man’s weight just so, so sweet against him.
Carefully he wrapped his arms around Isaac’s shoulders, giving him a chance to wriggle and make himself comfortable before using Luca’s chest like a pillow and turning toward the TV. Euclid got into the act by draping himself over Luca’s shoulder and purring in his ear, but still, they managed to achieve a pretty comfortable equilibrium in a short time.
“Luca?” Isaac murmured, before pulling up the next movie.
“Yeah?”
“You only have to behave a little.”
Lucahmmed and took advantage of that invitation. While they watched the movie—and God, it was horribly sad—Luca thrust his hand under Isaac’s shirt and rubbed his concave stomach, up over his ribs, along his hips. He didn’t tweak any nipples or tease any waistbands, and when Isaac twined their fingers together and rested them both atop his abdomen, Luca stopped.
“Tickling?” he murmured.
“Turning me on,” Isaac confessed. “I’m working on catharsis here—I’ve got twenty minutes before this one makes me a sobbing wreck, and I have to be in a mood.”
Luca chuckled, and then he got as immersed as Isaac in the movie.
And then he held Isaac while he cried, and he shed a few tears himself.
When the movie was over, Isaac hit pause on the algorithm, and lay quiet in Luca’s arms. Euclid continued to drool, and Luca was uncomfortably aware that there was a drool spot about the size of a quarter on the shoulder of his T-shirt.
“Feeling better?” he asked. “Or falling asleep?”
“Both,” Isaac murmured. “I… this is the most wonderful moment. I can’t remember the last time I was this content.”
Luca couldn’t help it—he let a wicked laugh escape. “You want to be more content?”
