“I ate too much.” Aaron groaned as they trooped up the stairs to the town house.
“That’s what Christmas is all about, babe.” Jen grimaced. “But yeah. Me too. My family thinks we’re all too skinny. Good thing I don’t have to work for two whole days. I’ll need that time to digest. And we haven’t even had turkey yet. I’d say we should throw out all the leftovers my aunties packed for us, but let’s be real. We’re going to eat them for breakfast.”
Isaac grinned. “I’m sure we’ll make room by then.” He was full too, but the food was so delicious.
As they took off their shoes in the foyer, Anna asked, “Do we have cookies to leave out for Santa? I was told this is very important if you want presents under the tree and nice things in your stocking. Apparently some kids get bits of coal? That would actually be useful where we grew up. Not really here.”
The stockings were hung from the shelf below the TV on the wall. The red, velvety fabric of each stocking bore their names in glittering letters, and maybe it was silly, but it made Isaac feel special. He knew Santa Claus wasn’t real, yet the idea that when they came downstairs in the morning the stockings would be full and there’d be more presents under the tree put a grin on his face. Especially when he thought about the surprise he had for David.
As the others talked about Santa and what exactly a sugarplum was, Isaac slipped out and carefully prepared his surprise. Then he caught sight of the pile of mail on the little hall table, realizing he hadn’t checked it since the day before. His heart kicked up as he went through the flyers and a few bills, hoping to see a plain white envelope with familiar scratchy handwriting.
“Anything?” David asked quietly, making Isaac jump.
Isaac tried to keep his voice light. “Only if you’re interested in a sale on diapers.”
“Well, not yet. Maybe one day.” He rubbed Isaac’s back.
Maybe one day. But how would they ever be able to have a baby? Adoption wasn’t easy, and who knew—
“What’s going on in there?” David tapped Isaac’s head softly.
Pushing away the useless worries of the future, Isaac put the mail back on the table. “Nothing. I guess… I guess I was hoping for a letter. It would be so nice to hear from my brothers and Katie.” Not to mention his parents, but he knew better than to hope for that. Still, it hurt.
“I know. Anna and I didn’t get any letter either.” David sighed. “Our first Christmas without them. It seems impossible, though. How was it only a year ago that we were still living in Zebulon, and you and I were…” Shuddering, he held Isaac’s face in his hands and kissed him. “I’m so glad we’re here together.”
“Me too,” Isaac whispered. Last Christmas they hadn’t even been speaking, and Isaac had never been so incredibly unhappy. “We can’t control what happens in Zebulon. But we’re together, and we have Aaron and Jen, and Anna, and all our friends.” He hugged David tightly. “We have so much.”
“We do.” David leaned back. “As long as I have you, it doesn’t matter where we live.”
Isaac’s belly fluttered—he could tell David now. It was after midnight, after all. After they set out the cookies and a glass of milk, everyone was ready for bed. As the others went up, Isaac lingered in the foyer.
David glanced back. “Isaac?”
Aaron had left the Christmas tree on, and the colored lights from the living room spilled into the darkness of the foyer. Isaac pointed to David’s shoes. “You’d better check in there.”
David smiled. “Candy? I suppose I can squeeze in a piece.”
“Look and see.”
Crouching down, David checked the empty shoe first. Then he stuck his hand into the other sneaker and pulled out the key ring. It was just plain silver since Isaac hadn’t had time to buy a different one. Two keys hung from it, and David stood as he peered at them.
“Keys to what?”
Isaac’s stomach clenched, and his heart thumped. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea. He and David had made a pact that they’d always make decisions together, and he’d gone ahead and done this without saying a word. “Well… It’s the key to that house,” he blurted.
David stared at the keys in his hand.
“The house in Dublin? With the perfect garage and everything?”
David blinked at Isaac. “But how?”
The words tripped out. “I called Margery and asked her if we could do work for her. Fix things on the houses and in exchange pay less rent. If we fixed up that other house with the basement apartment, she could charge more for it. And we could help with her house too, since her husband can’t do repairs anymore.”
“How much is the rent?”
