Endless, Forever (25 page)

When he pulled back, they were both a little breathless, and Gabe was holding on to the front of his shirt.  “Go inside and get your card.  I’ll get a cab.  We’re going back to my apartment.”

Gulping, Oliver nodded and used every ounce of his self-control to pull away from his lost love.  “Okay.  I…yes.  Okay.”  He fought back the fear that this was Gabriel playing some game with him, as some sort of final retribution for leaving the way he had.  He tried not to think of how he would feel stepping back to the street only to find Gabriel gone.

He slipped into the restaurant and found their table.  His card and receipt were sitting on a small, silver tray, and he snatched it up.  With trembling hands, he scribbled a massive tip, his name, then hurried back out.

For a terrifying second, he didn’t see Gabriel anywhere.  Then, as his eyes scanned the parking lot, he found Gabriel waiting near an open cab door.  He saw the smile waiting for him, the smile which said this wasn’t over, that this was just the beginning, and his heart thumped hard against his ribs.

Rushing to the door, Oliver let Gabriel take his hand as they slipped inside the car, and he didn’t say anything as Gabriel gave directions to his apartment.  The ride felt longer than it was, a ten-minute eternity of the pair of them holding hands, thigh pressing against thigh.

Then the cab came to a halt and Oliver felt his insides start to quake again.  He could hardly believe it was real.  The last three years had been spent missing Gabriel so much his insides felt flayed raw, and he had been convinced this would never happen.  That Gabriel had been lost to him for good.

He laughed as they climbed the stairs—different building, different life, but so familiar.  Gabriel all-but tugged him, the pair of them giggling a little, giddy with anticipation.  Oliver felt almost overheated as he waited, foot tapping on the floor while Gabriel got his keys out and fumbled with the lock.

“Hurry up,” Oliver muttered.

Gabe gave him a disbelieving stare, a small snort as he finally got the lock to turn.  “Don’t rush me.  I’m nervous.”

Rolling his eyes, Oliver pressed his hand to the small of Gabriel’s back.  “I am too.  I never thought there would be a day I would be nervous to be alone with you.”

Turning with the door half open, Gabriel palmed Oliver’s cheek.  “I know.  It’s…weird.”  He backed up through the door, dragging Oliver with him, and it slammed shut like a benediction.  Almost physically startled, Oliver flinched as Gabriel pushed him back against the wood, and brought his face in close.

“This isn’t it, right?  I’m not going to wake up to an empty bed ever again?”

“No,” Oliver muttered against warm lips.

“Promise me,” Gabriel begged.  His hands went up, almost desperate as they clung to Oliver’s shoulders.

Reaching up, Oliver ran his fingers into the curls he had missed so much it was like a physical wound, and his eyes closed against his will.  “I promise.  God, I swear it.  There’s never been anyone but you, Gabriel.”

His words were silenced again with a kiss, with Gabriel’s body pressed against his.  He surged, moaning, wanting and needy as he clawed at the man in front of him.  Gabriel responded in kind, not breaking contact as he pulled Oliver forward through the apartment, and into a dark bedroom.

It smelled so much like Gabriel, Oliver had to take a moment.  Tears prickled in the corners of his eyes as the memories rushed back.  Their first kiss, the first time they had sex, the first time Oliver knew he was irrevocably in love with this man.

The bed was untidy, but as usual, Gabe was unashamed of it.  Instead of trying to tidy up, he busied himself with buttons and the zippers on trousers.  Before long they were in nothing but shirts and boxers, looking at each other like familiar strangers.

Oliver reached his hand out, one finger tracing along the bottom of Gabriel’s shirt.  “May I?”

Nodding, Gabriel stepped forward and Oliver went through the old, familiar motions of undressing him.  It was like muscle memory, his hands not needing his brain to remember where to touch, to elicit those needy groans and the surge of hips.

They fell to the mattress, crawling up toward the pillows with Oliver on his back, Gabe between his legs.  “If we do this, I’m not letting you go again,” Gabriel whispered.

“And I’m going to hold you to that,” Oliver said, his hands gripping Gabriel by the hips.  “I was so fucking stupid, such an absolute fool.  Please, please forgive me.”

“I did,” Gabriel whispered, pressing his lips against the side of Oliver’s neck.  “Minutes after you left, I forgave you, because what else was I supposed to do?  I loved you.  I
still
love you.”

A wrecked sob tore from Oliver’s throat, but there was no time to give in to it.  He was moving with Gabriel now, their body heat mingling, hot mouths ripping at each other, trying to find every inch of exposed skin.

