Empty Nests (22 page)

“Good. I’d slip us out now, but it might be a little obvious.”

“Just a little.”

He brought up an image of Dave’s Cheetos-stained fingers, which went a long way to helping him compose himself, then he took a deep breath. If Gabe could face down Dylan, then he could face down a couple of Gabe’s friends.

“I think I should try some of that cake.”

G
ABE
FOLLOWED
James into the suite, only to be stopped short by Nate and Frank while Margaret subtly herded James off to the side.

“You couldn’t have waited for me to introduce you?” Gabe hissed.

“Nope, because it wouldn’t have happened.” Gabe wanted to argue with Frank on that point, but he was possibly right.

“Look.” Nate kept his voice low. “Margaret can spot a jerk at a hundred yards. Has she ever been wrong about a single one of your boyfriends?”

“No.”

“So if this James is a good guy, then you have nothing to worry about.”

“He is a good guy, and he doesn’t deserve the whole Spanish Inquisition.”

Nate nodded in his wife’s direction. “I think he’ll be fine.”

Gabe looked over his shoulder. Margaret was laughing at something James had said. James took a bite of chocolate cake and for a brief moment got a look on his face close to the one he’d had the first time Gabe had sucked his cock. Gabe sat down on one of the couches and quickly crossed his legs. He wanted to walk over there and accuse James of being a tease except he knew it had to be completely accidental. He grabbed a raspberry tart from a tray sitting on an end table. If he couldn’t jump James and lick the chocolate crumbs off his face, he could at least eat dessert.

Harry plopped down next to him, with a slice of cake. “Uncle Gabe, can I ask you a question?” Harry’s voice was at a half whisper with a bit of a teenaged squeak.

He bet himself ten bucks it was going to be about a boy. “Sure.”

“How do you know if a guy likes you?”

“You’re asking me this now?”

“Well… yeah.”

“I don’t know.” Harry pinched his lips. “Honestly. Someone has to slap me on the back of the head with a two-by-four before I notice that kind of thing. You’d probably be better off asking your sister.”

“She doesn’t know either.”

There were sounds of the game starting back up. “Okay, ask me later.”

Gabe didn’t pay much attention to the second period of the game. He was thinking too hard about what to say to Harry. Gabe hadn’t been lying. He was awful when it came to noticing if someone liked him and had to be told directly either by that person or someone else. James was about as close to subtle as Gabe had ever come and he would never have picked up that phone if Frank hadn’t told him to.

A horn blared to announce a goal. Gabe quickly glanced at Margaret to see if she was cheering, then looked up at the scoreboard. Somewhere along the line the score had tied up.

Gabe could just make out the standard ring of his phone in his pocket. He pretended like he didn’t. At that hour anyone who wanted to talk to him was someone he wasn’t up for talking to. Not when James was leaning against him and the Sharks were making the best of their power play for once.

The score was still tied at the end of the second period. James’s cheeks were flushed from the cheering and the cold of the arena. As they made their way back into the suite, Margaret cut Gabe off while the guys subtly cornered James.

“I like him,” Margaret said before Gabe could comment. “He seems like a good man.”

“He is.”

“You should be careful, though. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

“He’s not going to hurt me.”

“No. But you could hurt him. Quite easily, I think.” Gabe opened his mouth to object, but Margaret shook her head. “You wouldn’t do it on purpose, I know. But it could still be dangerous. I mean, you said he hadn’t had a relationship, not that he was a virgin or damn close to it!”

Gabe sputtered, not believing James would simply tell anyone that.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell the boys. I made a little innuendo, and he blushed harder than Sarah when I asked her about kissing a boy. And I don’t know a single grown man who blushes once he’s been around the block a couple of times.”

Gabe didn’t mention that he liked the way James blushed. “I’ll be careful.”

“You could spin his head around very easily, and you know how badly that can end. Even if it’s not on purpose.”

“It wouldn’t happen.” Gabe took careful breaths to keep from shouting. “He’s a lot stronger than I was or possibly ever will be.”

“Just as long as you’re careful.”

