Daddy's Christmas Elf: A Daddy-lite Christmas MM Romance by Ali Ryecart

Author:Ali Ryecart [Ryecart, Ali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Eli snuggled down into the sofa, in front of the crackling fire, as Trevor dozed in his lap. His mind returned to what had happened out on the Heath. Not so much the accident, which had scared the living daylights out of him, and shaken him up more than he’d wanted to admit, but to what had happened after.

Grey, sweeping him up in his arms and holding him tight.

Eli swallowed, his mouth dry as he relived every single moment. He hadn’t argued; there had been no point because Grey wouldn’t have listened to him. But that hadn’t been the only reason. He hadn’t argued because he hadn’t wanted to.

Wrapped in Grey’s arms, Eli had never felt so safe and secure. So cherished. Eli closed his eyes and breathed in deep, just as he’d done when he’d burrowed in close to Grey’s chest, hearing the hard, strong beat of Grey’s heart. The sure and steady rhythm had calmed him, just as Grey’s sure and steady arms around him had.

Wrapped up in Grey’s soft dressing gown, after a soak in a hot bath, Eli lifted the collar of the dressing grown and gave it a sniff, drenching himself in the aroma of orange. But there was more, a base note of something deeper, warmer, and way more masculine and heady: the scent of Grey himself. Eli’s heart twisted. Yes, the underscoring scent was all those things but it was so much more. It was the scent of care and consideration, of strength. It was a scent of a man who would keep him safe and warm, of a man who would pick him up when he fell.

And don’t I feel like I’ve been falling, far too deep and for far too long?

On his lap, Trevor shifted and snuggled closer, and Eli slowly ran a hand over the little dog. Life, beyond the safety of Grey’s four walls, was little more than a hard, never ending grind. He was a hamster on a wheel, always moving but never getting anywhere.

“Do you think I’m a fraud, Trev? Because when I feel brave enough to take a really close look at myself, that’s what I think.”

Trevor snored softly.

Eli stared at the fire. Fraud. That was what he was, to himself more than anybody. He hid behind a breezy approach to life, his confidence nothing more than a façade that threatened to crumble and fall if prodded and poked too hard. His home wouldn’t be his home for much longer and his job might not be there in the New Year. What money he’d scrimped and saved would have to be spent on surviving before going towards realising his ambitions to be his own boss.

A potato and pizza wagon. It sounded so… small. Benny and Lenny had laughed, deriding his idea when he’d told them, but they hadn’t been the only ones and it was why he kept it to himself. Until he’d told Grey. Grey, who hadn’t laughed or looked at him as though he’d lost his mind.

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