Empty Nests (16 page)

“Yes, it is. You’ve been on edge your entire adult life. That was going to happen.” Gabe kissed the back of his neck. “Now we can really take our time.”

James still couldn’t show his face. He felt Gabe get off the bed, then heard fabric hitting the floor. He looked over his shoulder. Gabe was naked, and James felt that little bit more inferior. It wasn’t as if Gabe was abnormally huge or anything, but he had nothing to be ashamed of and was sporting at least twice what James was.

Gabe crawled back onto the bed and curled himself around James. “I’m sorry, but it really is okay. And if you shimmy out of those jeans, I’d love the chance to pull you right back to that edge.”

James squeezed his eyes shut while Gabe rubbed circles on his chest. He could feel semen sticking to himself and knew there was no way he could wear that underwear home, so he might as well get out of it now. He pulled off his jeans and pushed them to the floor, then tried to cover himself, but Gabe gently grabbed his wrists.

“Nope.”

Despite lingering embarrassment, he let Gabe guide him onto his back. Gabe kissed James’s chest, right over his heart, then began simply stroking him. No one had ever touched him like that. No one had ever touched him. Gabe stroked places James had always thought were of no consequence, but they were suddenly sending messages of arousal rushing across his body in waves. Gabe interspersed his touches with soft, sucking kisses along James’s throat and chest. His tongue curled around James’s ear, and with a shudder and a moan, the last of the embarrassed tension left James.

Gabe headed south, teasing around his hips and belly but halting for a moment at the scars across the top of James’s left thigh.

“It was when Dylan was a week old. I was exhausted and trying to sterilize bottles. I knocked the pot off the stove somehow.”

Gabe didn’t say anything, just caressed the spot as if trying to sooth a wound long since healed. He kissed James again, then threw his leg up and over so he was straddling James’s hips. James felt himself, fully swollen again, twitch against Gabe’s ass. He dragged the tips of his fingers across James’s torso, causing him to giggle.

“Ticklish?”

“A little, I guess.”

“What would you like to do? Right now?” Gabe’s voice had dropped, and it vibrated through James’s frame.

James’s mind, already slowed in a lust-filled haze, simply stopped. “I don’t know. I’ve never….” He raised a hand slightly, then let it drop.

Gabe laced his fingers in with James’s. “I’ve touched you. Would you like to give it a try?”

James nodded. Gabe leaned forward, guiding their hands to his chest. He felt Gabe’s heart beating in a steady rhythm, so different from his own, which wouldn’t slow down. He slowly explored Gabe’s broad hairless chest, almost analytically noting the heat and smoothness. He barely touched a small hard nipple, and Gabe softly hummed. James froze.

“It’s okay. No need to stop.”

James carefully stroked his hand across the nipple again. The skin of it was a little smoother than the rest of Gabe’s chest. He ran a fingertip around it, and Gabe gave that same little hum. He tried a slightly bolder touch, and Gabe smiled and shifted his hips.

James jumped at the quick tickle of pleasure, but the smile on Gabe’s face made him feel brave. He abandoned the nipple and slid his fingertips down Gabe’s body until he managed to find a ticklish spot to the left of his navel. He touched all around the area but only got a giggle when he touched maybe two square inches of skin. James spent some time on it, as every time Gabe giggled, it caused vibrations to slide across his own cock.

“That’s so weird.”

“I’m sure you’ve got weird bits on you too.” Gabe grabbed his hand and kissed his fingertips. “And I intend to find all of them.”

He let James’s fingers go, and James knew his next move. It was staring him in the face, quite literally. He slid his hand down, then slowly touched Gabe’s cock.

Gabe moaned soft and low. “Feel free to linger in that area.”

He used the tips of his fingers to start. He was honestly as curious as he was aroused. The skin was soft and gave a little as it slid over the hard flesh under it. He traced a thick vein, even pressing on it for half a second. He squeezed the glans at the tip ever so gently and watched the way Gabe’s tip opened. All the while, Gabe gave little sighs and moans and the occasional gasp. Finally he grasped James’s hand, and set it over his cock. James took the hint and squeezed. This time Gabe’s groan was deep and filled with relief.

“Oh Lord, James, you are a tease.”

“I’m sorry—”

“No. It’s fine. Just keep….”

