The Nightmare Before Kissmas

But I rest my mouth over his. “Dance with me?”

I taste his grin. “You’re going to have to set me down for that, I think.”

“Under duress, let it be noted.”

“Noted.”

I grin down at Hex.

Who shoves up from my bed—unacceptable, but I’ll allow it this time—and with an easy, graceful throw of his wrist, creates a whole-ass portal in my bedroom.

“COAL, DID YOU FUCK THE HALLOWEEN PRINCE

We were going to be PROFESSIONAL, seriously.

IRIS

KRIS!! you can’t put that in a text thread!

omg delete it you idiot”

“Or we can get him one of those training aids.” Kris smirks. “The bar contraption that slides around. But he’ll have to squat down to use it since they only come in children’s—”

Kris’s words end in a garbled cough as I pulse my hand at his mouth and fill it with holly.

He hacks and spits it into his lap. “This stuff is poisonous!”

“Well, don’t eat it.”

He tosses it at me and I flick it over the side of the sleigh.

Hex grins, a soft amusement, like he’s shocked we’re this, irreverent teasing morons.”

“You,” I start, “absolute fucker.”

Kris yanks back.

I shove away from him, leap onto my bed, and grab the cursed object from behind my headboard. “What the hell is this?”

Kris is blotchy from holding back tears but he laughs so hard he chokes. “You haven’t found any of them yet?”

The goddamn Elf on the Shelf goes limp in my hand. “You actually hid one in my room?”

“Four. Four of them.”

“Kristopher.”

“I told you I don’t fuck around with grammar.”

I throw it at him. It smacks off his chest but he’s laughing again, eyes tearing for a way better reason now, and I can’t help it. I laugh too.

Even with that fucking possessed Christmas doll staring up at us.

“Figure it out.” Kris bumps my shoulder. “It’s a long month. You can’t avoid him. The palace isn’t that big, and this tension is gonna get old fast.”

The strain on my face is a full-on conversation with no words spoken.

Oh, THIS tension is gonna get old? What about the tension between you and Iris, HMMMM? What about THAT tension, that we’ve been living with for YEARS, brother of mine?

Kris ducks his head, swirling the beer around his wine glass in silent surrender.

Kris named the conversation “Peep, Mini Candy Cane, and the Best Claus”

Conversation Name Locked

YOU CAN LOCK IT??

KRIS

OPEN IT BACK UP

The air is charged and drowsy and I don’t think it’s me at first. But suddenly there’s a mouth, a mouth and a tongue and those lips against mine, and it had to have been me, and I collapse. My fingers dive into his hair and that is my anchor now, his face beneath mine, the taste of soda in his mouth but something else, something dazzlingly male and my pulse is driving hard against every vein in my neck and fingertips.

His hand clenches into a fist against my hip and his tongue darts out to lick at mine. I snatch it up, sucking on it, and am rewarded with a palpitation resonating from his throat—he’s moaning. Moaning, and my god, I feel those vibrations in the arches of my feet.

I love him.

I love him, and I can't put it into words with how big it is, so I keep talking, and showing, and creating with him.