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    Unexpected Christmas
    Unexpected Christmas
    Unexpected Christmas
    Ebook60 pages49 minutes

    Unexpected Christmas

    By Nell Iris

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    About this ebook

    Daniel Erickson stormed out of his family celebration after choking on turkey served with a side of bigotry. Utterly miserable, he reluctantly lets himself be charmed by the hulk of a man and gets into the stranger’s car ... hoping he won’t be axed before the night is through.

    Axel Wilson -- Ax for short, unfortunately -- is a sweetheart. Really. He may be badass-looking but his heart melts into goo at the mere mention of his four-year-old niece. Surely he isn’t dangerous?

    Thrown together by family drama, the two men spend the evening getting to know each other. Axel is nothing like Daniel expected. But it doesn’t matter that he loves poetry, is gentle and patient -- and hot! -- Daniel is absolutely not falling in love at first sight. There’s no such thing.

    Right?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJMS Books LLC
    Release dateDec 16, 2017
    ISBN9781634865241
    Unexpected Christmas
    Author

    Nell Iris

    Nell is a forty-something bisexual Swedish woman, married to the love of her life, and a proud mama of a grown daughter. She left the Scandinavian cold and darkness for warmer and sunnier Malaysia a few years ago, and now spends her days writing, surfing the Internet, enjoying the heat, and eating good food. One day she decided to chase her lifelong dream of being a writer, sat down in front of her laptop, and wrote a story about two men falling in love. Nell writes gay romance, prefers sweet over angst, and wants to write diverse and different characters.

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      Book preview

      Unexpected Christmas - Nell Iris

      Epilogue

      Chapter 1

      I should have taken the extra five seconds to grab my fluffy warm jacket before storming out of my mom’s house. My fancy wool suit did nothing to protect me from the icy winds howling along the empty road, and my hands had turned red and stiff even though I’d shoved them into my armpits to keep them warm. As the icing on the cake, it had started snowing a few minutes ago. Not the romantic kind of snow normally associated with Christmas, with large, beautiful snowflakes dillydallying their way toward the ground. No, these were heat-seeking missiles disguised as sleet, bombarding me from every direction. Finding their way down the neck of my suit coat and even into my goddamned ears.

      When my shiny dress shoes slipped on yet another patch of black ice—and I barely managed to keep myself from landing on my butt on the roadside—I tilted my head back and screamed out my frustration. An angry, wordless wail, directed at the universe in general and homophobic relatives in particular. But my bellowing drowned in the roaring winds and I regretted it the second the ice pellets found their way down my throat.

      I coughed and looked back over my shoulder. I could still tuck my tail between my legs and trudge back. Mom would welcome me with open arms like she’d always done—no questions asked—and fuss over me and give me dry clothes and a hot beverage to make sure I wouldn’t catch my death.

      It was far closer than the town, but I didn’t want to face my idiot Uncle Bob again, or any of the others who’d just turned their heads away as he spewed his hatred on me while the radio played jolly Christmas songs in the background. I didn’t know what made me angrier: his hateful words, or my cousins’ feeble avoidance. I’d expected more from them.

      Mom had avoided confrontation as usual, but I hadn’t expected anything else. We’d argued about it lots of times, but she didn’t have it in her. Once, I’d even watched her throw up when she’d tried standing up for us, and I didn’t pressure her about it anymore.

      She had caught up with me before I’d left—eyes full of disappointment with herself—and pleaded with me to stay. I couldn’t do it, even for her. I’d fought hard to keep the angry tears at bay and the last thing I wanted was for Bob to see how he’d gotten to me. How upset I’d been. I always tried to keep a brave face, to pretend nothing ever affected me, as if I was enveloped in an invisible shield that bounced off all projectiles aimed at me.

      But seeing my mom shrink with disillusionment at her brother’s behavior had made it impossible for me to be strong and stoic. Feeling like shit for abandoning her, I’d given her a quick hug before I’d slammed the door to underscore my rage.

      Not even the snow pandemonium had managed to cool me down. Just the thought of my uncle’s flaming red face and acrid breath made me want to throw up and run away and never return.

      I had to calm down. I needed to call my mom and tell her I was fine even if it would be a blatant lie. I didn’t like worrying her, but I wasn’t ready yet. I needed more time.

      Hiking up my shoulders, I resumed walking. It was five miles or so to town. A human being could survive being blasted with ice bullets for that long. Right?

      A few minutes later, a vehicle approached from behind. Reacting instinctively, I turned around and waved my arms, hoping the big truck would stop and have mercy on my freezing ass.

      I let out a giddy yelp as it slowed down, but it got stuck in my throat when the driver rolled down the window.

      He was huge and couldn’t hold his head upright without banging it on the ceiling. Big steel gauges adorned both his ears—at least an inch and a half wide—and his hair was black and so closely cropped it resembled a five o’clock shadow more than an

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