Chapter 26
Ash
When I woke up, I had no idea where my husband was or when he’d gotten out of bed.
Instead of hunting him down, I opted for a nice hot shower to prepare for the day ahead.
Being in Jake’s arms last night and reaching extraordinary levels of passion was enough for me not to question whatever he was planning to do to get the other men back.
Having my husband ravish my body with a renewed sense of intensity in his sexual appetite left me feeling blissfully happy and loving our renewed energy.
Everything felt light and effervescent again, and it filled my heart with so much happiness that I honestly didn’t even want a material gift for Christmas this year.
I had everything I had been yearning for all year: my children were happy, and my husband was in my arms, taking an extended break from work and renewing his mind, body, and spirit.
“Ohhh…Jingle bells, Jimbo smells…” I heard Jake’s excited voice singing as he came into the bedroom, “…Alex ran away…” he sang, smiling at me as I walked out of the bathroom, “…Spencer’s pissed, and Collin’s—” he stopped, setting a breakfast tray on the bed I’d made before getting into the shower.
“Hmm, I can’t think of a rhyme for that part. Oh, well.”
I chuckled, walking over to him and wrapping my arms around his neck as he welcomed me into his warm embrace.
“Why don’t we keep to the regular lyrics?
” I said, stepping back and eyeing his vibrant expression.
“Well, you’re in a jolly mood this morning, so either the sex was amazing last night, or you’ve already succeeded in paying your brother back? ”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Baby, I’m in this jolly mood because I know my wife is going to have the best Christmas she could ever ask for.” He paused and smirked at me, “And my brother is working to make it all possible.”
“What have you already done?” I questioned. “You know, if you piss that man and his friends off the entire time we’re here, it’s going to—”
“Look at the delicious breakfast I just brought you,” he said, kissing my forehead, “made by Collin and me.”
“The scrambled eggs look delicious,” I said. “Now I know what you and Collin were up to this morning, creating a magnificent breakfast-in-bed experience. Thank you for that. Did Jim, Alex, and Spencer help?”
“You should know that by now. Was Jim bitching when he came in to light your fire?” he asked.
“I didn’t see Jim come in the room. I was in the shower,” I answered, looking at the fireplace. “I’m confused.”
“Jim lit the fire. That was his job this morning since the staff aren’t here.
” He took my hand and walked me over to sit on the sofa next to the fireplace.
“Sit, angel,” he said, acting like he was my servant as he walked over to the bed, grabbed the tray of food, and set it in my lap.
“It was already announced last evening that the men will do everything on our own to ensure our wives are doted upon and spoiled this Christmas. We’re always busy and never around, so to show all of you how much we appreciate what you do while we run off to work, we’re going to take care of you in every way we can.
It’s a lesson for all of us, not just Jim, Spence, and Alex.
We need to show our wives how much we appreciate what you do to give us a warm, loving home to come to every night. ”
I listened to the line of shit he was feeding me while I spread blackberry jam over my toast, “Perhaps Avery and Nat are falling for your cute, kiss-ass way of sucking up to us just so we don’t stop you from torturing those guys, but I’m not buying any of this.”
Jake knelt and took the poker to move the logs in the fireplace to create more flame. “You are definitely my wife,” Jake chuckled, then looked back at me. “I can’t get shit past you.”
“No, you can’t.” I took a sip of coffee and immediately spit it back into the cup. “Jesus,” I said, quickly taking a swig of orange juice to remove the bitterness from my taste buds.
“Too strong?” Jake asked, taking a sip. “Fucking hell, that’s disgusting. Well, that’s Alex’s fault. I told him not to let the percolator boil the water, and he must’ve neglected to—”
“Hold the hell up,” I said, looking at him in question. “Percolator? Are we suddenly camping on the frontier now? What happened to using a regular coffee maker?”
I smiled at Jake’s devilish grin, which would’ve been handsome if it wasn’t so worrisome at the moment. “We’re not using one.”
“Why not?”
“Collin and I believe that if we all go the extra mile to show we are willing—”
“Stop it with the bullshit, Jacob,” I interrupted him. “What did you make Alex do? The poor guy has to fly to Austria today, and I know that—”
“Poor guy?” Jake stopped me. “Allow me to remind you that the poor guy of whom you speak hired an actor to give Collin and me natural laxatives so we’d shit our brains out all night long for two days in a row in holes that we dug with our hands.”
I covered my smile because it was a pretty awful prank.
“You think it’s hilarious,” he pointed to my smile.
“No,” I said, trying to be serious. “Listen to me, I thought the prank was harsh,” I framed his handsome face with my hands and tenderly kissed his pouty lips, “but you don’t need to punish these guys all week, and I know that’s what you’re planning.”
“Who gives a shit if Alex was outside, freezing his ass off while waiting for coffee to perk?” he said. “He’ll survive, and it’s not inconveniencing any of you ladies. The rules are still being followed.”
