Page 31 of Iona's Christmas

“Just dive in?” Vogue suggested.

“No, Warden has to hand them out as he’s the Prez,” I ordered before a fight started.

“Well, get on with it, Prez,” Dare demanded.

Warden chuckled and sat on the floor in front of the huge pile of presents. He picked up the first one and glanced at the tag.

“Vogue,” he announced and handed it to her.

Vogue didn’t hesitate and tore into the wrapping. “Thanks, Dare,” she laughed, holding up a pair of handcuffs.

Ribald comments were pulled out, and I suddenly had a clue what type of gifts were under the tree.

“Oh, damn!” I exclaimed and began laughing myself.

Several hours later, I was rather relieved that there weren’t too many sex toys scattered about. Some of them had been funny gifts, like funny toilet roll, others had been thoughtful.

Warden had bought me a lovely riding jacket made of heavy leather, alongside a gold bracelet and earrings. He’d also got me a selection of toiletries I favoured. In return, I’d bought him a gold necklace, aftershave, and some new boots. After opening our presents, we played some games of Pictionary and Give us a Clue.

The girls and I excused ourselves after an hour and proceed to get dinner served up. After all our prep yesterday, it had been a mere point of turning on the stove top to cook the veg and roasting the potatoes. We warmed the turkeys, lamb and hams up and asked the brothers to carry them to the tables.

Warden, Undertaker, Oracle, Slasher, Thunderbird, Rook and Anubis all carved the joints before we sat and ate. I was damn pleased we’d ordered and prepared so much food because everyone went for seconds.

I relaxed back with a sigh as Fists burped and patted his stomach.

“You ladies have outdone yourselves,” Pipe said.

“Definitely. That was fantastic,” Kosmic agreed.

“I’ve missed this,” Scorch admitted quietly.

“Christmas?” Warden asked.

“No, gathering together for a meal. I do not remember the last time we actually sat down as a family,” Kosmic explained.

“It’s not something we do often. I’m with Kosmic, I don’t recall it either,” Dare stated.

“It was Berserker’s funeral. But that wasn’t a sit-down meal, it was a buffet.” Pipe said.

“Ten years?” Warden asked, shocked.

“Yes.” Fists replied.

“Damn,” Warden drawled.

“Maybe we could do this once a month. But help the women prep?” Vogue suggested.

My ears perked up. That was something I’d like to do. It seemed my family Christmas had stirred something inside all of them.

“That would be nice,” Lindy said. “The help, that is. It took five of us all day, plus we were cooking in between.”

I bit a smile back. We had not made fresh cookies last night but bought them ready. We’d done the same with the pumpkin and apple pies, fruit cake and cakes. If the club would help us prep, we could bake freshly made desserts. That would be nice.

“We’d take that,” I agreed.

“I’m sure we can draw up a rota,” Warden responded.

“Why do I think we just got nominated for extra work?” Bogeyman asked.