Only You by Jerry Cole (the top 100 crime novels of all time TXT) 📕

his hands further around and made for Bradley’s belt buckle. It came undone a moment later. He was about to slip his hand inside his pants too, when Bradley stopped him.

“Do we have time?” It was said in a low growl; Sherman could feel his breath trace across his lips.

“Do we care?” Sherman responded. As he did, he pulled his hand free from Bradley’s grip and tried to dive inside his pants again. This time, Bradley didn’t stop him.

He was hard already, and Sherman gripped his thick cock with one hand and gave it a squeeze. “Christ,” he moaned. His body relaxed and he leaned back, allowing easier access for Sherman to start stroking. “Don’t ever stop.”

“Don’t worry, babe.” With his spare hand, Sherman helped Bradley shuffle out of his pants. “I won’t.”

The sex was... well, it was about as good as Sherman remembered it being, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. He’d spent the past two months building it up in his head, trying to reconstruct what it had been like in Bali all those times. And where he had worried that maybe he’d gone a little too far and built it up too much, he soon realized that he had not. Not one little bit.

He and Bradley made love all afternoon, using the living room as their parlor. For hours it was just them, locked away in that room without a care in the world. No phones. No emails. No nothing. It wasn’t until the sun began to set, when the room began to glow a dull orange, that Sherman realized what time it was.

“Woops!” he yelped and jumped to his feet. “We’ve got to hurry.”

“How come?” Bradley was laying on the rug, completely naked, cock flaccid and laying to the side across his thigh. It had already gotten a workout today and could use the rest.

“Dinner reservations, my sweet.”

“Oooooo, where?” Bradley sat up excitedly.

“Fire Door,” Sherman explained. “There’s usually a six month wait, but I made a few calls.”

“That... that sounds expensive.”

“It is.” Sherman wasn’t paying attention. He had since gotten his phone out and unlocked it with the intent of checking the reservation time. The moment he opened his emails though, he was flooded with hundreds that read ‘Urgent!’

“Babe.” Bradley got to his feet and wrapped himself around Sherman. “I don’t want you paying for everything while I’m - I live here now. I can afford to cover myself.”

“I know, I know,” Sherman waved him down. He wasn’t even half paying attention now. He was scrolling through his emails, becoming more distressed by the second. “But tonight isn’t — it’s different. Your first night in, I want to spoil you, all right. Surely, that’s Okay?” He gave him the puppy dog eyes.

“I guess...” Bradley didn’t look convinced.

“Can we talk about this later? Dinner is in an hour and we both have to get ready – you first,” he ordered. He then pointed toward the bathroom. “Go shower. Now!”

Bradley didn’t argue; he hopped up and hurried toward the shower. On the way, he blew Sherman a kiss, and a second later the bathroom door closed and the sound of water running greeted his ears.

Alone now, Sherman got about doing what he should have done before picking Bradley up... answering those damn emails!

There was a problem. A big problem. A problem that didn’t really have an answer, which was why Sherman hadn’t bothered with any responses as of yet. Covid-19, that pesky little virus that was hanging around at the end of the year and threatening to disrupt the tourism industry, was no longer just a pesky little virus. Since November, it had morphed into a full-blown pandemic with unimaginable consequences.

People all across the globe were getting sick in record numbers. The spread rate was three times that of the common flu, and the death rate was apparently just as bad! Some countries were acting in the extreme, shutting down boarders and locking their citizens inside. Others were taking a cautious approach and waiting to see if it was as bad as some scientists were claiming.

Australia was in the middle somewhere. But as it stood, things got worse by the day and this went double for the tourism industry.

There was a very real chance that international travel might be cancelled for good. Some were saying it would just be weeks. Others were guessing months. No one knew for sure, which only made it all that much worse.

What this meant for DreamLine Travel was beyond comprehensible. If travel did end, even for only a few months, it could bankrupt the company and ruin everyone that worked for it... and that very much included Sherman So he tried not to think about it, and in his responses was as optimistic as possible. He told everyone to remain calm and give it a few more days. Surely, things would start to calm down...

With the sound of Bradley still showering in the background, and more and more emails coming through despite how many responses Sherman sent, he could feel himself getting stressed. There was only one thing he could do.

The last remnants of his cocaine were stuffed in a drawer in the reading room. Sherman hurried to find it... and then he racked the last two lines off the table. Fuck it felt good.

For a moment he just stood there, breathing in through his nostrils, tilting his head back and basking in the glorious feeling of cocaine streaming through his blood. There was nothing like it really and in those few seconds, nothing else mattered.

That was the last of it too. But this was a good thing. The last two months had gotten a little out of hand as far as the drug use had gone. He’d bought off Curly twice more, with both times being as awkward as the first.

But Bradley was