Topic: Christmas Surprise

Dominic Granger

Date: 2018-01-03 12:54 EST
December 24th

The hullabaloo that was Winterfest (otherwise known as Yule or Christmas to some) at Maple Grove was finally over. All of the families were at home, the children tucked safely in bed. The same could be said for those who dwelt at Wisteria Cottage, Daisy and Donnie fast asleep while Dom and Elle relaxed near the fire with a warm cup of cocoa, a plate of cookies, and each other. But Elle had one last surprise in store - a very special surprise for a very special man.

Dom groaned in relief as he stretched out on the couch, Elle tucked comfortably against him as he rested his head back on the arm. "I am never letting Emily climb me ever again," he groaned softly. It wasn't that Jon's eldest was particularly heavy - more that she had very bony elbows and knees, and an uncanny knack of putting them exactly where it would hurt the most.

"She adores you," Elle said, smiling fondly as she leaned against him, adding, "They all adore you, but I have a feeling Daisy adores you most of all. You're a splendid uncle, but an even better father," she told him, touching a kiss to his cheek and leaving a trace of lipstick.

"Daisy didn't get a direct hit on the family jewels today, I know she loves me," Dom chuckled, tilting his head to catch her lips with his own. His hand curled about her shoulder, squeezing her against him gently for a long moment. "Have I told you how beautiful you are today?"

She smiled into his kiss, amused by his complaint about the children. "I assume everything still works," she remarked, brushing that bit of lipstick from his cheek. "And yes, you've only told me about half a dozen times today, but I don't mind if you tell me again," she said, tucking her stockinged feet behind her and leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Beautiful," he murmured against her hair, sleepy and content, glad they'd somehow survived both Christmas Eve and Donovan's first birthday without major catastrophe. "Gorgeous. Stunning. Elegant. Mine."

Her smile softened at his praise. "Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Granger," she warned him playfully. "But I think you may have missed a present in all the excitement," she added, green eyes sparkling with mischief.

"I'm pretty sure I remembered to bring my pajamas out of hiding for the winter months," he drawled teasingly, though truth be told, he didn't sleep naked all that much any more. With Daisy's tendency to jump on them at ridiculous hours of the morning, it was better for everything to be covered in advance.

"Hmm, I think you should check your stocking again, love," she nudged. "I promise it's not a lump of coal." She wouldn't have minded if he slept naked, but she had warned him early on of the danger of doing so with Daisy in the house.

He raised a brow as he looked down at her, tilting his head curiously. "You mean I have to get up and go all the way over there, and rummage around in that stocking?" he complained, his hand sliding over her side to gently twang her garter-belt through her dress. "When I'd much rather rummage in these stockings?"

"You could rummage in these stockings, but you won't find your surprise there," she warned. At least, not the kind of surprise she had in mind for him, and there'd be plenty of time for him to peel her out of her stockings afterwards ....if he didn't pass out first.

He laughed wearily. "Oh, fine. Slave-driver." Pressing a kiss to her brow again, knowing perfectly well that she wouldn't let up until he did get up and look in the one stocking he hadn't been allowed to fill, Dom reluctantly pulled himself up onto his feet, absentmindedly scratching his back as he wandered toward the mantle. "Anything in particular, or am I emptying the whole thing here?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you'll know it when you see it," she said, unable to hide the smirk from her face and turning so that she could watch him and hoping he didn't notice that she had a cell phone tucked into a fold in her dress.

What she wanted him to find was conveniently tucked into the top of the stocking, allowing him to leave most of the little surprises for tomorrow to open with Daisy and Donovan. It was a little white stick, tied up with a ribbon - nothing fancy to look at, certainly. But his hand was shaking as he lifted it out. He knew exactly what it was. Dom stared down at the two little lines, slowly raising an incredulously delighted face toward Elle. "Seriously?"

