Chapter 4
FOUR
MANNIX
"Why the fuck do we need thirteen trees?" I glared at them like they were invaders trying to take over my house. Which was accurate as far as I was concerned. Every one of them was taller than I was. Decorated with bright colours that hurt my eyes.
"Who said Rudolph could throw up in here?" I demanded.
To the surprise of no one, Ice grinned. "I like them."
Of course he fucking did.
"This is your idea, isn't it?" I demanded. "One tree would have done. No, one tree would have been one too many. But thirteen? What the ever-loving hell, dude?”
"It's festive," he said like that explained everything. "That's the point of Christmas. Or have you forgotten?"
I grumbled. "I've been trying to forget."
Would anyone notice if I hid in my office for a week? Better yet, I could go somewhere Christmas couldn't find me. Except, if I tried, Ice would find me. And he'd drag Kennedy and Ares along with him. Not that Ares was any more into this bullshit than I was.
He stood at the end of the row of trees, scowling at them like he hoped they'd all spontaneously burst into flame.
If they were here one second after Christmas, they would burst into flames, but it wouldn't be spontaneous. It'd be because I set them on fire. I could always buy another house. Right?
Right, of course I could.
"Are they real?" I turned my head to the side and poked at one of the branches. Needles broke off and fluttered to the floor. "That's fucking great. These pricks are going to make a mess."
"A little bit of mess never hurt anyone," Ice said. He added, "Okay, that's not true. A little bit of mess hurt a lot of people. But not pine needles. I'm pretty sure they're mostly harmless."
"If they make a mess, it won't be pine needles you have to worry about," I growled. "It'll be the real kind."
His grin broadened. He was too fucking adorable for his own good or mine.
"I figured that was what you meant. It's an interesting threat, but it might hit better if I minded needles," he said.
"I'll think of something more painful than needles," I said darkly. "Like having dinner with Reuben."
"I don't mind Reuben," Ice said thoughtfully. "I mean, he's a man who knows what he wants. And how to get it. And you can't argue that he takes good care of his woman."
I shook my head at Ice. "It'd be much more fun to threaten you if you didn't enjoy all of it."
No matter how painful, boring or crappy, he'd find a way to spin it into something good. The guy was fucked up in the head. Most of the time, I liked that about him. Once in a while it was irritating.
"I didn't think you could disagree with me for long," he said cheerfully. "Don't tell me you don't like these trees a little."
"I hate these trees," I said. "Couldn't they have been black? With black balls hanging from them?"
"Real trees aren't black," he pointed out, helpfully. As helpful as someone could be when pointing out something I already knew. Something he knew I already knew.
He couldn't help being facetious. One day he'd poke the hornet's nest too hard and I'd bite back.
On the other hand, he'd enjoy that too.
"Black Christmas trees sound better," Ares said. "We could take these out and burn them." He started to reach for one of the trees.
"What are you doing?" Kennedy stepped into the corridor and gave us a collective frown.
"Taking out the trash.” Ares grabbed a branch, but she grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"We need those for the Christmas party. We have to make a good impression. People are going to see them when they walk through the door. Imagine how impressed they'll be."
She actually seemed sold on the idea, or maybe determined to impress. At least one of us had to be, I supposed. It might as well be her, since it wasn't going to be me.
"A pile of ashes can be impressive.” Ares dropped his hand to his thigh with a slap.
"We can do that after Christmas," she assured him. "If you want to take all of these out and burn them, I'm here for it. Make sure you take the decorations off first. We can reuse those next year."
I groaned. "You're thinking about next year already. We have to get through this one first."
If this was going to become a yearly thing, I was going to lose my shit. We didn't need to become the Christmas party capital of Dusk Bay. Or anywhere else for that matter.
"It's always good to think ahead," she said meaningfully. That was fair enough. Not thinking ahead in this town got people dead.
"Fine, but after Christmas, put them away somewhere I don't have to look at them," I said. "Why are so many of them bright red and bright green? Couldn't we have had a few black and gold ones?"
"Red and green are Christmas colours," she said. "It's only for a few days. Then we can pull them down and forget about them for a while."
She looked around at us. "Have you all got your suits ready? Because I have a surprise for you."
It was then I realised she held a bag in her hand. I eyed it like it might be a ticking time bomb.
Around here, anything was possible.
"What did you do?" Ares asked, blunt as ever. Pulling punches had never been his thing.
She held up the bag and smiled. "I brought Christmas ties for you all. So you can go with my Christmas gown."
I closed my eyes. Screwed them shut and shook my head. Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse, it did.
"I'm dead, aren't I?" I asked.
I was dead and this was hell. It was going to be Christmas for the rest of my eternal existence.
"Stop being so dramatic.” She pulled out a simple dark red tie and handed it to me. "Did you think I'd buy you one with reindeers on it?"
"You thought about it," I said flatly.
When she smiled, I knew she was right. For her, I would have worn it. Thankfully, she'd chosen something a lot more tasteful and simple, even if I would have preferred black.