James squeezed again, and Gabe rolled into his hand, pressing his ass against James’s cock in the process. It was James’s turn to moan and stutter, but he tried to work out some sort of rhythm.

“Wait.” This time it was Gabe who said the word.

James yanked his hand away, wondering what he’d done wrong. Gabe climbed off James and James sat up.

“What’s wrong?”

“Absolutely nothing.” Gabe sat loosely cross-legged in the center of the large bed and beckoned James over. “Here, wrap your legs around my waist.”

It took a bit of wriggling, but James settled himself on Gabe’s lap. Gabe wrapped his arms around James and pulled him close, trapping their cocks between their bodies. A shock went through him as he felt Gabe’s cock against his for the first time. He pressed his face into Gabe’s shoulder. He smelled of clean sweat and a little of peppers.

“There,” Gabe whispered in his ear. “Now I can hold you.”

Gabe pressed his hips forward. That small movement of Gabe’s cock shifting against James’s sent his whole body twitching. Gabe held him tighter. “I’ve got you,” he whispered even as he began rolling his hips in a slow, easy rhythm. He kissed James’s ear. “Just relax. Let yourself feel. No plans, no worries. Just our bodies pressed against each other.”

Gabe cupped James’s ass, pulling him just that tiny bit closer. James whimpered as every place their bodies touched began to burn. He squeezed his eyes shut as his vision began to go hazy.

“Let yourself go. This is just a first experience. There are so many things I want to show you.”

James began to drive his hips against Gabe. He could feel that edge creeping up already.

“I want to kiss every part of you. I want to suck you down.”

James moaned at the image, his lungs beginning to ache as they struggled for more air.

“I want to be inside you.”

James gasped as an extra wave of arousal slammed in hard and fast.

“I want you to be inside of me.”

Gabe’s voice kept washing over James as if it was a physical presence, but he was beginning to lose track of the words.

“I want to find every bit of your body that turns you on.” Gabe sucked on his neck. “I want to find out if you have any kinks or fetishes and try them all.”

James couldn’t begin to answer. His body was no longer taking his brain’s commands as he thrust his hips against Gabe’s without control, his arms locked around Gabe’s body as if releasing him would mean death. Gabe caught his mouth in a deep kiss and slid a hand between them, squeezing their cocks together, and gave a stroke.

It was enough. A shout ripped its way from James’s lungs as he spasmed against Gabe, pleasure squeezing his eyes closed tight and sending lightning across his nerves. But Gabe didn’t stop. He kept stroking, sending aftershocks across James’s body until Gabe growled low. With a couple of bruising thrusts, Gabe spilled between their bellies.

James tried to catch his breath. His eyes were still squeezed shut, and his heart was racing hard and fast. He pressed his face into the curve of Gabe’s neck. Gabe slowly leaned forward until James was lying on his back, his limbs limp, refusing to respond to his will.

He opened his eyes, but it took a moment for them to focus. Gabe was smiling down at him. James smiled back, then closed his eyes and felt the world begin to fade.

G
ABE
WATCHED
James’s face until he was sure James had slipped into sleep. He quietly pulled some soft cloths from his bedside table. James stirred the smallest amount as he was quickly cleaned. He pulled the blanket of spun silk that was folded neatly at the foot of the bed up over both of them. Then he closed his eyes and, enjoying the rare comfort of someone warm beside him, slept.

G
ABE
WOKE
as James kicked and jerked his head to the side. He mumbled something Gabe couldn’t make out, his face crumpling. Gabe stroked his hair, easing James out of the dream he was having. His eyes fluttered open.

“You okay? I think you were having a nightmare.”

James yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Sorry for falling asleep.”

Gabe glanced at the bedside clock. “It was only about half an hour. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” James yawned again. “Stress dream. Late for work, the bus breaks down, have to walk, but the streets keep shifting.”

“I get those. I’m in some important meeting, but I can’t remember what it’s for, and when I go to look at my notes, they’ve been photocopied so many times I can’t read them.”

“I used to have dreams like that in high school.”

“Me too.” He leaned in and gave James a soft, lingering kiss, which James returned without hesitation. “How are you feeling?”

James smiled. He seemed sleepy still and a bit dazed. “I am feeling bizarrely good.”

