Christmas in July .99 cent Book Funnel Sale
Direct From Payhip Sale: A Daddy for Christmas Ryu
Direct From Payhip Sale: A Little Christmas: Ajay's Secret
Ajay's Secret Snippet
While the place had thinned out considerably,
the asshole who’d come after him had lingered, along with several of his
friends, so when Barrett finally told him to shut it down, and paid him,
slipping him an additional hundred for the extra time, Ajay didn’t feel like
walking would be the best idea.
A quick text to Tiny went unanswered, as did
his one to Billy, asking him to wake Tiny and tell him to call. Shanny and
Angel must have been asleep too, since neither responded when he tried to call
them, leaving Ajay pondering whether to risk it and walk, since he still hadn’t
gotten around to getting a prepaid visa and setting up an Uber account. Now, he
was kicking himself for putting it off while he stared down at Walker’s number,
hoping it wouldn’t piss the man off too much to be woken.
He was shocked when Walker answered on the
second ring.
“Ajay…I didn’t expect to hear from you
tonight.”
“Sorry, am I interrupting something?”
“Nope, just this file I’m past sick of going
through. Please tell me you’ve got something amusing to share to take my mind off
it.”
“Not exactly,” Ajay hedged, hesitant to bother
him. He was about to apologize for calling in the first place when he caught
sight of the asshole from earlier in the night steadily staring at him.
“Is something wrong?”
Sighing, Ajay took stock of his inebriated
state and decided that the asshole and his friends weren’t ones he wanted to
tangle with.
“Ajay. Talk to me.”
It wasn’t a request that time, but an order,
and Ajay felt a lot better about answering now that Walker had slipped into
that tone.
“I played at a bar tonight and now I’ve got a
little problem,” Ajay explained. “No one is answering at home and this asshole
I got into it with is hanging around with his buddies, so I don’t wanna risk
walking.”
“Want me to send for an Uber?”
“Yes, please, just, could you see where they
pick up from first, if it isn’t near enough to the front of the bar Leroy won’t
be able to keep an eye out for me.”
“Where exactly are you?”
Ajay gave him the address and shuffled from
one foot to the other while Walker went silent on the other end.
“Yeah, that’s not going to work, the nearest
pickup is a block in the other direction from where you live,” Walker said.
“Just stay put, I’ll get an Uber to bring me so you aren’t alone.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for disrupting your
night.”
“In this case, I’m glad you did,” Walker told
him, his voice holding that stern, no-nonsense tone that told Ajay he wasn’t
just being nice. “I’d have been very upset if you didn’t, and something
happened to you. Now sit tight, I’ll be there soon.”
The call disconnected, leaving Ajay to perch
on the stool he’d chosen, where he could keep one eye on the guy and his
friends while waiting for Walker. He’d expected a call back when he arrived, or
a text telling him to come out, so the last thing he expected was to see Walker
stalk through the doors less than ten minutes later, and head straight for
Ajay.
The moment he caught sight of the bruise on
Ajay’s cheek his eyes went wide, then narrowed into a fierce scowl that only
grew darker when he took Ajay’s face in his hands and studied the mark.
“Who did that?” Walker snarled, eyes skimming
past Ajay’s shoulder to take in the room.
“I did, you got a problem with that?” Asshole
barked as he slammed down his drink.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Walker remarked,
moving past Ajay who turned in time to see the asshole coming off his barstool.
His last thought, before Walker tackled the man and started raining punches
down on his face, was that the night had just taken a hard left into the
unexpected.
Ryu's Snippet
“What
does the card say?” Callahan asked after several more moments of rummaging
around and clearly producing nothing.
“Card?
What card?”
“The
one attached to the basket! How else did you know we were the ones to send it
to you?”
“I
didn’t see any card! I took one look at the boy all wrapped up on my porch and
assumed it had to be one of you fuckers. Hang on, let me go outside and check.”
“Outside?
Hank, it’s fuckin’ freezing out there you asshole! Bring him in for fuck’s
sake.”
“Well,
now that I know there isn’t a gun waiting for me under all of that wrapping
paper, I will.”
“For
fuck’s sake, paranoid much?”
“You
should know that by now,” Hank muttered and tossed the phone on the couch so he
could go find this card they were talking about. With his bum knee, there was
no way he was going to be able to lift that basket, so the boy better be
willing to climb out of it, or on the porch he’d remain.
