Sunday, November 29, 2020
Sunday's Short Stack: An Unexpected Christmas Present by VM Sanford
Logan wasn’t supposed to visit Rome on his own. The trip was a surprise Christmas gift for his boyfriend, but when Paolo dumps him three weeks before Christmas, Logan decides to go anyway.
Terry visits his father and his stepfamily in Rome every year for the holidays. Meeting a man during that period of the year never crossed his mind.
When Terry and Logan meet on the plane, neither of them expects anything to come out of it. Terry is attracted to Logan, though, and he offers himself as a tourist guide for the duration of Logan’s stay.
Neither one of them expect to fall in love for Christmas, but it’s a welcome present anyway.
Short, sweet(but not too sweet), and definitely a winning gem for Christmastime. One of those that will make you smile no matter when you read it but the magic of the season makes it that much better. Sometimes life throws us a curve and think it's the worst possible timing, the worst possible twist, and then again sometimes fate knows exactly what it's doing and that's how I see An Unexpected Christmas Present. Honestly, I think the title best describes this story, VM Sanford has given us an unexpected Christmas present with this little gem.
RATING:
Chapter One
Logan leaned closer to the window and looked out as the plane passed over the Colosseum. He felt like a kid on his first solo trip, nervous and excited. Since this was his first trip outside the States, he felt he could afford to be overly excited, though. Maybe it’ll help him forget.
The plane lowered, and Logan couldn’t look away. Rome. It was hard to believe he was in Rome, Italy.
The plane landed and taxied to the gate. When everyone started to rise from their seats, Logan did the same, stretching the kinks out of his back. He’d never been on a plane for so many hours, and he couldn’t wait to finally get out and breathe real air instead of the recycled stuff. He also wanted more space. He felt like he’d been in a box for hours.
He reached up to take his hand luggage. The aisle was still crowded, though, and someone bumped into him hard enough to make him fall forward. He wouldn’t have fallen far since his lower body was plastered against the seat, but an arm around his waist stopped him anyway.
“Are you okay?”
The voice was smooth and worthy of an erotic audiobook. It went right to Logan’s cock, making it twitch in his jeans. He turned around, reminding his smaller head he was not looking for a relationship or even a fling right now. His cock didn’t seem to care, not when Logan realized his knight in shining armor was the sexy guy he’d noticed nine hours ago when they’d both boarded the plane and who’d been sitting a few seats back.
“Well? Are you okay?”
“I, uh, fine? Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Logan cringed. He’d never been particularly good at flirting, but this had to be a new low. He hadn’t even been able to string together a sentence that actually made sense.
“Are you sure? You sound like you might have hit your head.”
Logan swallowed and kept his eyes on the guy’s admittedly gorgeous face. “No, I always talk like this. Well, okay, this is a bit worse than usual, but not by much. I think it’s the trip, you know? I’ve never spent so much time trapped in a metal box with this many people, and I have a hard time sleeping when I’m not alone. Not that you needed to know that, but you asked, I guess.”
Logan snapped his mouth shut, because really, he was only making things worse.
“Scusi?”
Logan and his savior turned to look at the guy who’d spoken. Logan didn’t know Italian, but he was pretty sure the man wanted to pass by then since he was scowling at them and indicating the emptying aisle.
Logan shook himself and grabbed his bag. He slid back into his seat to make sure he’d grabbed everything he’d taken out during the flight and put on his jacket a bit awkwardly. Once that was done, he got up and walked to the exit, resisting the urge to check if his knight was still behind him or if he’d already walked off the plane.
Logan was glad he was one of the last passengers to exit the plane. It gave him the opportunity to go as slow as he wanted. He looked around the airport as he walked through it following the other passengers to the baggage belts. Everything was written in Italian—obviously—and he heard several languages as he went.
He made sure to follow someone he recognized from the plane since he was so bad at following directions that he was able to get lost even on his way to his usual grocery store. He didn’t want to take any chances in a foreign country where most people wouldn’t even understand him. Who knew where they’d send him if he asked for directions, or where he’d end up in the attempt of following them.
The problem was that it was easy to be distracted by what was around him. He smelled the heavy scent of coffee and wondered if he’d have the time to get one, but the length of the line in front of the bar was scary, so he trudge on. He’d have plenty of time to drink coffee over the week and a half he’d spend in the city.
