A Famiglia Christmas Read online

  A Famiglia Christmas

  A.J. Daniels

  A Famiglia Christmas

  A Famiglia Novella

  By

  A.J. Daniels

  A Famiglia Christmas is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by A.J. Daniels

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design: © Ravenwill Designs

  Edited by: Nikki Holt Sexton

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Playlist

  About the Author

  Also by A.J. Daniels

  Chapter 1

  Klara

  The sun has already set before we’re in our rental car and heading to Lake Tahoe from Sacramento International Airport. The trip to get here was long – just over eight hours – but with six kids and a stopover in LAX, it seemed a lot longer. I snuggle further into the new wool coat Braxton bought me before we left Toronto and reach out to turn the heat of my seat warmer up another half degree. The voices of Pentatonix harmonize flawlessly through the speakers as they sing about what Christmas means to them.

  This season’s going to be a good one. I can feel it. We’re all heading to Heavenly Ski Resort for a week-long vacation. No murder. No mayhem. No drama. It’ll just be the four families. We’ll spend our days on the slopes and our nights gathered around the fireplace, watching Christmas movies, drinking eggnog and laughing. It’ll be a normal Christmas.

  I glance over at my husband in the drivers’ seat and remember our very first date. He literally took me to a castle to have dinner. It turned out to be pizza, but it was the best date I had ever had. I remember thinking how sexy he looked back then, with one hand casually resting over the steering wheel and the other on the gear shift, his white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows and a white gold watch glittering on his wrist. I take in the dark wash jeans and black sweater he’s wearing now, with the sleeves rolled up too, and can’t help but smile. When I met him that night in the club, I never thought we’d end up here just seven years later.

  “Are we there yet, Daddy? Cooper promised to take me snowboarding once we got there,” my sweet little angel whines from the back seat, swinging her legs back and forth, the toes of her Sherpa-lined pink boots almost colliding with the back of Braxton’s drivers’ seat.

  A low growl begins to reverberate through my husband’s chest at the way our daughter says Cooper’s name and I have to stifle a giggle behind a gloved palm. Braxton’s grip on the steering wheel tightens until his knuckles turn white and his jaw clenches.

  I start fearing for the life of that ten-year-old boy, which is the only reason I find myself interfering. Every other time I would’ve loved to sit back and watch Brax sweat at the idea of his little girl dating.

  “We’ll all get there at the same time, Lily. Cooper and Cameron are in the car right behind us,” I say, twisting around in my seat to face my daughter and point above and behind her head to the back window.

  The grin that lights up her face is blinding. Just knowing that Cooper is close by sets her at ease. Her legs stop swinging and she nods before picking up her iPad again and going back to play one of her Disney Princess games. As much as I love seeing that twinkle in my daughter’s blue eyes, my heart dips and I feel a twinge of regret for wishing with all I have that this doesn't morph into anything more than close friendship for Lily and Cooper. My girl loves freely and all too easily, and I fear that if Cooper ends up hurting her, she won't ever be able to bounce back from it. That, and the fact that they’re both far too young.

  I twist back around in my seat. My gaze taking in the scenery around us. Brax shifts a hand from the gear shift to my knee and squeezes.

  A while later Braxton parks the Benz in front of the row of Chalets we’re renting for the week. He barely has the car turned off before a click sounds from the backseat and Lily’s flinging herself out the door and dashing toward Alessandro and Jessika’s new Jeep, narrowly missing a couple walking their dog.

  “Liliana!” Brax yells in warning, but she’s already rounded the SUV to Cooper’s side of the vehicle. Brax curses, running a hand down his face and glares at me over the roof of our car while I go to open Nico’s door.

  “What?” I laugh.

  “‘We should have kids, Brax,’” he imitates with a roll of his seductive dark eyes.

  I bite my lip, allowing my gaze to roam over the part of his chest I can see over the car.

  “Stop looking at me like that.”

  “Like what?” I ask.

  “Like I’m a steak and you’re starving.” He moves around to the trunk and pulls out suitcase after suitcase, placing them beside the car then reaches up and pulls the lid down to close the trunk again.

  Since our son is still asleep in his car seat, I take the opportunity to sidle up behind my husband and wrap my arms around his waist, running my palms down his chest to the waistband of his jeans. After all these years, I'm still not used to seeing Braxton De Luca in jeans when we're on family holidays. Braxton in a three-piece is sexy as fuck, but in jeans… well, let’s just say, if he wore jeans more often we’d never leave our bedroom. I won the husband lottery when I married him.

  “Mia Bella,” his voice comes out as a warning even while he wraps a warm hand around one of mine and encourages me to explore the hardening ridge behind his zipper.

  “Think we can convince the others to babysit tonight?” I ask, nipping at his earlobe.

