Sleigh Ride (Minnesota Christmas Book 2) (8 page)

“I’d recommend putting your cock there. The man has a wicked tongue.” Paul tossed a ten and a twenty on the table and grinned as he rose. “I gotta go, as I
do
have a date tonight, and as my getting laid isn’t a given, I have to go get pretty at the beauty shop.”

Gabriel was still trying to shake off the mental image of Arthur blowing him. “Yes—thank you for lunch. It was…interesting.”

“I’m telling you. You’ll hear from him by the end of the day, and he’ll be hell-bent on getting you into bed. Decide what you want to do with him. My recommendation?” Paul’s grin was dark. “Make the arrogant asshole beg. Though I’m serious about getting him on his knees.”

“I’ll bear that in mind,” Gabriel said faintly, watching Paul walk out the door.

Ch
apter Nine

Ar
thur drove eighty miles an hour all the way to his house, which meant he nearly wrecked three times. He didn’t care. When he got to his place, he slammed the door to his truck, hopped out and paced around his yard, swearing a blue streak at the air.

That was
low
. He didn’t know who he hated more, Paul, Gabriel or himself. Paul for poaching, Gabriel for turning over so fast or himself for letting Gabe get away.

God, if they were fucking right now, he’d die.

The thing was, Arthur couldn’t decide how to approach this. He
wanted
to go over and bust them up, to pin Gabriel to his bed and remind him what he wanted a man to be like. But he’d never recover if he caught them together. He didn’t know why. He’d done threesomes with Paul a million times. Fuck, once it was a foursome.

He couldn’t share Gabe with anyone, though. Gabe was
his
.

Except he wasn’t.

Fuck, he
really
needed to fix this. But how?

He paced around now with much less rage and more focus, trying to figure out what would lure Gabriel back to him. He couldn’t make the grant thing happen any faster, and the fundraiser was equally slow. All they had to do was paint the sleigh, but he had yet to start his driving lessons.

Except that was all the wrong tree. The man was more than his job. What did Gabe want that Arthur could give him? Books? Arthur didn’t have any. Arthur didn’t have anything the man wanted.

Except shit, he did. Gabe had
told him
.

Arthur hustled into the house, grabbing a paper sack and filling it to the gills with venison. He started for the door, then stopped, put the meat back in the freezer and hit the shower. He trimmed his beard too, put on some cologne and wore the shirt Frankie had told him brought out his eyes or whatever. He fussed in the mirror when he was finished, not really sure what he was primping but doing his best to try.
Then
he gr
abbed the bag of meat, and his coat, and headed out to his truck.

He wasn’t sure what he’d do if Gabriel wasn’t home.

He had no idea what would happen if Paul was there. Probably he’d end up at Frankie and Marcus’s. Probably he’d die.

What was he going to say if Gabriel was home alone?
Here’s some sausage, want to fuck?

Shit, he should have planned this better.

He almost turned around twice. But he didn’t, and he got all the way to Gabriel’s house. Shifting the bag of meat to the side, he rang the doorbell, heart in his throat. When he heard footsteps coming, he thought he might pass out.

The door opened, and things lined up and settled in place inside him when Gabriel’s crazy hair appeared.

Okay. This might be okay after all.

Gabriel looked surprised, but not much. He smiled, coolly, and he didn’t invite Arthur inside. “Can I help you?”

Arthur knew what his plan was now: get Gabriel un-pissed. He jostled the bag and held it low so Gabriel could see inside. “Yeah. I have this big bag of venison for you. Great stuff. There’s a catch, though.”

He watched the walls go up on Gabriel. “Is there now?”

I so have this.
Arthur grinned. “Yeah. You gotta let me cook it for you.”

Zing.
He watched the surprise bloom on Gabriel’s face, watched it turn into a kind of respect. The door opened the rest of the way, and Gabriel stepped aside enough for Arthur to enter. “Come in.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Arthur drawled, smiling all the way to Gabriel’s kitchen.

Gabriel had decided Paul was right, that Arthur would show up, but he’d planned to not let him in. He understood this was hard for Arthur, but he was still angry, and he didn’t feel like being generous.

He’d seen the label
deer steaks
on those packages, though. There was principle, and there was venison.

He wasn’t yet sure Arthur did know how to cook. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen as he watched Arthur putter around, poking for pans and indexing his spice cupboard.

“Coriander, thyme…you got any sage? Lemon pepper?”

Okay, so Arthur knew a few spices. “They should be there. Maybe on the second shelf. Wait—top shelf.”

Arthur leaned around the door and gave Gabriel a look. “So are you getting them for me or telling me where you keep your step stool?”

Gabriel frowned. “I don’t have a step stool.”

“Then get over here, Legs.”

Oh. Gabriel pushed off the wall and came over to fuss around on the top shelf until he found the sage and lemon pepper. When he handed them down, Arthur glared at him.

“Not even on your tiptoes.” Arthur took the spices and bumped Gabriel with his hip—which met Gabriel mid-thigh. “You’d think up north the lack of sunlight would stunt your growth, but no. Or maybe this is all you trying desperately to get at the sun.”