Logan walked through an automatic gate, and the baggage area opened in front of him. It was so crowded he had a hard time getting close enough to the closest screen to check where he was supposed to find his bag. Only a few of the belts worked, and God only knew how many passengers were waiting for their luggage. It was going to take a while. Logan’s plane was the second to last on the screen, so even though the belt number was already there, he didn’t fool himself he’d be out of the airport soon.
He might as well sit down and read. He’d started a thriller on the plane, and he really wanted to know how it ended. The few benches were packed, so he made his way to one of the pillars and leaned against it. He made himself as comfortable as he could—which wasn’t much—before taking out his e-reader.
“It’s a mess, huh?”
Logan would have recognized that orgasmic voice anywhere. He swallowed and looked up at his knight in shining armor, or rather, at his knight in leather jacket. “Yeah.”
His savior was still as sexy as before; his dark hair spiked up and his stubble to die for. The brown eyes looking at Logan were warm and shining with amusement, probably at Logan’s awkwardness.
“I’m Terry,” the knight said.
Logan looked at the hand Terry was offering him. He reached out to shake it, but he’d forgotten he was still holding his e-reader, so he ended up handing the thing to Terry. He rolled his eyes at himself and passed it from hand to hand, trying to ignore the chuckle that came from Terry as he finally shook it.
Oh God, the man had calluses. They rasped against Logan’s much softer skin, making him shiver in delight as he imagined how they would feel against an even more sensitive part of his body. How had Terry gotten them? Was he a hard-working man?
“And your name is…” Terry said.
“Right, sorry. Logan. I’m Logan.” He was also a dork, but he wasn’t going to admit that. Not that Terry would have any problems finding out if he stuck around Logan a bit longer.
“Well, nice to meet you, Logan.” Terry grinned as he looked down, and Logan realized he still hadn’t let his hand go. Yep, a dork, and he was pretty sure Terry already knew it.
*****
Terry thought Logan was cute. He snatched his hand back and blushed a bit, peering up at Terry and shyly smiling at him. The color looked good on him, and it made Terry want to embarrass him just to make him blush again. He wasn’t that bad, though, so instead he settled for, “So, what brings you here?”
Logan’s face fell a bit, and Terry wondered what had just happened. Had he said something wrong?
Logan gave Terry a forced smile. “Vacations. You know, the holidays and everything. I, uh, I’m going to spend Christmas here.”
“Yeah?” Terry wanted to ask Logan why he wouldn’t spend Christmas with his family, but he held his tongue. He didn’t want Logan to decide he was better off reading rather than talking to Terry. “I’ll be here for Christmas too. My dad lives in the city, and I come every year.”
Logan smiled, and it was more natural, not as forced. “You come here every year? Wow. I can’t even imagine what spending so much time here is like. I mean, I don’t travel much. Even this trip wasn’t, well. Anyway.”
Terry chose to ignore the last comment and focused on the beginning of Logan’s sentence instead. “I don’t particularly like the long flight and the jet-lag, especially when I go back to Boston, but yeah. I only see Dad once a year, so it’s nice. What about you? Are you from Boston or did you have connecting flights?”
“I live in Boston.”
“That’s… nice.” And lame. Terry didn’t usually have problems flirting with cute guys. He wasn’t sure what he was doing with Logan was flirting, exactly, but he felt a bit awkward and tense.
He didn’t like it.
He wasn’t going to let Logan go without a promise they would meet again soon, though. He hadn’t come to Rome looking for a guy, obviously, but his time in Rome was mostly lonely, and he wouldn’t mind the opportunity to spend time with someone who wasn’t his father and his wife. “Are you alone here?” he asked, trying to remember if he’d seen Logan talking to the person who’d sit next to him on the plane. Since he couldn’t even remember if that person had been a man or a woman, he was fairly sure the answer was no.
And fuck, there was the sad look again. Logan looked like Terry had just kicked his puppy to death as he answered. “Yeah. I’m alone.”
Terry needed to change the look on Logan’s face, and he struggled to think of something to say. “Do you already know what you’re going to see while you’re here? Maybe I could be your guide or something.”
