Page 14 of Once Upon a December
“Good. Now that we’ve decided my love life is off limits. Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”
Bran had the grace to look mock offended again, “Maybe I just came to see my brother.”
Gibson shot him a look and wasn’t at all surprised when his brother dropped the hard façade and got down to business. Of course Bran needed something. It was the only time he ever came to the office. Bran avoided Frost Financial like the ghost of their father actually walked the halls. Maybe for Bran, he did. Gibson didn’t know. All he knew for sure was that Bran had taken the death of their parents harder than any of them.
Gibson had been old enough that he was required to step up and take charge. Dawson had been young enough that he’d been expected only to grieve and be taken care of. But Bran had been stuck in some weird middle ground between boy and man on that fateful day in December, and in the decade since, he seemed to have made that space his home.
Someday, maybe, Bran would decide to grow up. He would own the man he was always meant to be. He would live up to the Frost family name and become the person their father and mother had raised him to be. And then, Gibson would finally be able to stop worrying about his brother every free second of every day and have a life of his own.
He could only hope that when that time came, Felix would still be around to enjoy it with him.
Chapter Seven
Felix pulled his Prius into the driveway behind the black Audi and killed the engine. He couldn’t believe he was actually here. If anyone told him two weeks ago when he had stormed across the street to confront his parents Grinch of a neighbor that he would be here now to have dinner with the man, he’d have laughed in their face. Hell, if any of his family asked him about how he’d come to be here tonight he wasn’t sure he could really even explain it.
He’d warned his mother of course. He hadn’t wanted her to freak out if she saw his car across the street. She wasn’t a meddler though so she hadn’t been too nosy. She’d laughed a little and told him that if anyone had a shot of taking that sad, lonely man and making him happy that of course it was her baby boy. He didn’t have the heart to tell her just how right she was when it came to Gibson.
He wasn’t just rude or mean for no good reason. He avoided the holidays because they brought nothing but bad memories for him. He was sad and lonely and Felix thought, a little bit lost.
Gibson had spent his entire adult life being the head of his family. He’d dealt with a traumatic loss. He’d barely been an adult himself when he had to step up and make sure his brothers were taken care of. He’d told Felix that his uncle, Roman, had been in the hospital for months after the accident and even after he got out, that he’d refused to leave his fortress, previously known as the Silver Creek Manor. Branson had gone wild and Gibson had tried to rein him in as best he could. Dawson had been a teenager still and Gibson had taken over his actual care. He’d become a parent, a guardian, a protector and a nurse all at once. He’d also become CEO of Frost Financial and he’d been slowly working himself into the ground ever since.
Felix had learned so much about Gibson in the past two weeks and the more he learned, the more he liked the man. The more he wanted to be around him. The more he wanted to spend time with him. The more he was with him the more he wanted to be kissing him, touching him, learning every single inch of him.
“Mierda.” He cursed under his breath as his cock swelled.
That had been a problem for weeks now. Whenever he thought about Gibson, he got hard. Felix wanted him. He wanted him like he’d never wanted anyone. He wanted to feel all those smooth, hard muscles rippling beneath his touch. He wanted to know if the confident, verging on arrogant, man was as bossy in the bedroom as he was in the boardroom. He wanted to know what it would be like to be with Gibson, completely naked, totally bare, with nothing between them. He wanted their bodies and their souls on full display.
Hell, he wanted a lot of things with Gibson Frost that he shouldn’t want after only a few weeks of knowing the man.
Sex was one thing. Sex was simple. He knew how to handle sex. Something told him that nothing about being with Gibson would be simple.
He closed his eyes and forced himself to think about other things. Thinking about sex with Gibson certainly wasn’t going to make his hard-on go away. He ran through his grocery list once, twice, three times and by the fourth, when he’d started to worry if he’d remembered to pick up the bag of peppers to bring with him he figured he was about as calm as his body was going to get.
Felix stepped out of his car, grabbing a couple of recyclable grocery bags out of the passenger seat, and started up the walkway with as much confidence as he could muster. This wasn’t just a first date. This was a first date at Gibson’s home. Not only had the man invited him into his personal space, he’d agreed to let Felix cook for him. He rang the bell and as he stood there waiting for it to open he wondered if Gibson had any idea just how intimate an action cooking for someone could be.
A couple of seconds later the door swung open and Felix inhaled sharply at the gorgeous sight that greeted him. Never, in all of the hours they’d spent together, had he seen Gibson in anything but a suit and tie. Until now. Felix had thought the man couldn’t look any sexier than he did filling out those expensive custom suits of his but he’d been wrong.
Oh God, had he been wrong.
Gibson in a pair of faded blue jeans and a thickly knit cream sweater was a sight to behold. His hair was still perfectly coifed. His jaw was cleanly shaven despite the hour. He smelled fresh and clean, with just a hint of the musky cologne Felix sometimes caught hints of while they worked. That firm, unyielding mouth that he liked so much scowled at him, and Felix’s cock went hard again at the same time his knees went soft.
“Wow, you look…” He started but ended up laughing when Gibson reached out and all but dragged him into the house by the front of his shirt.
“I was beginning to think something had happened to you.” Gibson kicked the door shut behind them and then shoved Felix against it, causing him to drop the bags of food.
He blinked, surprised by the aggressive move and fumbled for words, “Why would you think that?”
“You’re late.”
He rolled his eyes, “Five minutes. I’m like five minutes late, Gibson.”
“And in those five minutes I thought about every single horrible thing that could have happened to you on your way here.” The man caught his chin and held his gaze, serious and unflinching now, “You should have called.”
Felix softened and reached for the hand Gibson still had twisted in the front of his shirt, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. You’re right. I should have called.”
He hadn’t thought about it. Not even for a second. But he should have. Gibson clearly had. After everything that he’d opened up and told Felix about how his parents had been killed in a car accident this time of year, Felix should have known that being late and not calling or texting to let Gibson know he was okay would upset him.
Gibson’s eyes flashed with something he wasn’t yet trained to read, “I’m sorry too. I know it’s an overreaction. I just… I can’t help it. I need to know where you are and that you’re okay. I’m like this with everyone that I care about, even if it drives them crazy.”
