Cole for Christmas
Sarah has a secret — she wants her best friend Cole. Cole wants Jeff. And Jeff? Surprise! He wants them both.
Cole is wild, funny, impulsive, and Sarah’s best friend. She doesn’t understand what he gets out of submission, but she’s not going to let Cole get hurt the way he has in the past. So when she discovers his new dom is Jeff, the jerk who helped kick her out of her undergraduate program, she knows she has to intervene.
But when she sees Jeff again, she’s confused. He says he wants Sarah to be Cole’s Christmas present, and she’s stunned. She and Cole are just friends, aren’t they? Amazingly, Cole seems to want her as much as she secretly has wanted him. The even bigger surprise? She realizes she wants Jeff too.
Even if she could have them both, this is supposed to be temporary. It’s too bad she’s only allowed to have Cole for Christmas.
Excerpt
Cole for Christmas
Treva Harte
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2025 Treva Harte
“What’s wrong with you, Cole?” Sarah stared at her friend over the flimsy coffee container. “You have to go pee pee? You’ve been twitchy ever since we got here.”
Cole laughed and gave her the finger. He opened his mouth as if to give a smart-ass answer but then bent over his latte instead. Not looking at her, he carefully blew on it and took a sip.
Sarah settled back. Cole was obviously dying to tell her something, and she knew from experience all she needed to do was sit. If he waited more than ten minutes before spilling everything, he’d probably keel over from the strain.
The clatter of students milling around the student union coffee shop made the silence less noticeable. They continued drinking.
Two minutes of just downing caffeine. Impressive. Cole was hanging tough.
He shifted again in his seat and shut his eyes, grimacing. Sarah frowned, suddenly a little concerned. Cole was a genius — a real, measured-by-testing genius — but that didn’t mean his emotional IQ always matched his intelligence. She was sure it was a challenge to be five to ten years younger than his academic peers, and Cole didn’t always meet that challenge. In fact, Cole could be kind of a pain in the ass. Right now he was acting like he had a literal pain there.
Oh. Ohhhh, boy. He might actually have one. Please God, no. She might have to venture into TMI territory to find out.
Cole had been more than forthcoming about his sex life in the two years they’d been in grad school together. That was a problem for him. Younger and smarter in some things had made him vulnerable in others, especially since he was open about his sexual preferences and desires. Gay at the university was one thing; gay and dedicated to BDSM was another.
“Has someone hurt you?” She hoped that question would get the job done. Sarah could be more direct, if need be, but she also probably didn’t want to know all the particulars.
“No.” His prompt answer was a relief. Of course, he had to add, “Not any more than I want to be.”
“Ooookay.” Sarah set down her cup. Sometimes a friend had a duty to ask more even if she’d so much rather not. “Have you met some new dom?”
“You know I have. I told you about him.” Cole didn’t look up from his latte, but he didn’t sound reluctant to answer.
“You mentioned you’d met someone new at a club a few weeks ago, but you didn’t say anything more.” That wasn’t like her Cole at all now that she thought about it. “Is that the guy?”
“Fuck yeah. I was incredibly lucky that night. He hardly ever goes to clubs. Says they’re too fake for his tastes.” Cole squirmed again. “He isn’t into scenes. Not public ones.”
“So you’ve been — um — doing things outside of clubs?” Sarah wasn’t sure which sounded more dangerous. Cole wouldn’t know danger if it bit him on the butt. Especially if it bit him on the butt.
“At his place. Sarah, it’s… intense. And really sexy.” Cole grinned at her. “That’s all I’ll say unless you want me to go on. I know how you get.”
“And I know how you get, so thanks for shutting up.” She grinned back at him, and Cole shifted his weight again. Sarah sighed. “All right, Cole. Why are you acting this way? Something is going on.”
Cole leaned over, then glanced around to make sure no one was listening. Oh God. He felt the need to keep something private. This was going to be a doozy.