“Twenty-two hundred. I asked for two thousand. She wanted more, but I think we can afford it, David. I really do. I used the money for Florida and a little from our joint account. I know I should have asked you first, but I wanted it to be a surprise for Christmas. She said I only had to give her one month up front, and we’ll have a one-month trial and see if we’re all happy with the deal. So we can always find another place if we don’t like it.” Isaac stopped talking, and his heartbeat was loud in his ears.
David was still staring at him. “She agreed to only one month up front?”
He flushed. “I told her we were Amish, so I guess she thinks we’re trustworthy. You know how English people are. They think Amish never lie or do bad things.”
“We can move into that house? When?”
“As soon as we like. Officially it’s January first, but she said we can go over anytime. I figured we can see how it goes before you give notice on your workshop downtown. Make sure we like it first.”
“Isaac…” David opened and closed his mouth.
“Are you mad? I should have talked to you. I just wanted to give you a surprise and—”
David kissed him hard, crushing their mouths together as he hauled Isaac close. Isaac gripped David’s arms, and they kissed and kissed until they were both panting.
Isaac blinked. “You’re not mad?”
“Eechel, I love you so much,” David said with a wide smile.
The little nickname—acorn in their Amish German dialect—never failed to make Isaac glow all the way to his toes. “I love you too, my David.”
“Oh, Isaac. I can’t believe this. I wish we could go see the house right now and start planning.”
He grinned. “And the first thing to plan is what our bed will look like.”
“Well, actually…” He tugged Isaac’s hand and led him to the sliding glass doors that opened to the narrow backyard.
The stones of the patio were cold under Isaac’s socks, but he didn’t care as he noticed the tarp covering something by the fence. “What’s that?”
Biting his lip, David pulled off the tarp.
Isaac squinted in the darkness, the moon too thin to give much light. He went closer, reaching out to run his fingers over the plastic Bubble Wrap. There were large pieces of wood securely wrapped, and as he tried to make sense of their shapes, he realized the tall one under his hand was a bedpost.
“David! Is this… Did you?” Isaac’s jaw dropped. “Is this our bed?”
“I know we said we’d design it together, but I wanted to surprise you, and I think I know what you like.”
“We said no gifts.” He teased, “What happened to the gloves?”
“I think Santa might put them in your stocking. Besides, you didn’t stick to it either.” David swung the keys on his finger.
“Yeah, but that’s for both of us.” Isaac stared at the bed frame. Although it was hard to tell for sure in the darkness, it seemed to be made of the dark cherry wood that Isaac loved. His breath caught as David pressed against him from behind, his arms stealing around Isaac’s middle.
“This is for both of us too.” His warm breath sent a shiver down Isaac’s spine. “I can’t wait to have you in this bed.”
Isaac’s mouth went dry as his body tingled. “Uh-huh. That’ll be good. Let’s do that right now.”
David laughed, squeezing Isaac tighter. “It’s all ready to be put together, but I suppose we’ll have to wait until we move in.”
“How did you get it back here? When?”
“This morning. I’ve been building it nonstop whenever you weren’t at the workshop. Our noisy neighbor was surprisingly helpful and let me store the pieces there. He had a pickup truck he let me borrow too.” David pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “And here—this is what it’ll look like.”
Isaac shifted his feet on the chilly stones as he peered at the drawing of a wooden bed with a gently curved headboard with serpentine slats and round knobs on the four posts. “I… Wow. Wow.”
David turned Isaac in his arms, a frown creasing his face. “Was it the wrong thing to do? If you don’t like it, if it’s not what you’d imagined, I can sell it, and we’ll build another one.”
“Don’t you dare sell my bed.” Isaac cupped David’s cheek, the stubble rough on his palm as he kissed him. “It’s perfect. Just perfect.”
David leaned their foreheads together. “I wish we could see the house again now. There are so many plans to make.”
Isaac’s pulse raced. “Why can’t we? You have your license now, and Aaron said we can borrow his car anytime. The roads will be so quiet now. We’ll get there in no time. I’ll leave a note, but we’ll be back before long.”
Nodding, David’s eyes gleamed in the night. “Let’s see our new home.”
