Page 57 of Undercover
My phone rang as I whizzed past theWelcome to Vermontsign, and I answered on the dashboard. Gabe seemed to be psychic sometimes.
“I’m halfway there,” I said in lieu ofhello. “I got out of the office early.”
“Oh!” Gabe said breathlessly. It sounded like he was…running? What the hell had he gotten up to? “Okay! You haven’t passed Shoreham yet, right?”
“No, just crossed the border. Shoreham?” I hit the gas a little harder. Christ, I missed him, even though I’d kissed him goodbye on Tuesday, since I’d had a case out in his neck of the woods and gotten to stay for a longer weekend. A working longer weekend, but still. Just knowing I’d see Gabe at the end of the day made it feel a lot less like work. I really, really wanted to make that permanent—when I didn’t need to travel for my job, anyway.
“Shoreham,” Gabe repeated, sounding more confident. “I didn’t want to wait another hour to see you. So I met you sort of in the middle. I rented a cabin for the weekend. I’ll text you the address.”
My foot pressed down a little more. Fuck it. There wasn’t anyone on the road. Maybe Gabe had a point about that speeding ticket he liked to tease me about whenever he got the chance, but whatever.
“So what you’re telling me is, I get to see you an hour sooner, I get you all to myself for the whole weekend, and I don’t even need to see a single fucking yoga mat?”
Laughter filled Gabe’s voice as he said, “That’s right. Best boyfriend ever?”
“Best anything ever. I’ll see you soon. Half an hour.”
“Half an hour.” For such simple words, he managed to imbue them with a world of filthy promise.
I avoided any run-ins with the local highway patrol and pulled up in front of a cabin right on the lake twenty-six minutes later, parking next to Gabe’s cherry-red Subaru SUV. Speaking of speeding-ticket bait, but I wasn’t going to be the one to mention it.
Even in the dark, the huge two-story cabin looked like the kind of place that would have every amenity known to man, and I shook my head as I carried my bag up the steps. Trust Gabe to find the most expensive lodgings for fifty miles. I didn’t care how he spent his money, and I certainly neither expected nor resented it when he spent it on things for us to enjoy together. But it always amused me, how his champagne tastes came out in everything he did, even when he spent most of his time in a lab. Which he had been, since school started in the fall. He came home glowing, albeit smelling like solvents. And seeing him happy mademehappier than I could’ve imagined.
The door pushed open when I turned the knob, and opened into a wide, pleasant main room, full of cozy couches and a large-screen TV and a fireplace and a dining-room set. It had more and better furniture than my apartment by a long shot.
Gabe popped out of a doorway, face flushed and sweaty, hair flying in wild tendrils. Purple again, after a cycle of pink to blue to green.
“I thought I had time to finish dinner!” he cried. “I’m sorry. I took a shower, because I’d been driving and I wanted to—” He broke off, blushing furiously, obvious even though he’d already been pink-cheeked.
I knew exactly what he’d ‘wanted to’ with the shower. And I wanted the same thing.
Dinner could wait. I dropped my bag and crossed the room in a few quick strides, hauling him into my arms and kissing the hell out of him. He tasted like wine, and I licked the flavor out of his mouth. I’d started to get a lot fonder of wine over the last few months.
“Hello,” Gabe said as I lifted my head. His eyes hadn’t gotten any less beautiful. Tonight they were more green than blue, maybe something about the light. I still thought I might drown in them most of the time.
I smiled down at him. “Hi. Whatever that is, it smells amazing, but turn off the stove. I’m not waiting for after dinner.”
He wriggled out of my arms and back into the kitchen, and I started to strip my jacket and shoes. “Your fault if it’s not as good,” he threw over his shoulder.
“My fault,” I agreed, and tugged my shirt off. The kitchen table looked pretty sturdy. I could fuck him over it, and then we could eat in bed. That way all the furniture would get some use. “I won’t complain.”
Gabe flipped off the burner, put a lid over a pan, and turned around.
“Okay, I’m on board. Take off your pants.”
“If you get yours off first, I’ll eat you out before I bend you over whatever piece of furniture I can find.” I tugged open the button of my jeans and yanked down the zipper, and started to laugh as Gabe cursed and flailed at his own fly, too much in a hurry to do it quickly.
I slowed down, not quite enough to look like I was letting him win, but—I wanted my mouth on him, maybe more than he did. The intimacy of it, and the good old-fashioned rush I got from having him pinned and at my mercy…and why should a perfectly good obsessively thorough shower go to waste, anyway? I was just being practical.
He yanked his second foot out of his pants a second before I stepped out of mine.
Screw the table. I backed him up against the counter, shifting him over away from the stove, and pressed a thigh between his. Outside the temperature hovered around forty degrees, but in here, the heater and the stove had made it a little too warm. Steam clouded all the shiny surfaces, including Gabe’s flushed face.
I started there, kissing his cheek, sliding over to nibble at his earlobe. He groped my ass and rubbed his cock against my hip, letting out a little moan.
“I put in for a transfer,” I blurted out. Jesus, read the room. But I couldn’t contain it. I’d been doing nothing but think about it, and even a naked Gabe writhing against me couldn’t quite shut it down. Then again, my whole plan was predicated on wanting a naked Gabe writhing against me seven days a week, so thematically it did kind of follow.
Gabe stiffened against me, and not in the good way. “What? Are you—” He pulled back and stared at me. Oh, fuck, I’d ruined the moment. I’d meant it to be romantic. I’d moved too fast, he wouldn’t want to take the next step— “Where are you going? I know you don’t love Albany, but I can’t—do you even want me to try to transfer to another school, if I even can? Are you breaking up with me?”
