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

deeper until it felt like they were pressing right against that spot that never failed to make him see a whole universe of stars. Until he was pleading and incoherent, his cock leaking onto his stomach, so hard he felt like he might come the moment Gabriel touched him.

But he didn’t, just grabbed a condom from the drawer, and then finally, after it was on, began to slide inside of Sean.

He was still big, but this time there wasn’t even that moment of uncertainty, of doubt that it would really work, that it would fit. He just slid right in, delving so deeply that Sean knew his eyes were wide and unblinking, just letting the intense feeling crest over him.

“Fuck you feel so goddamned good,” Gabriel ground out, his head dropping to Sean’s shoulder as he began moving. Sean’s hands reached up, tracing down Gabe’s spine, fingertips digging into his damp skin, wanting him closer, needing it in a way that he didn’t really recognize.

And then Gabriel was moving faster and harder, and Sean could only hang on for the ride, feeling his cock slide between their bodies, catching on Gabe’s stomach, and that was all it took for him to slide right off the edge into oblivion, crying out as he clenched around Gabe’s cock.

“Oh, god,” Gabriel moaned right after him, shaking in Sean’s arms as he followed right after him.

As their heartbeats calmed and he began to come back down to reality, Sean had two immediate overriding thoughts: one, he could stay here forever, just like this, and two, he couldn’t possibly, not at all.

What was he doing?

He’d promised Gabriel just sex. He’d insisted to him that it couldn’t be anything else, because nothing had felt like it had with Milo.

There was no possible way that Sean hadn’t loved Milo with every bit of his heart. He’d known that, before, when Milo had been a laughing, perfect figure next to him. At their wedding. On their honeymoon. During the many nights they’d just relaxed on the couch, throwing popcorn into each other’s mouths and watching the trashiest reality TV they could get their hands on.

But what he felt for Gabriel was so intrinsically different, he’d not even seen it coming, and now that he did, he didn’t even know what to do with it.

Was it friendship? Was it, somehow, impossibly, love?

Sean didn’t know, and he was kind of freaking out.

Because whatever this was between them, it was no longer just sex.

Maybe it had never been just sex.

“I . . .” Sean took a deep breath. “I gotta get up. The alarm is gonna go off any second.”

Gabriel was probably too worn out, riding on a wave of endorphins to recognize the panic in Sean’s voice. But he heard it in his own, and wondered, with a pang somewhere near the vicinity of his heart, how Gabriel could have missed it.

Rolling off Sean, Gabe just gave him a carefree grin. “I thought we had forty-seven minutes. I’m pretty sure we only used thirty-nine of those, and maybe sixteen seconds, for good measure.”

It hadn’t even been close to forty-seven minutes, which Gabe probably knew, but Sean wasn’t going to bother addressing. He was too full of the panic suddenly streaking through him.

“I just . . . I gotta get in the shower. Get ready. Get the nuts packed up to go. We’ve got more than normal prep this morning, you know.”

“I know,” Gabriel said. He did not seem particularly eager to get up.

But Sean knew he couldn’t stay in bed a moment longer.

“I’ll be in the shower,” he said, and got up and left. And he immediately missed the warmth of Gabriel next to him.

———

By the time Sean got to the lot an hour later, he was still feeling uneasy.

Gabe had helped him pack up the nuts and had given him a brief kiss when they’d parted, telling Sean that he was headed home to shower and change and then he’d see him at the lot.

Gabriel had apparently not noticed Sean’s uneasiness, probably because his own mood had been playful and happy, like his regular innate charm was simply bubbling out of him this morning, too plentiful to control.

Sean hoped that had nothing to do with him, but he was afraid it did.

Somehow, they’d gotten embroiled in this thing, and they were already deep in the middle of it before he had even realized it was happening.

Sean stared across the way at Gabriel’s truck, where Tony was putting up the sign, chatting casually with both Gabe and Ren. Tony had done his first, commenting briefly on how glad he was that they’d figured something out.

He’d initially been afraid that Tony would continue the teasing from yesterday, because Sean could not handle that right now, but he’d apparently gotten the memo that Sean was busy and didn’t want to be bothered, because he’d posted the sign next to Sean’s menu, on the side of his truck, and had moved on to Gabe’s almost immediately.

But Sean?

He couldn’t seem to dismiss his own bad mood. Instead of working, he was just standing here, stewing in it.

Finally he decided that he’d go outside, take a picture of the new sign and post it on Instagram, hoping to drum up some interest in his followers for the new dish.

He was getting the shot framed just right when he heard a voice literally growl behind him. Except this was Los Angeles, and as far as Sean knew there weren’t actual bears running around.

Sean turned, and there was a man standing there, staring at his truck. Specifically at the name written along the top of the menu, the red letters bright and cheerful against the white background.

“Can I help you?” Sean asked, even though he really didn’t want to. He was already in a bad mood and he could tell this guy was just going to piss him off more.

“I think you sure as fuck should,” the guy growled again.

There was something so familiar about him, Sean