The only time David had ever experienced the city so still was when he and Isaac had arrived off the bus all the way from Minnesota in the middle of the night. Tonight there was no fog as they drove the sleeping streets, and even the freeway seemed empty. Christmas lights shone from houses and businesses, and Isaac found a radio station playing carols.
As they approached Dublin, “Silent Night” filled the car, and a few snowflakes drifted down, quickly melting on the windshield.
“All is calm; all is bright.”
Isaac had the map on his phone, and David followed his quiet directions. When they pulled into the empty driveway, he shut off the engine, and they stared at the house in silence as a song about a good king played.
“I used to daydream about sharing a house with you,” Isaac murmured. “How we’d work together in the barn, eat lunch in our kitchen, and sleep in our own bed at night, safe and warm together under a pretty quilt. And I know this won’t be like that, but it’ll be ours, David. At least for now.”
David had to swallow hard over the lump in his throat. He reached for Isaac’s hand. “I dreamed of that too. Who would have thought we’d end up here?”
Isaac squeezed his fingers. “Sometimes I miss it. Miss them, mostly. But having this with you makes it all worth it.” A smile brightened his face. “Come on.”
David had put the keys in his pocket, so he was the one to unlock the door and take a tentative step inside. The wooden floor creaked under his sneakers. “Where’s the light?”
Isaac brushed past him. “Hold on. Close your eyes.”
He did as he was told.
“Okay. Open.”
A little gasp escaped David’s lips. Someone had strung Christmas lights through the entryway and into the living room and down the hall to the kitchen. “When?”
“Anna helped me this morning.” Isaac shut the door behind David before frowning. “Uh-oh. Don’t move.”
“What?” David glanced down at his feet but didn’t see anything amiss.
Isaac was still frowning. “It’s up there.”
Tipping his head back, David peered at the ceiling. There was a gold-trimmed light fixture above him with something hanging from it. A branch? Berries? “What is that?”
“I think it’s called mistletoe.” A little smile lifted Isaac’s lips.
“Oh, like in that movie?” David realized what Isaac was playing at and tried to hide his own smile. He cleared his throat. “This is a very serious English tradition from what I understand. If you’re caught under the mistletoe, you have to kiss, or there are terrible consequences.”
Isaac nodded gravely. “Terrible. We’d better not take any chances.”
Their noses bumped in the low light, and they laughed, their lips meeting and teasing. David leaned their foreheads together. “We should have mistletoe up all year long.”
“Mmm.” Isaac lowered his head and sucked on the sensitive skin of David’s neck as his hands roamed.
“Isaac, we’re barely in the front door. Shouldn’t we look at the rest of the—” Isaac cupped David’s cock through his jeans, and David moaned. “Although it’s not going anywhere.”
“I think I’d better kiss you again. Just to make sure we didn’t do anything wrong with the mistletoe.”
“We can’t be too careful. It would be bad luck.” He tried to capture Isaac’s mouth, but Isaac sank to his knees. Isaac went to work on David’s jeans while he looked up through his lashes, and David’s pulse leapt.
“Better kiss you more than one place,” Isaac whispered.
“It’s tradition.”
“Yep. This is totally what English people do under the mistletoe.” Isaac’s breath ghosted over David’s groin as he freed his cock.
David shivered and ran his thumb over Isaac’s lips. “So beautiful.”
Isaac took him into his mouth, holding David’s hips and sucking gently. David leaned back against the front door, moaning as Isaac took him deeper. From where he stood, David could almost see the whole little house, lit by the colored fairy lights. The two bedrooms were dark beyond their open doors, and there were so many plans to make.
David thumped his head against the door as Isaac sucked harder and caressed his balls. Isaac licked and teased, and David ran his fingers through Isaac’s hair, petting him. In the hush of the small hours in the colorful glow, David thought he must have been dreaming. Sometimes it didn’t seem true that he could actually be so lucky.
Their life in Zebulon seemed years ago and a million miles away. He’d never thought he’d be able to leave—never thought he’d be able to love Isaac openly. It hadn’t been easy, but here they were in their own house. It didn’t matter that they didn’t own it, or that it wasn’t where they’d spend the rest of their lives. For now, it was perfect.
He found himself smiling between the gasps of pleasure that escaped his lips. He hoped all English Christmases would be this magical.