“Because I have a butt plug in me. A big one. It’s driving me crazy. Especially because it’s pressing on my fucking prostate.”
Sarah made a faint protesting noise and covered her eyes. “I don’t want to know.”
“When I see Jeff after work, he’s going to take it out and replace it with –”
“Don’t want to know, don’t want to know. Don’t. Wanna. Know.” Sarah covered her ears instead.
Cole pushed down one of her hands and whispered, “Unless you want to pull it out for me. Jeff might get mad, but it would be worth it if your dainty, lily-white fingers would take care of things for me right now. It might even be fun.”
Sarah clenched her dainty, lily-white fingers and smacked him on the shoulder with her plastic spoon.
Cole leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. Stunned, Sarah dropped the spoon on the table. For such a demonstrative guy, Cole pretty much kept his hands and lips to himself. Well, at least around women. She’d seen guys pass him around like an appetizer at parties. Obviously that kind of touching was different for him.
Oh, shit. After remembering some of those party images, she felt a sudden pang of lust. She took a deep breath. Now she could see herself testing that butt plug, imagine what Cole’s tight ass looked like holding it. His gasp when it moved. Damn it, she didn’t need to have that thought in her head. Talk about waste of time! Cole was completely off-limits. He’d never be her appetizer. Friends. They were friends. She’d gotten over her stupid crush long ago. That didn’t mean she couldn’t admit to herself he was sexy. In an off-limits way. She didn’t need to start thinking he was available after working so hard to forget he was hot.
“I knew I’d make you do that, but you did ask.” Cole sounded a little too smug.
Sarah looked up. Oh Lord, how could he know about her completely inappropriate thoughts?
Cole rubbed his shoulder, grimacing as if she’d really hurt him. Then he stopped and winked.
Oh. Right. Very funny. She’d hit him. They had a standing joke about his smart mouth and his need for punishment.
“Actually, what I really wanted to ask was what you had planned for Christmas.” She didn’t care if it was an obvious change of subject. Cole could go on pushing her buttons for hours. Besides, she did want to ask.
Last year Cole went with her to see her parents. Cole had way too many experiences with judgmental families like his own, and he’d been apprehensive about the whole thing, especially meeting her officer father. But Dad had been Dad, and Cole had been Cole, and everyone had a great time, just the way Sarah’d expected. This year Mom and Dad had shipped out to Japan, so neither she nor Cole would be seeing their families. She’d hoped they could hang out together for the two weeks while the grad dorms closed during winter break.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you! I’m planning on a trip to a ski lodge in Wyoming all during break.”
“You don’t ski.” Sarah skied but couldn’t afford a weekend, much less weeks at a resort. Life was so unfair.
“I like skiers. And cowboys. Jeff owns a place there.” Cole crumpled his cup and tossed it into the garbage.
“Oh. Jackson Hole?” Sarah snickered. “I could see you headed there just for the name.”
So now she knew this Jeff had money, was a skier, and maybe was a little pretentious. Two out of three wasn’t bad. Especially if he had a ski lodge.
“Grand Targhee. Jeff says it’s even better than Jackson Hole, although not as many people have heard of it.”
So unfair. Sarah had heard of it, and everything she’d heard agreed with what Cole — who was obviously clueless — had said. The place wasn’t even that pretentious. If Cole’s new man turned out to be perfect, she’d have to be happy Cole was going away with him on the kind of holiday break she’d want.
And that was so unfair double time. It also meant she had no one to share Christmas with. She didn’t need another reminder that she’d worked too hard, frozen too many people out, had no life. Cole, who bubbled over with curiosity and energy, always made even the bleakest times fun. She’d been counting on him to carry her through this first really big holiday without her parents.
Well, she’d have to get over it. A military brat got used to being around strangers. Maybe she could scrounge up enough money to take a little road trip by herself or get a fancier hotel than she’d planned. It didn’t sound like fun now, but she would work on it.
“You wanna come along?”
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