The
boy in the basket was right where Hank had left him, only there was no question
that he was shivering now and looked quite sad and confused, though his eyes
brightened when they landed on Hank and he attempted another smile, despite the
way his lips quivered. The light flakes that had been falling when he’d first
answered the door had grown thicker and heavier too, the wind whipping a
blizzard of them in a swirl across his porch.
“Come
on, I need you to get up out of there unless you’d like to freeze to death,”
Hank said, crooking his finger at him.
“Unwrappy?”
Groaning,
Hank muttered a litany of curses beneath his breath as he reached for one of
the elaborately tied ribbons.
“Yeah,
yeah, unwrappy,” Hank muttered, struggling to manage it and the cane. Finally,
he just tore at the paper until enough of it fell away that he’d revealed the
young man was, in fact, sitting there in a snowman onesie with a polar bear
stuffy held in his hands. He found the card too, tucked alongside him in the
basket. Sealed with purple wax, it bore the elegant VI logo of the club.
“Come
on then,” Hank said once the young man was free. He climbed to his feet
unsteadily, clinging to that bear and shivering as he shuffled through the
entryway. Hank snatched a throw blanket off the back of the couch and chucked
it his way before opening the card and perusing the contents.
Here’s
a Little something to make your holidays brighter. His name is Ryu. I trust
he’ll bring you plenty of merriment and joy.
Pax
“The
card says the gift is from Pax, and that his name is Ryu.”
“Awe,
he’s a sweetheart. New to the club too. I hope Pax chose a good match for him.”
“You
mean you don’t know who he was supposed to be going to?”
“This
whole ‘gift basket’ idea was Donovan’s baby,” Cal explained. “He got the
littles to sign up and assigned the daycare crew the task of gifting them to
the Daddies they felt would be the best fit out of those who signed up to
receive one. Call it matchmaking meets secret Santa. Personally, I’m
withholding judgment until after the holidays when I can see how many
placements actually take.”
Something
clattered in the background, followed by the sound of a file cabinet being
slammed shut.
“Damnit,
it wasn’t in there either,” Cal muttered.
“Check
your laptop, for fuck’s sake.”
“I
would if I hadn’t forgotten the password again,” Cal grumbled.
“How
the hell you manage to keep that place running is beyond me!” Hank shot back,
growing frustrated.
A
glance over his shoulder revealed that Ryu had taken a seat on the floor, blanket
wrapped around him and his stuffy, and that Artemis, his prickly orange tabby,
was slowly winding her way around him, rubbing against the blanket and
demanding attention. At least neither of them was getting into anything.
“Just
hang on. Donovan finally replied to my text.”
“Good,
tell him to get his ass back here.”
There
was silence from the other end of the phone, so Hank busied himself with
watching Ryu extend one hand from the blanket’s folds to run his fingers down
Artimis’ back until she arched and purred for him.
“I’m
afraid you’re going to have a houseguest for the night, maybe longer if this
storm is as bad as everyone thinks it’ll be,” Cal said when he finally got back
on the line. “Donovan’s clear across town making the last delivery, and Nicky
already went home for the night. Apparently, he was the one who dropped Ryu at
your place.”
“So
where was he supposed to end up?” Hank asked.
“Uhhh,
he uhhh…” Cal stammered.
“Spit
it out, already!” Hank snapped, frustrations reaching a boiling point. He lived
alone for a reason and guests, even invited ones, were few and far between.
That
he’d need to house this adorable little distraction who was clearly intended
for someone else irked him almost as much as when he’d thought they’d
intentionally sent Ryu to him.
“Finn,
damnit. Pax had intended for him to go to Finn.”
Just
hearing the bastard’s name left Hank seething. He was the very reason Hank had
been avoiding the club in the first place. While he could have come to accept
his former boy choosing to end their relationship and move on, what still
rankled was the way he’d gone about it and the fact that he’d chosen that
arrogant bastard to take up with afterward. That Finn had taken every
opportunity to rub his nose in it had nearly landed Hank behind bars on more
than one occasion. Finn was the last Daddy in the world who deserved a sweet,
new little. Not with the way he tended to cycle through and discard them.
“Tell
Pax and Nicky I said thank you and Merry Christmas,” Hank said. “And let
Donovan know not to send anyone to collect Ryu, I’ll be keeping him. Oh, and
you can tell Finn to go to hell.”
Hank
ended the call and hit the do not disturb setting. What had,
moments before, seemed like a major imposition, now appeared to be the perfect
opportunity to exact some well-deserved revenge, and if he should happen to
form a bond with Ryu in the process, that would be a bonus in the grand scheme
of things. Either way, his holiday season had just gotten a hell of a lot more
interesting.