"Mmhmm," she replied, without explanation, as there was no need. She unfolded her legs and moved to her feet, moving over to slide her arms around his waist and smile up at the only man who had ever truly captured and tamed her wild heart. "And you're the first to know." Not Vicki or Piper or even Daisy, this time. This time, she wanted him to know first.

He let out an incredulous huff of breath, leaving the little test on the mantle as she came to him, skimming his fingertips over her middle before gathering her close into his arms. "You're sure?" he asked her gently, delight shining in his eyes but not enough to still his concern that she wanted this.

"I had a blood test a few days ago to make sure. You're going to be a Daddy again, Daddy," she confirmed, her own eyes bright with hope and joy. This was one gift she could give him that she knew wouldn't disappoint. "What do you think, Mr. Granger" Are you okay with having another child?" she asked, grinning up at him and tightening her hold on his waist.

"Okay with it?" Dom laughed, hugging her tight as he bent his head to hers, lips ghosting over lips in a tender tease of a kiss. "My beautiful family is about to get bigger in a way I never expected. I am more than just okay with it." He grinned, kissing the tip of her nose affectionately. "But are you? It's your body, sweetheart."

"I think my body can handle one more," she assured him, snuggling close. "I'm just a little worried about Daisy," she admitted, though her daughter had been thrilled to have a little brother and didn't seem jealous at all.

"Hmm ....I don't think we need to be worried," he predicted. "Not with Zahan due to be a big sister to a baby pretty soon, too. Those two will bond over how annoying babies are, just you wait and see."

"I'm not too worried if it's a boy, but what if it's a girl?" she asked, though it was a little too late or maybe too early to worry about that now. Daisy had at least eight months to get used to the idea and they'd likely know the baby's gender long before that.

Dom frowned thoughtfully. "Then she'll have a little sister to dress up and teach about being a girl?" he suggested, drawing his fingers tenderly against her cheek. "I'm sure she'll be delighted, no matter what. But she will always be our eldest, our first. No one can ever take that away from her, Belle."

"I know. I just ....I wasn't expecting it, but I'm happy about it, Dom. Really, I am," she assured him with a warm smile, snuggling into his arms. Having a baby was scary business, no matter how many you had already, but she was far less frightened this time than she had ever been in the past.

"So am I," he murmured against her hair, hugging her close against his chest. The familiar flicker of fear was there in his chest, but it was smaller this time, the anxiety weaker than it had been when he'd discovered her pregnancy with Donnie. "What a wonderful Christmas present."

"I'm glad, Dom. I was afraid you might be angry," she admitted, though only because she knew how much he worried about her. "I love you so much," she told him quietly, in a rare outpouring of emotion. There would be more ups and downs in her moods in the days too come, but they'd weathered it together once; they could manage it again.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," he breathed back to her, his arms tightening about her for just a moment before he loosened that possessive grip so as not to hurt her. "But I'm not as afraid as I was last time. I know you can do this, we can do this." His hand rose, gently tilting her chin up to meet achingly sincere eyes. "I love you, Elle, so much. Even the thought of you not being here makes it hard to breathe."

Dominic Granger

Date: 2018-01-03 12:55 EST
"You didn't think so when I was picking your pocket," she teased, tilting her gaze up to meet his, her own eyes bright with the sheen of happy tears. There was nothing and no one who made him so happy as he did. As much as she loved Daisy, she would one day grow up and make a life of her own, but God willing, Dom would always be there.

He laughed, kissing the tip of her nose as his fingers stroked against the curved small of her back. "It didn't take me long to change my mind," he reminded her with the same tease, letting his hand slide down to skim the first swell of her backside. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"Sometimes I wonder if you didn't fall in love with Daisy first," she teased further, a dimpled smirk on her face. It hardly mattered anymore if he had, now that they were a family. "What do you think we should do to celebrate, Mr. Granger?" she asked, grinning up at him, as her hands found their way beneath his shirt.