“What’s your excuse? They drop a tree on you when you were out logging?”

Arthur swatted him on the ass, and Gabriel yelped. But he grinned, and so did Arthur.

They made the dinner together. Arthur thawed the steaks in the microwave, which he said he hated to do, but had to because he hadn’t planned ahead. Gabriel pointed out they could partially thaw them that way and finish them in the sink, which was what they ended up doing.

“But how are you going to cook them? I don’t have an outdoor grill.”

“In the oven, in a cast-iron pan. Done it before.”

Gabriel bit his cheek. “Yes, but I don’t have a cast-iron pan.”

“Then it’s good I have one in the truck from the last time I went camping.” Arthur winked at him. “No worries, babe. I got this.”

The wink, the endearment—they were sweet, almost perfect—which was why Gabriel got nervous. “Arthur—what are we doing?”

Arthur cocked an eyebrow. “Making dinner?”

Gabriel folded his arms over his chest and waited.

Arthur sighed and went back to massaging the steaks in the cool water through the Ziploc bag. “I wanted to see you. To get you to not be pissed at me.”

“Who says I’m not still pissed at you?”

Arthur grunted. “Well, I didn’t get here and find you in bed with my best friend, so I figure everything from here’s downhill.”

God, Paul had been
right
. Gabriel’s arms loosened a bit. “If you were jealous, why did you run off the other night after our date?”

“Because I’m a chickenshit.”

Gabriel watched Arthur poke angrily at the steaks, looking like a self-conscious boy, and his heart melted. But only a little. “So should I expect you to go tearing off in the middle of the night?”

The wicked grin Arthur tossed Gabriel caught him off-guard and made him dizzy. “Oh, so I get to stay the night, do I?”

Gabriel cleared his throat. “That depends. Though I was told I should get a blow job from you.” When Arthur stilled, his grin fading into something dangerous, Gabriel regretted his bold teasing. Arthur dried his hands on a towel and came at him, and Gabriel backed himself into the wall and started toward the door to the living room. “Arthur—that was a joke.
Stop.
”

Arthur kept coming, a wolf stalking his prey. Or rather, a bear. “So you don’t want me to suck your dick?”

Gabriel put his hand on the edge of the door’s molding. “Not right now. We’re cooking.”

“Steak needs a good half hour in water to finish thawing.” His grin split his beard, full of teeth. “How ’bout I get you heated up right now, honey?”

Arthur took a step closer, and Gabriel slipped away, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. “Just—slow down.”

“You don’t want me to slow down. Look at you go. You want to be chased.”

“I do not.” Gabriel slid farther into the living room, yet he didn’t run, nor did he tell Arthur to stop.

Oh shit, he did want to be chased.

Arthur wasn’t the nervous bumbler he’d been when they were cooking—now he was all suave and wicked, spider to Gabriel’s fly. “What game are we playing tonight? You want to pretend to say no again? Keep playing chase?” His gaze went dark with wicked promise. “Or you want to try something new?”

Say no. Say you want to go toss a nice salad.
“W-what did you have in mind?”

If Arthur could have purred, he probably would have. “I have a lot in mind with you. I could spend a week on you and not run out of ideas.”

On you.
Like Gabriel was a project, an object. Oh, how nasty was it that the idea turned him on? “Stop.”

Arthur laughed. “Damn, but you’re a good time to wind up.” He took a step closer. “Makes it all the more fun to spin you out.”

Gabriel jumped when he hit the coffee table and maneuvered around it. “I don’t— I want it to be nice.”

Now Arthur gave him a disgusted look. “You do
not
. Come on.”

Gabriel stiffened. “I
do
. At least partly. Maybe
you
run when we’re being pleasant to each other, but I don’t.”

He wondered if that had been too far, but Arthur only stared at him, like he was having some kind of internal struggle. Finally, he nodded. “Okay.”

Okay what? “What do you mean? What are you agreeing to?”

“I mean I know what you want, and I’ll give it to you.” He nodded at the couch. “Take off your pants and your underwear and lie down.”

Gabriel squeaked and tripped backward.

Arthur rested his hands on his hips. “Enough. You wanted a blow job. You wanted nice. I’m giving it to you. Get your dick out and lie down.”

“This isn’t nice.”

“You haven’t had it yet, so shut your yap and give me a minute to show you how wrong you are.
Lie. Down.
No pants.” When Gabriel hesitated, Arthur gentled, hands out, palms up. “I’m serious. I’ll be nice. So sweet I’ll give you a toothache. You want me to romance you onto the couch? Slide your clothes off like some Casanova?”

Gabriel wasn’t sure. “Maybe?”

“No. I’d come off like a tool and you’d be pissed. Again. This isn’t a movie set. This is getting off. Get naked and get horizontal, and we’ll get to business.”

This was the most unromantic, not-nice come-on Gabriel had ever had. “Paul’s right, I do want to deck you.”

Arthur’s eyebrow quirked in confusion, but it smoothed out quickly. “Tell you what. You still feel that way in thirty minutes, I’ll let you.”