Luckily Gabriel was prepared with everything Oliver needed to slip inside him, and before long they were moving together, reuniting in every way possible.  Their mouths stayed together the whole time, tongues pressed and probing just like everything else.  Every part of their body moved together, in tandem, reminding them this was meant to be.

When it was over, far too fast for Oliver’s liking, he rolled off to the side and tried to catch his breath.  Gabriel turned, reaching out to brush away some of Oliver’s fallen hair, and ran his knuckles down Oliver’s cheek.  “Did you really mean all that?”

With a laugh, Oliver shut his eyes and leaned into the caress.  “I have never meant anything more.  I…I’ll never stop being sorry, and I can’t promise there won’t be rough times.  I’m never going to be cured, you know.”

Gabe’s fingers trailed along the scarring, touching each bit of puckered flesh with reverence.  “I know.  I never expected that.”

Licking his lips, Oliver opened his eyes.  “I’ve stopped living for other people.  I’ve stopped blaming myself for what my mother did.  I never stopped loving you, but…it’s different.  Because I know how to love you the way you deserve.”

A small smile graced Gabriel’s mouth, and he leaned in for another, gentle kiss.  “Then I guess we see where this goes, don’t you think?”

“Well, I have some idea,” Oliver said with a small grin.  Because he did.

Wherever there was Gabriel, there was home.

And that’s exactly where he needed to be.

Epilogue

Pressed up against the door, Gabriel’s head fell back and he let out a tiny moan.  “This,” he gasped as Oliver attacked his neck, “is a terrible idea.  They’re going to be here any minute, and Will still has his key from when he was watching the cat.  He could walk in here and see us.”

“You’ve no idea how much of a fuck I do not give,” Oliver muttered against flushed skin.  His hand snaked into the unbuttoned front of Gabriel’s jeans and slipped under boxers.  Teasing Gabriel gently with the tips of his fingers, he sucked a small mark onto his collarbone.  “You really want me to stop?”

Gabe’s hips bucked as Oliver’s fingers teased his entrance.  “Oh,
fuck
.  No, don’t…God, don’t stop.”

With a wicked grin, Oliver slipped two fingers inside just a little, rubbing hard against Gabriel’s walls.  “I didn’t think so.”

“You are an absolute bastard,” Gabriel panted as he pushed his hips down hard against Oliver’s hand.

“So they tell me.”  His smug grin dropped when there was a pounding on the door.

“Hey, sex fiends, you know the constant-fucking, honeymoon phase is supposed to end at some point, right?”

“Fuck off!” Oliver cried through the door, not stopping what he was doing.  He grinned as Gabe shoved the side of his fist into his mouth to keep from crying out.  “Just start setting up, yeah?  Leo’s going to be here in about thirty.”

“Yeah alright, but you owe me,” Will called back through the door.

When the footsteps died down, Gabe turned heated eyes on his lover.  “Fucking…hurry up,” he panted.

Oliver sped up his motions, thrusting his fingers the way Gabriel liked until his boyfriend’s head fell back against the wall and let out a muffled cry of ecstasy.  Feeling hot fluid spill over his knuckles, Oliver carefully pulled away, easing himself out of his boyfriend’s jeans.

“You love it.”

“I love
you
,” Gabriel corrected, “and therefore tolerate your…asshattery.”

“Asshattery, is it?” Oliver repeated, mocking Gabriel’s accent.

With a snort, Gabriel grabbed a towel off the bathroom counter and threw it at his lover.  “Wash up.  You don’t need to be getting all up in the food with sex hands.”

Oliver rolled his eyes, but went for the sink as Gabriel shook out his curls, then left the small room.  Grinning at himself as he turned on the water, Oliver let out a very self-satisfied sigh.  It had been two years since reuniting with Gabriel, and he had been half-convinced for at least a year of it, that it was going to fall apart.

That the Universe was going to remain as cruel and cold as his mother had been, and continue to tease him with what he wanted most, only to rip it away again.  But that didn’t happen.  Gabriel was still here, living with him, going to bed with him every night.

Gabriel’s book had done well, too.  Not topping the charts, but enough to contract a second, then a third.  Enough to pull in decent money each quarter.

Their relationship wasn’t perfect, and Oliver had no delusions that it would be.  Their fights were loud and fantastic, both of them cutting to the quick with angry words and accusations.  But they were quick to make up, quick to remind each other that they loved each other and always would.

It helped with their friends around.  Will and Derek had met the night Oliver invited them both out for drinks, and while they started out as friends, it was obvious from the moment they met, there was something there.  Oliver couldn’t be happier about it, and the four of them spent more time together than they did apart.

