“Yup. Told me you were good.”
“Isn’t she nice.” A wink. “Thank you so much, Sawyer. It’s just what I need to push me back to my book.”
“Good. ’Cause you can’t ignore that work in progress.”
“I know. Now . . . you open. I had some help too. After you told me about your art, I called a friend of mine who has a few dozen comics published.”
“You’re kidding. You have a friend who—”
“I do.” Quirked brows. “Now open it!”
I ripped the paper off to reveal a set of twelve dual-tipped sketch markers, the kind I loved but couldn’t justify buying because they cost so much. “Oh my god. This is amazing! Thank you, Gregg.”
I couldn’t help it, I lunged for him, desperate for a hug, and he caught me like he was expecting me.
“I didn’t know you’d appreciate them this much.” He chuckled.
I sat back, flushed from the contact our skin had made. “I’ve bought one or two, always planning to save up for more.”
“It’s important to buy quality supplies. You deserve that.”
I nodded, shy smile popping through, but I stopped the fluttering of my lashes . . . just barely.
“So . . . breakfast, a constitutional, open the rest of our gifts, and then we have the rest of the day ahead of us.”
“I’d love to watch you paint sometime,” I said.
“We have two weeks before you can move back on campus?”
I smiled, that cheek-hurting smile, and nodded. “Then let’s spend the rest of the day watching cheesy Christmas movies, sketching, and painting.”
“Die Hard?”
“Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie.”
Gregg chuckled, pulled me to my feet, and dragged me to the kitchen. “We have so much to teach each other.”
I liked the sound of that.
“Let’s make some art together.”
Maybe I couldn’t have love, but I had a friend, a fresh path ahead of me, and a new partner in creativity. Perhaps that’s all I ever needed.
And that’s just the beginning . . .
More of Sawyer, Gregg, and Murphy’s adventures are coming soon. Subscribe to Posy’s Newsletter to find out more.
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Meet Posy Roberts
Posy Roberts loves the snowy winters and lake life of Minnesota, which inspires her writing. Her books have been USA Today’s “Happily Ever After” Must-Reads and Rainbow Award finalists. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with her family and friends and doing anything possible to get out of grocery shopping and cooking.
Website: PosyRoberts.com
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Echo wants to make Christmas extra special for Peri. Last year, Peri was in pain and in hospital after saving Echo’s life. This year, Peri deserves a Christmas Eve he’ll never forget. But when Echo’s surprise for Peri goes a little sideways, it turns into a night they’ll both remember for the best reasons. A night they’ll remember for always.
Sometimes, Always
A Sometimes There’s Stars Short Story
Copyright © 2020 Suki Fleet
One
Peri
Rain pattered quietly against the kitchen window and Peri stopped what he was doing and smiled at the way the orange glow of fairy lights reflected in the rain-splattered glass. Across the street, he could see another family had put their Christmas tree up. The whole street was now full of twinkling lights. It was still three whole weeks until Christmas, but the entire cosy month of December was Peri’s favourite time of year. He hummed along to the soft Christmassy music coming from his phone as he gazed out of the window.
A hiss sounded from the stove as the milk and cream in the pan in front of him bubbled over. Oops, he’d forgotten about that. Peri carefully turned the heat down and went back to whisking everything in the pan. He’d wipe the stove down when he’d finished. The fluttering panic he used to feel when he knew he was making a mess wasn’t something that filled his heart any more. His heart was too full of other things these days.
The mixture in the pan was for a hot chocolate recipe he was experimenting with. Closing his eyes, he inhaled the slightly spicy scent of the dark chocolate he’d broken into chunks, layered with the distinctive flowery aroma of the bottle of violet essence he’d just opened. Palma violets were Echo’s favourite. When he thought of Echo, Peri felt as if his whole body was smiling, all relaxed and at home and a little trembly with excitement at the same time.
If he concentrated hard, he could hear Echo’s footsteps as he walked around downstairs in Orchard House checking all the doors and windows of the Day Centre were secured. It was something Echo liked to do every evening, before coming back upstairs to their little flat where they’d curl up around each other and play games or watch beautifully shot nature documentaries on TV. A lot of the time though, all they wanted was to get lost in one another, and they’d kiss and stroke, until they were swollen sensitive skin against swollen sensitive skin, needy and desperate, trying to be closer than close with fingers, mouths, tongues… Peri gripped the whisk so hard the metal handle bit into his skin and he swallowed down a gasp.
Thoughts of Echo touching him turned him on in a heartbeat. Always. Though they hadn’t done everything bodies could do with one another. Not yet. Echo was scared of hurting him, Peri knew that, though Echo didn’t say those words. Echo had been deep inside him with his fingers, with his tongue—Peri leaned his hip against the worksurface, his legs turning to jelly at the thought of that—but Echo had never put his whole self—his penis/dick/cock (none of those words seemed right in Peri’s head, none of them close enough to describing that part of Echo that he loved)—inside Peri, though he really liked to rub against that entrance to Peri’s body, liked to ejaculate there, his thick perfect fingers opening Peri up, so close to being properly inside him, but not quite. He’d asked if Peri wanted to be the one inside him, but although the thought did turn Peri on, he wanted to feel it from the inside himself first. He wasn’t sure why.
Warm arms enveloped Peri from behind and he closed his eyes and melted into the embrace.
“You smell so good, I want to eat you,” Echo murmured, his lips against Peri’s ear.
Peri moaned. He was so very turned on already. “Thinking…about you.”
He closed his eyes and shivered as Echo licked and nipped at his neck just below his ear. Then opened his mouth and panted as Echo’s hand palmed the front of his leggings.
“Thinking about me doing what?”
He loved the smile in Echo’s voice, the way it seemed to promise so much.
There was no way Peri could answer his question though. His body was a coiled bundle of nerve endings all pleading for Echo’s touch. He wanted Echo to pull down his leggings right there, in the kitchen, he wanted to feel himself being touched and held everywhere, but especially that place inside him no one else had ever touched.