Isaac nuzzled David’s balls while David stroked his hair, a swell of pure affection choking him. It didn’t take long until he was coming down Isaac’s throat with a cry he didn’t have to muffle this time. When Isaac got to his feet, David kissed him deeply, tasting himself.
Isaac leaned back. “Come on. Let’s see our house.”
But David spun Isaac around, pushing him against the door with a lingering kiss before he sank to his knees. “That can wait.” He pointed to the mistletoe. “It’ll be our tradition.”
As he took Isaac between his lips, Isaac’s laughter turned to cries of pleasure that echoed through the empty rooms, soon to be filled with so much love.
New to Isaac and David? Find out how their forbidden love began!
When two young Amish men find love, will they risk losing everything?
Isaac knows his sinful desire for David is forbidden.
In the strict Amish settlement of Zebulon, Minnesota, every detail of life—down to the width of a hat brim—is dictated by God and the all-powerful rules of the community. There’s no rumspringa for exploration beyond the boundaries of their insular world. Isaac will soon have to officially join the church and take a wife, but he yearns for freedom.
He yearns for David.
When he becomes David’s carpentry apprentice, Isaac discovers he’s not alone in his longing. Passion ignites amid sweat and sawdust. Somehow, Isaac and David must reconcile their deepening love for each other with their commitment to faith, family, and community.
Now that they’ve found each other, are they willing to lose it all?
A Forbidden Rumspringa by Keira Andrews is a gay romance and the first book in a series of forbidden Amish love. It contains steamy exploration, forced proximity, Jane Austen levels of pining, and of course a happy ending.
Click here to read more forbidden love in a strict Amish community!
Read more sexy M/M romance from Keira Andrews
Will a virgin captive surrender to this pirate’s sinful touch?
Nathaniel Bainbridge is used to hiding, whether it’s concealing his struggles with reading or his forbidden desire for men. Under the thumb of his controlling father, the governor of Primrose Isle, he’s sailing to the fledging colony, where he’ll surrender to a respectable marriage for his family’s financial gain. Then pirates strike and he’s kidnapped for ransom by the Sea Hawk, a legendary villain of the New World.
Bitter and jaded, Hawk harbors futile dreams of leaving the sea for a quiet life, but men like him don’t deserve peace. He has a score to settle with Nathaniel’s father—the very man whose treachery forced him into piracy—and he’s sure Nathaniel is just as contemptible.
Yet as days pass in close quarters, Nathaniel’s feisty spirit and alluring innocence beguile and bewitch. Although Hawk knows he must keep his distance, the desire to teach Nathaniel the pleasure men can share grows uncontrollable. It’s not as though Hawk would ever feel anything for him besides lust…
Nathaniel realizes the fearsome Sea Hawk’s reputation is largely invented, and he sees the lonely man beneath the myth, willingly surrendering to his captor body and soul. As a pirate’s prisoner, he is finally free to be his true self. The crew has been promised the ransom Nathaniel will bring, yet as danger mounts and the time nears to give him up, Hawk’s biggest battle could be with his own heart.
Kidnapped by the Pirate by Keira Andrews is a breeches-ripping gay romance featuring a tough pirate too afraid to love, a plucky captive half his age, enemies to lovers, first times and exploration, and of course a happy ending.
To be home for Christmas, they must bridge the distance between them.
Charlie Yates is desperate. It’s almost Christmas and his flight home from college has been delayed. For days. Charlie promised his little sister Ava he’d be home for her first holiday season since going into remission from leukemia. Now he’s stuck on the opposite coast and someone else grabbed the last rental car. Someone he hasn’t even spoken to in four years.
Someone who broke his heart.
Gavin Bloomberg’s childhood friendship with Charlie ended overnight after a day of stolen kisses. With years of resentment between them, they don’t want to be in the same room together, let alone a car. But for Ava’s sake, Gavin agrees to share the rental and drive across the country together.
As they face unexpected bumps along the road, can Charlie and Gavin pave the way to a future together?
If Only in My Dreams by Keira Andrews is a gay holiday romance featuring enemies to lovers, forced proximity, steamy first times, and of course a happy ending.