Sleigh Ride (Minnesota Christmas Book 2) (13 page)

C
hapter Fourteen

W
hen Arthur’s mother told him she’d invited Gabriel to Thanksgiving, Arthur had imagined many scenarios, most of them nightmare-oriented. Nothing, however, came close to what actually happened. Because after the hallway moment, everything was, basically,
perfect
.

Unwilling to end contact after their second kiss, Arthur kept a light hold of Gabriel’s hand all the way up the stairs. Once in his nephew’s domain, Arthur deferred to Thomas, who practically vibrated with his need to introduce Gabriel to every stuffed animal, every toy truck, every action figure. He also brought out, with grave reverence, Soupy.

“This is my baby. She can’t come out much, because she’s a secret.”

Gabriel’s gaze flickered a moment, a shaft of understanding betraying his countenance before he responded with a tone meant to set Thomas at ease. “Is she secret because she’s so special? She’s pretty. What’s her name?”

“She’s Soupy. She’s
very
special.” Thomas rubbed his cheek against Soupy’s perfect, shining curls. “I want to bring her to hear story time, but Mom says she can’t come. Only my dinosaur and bears. But Soupy likes stories a lot.”

“I’m sure she does.” Gabriel stroked the doll’s hair. “Well, Thomas, I think it will be a while before dinner is ready. We could have a special story time right now. Soupy can pick all the books she wants.”

Thomas hadn’t been this excited when Arthur had presented him with handmade wooden race cars last Christmas—or rather, Santa had. “
All she wants?
”

Arthur felt honor bound to warn Gabriel. “Mom subscribes to ten different kid book clubs. You can’t open his closet without a book avalanche. All the books Soupy wants could keep you captive here for a week.”

“We can take breaks for dinner and to play other games,” Gabriel said, as if this were a minor concern. “If Soupy wants more books than we can fit in today, I’ll come give her a special story time whenever she needs one. But…” He paused as if he were considering something, but Arthur could tell Gabriel was playing a deep game. “Is it that she can’t leave the house or can’t come to the library? Is she scared?”

Thomas bit his lip, glancing worriedly at Arthur. “M-Mom says the other kids would laugh at her.”

“I see. Why would they laugh?”

“Because she’s a girl toy. Boys can’t play with girl toys.”

Oh, fucking hell, Arthur was going to kill Becky. Before his ire could take root, though, Gabriel spoke, his voice silky smooth. “I wish I’d known. I played with dolls all the time when I was a boy.”

Thomas’s eyes went wide. “You
did
?”

“I did. I have two of them with me now at my house. But now I’m worried. What happens if I’m a boy and I play with dolls?”

Thomas clearly had no idea how to play this one. “People laugh?”

“Hmm. Well, people laughed at me a lot when I was little, but they never told me it was because of dolls. They laughed at my curly hair, my glasses, my too-short pants, and the way I tripped all the time.”

“Did you take your dolls to story time?”

“I wasn’t allowed to take toys out of the house. So maybe they would have laughed. But they laughed about so many other things, I don’t know that it would have mattered.” He tipped his head to the side. “You know, I think I’m going to bring my dolls to story time tomorrow and find out. Do you think the boys and girls will laugh at me if I bring my dolls?”

Thomas kept glancing at Arthur. “I don’t know.”

Oh, Arthur was going to see this show live, no question. “Thomas, I think you and I should go to story time. With Soupy.” Thomas brightened like a rising sun, and Arthur couldn’t resist adding, “I wish I had a doll too.”

Thomas bounced on his heels, making Soupy’s curls jiggle as well. “Mr. Higgins said he has two. You could borrow one.”

“He absolutely could,” Gabriel agreed.

Arthur sat back. “Well, then it’s all settled.”

Thomas clutched Soupy tight to his chest. “I’m gonna go tell Grandma!”

He rushed out of the room, shouting, “
Grandma, Grandma!
” all the way down the stairs. As soon as he was around the corner, Arthur pulled Gabriel to him, planting a carnal kiss on his lips.

“If I didn’t know Thomas would follow us, I’d take you out to the shed and give you the blow job of your life right now.” He kissed Gabriel again, lingering with a biting kiss on his bottom lip. “That was the sexiest thing anybody’s ever done. Though I’m warning you, my sister’s going to be out for blood.”

Gabriel nuzzled his nose along Arthur’s own. “I’ll talk with her, if she’s concerned, but it truly will be okay. And when I’m done, Soupy will be able to come to story time whenever she likes. No one will ever laugh. Not there, anyway.”

