Sequel to: Illicit Encounter.

Vin dropped back down onto the cushions in front of the tree and set down the plate of finger foods he'd gone after before curling back around his pensive lover. "Aw Ez, you aren't still thinkin' about..." The green eyes that met his blue ones were filled with enough regret to drown in. "I just wish you hadn't been forced to choose, Vin. It's all my fault..."

"Oh no you don't, we've done been over this." Vin nuzzled the shapely ear closest to him and then licked it almost absently. "You didn't force *anyone* to choose, that greedy jealous bastard we work for did. JD and Buck didn't go either, remember? They even invited us over to their place tomorrow and we're gonna have a great time - no one blames you and me for any of this."

"Nathan does."

"He's a worry wart; he knows *we've* been discrete, but he's scared shitless that Chris is gonna screw this up and get the team disbanded."

To Vin's relief, Ezra chuckled lightly and leaned into his embrace. "Yes, I suppose he just doesn't have the fortitude to castigate Mr. Larabee; you and I are much less lethal targets."

"Speak for yourself." Vin licked the tempting ear again, slower this time. "You told me just the other night that my tongue should be listed as a concealed weapon."

Ezra turned his head quickly, capturing said weapon with his lips and sucking on it gently before releasing it. "So I did. Tell me, is this just a distraction or are we really going to make love under our Christmas tree?"

Vin grinned wickedly. "Just call me Santa. How many presents do you want tonight?"

"I can't tell you unless I assume the traditional position, now can I?" Ezra shifted and swung his leg over Vin's hip, straddling him and pulling him closer at the same time. "There, I believe that's it, isn't it? What do you say, Santa?"

In answer the sharpshooter attacked Ezra's laughing mouth and devoured it, his hands circling around to grasp his lover's silk-clad buttocks and squeeze them caressingly. "I'd have to say that such a good boy deserves an..extra...special...present from Santa tonight," he whispered, punctuating each word with a slight upward thrust of his own groin against Ezra's. "First I'm going to strip you naked and lay you down under this tree, and then I'm going to feed you some of these grapes and things we've got with one hand while my other hand strokes that pretty cock of yours until you're begging me to give you your present. How does that sound?"

"It sounds like Santa is a baaad boy," Ezra murmured against his mouth. "But since I don't have any coal for him I guess I'll just have to put something...else in his stocking, hmm?"

"You'd better believe it," Vin growled at him. "I want to watch the way the tree lights make you glow while you take me, my own personal Christmas angel straight from heaven."

"I can take you to heaven," his lover told him, looking into his eyes, and Vin was glad to see that the shadows of regret had been chased away by passion and love. "It would be only fair, since it was you who first showed me the way."