Dust of Snow (16 page)

“
Oh
God, what you do to me,” Ashley
croaked. “They’re in the—” We both startled when his phone vibrated
on the kitchen counter. “I’ll let it go to voice mail,” he said,
eyes hungry.

I sat back and took a deep breath. “It’s
fine. Answer it.” I scooted back to my own chair.

Ashley stood—a little unsteadily, I was happy
to note—and grabbed his phone. He made a painful little sound, and
then he answered, eyes fixed on me.

“Hey, Mom. No, of course I didn’t forget.
Merry Christmas to you too. Uh-huh. Sounds good. See you then.” He
hung up.

“You don’t have to explain,” I said. “I
completely understand.” When he gave me a dubious look, I squeezed
his knee. “Really.”

“Actually, I was hoping you’d come to
dinner.”

“Uh…” Meet his family?
Today?

“Everyone will be there, but we don’t have to
stay late. You can bring your mom. But I’m sure you guys already
have plans. I just hoped maybe…” He gave me a lopsided grin that
made my heart squeeze.

“I…” He wanted me to meet his entire
family
? Oh God. He had a sister and nieces and parents and
who knew what else. Ashley took my hand in both of his and stared
at our entwined fingers. His dark hair fell over his forehead, and
I wanted to smooth it back, to look into his gold-flecked eyes.

“Too soon?” he asked, not meeting my
gaze.

In a way it was, but on the other hand, I
wanted to be a part of this man’s life so badly it scared the hell
out of me. And quite frankly, I was done being scared.

“Yes,” I said, and Ashley lifted his head,
wincing. “But the truth is that my mother’s in Texas with her new
lady lover—I’ll explain later—and I actually am free today. I just
have to go home and freshen up.” I gasped. “And feed Curly! Crap. I
always leave extra dry kibble but he likes the fresh stuff.” He
began to smile, and it warmed me to the tips of my toes. Those damn
dimples. “If it’s okay with your parents, of course.” I felt like a
damn teenager.

“Of course,” Ashley agreed around a wide
grin. “I’ll give my mom a call, but I promise you it’s fine.” He
made a face. “In fact, she’ll be embarrassingly over the moon, so
I’m just going to apologize for that in advance. But her cooking
will make up for it. Her stuffing is to die for.”

“Sounds good.” I grinned. I was going to have
a proper Christmas dinner after all. Impulsively, I straddled
Ashley’s lap again. “We have some time, right?”

He nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh. Dinner will be
early, so we shouldn’t take too long, but…” Ashley ran his hands
under my sweater. “I can’t get enough of you.”

My pulse raced. “How do you want me?”

He bit his lip and his cheeks dimpled. “I
want you to come in my mouth.”

“Well,” I said, my voicing going
embarrassingly high. “I think that can be arranged.”

A couple of hours later I stepped out of the
shower—groomed within an inch of my life—and took a deep, steadying
breath. I toweled my hair in the candlelight and forced it into
shape with a bit of product, made sure with a flashlight that I
hadn’t missed a spot during my shave or nicked my skin, dabbed a
little aftershave on my wrists and under my ears, and headed out of
the bathroom to get dressed.

I wasn’t as petrified as I thought I’d be,
and I could partly thank Carl’s gift of an Armani two-button suit
in a wool, silk, and cashmere blend. The thing cost more than I
usually spent on five suits, but good heavens, was it worth it. I
fondled the soft material. It was dark gray with a very faint check
design, and he’d given me a black shirt to go underneath and a new
tie as well. The dark-gray tie fit the suit perfectly, but had
small diamond shapes in light blue that brought the whole thing to
life. And it made my butt look amazing, like two apples snuggled
under a blanket. A very pricey blanket.

The shirt felt so soft on my skin, and goose
bumps rose over my arms. I took my time buttoning it up,
straightened the cuffs, and slipped a matching set of understated
silver cuff links into place. When I was dressed I turned toward my
full-length mirror.