"Please say you chose a reindeer tie for me?" Ice asked.
She reached into the bag and pulled out one that looked even more like Rudolph threw up. Green, with reindeers with bright red noses. It was the thing of nightmares. He seemed happy when she handed it to him.
"Hell yeah," he wound it around his neck and held it in front of himself, looking pleased. "I love it."
"You would." Ares said. "If you think I'm wearing something like that—"
She gave him the same look as she'd given me, and handed him a dark green tie that brought out the colour in his eyes. He took it and didn't even seem to hate it.
"I've seen worse.” He wound it around his neck and shrugged.
"Now, I'm wondering what your dress looks like," I looked from one tie to the other.
Anything that matched all three of them was going to be…
Interesting. Of course it would look hot on her and I was already looking forward to peeling it off her.
Was there any chance we could skip straight to that part?
Predictably, she said, "You'll have to wait and see." The woman was her own special kind of evil, if you asked me. Beautiful, smart and sexy as hell. Dangerous because she had all of us wrapped around her pretty little finger. We loved every minute of it.
"Are you going to wear a reindeer costume with a fluffy tail and antlers?" Ares asked.
We all turned slowly to stare at him.
"What? That's the only kind of reindeer I want to look at.” He shrugged.
"Now I know what I'm getting her for Christmas," Ice said, only half-joking.
Ares was right, she would look adorable like that. And even better with antlers on her head and nothing else.
All of this thinking about her barely dressed, or naked, was making me hard.
Admittedly, when it came to her, my cock was almost always hard.
It was like that since the moment I lay eyes on her when I stepped out of the car at my father's mansion.
I'd pretended to hate her guts, but my first thought was pinning her underneath me and watching her squirm while I thrust into her.
I was certain she didn't belong in our world, so I'd held myself back from her. Now I knew, whatever the world threw at us, we'd get through it. Like we got through everything in the past. She'd accepted us and our lifestyle. Became part of it.
Sometimes I wished we had normal lives with normal jobs and didn't have Reuben Brantley breathing down our necks. But we didn't and we never would. If it wasn't him, it'd be Caleb. Or even Reuben's girlfriend, Mina.
I'd rather take orders from Reuben. She was downright scary.
"That sounds like a Christmas present to all of us," Ice said cheerfully. "It'll go well with the edible underwear I already bought."
"You're supposed to keep Christmas presents a surprise," I pointed out. "Anyway, you buy those for her every year.'"
He was also the one to eat them, but we got to watch, which was almost as good.
"No underwear would be better," Ares said.
"You're right.” Kennedy wound his arms around her neck. "I prefer you without underwear."
He smirked. "You only have to ask." He gripped her ass with his big hands and pulled her closer. "I may never wear underwear again."
"I thought you usually went commando.” Ice tilted his head and regarded Ares' groin.
"Depends on the day of the week," Ares said, as if somehow that explained everything.
He took a couple of steps until Kennedy's back was pressed against the wall opposite the row of Christmas trees.
"I don't feel like wearing them now." He worked his fingers into the waistband of her shorts. Gripping her tender flesh.
"Me either," I agreed, the mood getting to me as well. If we had to put up with the offensive Christmas trees, we should at least be able to enjoy the corridor.
After all, wasn't Christmas supposed to be about making memories? Some of my favourites involved her mouth and my cock. And my mouth and her pussy. And Ice’s ass.
As Ares worked Kennedy's shorts down her hips and onto the floor, I grabbed the front of Ice's shirt and pushed him down to his knees in front of me.
Without giving two shits if I made a mess, I grabbed a length of tinsel and yanked it off the tree. I tossed the end over Ice's neck, let it sit above the ugly tie. Looping the end around my hand, I drew him closer.
"Take out my cock," I ordered.
Making himself comfortable on his knees, he smiled up at me and undid the front of my pants. He pushed them and my boxers down just far enough to reach in and pull out my cock.
His hands were warm against my already heated skin, making me hotter and harder. He worked me with his hands up and down a few times before, opening his mouth and taking me in all the way to the back of his throat.
Ares had Kennedy pinned against the wall, her legs wrapped around his waist. At some point he'd pushed his pants down so he could impale her with his cock. Like he had all the time in the world, he drove into her, grunting as he fucked her beautiful pussy.
With the same speed and rhythm, I fucked Ice's mouth. My fingers tighter around the tinsel.
He pulled his mouth off me and licked from the head of my cock to my balls and back again before closing his mouth around me and sucking so hard I couldn't keep myself from coming, spilling myself down the back of his throat.
At the same time, Ares had Kennedy coming around his cock, and he came a few moments later.
Panting, I slid my cock out of Ice's mouth and watched him swallow down every drop of my release.
Fuck, I loved these people.
If anything happened to any of them, I'd burn the whole world down in retribution. Right now, I just tossed the tinsel back in the direction of the tree and admired the red mark it left on Ice's skin.