“Bizarrely?”

“How about relaxed and content, which is a very odd and rare state for me to be in.”

“Maybe with a bit of work, we can make it more common.”

“I think I’d like that.”

“Good.” Gabe went back to kissing him. It was a nice comfortable place for the both of them. James skimmed his fingers along Gabe’s back until he found the patch of scar tissue again.

“It feels like road rash, just worse,” James commented.

“It basically is.”

James stroked it lightly. “What happened?”

“Car accident. It was after the company shifted from being a start-up to something more solid. I had to go all the way up to Napa one day to get some paperwork signed for this big deal. I was driving back, and there was traffic on the bridge and all the way down the 101, and I was supposed to be in on a conference call. I got onto the 280 instead, driving in the left lane doing close to ninety, trying to make up time. My phone rang because people wanted to know where I was.”

“I think I can guess the rest.”

Gabe could never remember what had happened after that phone rang but had been able to make a guess moments after waking up. “I’m told I rolled about eight times and tied up traffic for three hours. All I can remember is waking up in the ambulance with a bump on my head, a broken wrist, broken nose, cracked ribs, a broken collarbone, and a combination of road gravel and safety glass somehow ground into my shoulder blade. But it could have been worse.”

“You could have died.”

“I could have pulled a Wozniak and crashed a plane.”

James chuckled.

“Anyway, after that the budget got fiddled around with so I could have a driver on company time. That way, if I needed to dial into conference calls on the freeway—”

“You’d be less likely to end up in a bloody heap by the side of the road?”

“Basically.” James sat up and traced Gabe’s collarbone until he came to the bump where it had snapped. He leaned in and kissed the spot, sending a soft warmth through Gabe. No one had ever done that, ever kissed one of his injuries. He stroked James’s head. “Are you sure you’ve never done anything like this before? Because you’re awfully good at it.”

“I’m sure.”

“Well, you’re a natural. Give me a couple of days, and I’ll make a total hedonist out of you.”

James turned his head away. “Did you mean all those things you said? The things you want to do?”

“Every one of them, but there’s no need to try for them all in one night.” James craned his head around to look at the clock. “Do you need to be somewhere?” James hadn’t mentioned other plans, but then Gabe hadn’t asked. He kicked himself for that.

“No.” James answered quickly. “I wasn’t sure… um….”

James flushed. Gabe gave James a quick kiss he hoped was reassuring. “You better be spending the night. Breakfast is the one meal of the day I’m really good at, and I was hoping to impress you. Do you have to be anywhere tomorrow?”

“No. Dylan’s got a game Sunday afternoon, and I need to do laundry.”

Gabe wrestled James onto his back with a laugh and a kiss. “I don’t suppose I could talk you into skipping laundry so I can keep you in this bed all day?”

“Well….” James stretched out the word. “I was looking forward to watching Ernesto discover that Gabriella is his illegitimate half sister.”

Gabe groaned and pressed his forehead to James’s chest. “Oh God, no, you watch telenovelas.”

“They’re always on at the laundromat. And
Siete Palomas
is really engrossing.”

“I think my sister is watching that one.”

“Everyone’s watching that one. Ask her how far she thinks Catalina will go to seduce young Father Reynaldo.”

Leave it to me to find a white boy who’s into the novellas
, Gabe mused to himself.

“You can ask her yourself,” Gabe said without thinking.

James went still. “You want me to meet your sister?” His voice was full of confusion.

It took Gabe a moment to process what he had just said. He rarely introduced boyfriends to his family, and that was usually only after a lot of nagging on someone’s part. Most of the time, he didn’t even admit he had a family until it became unavoidable. But James didn’t exactly fit into the same category as most of his boyfriends.

“Yeah, at some point. I mean if you want?”

“No, no, that’s fine, I’m just…. I’m not totally sure how these relationship things work.” James’s brows pulled together. “This is a relationship?”

“No, it’s an incredibly complicated one-night stand.” Gabe put a kiss on the little crease between James’s eyes. “I’m all for this being a relationship. I mean, we don’t have to move any faster than you’re comfortable with, but you already mean a lot to me. A lot more than any of my one-night stands. Hell, a lot more than some of my longer relationships. Is that okay?”