There. Terry had moved the topic toward something else, and he’d proposed for them to spend more time together. He wanted to hit himself, because why would Logan say yes to a stranger? He was surprised at how much he wanted Logan to say yes, though.
Logan looked skeptical. “Don’t you have other things to do, like be with your family?”
Terry snorted. “Of course I’ll be with them, but I can’t stay in that house twenty-four hours a day for two weeks.” Terry shuddered in horror. He was glad to see Logan seemed to find his reaction amusing if the small smile on his lips was anything to go by.
Maybe Terry could kiss that smile away, transform it into something else. “I love them,” he added, “but they’re a handful even on good days, and during the holidays… Yeah, no. Better if I get some space to myself if I don’t want to end up in the loony bin.”
The baggage belt shuddered and started, and Terry checked the small screens to see if their luggage was there. Nope, it was still the luggage from another flight. He wasn’t surprised, but he wanted to go home and shower.
“They can’t be that bad,” Logan said.
Terry looked at him again. “I have two younger sisters, and by younger, I mean much younger.” Terry wasn’t sure why he was spilling his guts to a stranger, but he didn’t really care. “Maria is fifteen, and Giorgia is nine.”
“And you’re…” Logan gestured at Terry’s chest.
“I’m twenty-seven. My parents divorced when I was nine, and my Dad got a job here in Rome. He remarried, and you can guess the rest.”
“New sisters.”
“Exactly.”
“That can’t have been easy.”
“That’s an understatement. I was twelve when Maria was born. I barely ever saw my father, so I thought he’d replaced me or something. I refused to see him for several years.”
“Things obviously got better, though.”
Terry smiled. “Yeah. My mom convinced me to come one year, and I fell in love with the city as much as I fell in love with Maria. What about you? Christmas is usually celebrated with family.”
Terry knew he was pushing, but he still wasn’t sure he’d ever see Logan again, and he was curious.
Logan shrugged and looked down. “I was supposed to come with my boyfriend.”
“Supposed to?”
Logan looked at Terry again, defiance in his eyes, as if he was daring Terry to say anything. “Yeah, supposed to. The trip was a gift for him, but he broke up with me a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to let the tickets go to waste, so here I am.”
Ouch. That couldn’t have been a fun time for Logan, and it obviously wasn’t over. Maybe visiting a brand new city would make Logan some good and take his thoughts away from what had happened.
The baggage belt jerked again, and more people tried to push toward it. Terry hated traveling with checked-in luggage, but it wasn’t like he had a choice, not for Christmas. His suitcase was full of gifts for his family.
“Looks like out suitcases are coming,” Logan said.
Terry checked the screen, and sure enough, their fly was there. Thank God. Terry didn’t particularly want to have to spend more time on his feet waiting, but he was also a little disappointed he’d have to leave Logan. “Where are you staying?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the belt and the moving suitcases.
“A hotel not too far from the Colosseum. I wanted to be as close as I could to the city center and the train.”
Okay, that was actually pretty far from where Terry’s father lived, but it would have to do. “Do you have a rental?”
“Uh, no. I’ll take a cab.”
“I have one. I’ll take you.”
“Oh, no, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I’m sure I’ll manage to explain where I need to go to the cab driver.”
“Hey, it’s only fair since I’m your guide and everything.”
Logan blinked. “My guide?”
TRanner held a finger up, leaned down to grab his suitcase, and hauled it up and off the belt. He settled it by his feet before nodding at Logan. “Yeah. I’m going to show you the city, remember?”
Logan blushed. “I thought you were joking.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You don’t have to do this. Any of this.”
“But I want to. I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t.”
Logan grabbed a blue suitcase and pulled it off the belt. It tumbled to the floor, and Logan huffed, pushing the hair that hung in front of his eyes behind his ear and leaning down to straightened the suitcase.
“I swear I’m not a serial killer,” Terry added.
Come on, say yes. Sure, Terry would find another way to keep in touch with Logan, but he didn’t want to send him on his way right now. He wanted to chat a little while longer, and the trip to the hotel would give him plenty of that.
“If you’re sure it’s not a problem…”
“I told you, it’s not. You’ll save money, and that way I’ll know where to pick you up.”
“Okay, then. It’s a relief to know I won’t have to try to talk to the cab driver. I don’t know a word of Italian. I’d probably end up in Florence or something.”