  Braxton punches his hips forward and groans. “Baby, if you don’t stop the kids will be scarred for life.”

  Chuckling, I give him one last squeeze before stepping away and lifting a still sleeping Nicolas from the backseat. I stop just outside the door to our Chalet when I realize Braxton has the keys. When I turn back around to my husband, he’s bent over the truck with hands braced on the metal, shoulders heaving with each deep breath. I bite down on the inside of my cheek to stop from laughing. He must feel my eyes on him because his head snaps up, eyes narrowing on me with a promise shining in their dark depths.

  Uh oh.

  Chapter 2

  Braxton

  After opening the Chalet door for Klara and bringing in the other two suitcases, I race back out to the car to get Lily's stuffed animal from where she left it on the backseat. God help me come bedtime and she realizes it's not on her bed or anywhere in the house. Memories of the one-night Lily accidentally left the bunny at my Ma's comes rushing back and I cringe. I'll do anything to keep from hearing my little girl wail the way she did that night. I mean, she just turned six, but she’s had that thing ever since she was a newborn in the hospital. It was just a random purple bunny I picked up in the hospital gift shop, but she loves it.

  “Can you grab Nico’s Binkie?” Klara calls from the front door.

  I’ve just grabbed the stuffed bunny and the pacifier from the backseat when I catch sight of Alessandro through the passenger back window running out to their vehicle.

  Popping my head back out and holler out to him.
“You’re on babysitting duty tonight.”

  I close the back door and make my way back to the Chalet, closing the front door just in time to hear him curse. Dropping the items on the couch in the living room, I go in search of my wife.

  The master bedroom door is slightly ajar, and I can hear the shower going in the attached bathroom. Our son sound asleep in his crib beside the bed. I push open the bathroom door and step into the steam-filled room. I can just barely make out my wife's naked body behind the steamed glass door. God, she's beautiful. And mine, after all these years I still can't believe this woman is mine.

  “Are you just going to watch, or do you plan on joining me?”

  Her words snap me out of my thoughts. I grip the back of my black Henley and pull it over my head, letting it drop to the floor beside my feet. My shoes, jeans, underwear, and socks are the next to go. I push open the door enough for me to slip into the enclosed space and close it behind me.

  “How much time do we have?” She asks, her blue eyes traveling the length of me while a hand slips between her legs and the other cups her breast.

  “All night,” I say, stalking towards her.

  Her slick arms immediately wrap around my waist, her hands continuing the exploration of my body they started outside.

  She cups my growing erection and gives it a quick squeeze making me groan. Her other arm winds around my neck and she gives me the sweetest smile before lifting up on her tiptoes and pressing those full lips I love so much against mine.

  The moan slipping from her throat makes my dick twitch. I back her up until she’s pressed against the wet tile of the shower. Our kiss turns from slow and exploratory to rough and all-consuming in a matter of seconds. My hands roam her body; down her sides and around to her back, stopping on the curve where her lower back meets the globes of her ass. Klara nips my bottom lip and I lean down, sucking one of her nipples between my lips, making her groan. Her hips thrust off the wall. She pulls at the hair at the base of my skull and I growl, moving a hand from the curve of her ass to between her legs. I slap her pussy.

  "Brax," she breathes when I finally let us come up for air, but she doesn't need to say anymore. I know what she wants, what she needs. What we both need.

  Sliding my hands down her backside, I grip under her thighs and lift her up. Her legs automatically wrap around my hips when I press her back against the tiles again.

  “How do you want it, Mia Bella?” I lean down and run my nose up the curve of her neck and nip her jaw. The warmth of her pussy pressing against my dick nearly makes my eyes roll into the back of my head. I need to get inside her.

  "Fast. Please, Brax," she begs, raking her fingernails up my back.

  I move my hips back just far enough to line the head of my dick up with her opening and then I’m fully seated inside her with one thrust forward.

  She screams and I groan into her neck, withdrawing until just the head is barely inside her and then snap my hips forward again. Her back slides up and down the wall with every back and forth movement of my hips.

  “Oh God. Just like that.” Her head is thrown back against the shower wall, her throat exposed so much I can see every hard swallow.

  I stop thrusting and pin her hips between the wall and mine. Klara whines, her lower body wiggling back and forth but her efforts are wasted. She huffs, leveling me with a stare that would make any other man fall to his knees and beg her forgiveness. Luckily, I'm not other men.

  I slip an arm around her waist to keep holding her up and grip her face with my other hand forcing her to look at me. Her baby blue eyes are filled with lust. The black of her pupils almost completely concealing the blue.

  “You want to come, Mia Bella? Want to dig your nails into my back and mark me while your pussy pulses around my cock?”

  “Braxton,” she pants, digging her heels into my ass cheeks as if that’ll be enough to get me moving again.

  “Answer me.”