"It wasn't Daisy I married," he reminded her with a low chuckle, flinching just a little away from her fingers as she skimmed over his ticklish side, his own hands gathering the folds of her dress into his palms. "I can think of a few things, Mrs. Granger," he murmured, dipping his head to stroke his lips against the beating pulse in her throat. "I think you should decide where you'd like them to happen before I get your panties off, though."

"I think the bedroom might be the safest, Professor, unless you'd like to explain the birds and bees to your daughter in the morning," she warned with a grin, as her fingers teased the spot where she knew he was most ticklish.

He released her dress with a strangled yelp, bending awkwardly to try and escape her fingers even as his lips twitched into a grin. "Baby or no baby, I will still spank you, Mrs. Granger."

"Promises, promises, Mr. Granger," she teased, her hands drifting lower to grab hold of his rear and give it a squeeze.

Dom laughed, catching her hands to spin her about and kiss her neck. "Such a tease, my beautiful Belle," he growled against her skin, bending to lift her up into his arms. "So much fun."

She laughed as he caught her in his arms and drew her own arms around his neck, only too happy to let him carry her off to their bedroom to have his way with her. "How's the song go again? You make lovin' fun?" she told him, taking advantage of her position to nibble at his earlobe.

"Let's get it on," Dom countered, crooning back to her as he edged his way out of the living room and up the stairs, careful not to knock her off any walls or doorframes as he went. Grinning, he growled softly once more at her nibbling. "You are playing with fire again."

"That's not much of a threat, love. I'm already pregnant!" she reminded him, laughing. What was the worst he could do' Tickle her to death"

His eyes narrowed playfully. "You didn't look very carefully in the toy box this week, did you?" he teased with a wicked look in his eyes. "You really should know what?s there before you start teasing me like this. You know I like to play."

"Have you been watching Fifty Shades of Silly again?" she teased further, though she knew better than to ignore his threats. She had few complaints, though. Despite having two children, their sex life hadn't suffered much.

"Why would I need to watch that drivel?" he asked her, shouldering the door to their bedroom open. He turned to the bed ....and stopped as an incredulous splutter left his mouth. The bed was already taken. Daisy had somehow managed to remove her baby brother from his cot and tuck him up in the middle of their parents' bed before curling up around him to fall deeply asleep. Dom's eyes turned to Elle. "I'm blaming you."

She couldn't help but snicker a little at his remark, knowing he didn't need any pointers from Christian Grey or anyone else for that matter, but appeared just as surprised as he was that Daisy and Donnie had confiscated their bed. "Why is it my fault?" she asked. "She's your daughter," she teased, even if he wasn't her birth father.

"You're the feminine influence on her life," Dom shot back with a low chuckle, gently lowering his wife to her feet, arms wrapping about her from behind. "Not quite what we had in mind, but they do look very comfortable there. Wanna join them?"

"Well, I'm not sleeping in the crib," she replied with a grin, as she leaned back into his embrace. "They do look rather adorable there, don't they' Like two little angels," she said with a sigh, though she knew they were nothing of the sort.

His lips brushed her cheek as his palm flattened over her middle tenderly. "Best gifts you've ever given me, after yourself," he murmured into her ear.

"Oh, darling," she whispered back. "I think that's the other way around." It was him who had rescued them, taken them into his heart, and given them a home, after all. All she'd done was give him a family to love.

"No, I'm fairly sure I have that completely right," he insisted with a low chuckle, resting his brow against hers. "I do have one question for the parenting expert in the room, however ....how do we get in there without waking the angels and turning them into screaming devils?"

"Very carefully," she whispered back, a cheeky grin on her face. The bed was big enough for all of them, so long as they children didn't get much bigger. "I have a feeling Daisy did this on purpose."

He laughed quietly, reluctantly releasing her to begin unbuttoning his shirt. "Ever get the feeling the universe - or at least that part of it under four feet tall - is conspiring against you?" he asked in a low whisper, letting the shirt hang open as he toed out of his socks, reaching for the drawer where he kept those winter pajamas of his.

