On the Dreamspinner page, you can read an excerpt of the beginning of the story which sets up the characters, but here I wanted to give a snippet from a bit later on, when Lucas is trying to explain what Sean's present is...without actually having to say it, the poor guy!

“I promise I’ll love whatever you got me, even if it’s a scrapbook kit.” Sean paused and looked up, squinting and resting his chin on Lucas’s chest. “It’s not a scrapbook kit, is it?”

“No. It’s… not.” Lucas squeezed his eyes closed, just for a second, and squeezed Sean. “It’s… me.” He held himself still, waiting for Sean’s reaction.

And there wasn’t one. Lucas shifted as Sean blinked at him. “I already have you,” Sean said finally, and then Lucas understood. Sean hadn’t gotten it. So he dragged one hand from Sean’s back and down his arm to Sean’s wrist, which he circled and pulled away from his own back, pushing it downwards until it was touching Lucas’s ass. Lucas held it there.

“You get me,” he repeated.

A second passed. Lucas wet his lips. His throat was parched. Come on, come on, come on. He tried to drill his meaning into Sean’s brain with his eyes, tried to silently beg Sean to not make him say it.

Sean’s hand was suddenly against Lucas’s cheek, framing it gently. “Oh,” he said. And then: “Oh. You’re sure?”


The Gift