This naughty boy was getting entirely too wound up.
Reluctantly removing my hand, I kissed his forehead. “In bed.”
He took a long breath and seemed to be forcing his muscles to relax. “You too, Daddy?”
“Yes.” I pulled the covers back and gave the mattress a pat. “You first. I have to put my pajamas on.”
He nodded, yawning silently as he climbed in bed. As I pulled the covers around him, he held out one arm for a hug. “One cuddle, Daddy.”
He wasn’t going to make it through one cuddle, but since that worked for me, I nodded. “Of course.”
Sitting beside him on the mattress, I kissed his cheek and stroked my fingers over his forehead and eyelids. “That’s my sweet boy.”
He’d been fighting sleep since the binkie incident on the couch and the tub had only intensified that need. I would’ve worried, but he’d grown less tired during the day as his vacation had gone on and he was even losing the dark circles under his eyes, so I knew all the sleep was good for him.
In minutes, he was letting out barely audible breathy snores. They were cute and said just how deep he was under. Sneaking away from the bed, I left the small lamp on but turned off the main light and tiptoed out to the living room.
Making sure I got everything in from the car quietly wasn’t too difficult, but as I laid everything out and started wrapping, I realized how long it had been since I’d done it…he wouldn’t mind if it looked like drunk monkeys wrapped his presents, would he?
Reminding myself that it was the thought that counted, I worked on getting them all done and somewhat neat looking. My idea for the fake tree was a thousand times easier than wrapping had been. Stringing the lights and tinsel up on the wall in a tree shape was fast and actually looked fairly cute.
With the presents piled under the almost-tree wall decoration, I cleaned up the mess and headed back to the bedroom. In seconds, I was in pajamas and curled up around Joseph who’d rolled into my arms as soon as I’d stretched out beside him.
His Daddy radar was impressive.
No matter where I was, even when he was sleeping, he could find me instantly. It didn’t matter how deep he’d sunk into being little or how distracted he was in a book, he always seemed to be aware of my presence. And since that didn’t seem to drive him crazy, I thought it was a good indication of how things would go when we actually moved in together.
My last thought before sleep claimed me was that I hoped he liked his toys.
“Daddy.” Some kind of wiggly monster poked me. “Daddy.”
It felt like I’d barely fallen asleep, but Joseph…or more likely Joey…was wide awake. “Daddy.”
Since it seemed like he could say that all day, I rolled over and forced my eyes open. It was light enough outside that it had to be later than I was expecting, but that just made me wonder what time I’d gotten to bed last night.
I had a feeling wrapping had taken longer than I’d estimated.
“Yes?” He was grinning ear-to-ear, so I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down on top of me. “You’ve decided you’re still tired and want to go back to sleep? No problem, I’ll cuddle with you.”
He giggled and wiggled against me, trying to sit up. “No, Daddy, there’s a surprise.”
I played dumb. “What kind of surprise? Did you make me a picture?”
Coffee would be wonderful too.
He giggled again. “No, we had tired robbers who left stuff instead of taking stuff. Come look.”
Very tired robbers.
“Did Santa come?” I kissed his nose and he smiled and nodded. “Show me.”
It was brisk enough in the cabin that I made him put on socks, and my wiggly boy did not appreciate having to wait. By the time we were out in the living room, he was so excited he looked like he was going to pee in his pants and he was almost bouncing from foot to foot. “Look, Daddy.”
Okay, they didn’t look completely unfortunate in the light of day.
“It looks like Santa stopped by last night. I completely forgot it was Christmas.” Which was basically true, so it wasn’t a stretch to make it sound reasonable. “Should we see what he brought you?”
“Yes.” He dragged me over to the tree and plopped us both down, still beaming with excitement. “Lights, Daddy. Lights.”
Following the eager command, I plugged the lights in and wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. “Merry Christmas, baby.”
He curled into me, hugging me back, and laid his head on my shoulder. “Thank you for all this.”
Kissing his cheek, I ran my hand over his head. “You’re welcome.”
I felt his soft breath against my cheek as he seemed to weigh something in his mind. As he sat up, I caressed down his arms and took his hands in mine. He squeezed my fingers and looked at me with loving, tear-rimmed eyes. “You have made this the best Christmas ever.”
Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I kissed him gently and smiled. “Just don’t look at the wrapping too closely.”
Joseph let out a quiet laugh and reached up to cup my cheek. “No matter what age I was at or what I was doing, you’ve always made me feel like I mattered to you. First as just a person, now as a lover and as a sub. When I look at you I feel like the most important person in the world. I didn’t realize how lonely and just mentally and physically exhausted I was until you stepped back into my life. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve someone like you, but no matter what happens in the future, I will never regret trusting you and I will never regret loving you.”
He paused and kissed me gently before curling into my arms. “I love you, Daddy.”
Kissing his head, I wiped at the tears streaming down my cheeks before hugging him against me. “I love you too, baby.”
There were so many things I wanted to say, but as I held him close, I stopped trying to find the perfect words and just spoke from my heart. “I will spend the rest of my life loving you. No matter what happens and what paths life takes us down, you will always be the center of my world. My only regret is that it took so long to get to this moment. I will never—”
He sat up, shaking his head. “No regrets. I wouldn’t change anything, because everything happens for a reason and you’re my reason. I will never regret any hardship that brought us together. You’re my reward for every tough decision I made and I’d do it all again just to make sure I ended up here in your arms.”
“No regrets, baby.” I kissed him gently. “But no more tackling hardships on your own. From here on out, we tackle everything together.”
He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a tender peck on the lips, smiling. “Well, maybe one regret.”
“What?” I pulled him onto my lap as he grinned and giggled.
“Snow regrets.” He wrapped his arms around me. “I think our next vacation needs to be someplace with sun and sand.”
I laughed. “You, my little popsicle, are finally tired of being cold?”
“Yes.” He gave me a cute pout as he reached over and dragged the blanket off the couch and wrapped it around us. “I’ll never complain about your money as long as we can take warm vacations.”
Laughing, I snuggled him close and kissed him gently under our fake Christmas tree. Our love story might not have been the most conventional, but it would be enduring and passionate and I would take that over traditional any day.