“Promise.” Margaret gave his arm a squeeze. “Quick question: how do you know when a guy likes you?”

“Gabe, he likes you.”

“I’m not asking for me.” He tipped his head in Harry’s direction.

“Ah, well, in my experience, if you force feed a boy a live worm, and two months later he leaves a Garfield valentine on your desk, it’s love.”

“That is completely unhelpful.”

“Sorry, but you might want to go rescue the boy who does like you.”

Gabe looked over his shoulder. James was having his ear talked off by Harry and Sarah alternately. He quickly interjected himself into the conversation, and with a quick apology, extracted James. Sarah gave him a subtle thumbs-up.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay. I’m used to talking with teenagers. They seem like good kids.”

“Most days. Then there are days when they are spoiled brats, but I don’t have to deal with those days. I get to be fun Uncle Gabe.”

“Lucky.”

“Very.”

James looked away under the guise of sipping his drink. “So, have I passed muster?”

“With flying colors, not that it matters to me. I don’t need any convincing that you are a good person.”

James blushed. “You really hardly know me.”

“True.” Gabe lowered his voice. “But I plan on knowing you even better by morning.”

“If you say things like that, I’m not going to make it through the rest of the game.”

“Hey, watching you eat chocolate cake very nearly killed me, so we’re even.”

“We should get back to our seats, cool down a little.”

Gabe paid even less attention to the third period than he had to the second. Margaret’s words had sunk slowly into his mind. Half the reason he was sitting in a corporate box seat was due to a man who had spun him around so fast, he hardly knew who he was anymore. But Gregory had also been a manipulative bastard who wanted TechPrim for himself, and Gabe had been too young and inexperienced to see what was really going on until it was almost too late.

He glanced at James, who was cheering and smiling. He told himself to stop worrying. James was older and wiser and so much stronger than Gabe had been in those days, and more than capable of holding his own.

J
AMES
SHOOK
hands with Nate, Frank, and Margaret as they left, stepping into the stream of happy fans. Gabe lingered near the bar. He let the door close and turned to Gabe. As much as he had enjoyed himself, James wasn’t a social person by nature, and he felt tension lift from him as Gabe approached. Before he could say anything, he was silenced with a deep kiss. He pressed his whole body into Gabe’s and wondered how much trouble having sex in a corporate suite in a hockey arena would get them in.

He’d been on edge all week, replaying the previous Friday night in his head. He’d gone to bed each night and taken his cock in his hand, slowly teasing himself, trying to build up a little stamina. His usual rush jobs in the shower had not prepared him for long nights of sex.

Gabe pulled away. “Would you like to go back to my place?”

“I think that would be an excellent idea.”

“I got dropped off, so I’ll order a car around for us.”

“I drove. I don’t think I can leave my car where it is overnight.”

“I guess you can take us to my place, then.”

N
OTEBOOKS
, P
OWER
B
AR
wrappers, and a pair of thankfully clean sports socks were tossed in the backseat by James with no little embarrassment.

“Sorry. Dylan drives it most days. I tell him to keep it clean but….”

“Don’t worry about it.” Gabe got in when the last of the mess was relocated.

James prayed the Lemon Drop would start. Every so often it would get fussy and decide not to turn over. He put the key in the ignition, then pulled it out a couple of millimeters. He tapped the gas with the tip of his toe. Then with great care and a steady hand, he turned the key. The engine didn’t exactly roar to life, but it did turn over and begin to hum.

“You’ll have to point the way from here.”

Gabe did so without much comment until they got onto the freeway. The Lemon Drop shook as they passed thirty, merging into traffic. Gabe gripped the dashboard.

“I know.” James preempted any comment. “But my mechanic promised the transmission
probably
won’t fall out or catch fire.”

“Probably?”

“Probably.”

“So.” Gabe tried to cover a squeak in his voice with a small cough. “Why the Lemon Drop Wonder? I’m assuming it has something to do with the color?”