“The coffee tastes disgusting, though, and we all know how seriously Avery takes her coffee,” I said, trying to warn Jake that their silly games would end up ruining things for the innocents.
“Well, she can blame Alex. Coffee isn’t that fucking hard to make. He should’ve taken the small task he was given seriously.” He pointed at the fire, “Jim seems to have successfully handled his first Christmas task well, don’t you think?”
I nodded. “Seriously, though, Jake. You’re skating on thin ice. Everyone is here to enjoy the holidays, and Jim and Avery have gone out of their way to make this enjoyable and memorable for everyone.”
“Jim definitely went out of his way to make the Maldives memorable for me, so I merely want to ensure that he views Switzerland the same way I now view the Maldives?”
“That’s how you’re going to screw something up.
You’re not thinking clearly in your retaliation,” I informed him.
“In the Maldives, Laney and I were pleasantly pampered on that island of bliss while you two were being screwed with. The difference now is that you’re planning to screw with them while we’re all in the same home. ”
“Who gives a shit?” Jake said, almost upset that I was spoiling his plans. “I promise this will not affect any of you.”
I studied my husband’s youthful expression and knew it was eating him alive not to get back at his brother quickly and easily. Everything was slowed down because it was a family holiday, and the women and children could easily become innocent victims if he weren’t careful.
“Listen, baby,” Jake said, “I know you’re concerned about some holiday fuckups happening, but what family out there doesn’t have some drama over the holidays?
Things go wrong when you’re trying to make everything perfect.
So, allow us to make it all wrong for those bastards who chose to fuck with us, then it will eventually go all right. ”
“That’s the hill you’re willing to die on if all this backfires in your face?”
“No one is dying on hills, and this isn’t a war—”
“You made Alex sit outside and percolate coffee in the freezing cold like an old cowboy,” I said.
“I promise you, angel,” he said, running his hands excitedly up and down each side of my legs, which he’d been bracing while acting like a little boy begging his mom to go to the park and play.
“You all will have a wonderful and extremely festive traditional and classic Christmas. It will be one that the kids will talk about for years to come, and in the end, we’ll be laughing about it.
Collin and I have planned this out very nicely, so allow us to pamper and spoil all of you with the best, most entertaining Christmas season you could ask for. ”
A moment later, the bedroom door opened, and I almost laughed when I saw that Jim and Spencer both looked like they’d just fallen out of bed and hadn’t slept all night.
That wasn’t the concerning part, though.
It was that, for the first time since I’d known the two extremely powerful executives, they didn’t seem to care that they looked like they’d barely survived a buffalo stampede.
“Dear God, you both look like you haven’t slept all night,” I said, handing my tray of food to my husband.
“You don’t say?” Jim said, forcing a smile on his face.
I couldn’t help but laugh, seeing my brother-in-law in this shape. His hair was a disaster, and Spencer’s was, too.
“Okay, well, do you guys need to shower?” I asked, unsure why they were in our room.
“Fuck!” Spencer said while Jim’s eyes darkened and narrowed at his brother. “I forgot I haven’t even taken a shower yet.”
“There’s no time for that,” Jake said, waving them off, his eyes set on punishing these two men.
“Stop telling us what there is or isn’t time for,” Jim snapped. “I’m getting in the fucking shower and brushing my teeth. I’m just here to ensure you weren’t trying to get laid while we were bringing in the last of the wood.”
“Awesome,” Jake said. “Now that’s taken care of, we need to—”
“Jake,” I said, interrupting him from treating Jim and Spencer like they were working on a chain gang. “Let them go freshen up.”
Jim and Spencer smiled with their usual cockiness to Jake, igniting Jake’s pettiness even more.
“There you have it. You don’t want to upset your wife over the holidays by not listening to her, right?” Spencer asked.
“Of course I don’t, and that’s why you two need to help me and Collin harness the horses to the sleighs that the women will ride into town today.”
Jim and Spencer’s expressions of victory instantly faded when I gasped excitedly.
“That’s right, baby,” Jake said, walking over to me with a victorious expression.
“Dress warm because I had two sleighs delivered this morning, and the horses to pull them should be here momentarily. I thought it would be thrilling for our wives to be pulled into town by sleigh since we’re all in the North Pole spirit. ”
“The kids are going to lose their minds,” I said. “I mean, wow.”
“Wow is right,” Jim said, his eyes laser focused on his little brother.
Jake snapped his fingers, “Chop, chop, Gentlemen. We have wives to indulge in Christmas cheers and fantasies.”
Before I could say anything more, Jake led Jim and Spencer from the room to harness horses to the sleighs he’d rented.
I had no idea how Jake and Collin had pulled this out of their hats so fast—to Jim and Spencer’s extreme displeasure—but they had, and it was as comical now as it was entertaining.
God only knew what else they’d planned, but if it stayed in the vein of elaborate Christmas traditions like horse and sleigh rides, we were guaranteed to have the most epic Christmas of all time.