Arthur caught those pretty curls in a tender grip, hating that anyone had ever mocked Gabriel for them. “Correction. I want to blow you, then fuck you boneless.”

Gabriel blushed and ducked away. “Hush.”

Thomas returned, still flush with excitement. He had Gabriel hold Soupy while he chose a six-inch stack of books and arranged every stuffed animal he owned in a story-time semicircle. When he was done, he took Arthur by the hand, plunked him into the center and climbed aboard with Soupy in his arms.

As Gabriel read to Thomas and his army of stuffies with the same ceremony and attention he gave the hordes at the library, Arthur realized as far as his nephew was concerned, Uncle Arthur was dating a god. Given how rapt Arthur found himself over the books he usually read to Thomas with almost zero interest, the honor was pretty apt. Gabriel was a wizard of reading aloud. Even the most banal of stories became interesting when Gabriel looked you in the eye and made the words sparkle. When Gabriel read to you, you felt like the most important person in the world, getting the most important information anybody had ever been given. He made the world fall away, made the world okay.

When Becky came to collect them for dinner, she was, as Arthur predicted, pissed—but at Arthur, not Gabriel. When Thomas took Gabriel’s hand, still toting Soupy, she said not a word, clearly unwilling to reprimand her son for his doll in front of the town librarian.

Apparently while Gabriel was god to small children, he was also demigod to parents.

Dinner itself came right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. No one remarked on the fact that Arthur and Gabriel sat together and whispered to one another. When they got to pie and coffee—Corrina apologizing for forgetting Gabriel’s cup on the counter earlier—Arthur put an arm around the back of Gabriel’s chair, thrilling when Gabriel accepted the invitation to lean into him a little. Gabriel helped make the whipped cream with Thomas, but he sat beside Arthur while he ate his pumpkin pie. They curled up on the couch together after, and Gabriel fell asleep with his head on Arthur’s chest.

Thomas tucked Soupy in next to Gabriel as Corrina draped a blanket over them. Arthur met his mother’s gaze.

Thank you,
he mouthed, and indicated Gabriel with a nod. He wasn’t talking about the afghan.

She winked and patted him on the arm, leaving the room prouder and more pleased with herself than a peacock at the zoo.

While Thomas watched
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town!
on DVD, Gabriel slept, and Arthur watched him, the perfect day wrapping around him, the perfect man
literally
wrapped around him. In front of his family, with his family. For this day, part of his family.

Arthur’s breath caught as the truth expanded before him: what Gabriel was to him, what he wanted Gabriel to be. How cut open it made him feel, raw and hopeful all at once. Terrified and yet unable to turn away.

He knew what he wanted—and he knew too how hard it would be to get there, how many ways he could screw it up, how impossible it would be to get Gabriel to believe. How awful it would be if he never did.

But as he stroked those curls from Gabriel’s face, still and peaceful in his sleep, Arthur fell deeper and deeper in love. He knew he had to try.

A
fter the show ended, Gabriel read Thomas five bedtime stories and kissed both Thomas and Soupy on their foreheads as he left to join the others. Soupy now slept on the floor beside Thomas in a bed hastily made out of a box Arthur found in the basement. Before Gabriel left his bedroom, Thomas presented him with a crayon drawing of Gabriel, Thomas, Arthur and Soupy, egg-shaped head-bodies with legs and arms extending at strange angles, stick-hands joined, mouths smiling.

Downstairs, Gabriel joined in the family game of UNO at the kitchen table, where Corrina opened the bottle of wine Gabriel had brought. Arthur declined because he was driving, Big Tom because of his medications, which meant the ladies and Gabriel split the bottle between them. Except somehow they only had one glass each, and Gabriel had…the rest. When Arthur declared he was taking Gabriel home, Gabriel rose to his feet—and swayed.

Arthur held him steady by the elbow. “Easy, Legs. You got a long way to fall.”

Gabriel’s face grew hot, but everyone’s laughter was good-natured. He accepted the bag of leftover containers from Corrina while still holding on to Arthur’s arm, thanking her profusely—and with a bit of a slur—for her hospitality. He let Arthur bundle him into his coat and walk him down the stairs to his truck, which somehow was already started and warming up.

“Automatic start,” Arthur replied when Gabriel remarked on it. He held up a key fob. “I press a button, my truck starts.”

“
God.
I would kill for one of those.”

Arthur rubbed the fob along his cheek. “I’ll put one into your car.”

Gabriel gripped Arthur’s arm tight. “You can
do
that?”

“Sure. It’s nothing at all.”