“I can teach you a little bit of Italian if you want me to.”
“That would be great. You know I’m still wondering if you’re actually going to take me to a secluded place and kill me or if I was lucky enough to stumble onto a real knight in shining armor.”
Logan blushed fiercely when he realized what he’d said, but Terry didn’t mind. He’d never been called a knight in shining armor, but there was obviously a first time for everything, including flirting with pretty strangers in a plane and self-appointing himself as a city guide.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said, hoping Logan would relax again. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to take a shower and eat something.”
Logan smiled, and Terry resisted the urge to kiss him.
They exited the baggage claiming area and stepped into the overcrowded Arrivals. Terry dragged Logan toward the rentals’ desk, got his keys as quickly as he could, and made his way back to where Logan was waiting for him a few feet away with the suitcases.
Logan was sitting on his suitcase and leaning against the wall, obviously exhausted. Terry gestured at him to follow as he walked to the parking lot, suitcase handle in hand, and searched for the car.
They got the suitcases into the car and got in. Logan leaned against his seat and sighed heavily.
“Tired?” Terry asked as he started the car and drove away.
“I’m not used to flying, and I didn’t get a lot of sleep on the plane. I guess I’ll get a nap after I eat and wait until this afternoon to start visiting, maybe even tomorrow. I’m not sure how long it’ll take me to get over the jet-lag.”
“I’d suggest you try to wait to sleep until the evening. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“What are you planning to see?”
Logan waved at the landscape outside his window. “The usual, I guess. The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s, you know, the touristic stuff.”
“And you have what? A week? When are you going back?”
“On the twenty-seventh.”
“Oh.” Terry had known he wouldn’t be able to spend the entirety of his vacation with Logan, but he hadn’t thought he’d be so disappointed at having it confirmed. “I’m spending New Year’s Eve here.”
“Well, you have family, so it makes sense.”
“You’re going to have to choose what to see because seven days might seem long, but they’re not enough to see everything, especially if you take out at least one day to mostly laze around and rest and the day you leave. You’re going to have to come back to see the rest.”
“Yeah, no. I don’t think I’ll come back. I’ll have to make the most of what I have now, I guess.”
If Terry had anything to say about it, Logan would come back every year.
V.M Sanford has been writing about the paranormal since he was a child but decided to give publishing a try only in his thirties.
He found out he likes writing about more than wolf shifters and already has several plot bunnies lined up, waiting for him to write their books.
He’s lived all over Europe and enjoys cats, ice hockey and reading biographies of kings and queens. He’s still confused about what and who he is even though he’s in his mid-thirties, but he finally decided to come out as a transgender man, at least to his readers.
EMAIL: authorvmsanford@gmail.com
Release Blitz: Operation Fake Relationship by Jay Northcote
Title: Operation Fake Relationship
Author: Jay Northcote
Genre: M/M Romance, Christmas
Release Date: November 28, 2020
Can a fake relationship between best friends turn into the real thing?
After years of estrangement from his parents, Nick is finally going home for Christmas, but not without backup. He wants moral support, so his best friend and flatmate, Jackson, agrees to pretend to be his partner so he can go with him.
It’s easy for Jackson to be convincing when his feelings for Nick are as genuine as ever. He put his crush on the back burner long ago, but acting out a role he’d love to play for real is harder than he imagined. Holding hands, kissing under the mistletoe, even sharing a bed for the sake of the charade... He can’t help wondering what he’s let himself in for, and whether his heart can take it.
Emotions run high as Nick grapples with family issues, and the sexual tension between him and his best friend becomes difficult to ignore. But if he and Jackson give into the temptation to be fake boyfriends with benefits over the holiday, what will it mean for their future as friends once Christmas is over?
Contains: best friends to lovers, pretend boyfriends, daddy issues, mistletoe, and a happy ending—of course.
Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England. He comes from a family of writers, but always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed him by. He spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content.
One day, Jay decided to try and write a short story—just to see if he could—and found it rather addictive. He hasn’t stopped writing since.
Jay writes contemporary romance about men who fall in love with other men. He self-publishes under the imprint Jaybird Press.
WEBSITE / NEWSLETTER / FB GROUP / KOBO
EMAIL: jaynorthcote@gmail.com
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