“Actually, no. When Dylan was about three, one of my more senile great-aunts gave him a bag of lemon drops. He spilled them all over the back, and for years, every time I reached under a seat, I’d end up finding a furry half-dissolved lemon drop.” Gabe chuckled but still sounded nervous. “I’m sure there are still a few under there, along with a half pound of Cheerio dust, a couple of Super Balls, plastic army men, and God knows what else. There’s a distinct possibility that lemon-drop goo is holding parts of this car together.”

James spotted a familiar exit and gripped the wheel hard as their speed dropped to thirty-five, then thirty on the exit ramp. Gabe’s building rose above the surrounding properties, and he tried to push thoughts of sticky lemon drops out of his mind.

T
HE
ELEVATOR
doors had hardly closed when Gabe was on him, demanding entrance with his tongue. James granted it, tasting the raspberries of some little pastry Gabe had grabbed on his way out. The doors opened, and they stumbled into the living room. Gabe got his hands under James’s sweater and yanked it over his head, flinging it aside.

“Do you want me to slow down?” Gabe asked even as his hands were rushing across James’s skin.

“God, no.”

“Good.” Gabe drove them toward the bedroom, pulling off bits of clothing as they went. He pushed James backward onto the bed and yanked his jeans off. “God, I’ve been thinking about this all week.” Gabe straddled James. “I’d be stuck in meetings about three-year production trends, and all I could think about was getting your cock back in my mouth.”

James’s breath rushed from his lungs as Gabe’s cock slid against his. His skin was already burning, and he reached for Gabe, pulling him down into another kiss. He felt out of control. The nervous tremors and tentative touches of the week before were gone. Now he wanted to rush over that edge he had once feared. He wanted to do all the things Gabe had whispered in his ear.

Gabe ground against him. Smell and taste drowned out his other senses. He squeezed his eyes shut as Gabe started to suck at the pulse point in his neck. He thrust his hips up hard without a thought. There were no words, no thoughts, just a scream building in the back of his throat and a burning tension that curled his toes and arched his spine.

Gabe reached between them, wrapping a strong hand around James’s cock. The scream that was building finally pulled loose and didn’t stop as Gabe stroked him faster and harder until something in him snapped, and with one more scream, thrashing his limbs about, he came across his belly and Gabe’s fingers.

He fought for breath, his heart still racing in his ears as Gabe rolled off him and propped himself up on one elbow. James was aware of being watched as he settled back down. Gabe brushed a wisp of hair from James’s forehead. Even that tiny touch sent tremors down his oversensitized flesh.

“That was amazing,” Gabe murmured. “If you let go like that from just my hand, wait until I really bring out my bag of tricks.” James hummed, not yet trusting his voice. He approved of the thought, though. “I was worried you wouldn’t come tonight. That I’d scared you’d off, or you’d decided my life wasn’t worth the trouble.” There was a sudden thickness in Gabe’s voice. “I spent all week worried that every message was you calling it off.”

“Didn’t you have more important things than me to worry over?” It was an honest question. He couldn’t picture how a date could override everything that must be going on in Gabe’s life.

Gabe leaned in and slowly nuzzled at his throat. “I couldn’t help it. You’ve gotten into my head. Every night this week, I jerked off picturing your blissed-out face and all the things I wanted to do to make you make that face again.”

James gasped and his cock twitched, already trying to regain interest. The image of Gabe stroking himself in the shower had become part of his own nightly ritual. He felt Gabe smile against his skin.

“Do you like that thought? The thought of me touching myself like a horny teenager, thinking about you?” James nodded, the images filling his mind.

Gabe gathered him gently into his arms, then rolled onto his back, pulling James on top of him like that first night when they had made out on the couch. Except now they were naked, and Gabe was fully hard, seemingly not caring about cum getting spread across his body.

He kissed James softly and ran his hand feather-lightly across James’s back, then along his hips. His hips rolled, and James rolled his own in response, despite still being spent. He moaned into the kiss and trailed one hand up into James’s hair. James melted that little bit more as Gabe played with his hair. He worked his own fingers into Gabe’s hair. It was thick and healthy but somehow softer than it looked. His fingers slipped into it easily.