Page 31 of Meeting Mr. Christmas
What the hell? Jed jerked his gaze away and ran his fingers through his hair. It was the beer talking, that was all. He glared at the bottle as though waiting for it to agree. He was halfwaythrough his fourth, more than he usually drank, and maybe that was where it should stay.
“Got it.” A note of triumph sounded in Noel’s voice as he set the disc up in the machine, which responded with a disgruntled whine.
“Don’t you think it’s time you entered the twenty-first century? Maybe download your favorite movies? Because when that thing, which was old when my folks were still making out in the back of dad’s car?—”
Noel looked at him over his shoulder. “Please don’t tell me you think about Francine and Hank — you know, your parents — getting hot and sweaty doing the horizontal mambo.”
“No! Jesus, that’s, that’s just…” Jed hunched and squirmed, doing his best to banish even the suggestion of the image. “You’re weird, you know that? And sick?”
“But it was you, not me, who introduced the subject of your parents making out. Anyway, weird I can go with, but I prefer to say individual and unique. But it’s why you love me.”
Love me…And Jed did. He loved Noel more than anybody in the world. As his closest friend, as his best bud. Jed ran his fingers through his hair and gulped down another mouthful of beer.
Noel was standing by the couch and talking about something he couldn’t hear.
“What’s that?”
“Are you ready for this?” Noel held the remote aloft.
“Ready for what?”
“For the movie, you dope. It’s a rom-com but like I said, it’s a little different. If at any time you want to turn it off?—”
“Just play the damn movie, Christmas. It’s a rom-com. I already know what’s gonna happen.”
Noel turned the lights lower before snuggling down on the couch and pressing play. The big screen movie experience, Noelalways said, but on a small screen, this time accompanied by the gentle pulse of the lights strung around the little Christmas tree, which sat in the corner of the room. Warm, comfortable, just the two of them doing what they’d done so many times before. Everything felt right, everything was as it should be. Jed sighed in contentment as they hunkered under the soft fleece blanket he’d woken up to find himself under that morning, as the opening credits rolled.
He’d seen every one of Noel’s sappy collection, but five minutes in, he knew he hadn’t seenthisone. No cute girl, but a very cute… guy. A skinny little guy with dark hair and some definite awkwardness, and who owned a small dog. Peter, on the rug, wriggled into sitting and began a thorough investigation of his balls.
Jed grabbed his beer, the beer he wasn’t going to drink any more of, gripping the bottle hard.
Noel shifted, his thigh brushing against Jed’s. Noel’s thigh had touched his hundreds, thousands of times, but this time it burned. The dark-haired guy on the screen, who absolutely, totally, didn’t really look like Noel, smiled under a starlit sky as the other guy — the bigger, taller, fair-haired guy he’d been making heart eyes at and who’d been making heart eyes back, moved closer, and closer, as hands rested on hips, as heads tilted, as lips parted as they?—
Fuck.
Jed’s dick stiffened and pressed hard against the confines of his sweatpants. A fine layer of sweat covered his tingling skin, and his mouth dried as he watched, unable to pull his gaze away as the guys on the screen, the guys who really didn’t look like him and Noel, the guys who were so different to each other yet fitting together like the final two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, melted into each other in a never ending kiss. Jed’s hand drifted below the blanket and cupped his aching erection, and hegasped, squeezing down on the root to stem the first rush that if he let it go would be unstoppable. The movie stopped, the brush of the bigger guy’s thumb across the dark-haired guy’s plump lower lip frozen in time.
In the heavy silence, broken only by the hammer of his heart, Jed turned to Noel. His best friend, his best bud. A guy. A guy both his heart and lips screamed out to kiss. Not any guy, but this guy, and only him.
Jed’s breath caught in his chest as he met Noel’s silent gaze. His eyes drifted to Noel’s lips. Slightly parted, red and so full it should be illegal. How hadn’t he noticed Noel’s lips before? But he had. He’d noticed them plenty, always had, before he’d always looked away and tried to tell himself he was being a jerk.
But not this time.
Placing his hands on either side of Noel’s face, he gently tilted his head to the side. Up close, Noel’s eyes were bigger and bluer than ever, his nose more button, the freckles scattered over the bridge more like little golden grains of sand. Why hadn’t he noticed this before?
Another lie, because like all the other things about Noel he’d tried to convince himself he’d not noticed, he had.
“Jed—”
He stopped Noel with a kiss.
Lips crushed and tongues twisted, Noel was kissing him as hard as he was kissing Noel.
Jed eased Noel down further onto the couch, not breaking the kiss, his hands holding Noel tight. Lips that were both soft and firm, the rasp of light stubble, the writhing of a body that was muscle, and flat plains, no hint of a soft curve. It was like no kiss, nobody, he’d ever before felt, and all he wanted was more.
They broke apart, gasping for air as their gazes locked on each other’s.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… this. Us,” Noel said, his eyes wide and dazed. “Maybe we should, you know, cool off a bit? I mean, it’s the beer and the movie, and because things have been so hectic lately for both of us, with work and?—”