I knew I was a little bit of a vain man. I
could see where Mother—and Ashley—saw the resemblance with a young
Robert Redford, but it had never looked as obvious as it did just
then. I grinned at my reflection in the flickering light of the
candles, and the guy who grinned back looked nothing like me. He
looked handsome and confident. He looked like he was going to a
holiday dinner to charm the relatives of the man he was falling
for, hard, until they’d turn into a puddle of goo. Then he’d charm
the pants off the guy. Literally.

Downstairs I shrugged on my thick peacoat,
gloves, and scarf, but I left off my hat so it wouldn’t mess up my
hair. Tonight, dressed like this, I felt I could get away with a
little narcissism.

I wished I had something to bring the
Montgomerys, but Ash said they didn’t drink, and all I had in the
house was some wine. Just then the doorbell rang. Butterflies burst
to life in my stomach, causing all internal organs to take flight.
Please fasten your seat belts
. Deep breath, chin up, one
foot in front of the other. I could do this. Curly watched my
progress with a grumpy meow. I still wasn’t forgiven for being out
all night.

“Hey.” Ashley stood on my porch, his eyes
twinkling and smile wide. He looked me up and down quickly before
doing a visible double take and starting over again slowly,
beginning at my feet. “Wait a minute.” He stepped inside before I
could answer and closed the door behind him. The moonlight streamed
through the frosted glass window.

Ashley yanked his gloves off and let them
fall, and then unwound the scarf from around my neck and unbuttoned
my coat and held it open. He stared until I started to fidget.

“Gregory,” he breathed. “That must’ve cost a
fortune.”

“A little one,” I admitted. It was on the tip
of my tongue to say it was a gift from Carl, but I left well enough
alone.

His eyes met mine. “I don’t know what to do,”
he whispered. “I want to ravish you, but I don’t want to mess this
up. You look… Jesus. How the hell am I going to keep my hands off
you all night?” He appeared genuinely distressed.

I grinned, ridiculously pleased, and stepped
into his space. With a hand to the back of his neck I pulled him
down for kiss, and he came willingly, skipping the prelude and
diving right into the main event. His tongue pushed against mine,
warm and wet. He tasted of peppermint with a vague hint of
chocolate, and I hummed into the kiss, my heart beating fast. He
made me feel wanted, something that meant so much to me it sparked
like electricity under my skin.

He groaned and pulled away, but didn’t go
far. “This is not helping.” I noticed his fingers trembled when he
ran them over my suit jacket, touching the lapels, my tie. “God,
Gregory. You look perfect. I—” For a moment I couldn’t read him. He
looked as if his own thoughts had overwhelmed him. “You look so
good,” he said softly.

I preened. “Thank you. You don’t look so bad
yourself.” His suit was mostly hidden under his coat, but it was a
pinstriped one I hadn’t seen before.

“We have to go,” Ashley said, his eyes still
dark and lusty. “Damn it, I want to peel you out of your clothes
right now.”

“You can peel me later,” I promised. Peel me
like a ripe, juicy orange. “Let’s go meet your family.” I buttoned
up again and didn’t imagine Ashley’s regretful little sigh.
Slipping a hand under his coat, I squeezed his ass. “It’ll be worth
the wait.”

Ashley’s parents lived on the other side of
town, in a suburb behind a huge church. Its parking lot was full to
the brim. My own parents had never bothered with religion, even on
Christmas.

“Did you come here as a kid?”

“Hmm?” Ashley followed my gaze. “Oh, no. I
didn’t grow up here. We used to live somewhere else entirely.”

“Really?” I was about to ask more, but then
we were pulling up outside a house. It was an old colonial with a
winding path leading up to the front door. Cheerfully blinking
Christmas lights lined the boxwoods along the path, and more were
draped over two large evergreens on either side of the house. We
climbed out of the car as the front door opened and a gigantic
mountain of fur burst through.

“Shit,” Ash muttered as he scrambled to get
in front of me.

“Sorry!” someone yelled from the house.

“Matrix!” another voice came.

“
Woof
,” Matrix barked. It reverberated
so deeply it felt like the earth moved.