She reached to help him with his shirt, mostly just because it was an excuse to touch him, though it seemed there wasn't going to be any so-called play tonight, unless they locked themselves in the bathroom. She left a trail of soft kisses against his back while he rummaged for his pajamas, knowing how her touch was going to frustrate him.

"Or maybe they just don't want to be alone tonight," she suggested, knowing Daisy still woke with nightmares sometimes, though they were becoming less frequent.

He stiffened as her lips trailed over his back - in more ways than one - throwing a warning glance back over his shoulder, despite his grin. "Tsk, tsk," he murmured, turning back to wrap an arm about her waist and pull her into a toe-curling kiss. "Think I'm enough to keep the nightmares away for my little band of trouble-makers?"

"You're enough to keep my nightmares away," she replied, rewarding him with a kiss of her own, just as passionate as his. Though no longer a child, her life had not been an easy one, and like Daisy, she sometimes still had nightmares, but Dom was always there to chase those nightmares away.

If he had his way, he always would be, too. For all of them. But for now, his goal was to get his wife and himself into bed without waking the two terrors that had claimed their parents' sleeping area without permission. "You're far too overdressed for sleep, Belle."

"That's easily remedied, love," she assured him, touching another soft kiss to his lips. "Why don't you get settled and I'll meet you there?" she suggested, as it would take her a little longer to get dressed for bed than it had him.

"Don't be long," he murmured, kissing her brow gently as he let her go. It wouldn't take him more than a minute or two to strip down and dress, but maybe a little longer to brush his teeth and get into the bed.

She would have preferred to strip him down and play with him a little before they both got dressed for bed, but it seemed their children had already nixed that idea for them, at least for tonight. But Elle was hardly disappointed as they had their whole lives ahead of them and there would be plenty of nights in their future - or so she hoped. Still, she couldn't help doing a little silent striptease for her husband, frustrating him further.

Dom's eyes narrowed as she performed in silence for him, his reaction impossible to miss. By the time she was down to just her underthings, he was done being patient. Grabbing up his pajamas and hers, he caught her hand and dragged her into the bathroom, locking the door securely behind them before enveloping her in the kind of embrace that promised she had definitely pushed her luck tonight.

Dominic Granger

Date: 2018-01-03 12:56 EST
Thankfully, she had his lips to keep her quiet or she might have erupted into raucous laughter, or at the very least giggles loud enough to wake the two innocents asleep in the next room. It was certainly a challenge trying to satisfy their mutual itch quietly, but a challenge both of them seemed well up for.

Giggling was definitely not on the cards for long, though. There was only so far Dom could be pushed, and Elle knew perfectly well what the punishment was for doing it. He was going to wind her so tight she could barely breathe, and thoroughly enjoy every second of it. And right now ....she was going to have to try and be very quiet while he did it.

That was the most challenging part of trying to make love without making a sound, if what they were doing could even be described as making love. It was more like two people crashing together until both were left breathless and exhausted and sated in the others' arms. There was nothing gentle or loving about it. They were two wild things in the night, hungry for the other, only able to rest once their passion for the other was satisfied.

Leaning against her where she was propped on the sink counter, Dom laughed weakly into Elle's neck. "Bad girl," he muttered breathlessly, nipping at her shoulder. "Tsk, tsk."

"Me?" she countered, just a little too loudly. "You are the one who dragged me in here, and might I remind you, my darling man, that you are the one who got me pregnant ....twice," she reminded him, tapping a manicured fingernail against his chest.

"It's not like I can take that back, is it?" He laughed, gently slapping her thigh. "Indoor voices, love, the babies are supposedly asleep just on the other side of that door."

"Well, if they aren't, love, at least one of them just got a lesson in the birds and the bees," she teased back, patting his cheek a little too enthusiastically.

Dom raised his head, unused to her being quite so recalcitrant in the aftermath. "Did I hurt you?" he asked softly, the teasing gone from his voice as he gently drew back from her.

