“Eww! It’s goats’ cheese.”
“Drizzled in honey.” Jian popped one in his mouth too. “Delicious.”
“Nasty! Those will not go on the menu.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“Why did you make me eat it?”
His eyes sparkled as he met Victor’s gaze. “Because I hope you’ll learn to love goats’ cheese one day, and we can have some goats’ cheese and honey kind of fun.”
Victor scrunched up his face. “We’re not the kind of people who mix food and sex, it’s not sanitary.”
The laugh filled Victor’s chest with tingles. “One day, darling.”
That’s Victor and Jian talking from 24 Dates. Notice how the cheese and honey aren’t sanitary? John and Zachary from Honey Baked may or may not agree.
Eww, as Victor says above, was Amy Spector’s reaction when she beta-read Honey Baked for me LOL
This is a short story, featuring John and Zach from Once in May. Of all the Nortown stories, Once in May is my favourite. While I’ve written several short stories with Aiden and Tristan, John and Zach are the only other characters getting to continue outside their main story.
Tristan is supposed to dress up as Santa but gets sick, so Zach has to cover for him.
Excerpt:
Carefully placing the morsel in John’s mouth, he almost groaned as John’s lips closed around his fingers.
“Mm…” John nodded and chewed.
“Better?”
“You always make things better.”
“I do?”
“Of course. Give me more.”
Zachary huffed a laugh and reached for another piece, but before he fed it to John, he leaned in until their lips practically touched. “It might cost you.”
John brought their lips together, the fake beard getting in the way, and giggled, plucking the rye bread from Zach’s hand. “Take off the beard.”
“I won’t be Santa if I do,” Zach protested but gladly got rid of the beard. It was itchy and hot.
John rearranged himself, sliding his butt higher up Zach’s leg. “Yeah…” He buried his fingertips in his real beard. “Perhaps my Santa hasn’t gone all white-haired yet.”
Zach curled his hand around John’s hip. “Any more wishes I may fulfil?”
***
Nervousness flitted through John’s chest. “There might be something…”
“Yeah?” Zachary’s blue eyes were filled with mischief, and John hesitated. It was a far too serious request to bring up here, not like they were gonna do it here anyway, and saying it out loud only to then have it hanging over him would be too stressful. And what if Zachary didn’t want to, or wanted it and then would be disappointed?
“What are you thinking?” Zachary was still smiling, but he was too good at reading John by now not to notice something was up. John could see it in the way some of the sparkles in his eyes died.
“It’s nothing.”
“Tell me. I’m Santa, remember? I already know everything anyway.”
John smiled. “You do, huh? What was I thinking, then, Santa?” He could play. He might not be good at it, always fearing he’d say the wrong thing or give a false impression, but what could go wrong playing with Santa?
“You were thinking how you want to eat honey-baked Brie off my bare stomach.” Zach gave him a serious look. “I know because I read minds. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Many have that wish.”
John swallowed a laugh. “And you let them? I’m not sure I want to eat Brie from there if half the town have already been smearing theirs around.”
“Ha! You naughty little…of course, I don’t lend my stomach out to anyone. Only to the ones who are dear to me.”
“Of course, of course. You were wrong, though. It wasn’t what I was thinking.” John reached for the cheese knife and cut himself a piece, making sure he got plenty of honey and almonds on it.
All John wants is to stay at home in peace and quiet, but when the Santa booked for the town’s Christmas party at Jen’s cafe catches a fever, Zachary decides to take his place. It’s just for a few hours, John should be able to take part in the celebrations like any normal person, but instead, he finds himself hiding in the kitchen, eating loads of the delicious honey baked Brie cheese Jen has made.
Zachary loved the town’s Christmas party as a child, and he wants to spread some holiday cheer both to the kids in Nortown and to John. Being Santa is not as easy as he thought it would be, though. And how he’s gonna be able to lure John out of the kitchen and get him to sit on Santa’s lap, he doesn’t know.
Ofelia Grand 