ONE YEAR AND FIVE DAYS LATER
Black
“Don’t you feel the difference in the embrace as the arms and the legs tangle and protect you?” Teddy was laying on our floor by the tree, trying to convince Quill that being a professional cuddler was perfect for him.
“Yeah, um, Teddy? This isn’t going to be a thing for me.” I watched, amused as he tried to wriggle free.
“Just breathe,” Teddy said, and I turned to Riordan, who was watching the shenanigans with the same joy.
For the past year, Quill, with a lot of encouragement, had been going to therapy. The abuse he went through for so many years was festering beneath the surface. The piercings, bracelets, change of hair and eye color constantly, wasn’t a quirk that was helping him find himself, it was hiding who he was. Quill Almeida was an amazing man.
He’d since kept his hair black and only wore colored contacts on Halloween when he played a very sexy devil. Quill didn’t suffer from touch aversion like the therapist thought, but he wasn’t a huge fan of strangers, or Teddy, wrapping themselves around him.
“I can’t breathe, Teddy!”
“Let him go, babe,” Riordan chuckled as he sipped his egg nog.
“Fine. I know someone who would love to cuddle with me.” Teddy got up and Riordan put his egg nog down and opened his arms, only to be rebuffed as Teddy leaned into the basinet and lifted his baby girl.
“My beautiful Rosie loves her dada, don’t you, my precious. Yes, you do. You let me cuddle you whenever I want, isn’t that right?” He spoke to the one month old with so much enthusiasm, there wasn’t a frown in the room.
“I love your cuddles too,” Riordan said, feigning a pout.
“Aww, of course you do, papa.” Teddy took a seat on Riordan’s lap, and the three of them were a sight.
Had someone asked me if I saw Riordan being a father five years ago, I would have laughed in their face. Now, I was shocked I never saw it to begin with.
“You want that?” Quill asked as he climbed onto my lap. The fire crackled, the Christmas lights twinkled, and the speaker played Bing Crosby softly.
“Honestly?” Quill nodded, no inclination what he wanted me to say. I chose honesty. “No.”
“So you won’t be upset if I tell you I don’t either?”
I cupped his precious face in my hands, caught breathless with the power of love I felt for this outstanding man before me.
“Not wanting children doesn’t make you or me a bad person. I have you, which is more than I ever thought I’d get in this lifetime. I’m happy with you.”
He pressed his candy cane flavored lips to mine and hummed.
“I’m happy with you and our dysfunctional life too.”
“Okay, I’m not promising perfection. I never made egg nog cheesecake before, so good luck.” Xander placed the cake on the coffee table, cut each of us pieces, then sat down and waited.
“Oh wow, this is delicious,” Teddy said with the baby in his arms being fed by Riordan.
“I agree,” Riordan said.
“How about you guys?” Quill took a bite, and then offered me one. The flavor exploded in my mouth. Classic eggnog and the texture was smooth.
“You nailed it, dude,” Quill said as he devoured the rest of the piece.
Christmas was a time I normally spent alone. Lana had usually joined me, but this year, she was spending it with her new boyfriend. And Mel, Quill’s best friend, flew to the Bahamas with her brother. Quill wanted to start a tradition of a small group of people. He and Xander hit it off last year, and they both began meditating with Teddy, Snow, and on occasion, Poe. Snow, Christopher, and Simon had their own traditions, and Poe declined. Riordan’s family all flew to Ireland this year and with the new baby, neither wanted to chance such a long flight, so I invited them here.
It was uneventful, and I was loving the holiday for the first time since I had been a teenager and both my parents were alive.
“Can you come with me for a minute?” Quill asked while Riordan, Teddy, and Xander were engaged in a conversation.
“Sure.”
I followed him down the hallway. Quill had liked my apartment well enough, but he said it just didn’t feel like it belonged to him. So, a month later, we were moving into a house in the suburbs, where I said I’d never live.
It sat on ten acres of land with enough security to keep us safe. It had two floors, five bedrooms, three baths, a pool, and most importantly, it had Quill.
He refused to quit working at Quirks and Perks because he genuinely loved working there and he got to do it with Mel. But Joker’s Sin was done and he no longer worked for me. Now he was working with me.
When we entered our bedroom, he shut the door.
“Everything okay?” He nodded and began unbuttoning his shirt. “Babe, believe me when I say, I want nothing more than to fuck the hell out of you, but our company… Let me go tell them to leave.” I went to do just that, but he stopped me.
“No, this won’t take long. Sit on the bed.”
For the last week, Quill had been rebuffing me anytime I tried to have sex with him, telling me I’d understand soon.
As I sat on the bed, I watched with aching need as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt. At first, I didn’t see anything. Then the shirt slid from his arms, revealing identical wings to the ones on my chest.
“Oh, Quill…”
“Wait, there’s more.” He turned, his back facing me. In stunning calligraphy across the top of his back, it read: From These Ashes Our Story Was Born. And it was two phoenixes rising from swirling ashes.
“Holy shit.” I couldn’t sit on the bed so far away from him. I spun him around until his emerald eyes were on me. “That’s the most amazing gift anyone’s ever given me.”
“And your heart is the most amazing gift anyone’s ever given to me.”
As we stood there kissing each other, I felt truly alive, powerfully loved, and incredibly horny.
“Nope. I’m kicking them all out. Get your sexy ass on that bed. I’ll be right back to jingle your balls.”
The sound of his laughter as I speed walked down the hallway to empty the house was my most favorite music in the world.