On a Roll by Beth Bolden (best historical biographies TXT) 📕

Or would Sean put his foot down and demand the thing he’d wanted last time? The idea of being fucked again, of Gabe doing the fucking? It made his fingertips tremble as he rolled up a wrap. It had been something he’d wanted before they’d ever touched each other, but now that he knew what Gabriel sounded like when he was just about to lose control, the thought was inevitable.

How would he sound when he was deep inside Sean?

“You look distracted,” Ren said when he came by to grab a late dinner.

“I’m not distracted,” Sean lied. “Not even remotely.”

“Okay, good, well, you should know that Gabriel’s barely been able to put one foot in front of the other the last three days. So please go fuck him so he’s useful to me again.”

Sean couldn’t stop his cheeks from flaming bright red. “Oh, uh, I don’t . . .”

Ren held up a hand, shooting Sean a wry smile. “It’s alright. I know what’s going on. It’s not hard to read, when you know what you’re looking for. And you’ve got flashing neon lights.”

Sean hoped it was flashing neon lights that advertised that he was only here for sex. The last thing he wanted was to give Gabriel the idea that he could feel something. That was why he’d been so clear upfront.

“We were hardly hiding it the other night,” Sean said slowly. Tried to steady his still-trembling fingers as he finished folding Ren’s chicken caesar salad wrap.

In the last two years, he’d done this approximately a million times, but his hands felt clumsy and unsure as he wrapped it up in paper and sliced neatly through the center with one of his sharp knives.

“No, but now you’re all shy,” Ren said and Sean instantly felt his hackles rise. He wasn’t shy. He was . . . well, it was a big thing to have sex again. It was an even bigger thing to have regular sex again. Especially with someone that, before the last week, he hadn’t been sure he even liked.

“If you really want to know, we’re meeting up tonight,” Sean said, determined not to be shy. Especially determined that Ren wouldn’t find him shy and awkward. Because Ren was clearly the expert on hookups, and if he was speaking with so much disdain about shyness, then that was something Sean needed to overcome. He’d done it the other night, hadn’t he?

“I’m glad to hear it,” Ren said with a wink. “Maybe Gabe’ll be less of a bear.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Sean promised, sliding Ren’s wrap through the window.

Ren took it but didn’t leave. Dusk had fallen, and the lot had emptied out, only a few stragglers behind. He could probably theoretically close now, which might even be something Gabriel was considering too, especially if Ren was eating his late dinner.

“You know,” Ren said slowly, “Gabriel isn’t really like me. We might look a little bit alike, but we’re not really similar underneath.”

“Oh, you’re much hotter than Gabe,” Sean said, which was another lie. A lie he hoped, desperately, would not make it back to the man in question.

Ren smiled softly. “I’m just saying we’re not very similar. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten hurt in my entire life—not from a hookup. It’s neat and easy, and there’s a lot to be said for that. But Gabe? He likes it messy.”

“Messy?” Sean wasn’t sure what Ren was getting at exactly.

“Yeah. Just . . . remember that, okay?”

“Alright.” Sean frowned as he watched Ren walk off.

He puzzled through Ren’s words all through his cleanup, but he still wasn’t quite sure what he’d meant. Was Ren trying to warn him away from Gabe? Warn him that he could get hurt? Tell him that he shouldn’t get involved? Sean thought that if that was the case, then Ren wouldn’t have encouraged them in the first place.

And he most definitely had.

When he met up with Gabe half an hour later, he still wasn’t sure what Ren had meant, but the moment he saw Gabriel, all the doubts and all his confusion just melted away. This was why he’d wanted Gabriel; no matter what Ren claimed about his cousin liking things messy, this was as easy and as natural as breathing.

“Hey,” Gabriel said, breaking into a huge grin when he saw Sean approaching where he was sitting on one of the picnic tabletops, flicking through something on his phone.

“Hey,” Sean said. “Sorry if you were waiting.”

“Not for long,” Gabriel said, jumping down. Without even discussing it, they headed out of the lot the same way they had the other night. Towards Sean’s townhouse. “Ren was insufferable today, so I let him take most of the cleanup.”

“You should be nicer to him, you know,” Sean chided him, thinking of how earlier, Ren had possibly tried to protect Gabriel.

“Why?” Gabriel asked. “He’s a pain in my ass.”

“He means well,” Sean said. Though he wasn’t sure that was quite true. On the surface, Ren was a very straightforward person, but now that he thought about it, there were almost certainly mysterious depths to him.

“He fucking does not,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. “He practically started a fist fight in line today, during lunch.”

“Seriously?”

“His flirting is lethal. You know that,” Gabriel added, the edge of his voice going a little darker. “Anyway, I told him to cut that shit out. I don’t need two people throwing down for the chance at his fucking phone number.”

“Do you think he’ll ever settle down?” Sean wondered. Thinking he wasn’t just asking about Ren, who’d made free and easy his trademark, but himself, too. Would he be happy like this, just hooking up, with no strings, forever? Would he ever find what he’d shared with Milo again?

For a very long time, he’d been sure that was impossible. Milo had been one of a kind, and there was no way he could ever fall for someone that easily ever again.

“Naw,” Gabriel said. “He’s a free spirit. I think he actually likes