Leo was still living in Stanford, getting ready to start his first year of practice as he worked on his MD.  But he visited several times a month, saying he needed to keep an eye on Oliver, though it was clear his brother just missed the company.

It was nice.  It was the family he had always dreamed of having and thought maybe had been beyond him.  Maybe he was too broken for it.

Daily, Gabriel reminded him he was deserving.

Swiping his hands on the dry towel, Oliver retied his hair back into a bun, then wandered into the kitchen where Will was showing Gabriel the latest line of organic, hand-made soaps the Farmer’s Market had picked up.

“Freaking hippies,” Oliver muttered to Derek who handed him a beer.

Rolling his eyes, Derek leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.  “Tell me about it.  Do you have any idea how much shit I get for showing up to work smelling like patchouli?”

“I have never
ever
in my life put patchouli on you,” Will complained, tossing a cracker at Derek’s head.

“Mmhmm, whatever you say, darling.”  Derek grinned and nudged Oliver in the side with his elbow.  “So, how’s work?”

“Not changed since we had drinks on Wednesday,” Oliver said.  He glanced over at the table and saw the gaudily wrapped gifts.  “What did you get Leo?”

“That hideous black dress with the cat on it he was eyeing last month,” Will replied, pouring some sort of ugly, brown lotion on Gabriel’s hands.  “The one he wouldn’t stop going on about.”

“And that set of books,” Derek added.  “And a bottle of two-hundred-dollar scotch.”

“You spoil him too much,” Oliver complained.

Gabriel rolled his eyes.  “You got him nine-hundred-dollar pumps.”

Oliver flashed two fingers up at his boyfriend.  “I’m his
brother
, I’m supposed to do the barmy, too-expensive shit.  And anyway, he got me and you a seven-night stay in sodding Hawaii.  So I owe him at least five more pairs of nine hundred dollar pumps.”

Gabe smiled at the memory of their last vacation, and shrugged before going back to his conversation with Will.  Oliver smiled and looked over at Derek who was watching his own boyfriend with some fondness.

“You know, two years of blissful happiness later, and I haven’t even gotten a gift basket or anything,” Oliver complained.

Derek blinked.  “For what?  A random invite to a shitty bar?  I like to think the Universe would have thrown us together anyway.”

“No one appreciates me around here,” Oliver groaned.

Before anyone could reply, the front door opened and Leo stepped in.  He was bright-eyed, looking nice in his ripped jeans and white t-shirt, and he had his arm threaded through his new girlfriend’s.  Oliver had met her a few times and thought she was wonderful.  Her name was Emily, a grad student at Stanford going into biochemistry, coming along just as Leo’s relationship with his boyfriend Max was falling apart.  They seemed good for each other, and Oliver couldn’t have been more happy about it.

“Nice James Dean thing you’ve got going on,” Oliver said as he yanked his brother into a hug.

“Arse,” Leo replied, kissing Oliver on the cheek.

Emily nudged Leo.  “I told you.  Everyone’s going to think James Dean.”

“What the hell are you going for?” Oliver questioned.

Leo flushed, and Emily rolled her eyes.  “He’s been on a Grease kick lately.”

“Oh Christ,” Oliver muttered.  “I’m getting drunk before I get into any of
that
.  Anyway, happy birthday, you shit.  I’m glad you’re here.”

Leo hugged him again, then eyed the presents.  “I hope you know I’m not waiting for food to open these.”

Gabriel, finally done with his inspection of Will’s funky bath products, slid across the kitchen to put his arm around Oliver’s waist.  Leaning his head on Gabe’s shoulder, the pair watched as Leo tore into his gifts, all-but crying over the dress, and the noise he made over the shoes could hardly be considered human.

Oliver smiled, turning his head to kiss Gabe on the cheek, and was rewarded with a gentle squeeze around the hips.  “Reckon he likes it all?”

“I think so,” Gabe said, laughing when Leo kissed the side of the black heel.  Looking up at his boyfriend, Gabe’s dark eyes shone with affection.  “Happy?”

Oliver looked at him for a very long time, letting the emotions crash through him before his tongue formed around the words.  A soft smile turned the corners of his mouth up, and he leaned his head in to whisper in his boyfriend’s ear, “There’s not a word for what I am.  But yes.  I am very, incredibly happy.”

Gabriel smiled and turned his head for a kiss.  “Good,” he mumbled against Oliver’s lips.

Pressing their foreheads together, Oliver smiled again.  “Yeah, it is rather.  Very,
extremely
good.”

THE END