  “Yes! Dammit, please just mo—” her words end on a grasp when I start moving again. This time harder. Faster.

  I keep my grip on her face and lean down to devour her mouth. Klara claws at me like she needs to get closer. I know the exact moment when she's close. She starts whimpering in my mouth, her hips bucking faster. Removing the hand from her face, I trail my fingers down her center to circle her belly button making her shiver, and then further until my thumb finds the little nub between her legs.

  She tries to wiggle away from my touch, but I tighten my arm around her waist and hold her in place between the wall and my body.

  “Come for me, Klara,” I growl, increasing the pressure on her clit while I fuck her hard. “Come now,” I command.

  My name rips from her mouth on a scream as she convulses around my cock. She’s so fucking tight; I’m forced to wait until her pussy’s done holding my dick in a death grip.

  Once she relaxes enough, I take a step back, sliding from her heat. I make sure she’s steady on her feet before issuing my next command.

  “On your knees,” I say with a fist stroking her cum over my dick.

  Klara falls to her knees, the water from the shower beats down on her back and head causing droplets of water to landing on her lashes, and instantly opens her mouth.

  “You’re a fucking vision before me on your knees.” I stroke the thumb of my other hand down along her jaw and push it between her lips, her tongue instantly swirls around the digit and sucks it into her mouth.

  I can’t hold back my own release anymore. Removing my thumb from her mouth, I brace a hand on the wall above her head and jack myself off faster. Klara shuffles forward and the next time she sticks her tongue out she licks up the slit of my dick before sucking just the head. My orgasm crashes through me, the hand braced against the wall curls into a fist and I cum with a roar all over her cheeks and lips. Before I can move back to give her room to stand, her hands press into the back of my thighs and holds me in place as she cleans my dick with little licks and sucks.

  Leaning down, I tug her up under her arms and lick up the cum first on one cheek and then the other. When I pull back, Klara’s eyes are dazed but there’s a grin pulling at her lips. I can’t help myself; I capture those lips with mine and kiss her, tasting us both on her tongue.

  We finish cleaning each other up and I shut off the water as Klara steps out and goes in search of some towels. I wrap the one she hands me around my hips and follow her out into the bedroom where she collapses on the king-sized bed still wet and with only a towel around her naked body.

  Her sleepy gaze meets mine from across the room. I know I should give her time to recover after that shower, but patience was never in my vocabulary, especially when it comes to my wife naked and in bed.

  Chapter 3

  Alessandro

  Cockblocked by my best friend. I mutter a string of curses under my breath while slamming the passenger side door of the Jeep shut.

  Asshole.

  He’s not the only one who had hopes of jumping their wife as soon as we had arrived at the ski resort.

  “Dad!” Coop yells as soon as I step foot through our Chalet door.

  Jessika already has the fireplace going and it’s casting a warm glow around the rustic wooden building. The place already looks like Santa threw up all over it. A 7-foot tree stands undecorated in the far corner between the frosted window and the fireplace. Four stockings — two red and two green — hang from the mantelpiece while the Christmas story plays out above it in tiny ceramic figurines. Green garlands with white lights wrap around the banister of the staircase leading up to the bedrooms and around the window frame. It’s too much, and yet not enough.

  “Dad!” Cooper says again, trying to get my attention as I try to dance around the kids toys already strewn about behind the couch. Cameron. Over the last several months, our youngest son has made it his mission to take out as many toys as he possibly can in a short amount of time. Like, if every toy he owns isn’t displayed in front of him, he’ll forget about
them.

  We adopted Cooper and his little brother Cameron just over two years ago. Cam took to Jessika and I instantly, but it took Coop awhile longer to trust us. Every time we left them alone with a babysitter or dropped him off at school, I could see it in his eyes that he was hesitant to trust or believe that we were coming back. But after a while with both of us proving to him that we weren't going anywhere, that he and Cam were ours, Coop slowly began opening up. It still clutches at my heart hearing him call me dad, something that he's only recently taken to doing.

  “What’s up, son?”

  Jessika smiles up at me, resting a hand on my chest she leans up to kiss my cheek when I hand her the pecan pie she forgot in the vehicle. Her long dark hair is in a braid down her back. I block out images of that braid wrapped around my fist as I take her from behind. Now’s not the time to be thinking dirty thoughts about my wife. When I turn back around, Cooper and Lily are bouncing on the balls of their feet, big grins on their faces, and snowboarding jackets and boots already on.

  I groan. Please, God, don’t let them ask what I think they’re going to. Not tonight. Eight hours is a long time to spend in a plane with six kids.

  My beautiful, sexy wife giggles behind me. I shoot her a warning look over my shoulder, but it just makes her giggle harder until she snorts. Her emerald eyes dance with humor as she curls a loose strand of midnight hair behind her ear.