"No, of course not," she assured him, laughing a little, as she reached to draw him back. "Don't worry so much. I won't break that easily, Dom," she told him, brushing her lips to his, as her hands traveled up his arms. He really did need to learn how to tell when she was teasing and when she was being serious.

Relieved, he sighed into her kiss, stroking his knuckles against her cheek. "You need to sleep," he murmured to her tenderly. "They'll be up at the ass-crack of dawn, you know."

"Should I have waited to tell you?" she asked, hoping she had picked the right time to give him the news. She'd wanted him to be the first to know, and it wouldn't be long before Daisy started asking questions and Vicki noticed something different about her bestie.

"No," he assured her, smiling as he looked into her eyes. "It's wonderful news. And it isn't your being pregnant that made me drag you in here and rut you like a stag, either," he added laughingly.

"I don't mind, you know," she assured him again, trailing her fingers up his arm and over his bicep, savoring the solid muscle she felt beneath her hand. "I rather enjoyed it," she admitted with an almost shy smile.

Dom laughed fondly, nipping a slow kiss to her lips. "You're not getting any more tonight," he told her, a last kiss offered before he drew back to clean up and cover up. "And no more teasing, or I really will spank you."

"And then, your children really will wake up," she countered, taking the towel from him so she could help him clean himself up, which he might or might not consider further teasing. She had a gentle hand when one was needed, and she did so love fussing over him.

"And you get to explain to them why you're being spanked," he shot back, quicker to clean up than he had intended to be, but letting Elle's hands wander when they were both perfectly non-attired to do something about it was never the best idea at this time of night.

"To one of them, anyway. I doubt very much Donnie would understand," she said, letting him finish up, despite the sparkle of amusement in her eyes. He was right about one thing - at least one of those children would be up at the crack of dawn, ready to drag them downstairs and see what surprises Christmas had brought. "I suppose I should let you get some sleep."

Pulling his boxers up to his waist, Dom chuckled. "Your generosity overwhelms me," he grinned, kissing her temple. One hand gently flicked her nipple to make the point that she was still very vulnerable to his wandering hands. "Put your jammies on, Mrs. Granger."

It didn't take much to light the fire that simmered inside her, but she knew better than to push him much farther without risking waking the children. She'd have to have yet another talk with Daisy about commandeering her parents' bed without permission, but not tonight. "Yes, dear," she replied, slapping his hand away and touching a kiss to his nose.

Once she was covered up, he unlocked the door in case they'd been overheard and little people needed reassuring, pulling a t-shirt on over his head before starting on cleaning his teeth for the night. The bedtime routine was always short and sweet with Dom; Elle was the one with lotions and potions and make up to remove.

But Elle had things down to a science, her nighttime routine so practiced, it only took her a few minutes longer than him to be ready for bed. Sometimes, they even competed to see who would get to bed first, but tonight was not one of those nights. Elle took her time, allowing Dom to be the first to get to bed and maneuver his way under the covers without waking the children.

He manfully volunteered himself to be on Daisy's side of the bed, too. Despite her cuteness, Daisy's nightmares could occasionally get violent, usually when she was dreaming about running. Dom would rather she kicked him than Elle or Donnie.

Elle wasn't the type of wife or mother to turn her back on her family and curl up and fall asleep. Instead, her arm went protectively around both children, as she reached for Dom's hand in the dark. She didn't have to tell him she loved him for him to know, the touch of her hand to his telling him so without words.

Their hands joined over the sleeping forms of their children, eyes meeting in the gloomy darkness as they curled protectively about their children. "Santa's coming," Dom whispered mischievously in the dark, squeezing her hand.

"I think he's already been here," she whispered back, returning that squeeze. Perhaps it wasn't the kind of Santa the children were expecting or the kind of presents that were neatly wrapped up with a bow beneath the tree, but Elle couldn't have asked for or wanted anything more than what she had right there beside her - a man she adored, and two beautiful children, not to mention the one that had just taken root in her belly.

What more could anyone ask for than that' It was more than she could have ever hoped for.