“Can you make it so my stereo plays my phone?”

Arthur grinned. “I see how this goes. You’re only dating me for my technical skills.”

Gabriel faltered. “No, I would never—”

Arthur pressed a gloved finger against his lips. “I’m kidding, sweetheart.” He swatted Gabriel’s butt. “I know it’s my big dick you’re after.”

Gabriel stumbled at the impact. It was hard enough staying upright drunk on uneven ground
without
sexual assault. “That’s not why I said you were my boyfriend either.” He swayed into Arthur’s side. “Though I do like your dick. A lot.”

Arthur’s arm drifted lower on Gabriel’s waist. “Why
did
you say yes?”

Gabriel shut his eyes and tried to crouch to lean on Arthur’s shoulder, but it was too far away. “It wasn’t because of your height.”

Arthur pinched his butt. “I’m serious. Why…why did you say that? Did you mean it?”

Gabriel nodded, but the lump returned to his throat. “I want to be your boyfriend, but I’m scared.”

“Of me?”

“Of me. I’ll mess it up.”

They were at the truck now. Arthur crowded him gently into the door and stroked his hair. “You won’t mess it up. I promise. But will you tell me why, seriously? Why you want me? Because I didn’t expect it. I’m…kind of worried you’ll take it back.”

Gabriel leaned into those hands, staring at Arthur’s lips nestled in his beard because he couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. “I said it because when you’re not making me crazy, you make me happier than I’ve ever been, make me feel freer than I’ve ever felt.” He shut his eyes. “Except I’m completely neurotic about sex, I’m too fussy and contradictory, and—”

Arthur stopped him with a slow, drugging kiss, lacing his tongue with Gabriel’s until he whimpered. When Arthur drew back, he nuzzled his beard at Gabriel’s jaw while he murmured in his ear. “How neurotic you are about sex is my favorite thing about you.”

Gabriel’s heart turned over, then threw up its guards. “Shut up, nobody likes that.”

“I do. I want to lap up your neurotic hang-ups about sex with a spoon.” He kissed Gabriel’s neck. “I want to keep you safe, sweetheart. I want to be the safe space where you can let go. Because you know I’ll never let anyone hurt you. Because you know I enjoy everything about you.” He ran his tongue down the length of Gabriel’s ear, gripping his shoulders when he shuddered and tried to jerk away—before melting into him. “I want to keep you safe, but while I do it, I’m gonna fuck the hell out of you. I want to pull at every one of your neuroses like threads until you come apart in my arms.”

Gabriel’s eyes rolled back in his head—he wasn’t far from coming apart right now. How he could feel so gooey and yet so turned on at the same time was something only Arthur could do. “You make me feel so sexy. Nobody ever made me feel sexy.” He skimmed a thumb along Arthur’s shoulders. “And safe.”

“You are sexy. And safe. This is all you, Gabriel. You’ve had this in you all along.” He boldly gripped Gabriel’s erection through his trousers, massaging it into a full-on iron bar. Gabriel moaned, thrusting into his hand, and Arthur laughed darkly, burrowing in and sucking on Gabriel’s neck. “Goddamn, but I love me some kinky librarian.
My
kinky librarian.”

Gabriel thought he was going to come right there in Corrina’s driveway, against her son’s truck. “I’m sorry I’m so skinny.”

“’S alright. I’m gonna fill you full of deer sausage. Fatten you right up.”

“Fill me up with Arthur sausage first.” Gabriel blushed at his boldness, but it turned into a different kind of heat as Arthur laughed darkly and started to unbutton Gabriel’s pants. “
Ohgod.
”

Arthur nipped and scraped at Gabriel’s neck as he jacked him roughly. “I like this sausage. Gonna pump it dry, baby, right here on my truck. Wonder if they’re on the porch watching you get humped. Maybe they’re gonna flip on the yard light and see the whole thing. They’ll gasp and cover their mouths—what a scandal. Right there where anybody could see.” He nuzzled Gabriel’s collarbone. “His big cock out, getting jacked off by a logger. Bad librarian. Bad, bad boy.”

Gabriel gasped and clutched at Arthur’s shoulders—and came so hard he cried out. The sound echoed across the outbuildings—and as Gabriel came down, shame crashed over him.

“Oh my God.
Oh my God,
they had to have heard.”

Arthur chuckled and kissed Gabriel on the mouth as he pulled a hanky from his pocket and wiped up Gabriel’s spunk. “They might’ve. But I promise you, they’re not turning on the yard light for any money. You’re the only exhibitionist here.”