Chapter 87

The pressure against his ass increased. This was accompanied by a kiss to the back of his head.

“Merry Christmas,” Jake said, his voice graveled and sleepy.

Barry didn’t want to turn around, that would mean losing contact—however briefly—with Jake’s hardening dick. Instead Barry lifted Jake’s hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. “Merry Christmas to you, too. I’d ask if you wanted to get up, but I can feel you already are.”

Jake chuckled and pulled Barry against his chest. “Love holding you like this.”

“Love being held like this.”

Alas, the moment was ruined a few seconds later when Jake yelped and jerked forward. “What the…?”

They both turned around to see a grinning Rex standing at the side of the bed.

“Fuckin’ dog goosed me,” Jake said, rubbing his bare ass.

Through his laughter, Barry said, “Oh, Rex, you bad dog.”

The noise woke Jimmy. He stretched, yawned, and let out a loud fart. “So, we gonna open our gifts? What did you get me?”

“A fucking air freshener,” Jake grumped, getting out of bed and heading for the door.

“Fuck you,” Jimmy said, raising his middle finger.

“Remember, Santa doesn’t leave presents for naughty boys,” Barry warned.

Jake shook his head and left the room, presumably to visit the bathroom.

“Santa’s already been,” Jimmy said, rolling on top of Barry and kissing him.

“He can come back and take away all those gifts under the tree.”

“Not if I open them first,” Jimmy said, leaping out of bed.

Rex whined, wanting to go out.

“We’ll open the gifts in a minute. Let me see to Rex first and I’ll put on a pot of coffee.” Slipping into his robe, he asked, “Where do you guys usually open gifts?”

Jimmy shrugged. “No set pattern.”

Jake came back into the bedroom. “Let’s open them in here. Damned heat’s out.”

“Fuck!” Jimmy said.

As he hurriedly dressed to let Rex out, Barry had wondered why it was so cold. But they weren’t totally without sources of heat. The oven would keep the kitchen warm and they could light a fire in the front room.

While waiting for Rex to do his thing, Barry fired the oven up and left the door open. As the men would only be doing the most essential of chores and they’d be eating a huge meal later, he decided he’d just serve a light breakfast. Maybe smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast.

Rex barked and Barry let him back inside. The dog walked past Barry and out of the kitchen. That was unusual. Normally Rex would eat something before settling himself in his basket in the corner of the kitchen. Barry found Rex in the main room watching Jimmy and Jake scoop up the gifts from under the tree. Several were for Rex, but surely he couldn’t know that. But as one or two were food gifts, maybe the canine had figured it out.

“Merry Christmas, Rex,” Jimmy said, leaning forward from his seated position and kissing the dog on the nose.

Rex’s tongue came out and licked Jimmy’s lips.

“Uh, dog germs,” Jake said.

“You’re only jealous ’cause he didn’t kiss you,” Jimmy replied.

“Yeah, right. Now if we’ve got everything, let’s go back to bed. It’s fucking freezing in here.”

Jake, Jimmy, Barry, and Rex returned to the bedroom. The three men climbed back under the covers and Jake told Rex to go lay down on his blanket.

“He’s still sore that Rex didn’t kiss him,” Jimmy told Barry.

But Jake was too busy sorting gifts to reply.

Each man sat up in bed, a pile of wrapped gifts in front of them.

“Who’s first?” Jimmy asked.

“Me,” Jake said.

“Aw, I wanted to go first,” Jimmy complained.

Barry rolled his eyes. But then if his cowboys couldn’t behave like children on Christmas morning, when could they? “Let Rex go first.”

The dog barked, approached the bed, and wagged his tail.

“ ’Suppose,” Jake said, tossing a wrapped package onto the floor.

Barry was about to mention that maybe they should unwrap it for him, but Rex made short work of ripping through the paper to reveal a large rawhide bone. Rex took it over to his blanket and began chewing.

“Well, that’s him happy,” Barry said. “Now for you two. Why don’t you both open a gift at the same time?” He sorted through each man’s piles and pulled out a couple of gifts. “Leave these until last. Okay?”

They agreed.

Jimmy unwrapped a blue plaid shirt sent by Jake’s parents, and Jake tore into a package of red boxers that Barry had given him.