Ashley stepped between me and the monster dog
and ordered, “Sit!” Paws went a-skidding, Matrix’s butt touched the
ground while he was still moving, and he dragged a landslide of
snow with him. He came to a stop right at Ashley’s feet, looking
forlorn with the saddest eyes I’d ever seen—a stark contrast to the
happy lollop I’d just witnessed. Ash stared sternly at the dog
before cracking a small smile and rubbing the top of his head.
“Good boy,” he crooned and then turned to me. “Are you scared of
dogs?”

I eyed the beast. Its head came up to
Ashley’s waist, and I recognized it for one of those dogs Mother
used to tell me about as a child, the ones that carried whiskey to
people lost in the mountains. I still wondered if that was true.
“Are you sure that’s a dog?” I said.

Ashley snorted. “He’s friendly. A bit too
friendly, which is why he normally gets locked up in the study when
we are having people over. He’s very generous with his drool.”

“Oh.” I held out a hand, Matrix sniffed my
fingers, and yep, I could see a long string of slobber dangling
from the corner of his mouth. Call me crazy, but give me cats any
day. “Appetizing.”

“Isn’t he just? Come on boy. Inside.” Matrix
stood and ambled back to the house, throwing a droopy-eyed look
over his shoulder to make sure we were following. “You ready to
meet the rest of them?” A bunch of people stood waiting in the
doorway.

“As long as Matrix is the only one who
dribbles.”

Ash sighed and walked with me up the steps.
“I wish.”

We reached the door and everyone began to
move at once. A tiny woman with chin-length black hair and bright
red lipstick wrapped her arms around Ashley and squeezed him tight.
A guy who could be Ashley ten years from now and ten pounds heavier
patted him on the back, a girl with bright blue eyes and long brown
hair stared at me without blinking, and a tiny little human I
estimated to be around a year or three attempted escape. Before I
could reach out and stop his socks from getting soaked, a pair of
hands with purple nails grabbed him around the waist and hoisted
him up.

“For heaven’s sake,” the woman said. “Can we
take this inside? It’s freezing.”

The black-haired lady let Ashley go, and he
turned to the one with the toddler on her hip. “Merry Christmas,
Phoebe.”

Her eyes crinkled at the corners, and two
dimples identical to Ashley’s appeared at the corners of her mouth.
“Hey, baby brother, come on. Inside.”

Ashley took my coat as I wiped my feet. Down
the hall someone let out a low whistle, and a man I assumed was
Ashley’s brother shouldered his way toward me.

“Nice suit.” He squinted at… I don’t know
what, but it was situated somewhere in the middle of my chest.
“That Hugo Boss?”

“Ah…” I silently appealed to Ash, who was
slipping my coat over a hanger. “No, it’s not.”

Ashley’s brother straightened with an
appreciative gleam in his eye. “Armani, huh. Not bad.”

“Gregory, this is Anthony, my brother. He
owns a whole bunch of retail stores, and he likes to pretend he
knows what he’s talking about.”

“Hey!” Anthony turned to Ashley but then did
a double take. “Wait. Gregory? As in work Gregory?”

“Yes—shut it,” Ashley replied tersely, and he
slipped off his own coat. I nearly swallowed my tongue. The
pinstripe suit was a three-piece, with a crisp white shirt and a
shimmery dark-blue tie I wanted to touch so badly. Very aware of
half Ashley’s family still watching us, I lowered my gaze and hoped
the hallway was dark enough to hide my hot cheeks.

“Come on,” Ash said. “Let’s get you
introduced properly to Mom.”

His mother had hurried back into the kitchen,
but she turned to us as soon as we entered.

“I’m sorry,” she said, closing in on me. “I
didn’t mean to be rude out there, but I had to check on the clam
chowder. If I leave the clams in for too long—”

“They go chewy,” I finished. “I
understand.”

“Mom, this is Gregory Peck. He’s a friend and
a colleague.”

“Gregory
Peck
?” Her face lit up. “How
wonderful!” She approached and I held out a hand, but she surprised
me and wrapped me in a tight hug. I awkwardly patted the middle of
her back, overwhelmed by the scent of spices and something fruity
underneath. “Although I have to say…” She held me at arm’s length
but didn’t let go of me. “You look more like a young Robert
Redford.”