Gabriel’s heart tripped over a beat. “Thirty?”

“Thirty.” Arthur’s eyebrows lifted smugly. “But it’ll be forty before I let you come.”

Gabriel’s cock said,
Hello, sailor.

Without another word, Gabriel unbuttoned his jeans.

C
hapter Ten

A
s Gabriel pushed his pants awkwardly down his long legs, blinking behind his glasses with a heady cocktail of apprehension and eagerness, Arthur admitted to himself, yeah, he was falling for this guy. He wasn’t nervous, not right now. He was way too focused on blowing his librarian’s goddamned mind clean out of his head.

Arthur didn’t touch him, not at first, only let Gabriel lay with those lanky legs bare and quaking on the couch, helpless and quiet as Arthur loomed above. While he knew what was coming, Gabriel didn’t know when, and in the meantime he had to sit there half-naked. Aware he was half-naked.

And he’d left the glasses on.
Best part was, Arthur could tell it hadn’t been part of some kind of kink. He just hadn’t thought about taking them off. The geek was strong in this one.

Geek was a hell of a lot hotter than Arthur had given it credit for.

“Why are you standing there?” Gabriel said at last.

“Because I enjoy watching you squirm. Also, you’ve got a nice cock there, lying on your leg. Oh, whoops. I mean, perking up and sort of waving around.” He winked, laughing at the way Gabriel blushed. “You’re so much fun.”

“I don’t feel fun. I feel ridiculous.”

“Well, you are a little bit. It’s cute as hell.” Arthur ran his hand down a bare leg, loving the way Gabriel jumped then kind of leaned into the touch. “
You’re
cute as hell. Lying there all quiet and leggy, waiting for me to suck your dick.”

The dick in question perked up at its mention. “You keep carrying on about my legs.”

“Yes. There’s a lot of leg to go around. I’m not normally into tall, skinny things, so you’re a novelty.” He lifted the leg nearest him, palming the calf, sliding his hand beneath Gabriel’s knee.

Gabriel quivered. “I thought you were going to blow me.”

“I thought you wanted to be romanced.”

“This isn’t—
Ahh
.” He shut his eyes and arched as Arthur sucked on the inside of Gabriel’s knee.

Arthur broke off long enough to murmur, “This isn’t what?” then went back to licking and sucking.

“Arthur, stop.”

Arthur stopped.

Gabriel made angry, incoherent noises and tried to pull Arthur down with his ankle.

Arthur growled and sank to his knees, anchoring that ankle behind his head and hoisting the other leg up with it as he nibbled his way down the light fur of Gabriel’s thighs. Gabriel cried out and grabbed at Arthur’s hair. When the fingers dug in too deep and Arthur could sense the real fear in Gabriel’s voice, he gentled and shushed him. “It’s okay, baby. I got you.”

Gabriel shut his eyes tight. “If you walk out on me after this, I’ll shred your library card.”

It was such an empty and endearing threat Arthur had to pause, letting Gabriel’s vulnerability roll over him before he kissed the inside of his thigh. “I won’t walk out on you after.”

“If you try to take the deer sausage, I’ll cut you.”

Another kiss, this one on his right sac. “I’ll bring you fresh before the season’s over.”

“I can’t hunt with you.”

“Wouldn’t ever ask you to.”

Arthur took Gabriel’s nut sac gently in his mouth.

He smiled around it as Gabriel gasped. Arthur rolled the hairy flesh on his tongue, head spinning at the sexy contrast of hard ball and soft, soft skin and the rough nest of hair he’d be pulling out of his teeth for a good twelve hours. He licked and sucked, closed his lips on the gentle space where it joined the shaft, ran his tongue along the seam. Occasionally Gabriel’s leg would press on Arthur’s head, but mostly it shuddered and dug into his shoulder as Arthur made slow, sweet love to that delicate swath of skin. Over and over and over.

When Gabriel started to wriggle and thrust, Arthur lazily moved to the other side and repeated the process.

Arthur liked dick, and he loved ass, but balls were a special treat all their own. Guys never said no to Arthur sucking on them, and yet those sensitive organs in his mouth, right next to his teeth, were more of a sign of trust than someone letting him in their butt. He could do shit to those balls in his mouth without trying too hard—he wouldn’t, ever, but he could, and that tripped his head out. Plus he could really get a guy loosened up, sucking on his balls. Case in point, his Gabriel with his legs spread as wide as they would go as he spewed expletives and kept trying to drag Arthur by the ears onto his dick.

Though Arthur fully intended to get there, he glanced at the wall clock. Nope, only fifteen minutes.

Shifting back slightly, he ran his thumb down Gabriel’s taint and took both balls into his mouth in one gulp.

Gabriel bucked up and shook. When he spoke, he sounded like he was ready to cry. “Arthur—
please
.”

Arthur broke off enough to nuzzle Gabriel’s dick and murmur against it. “Not yet, baby. Gonna suck your balls a bit more first.”

Gabriel sobbed and thrust upward.

Arthur licked long and slow up the seam of Gabriel’s leg. “You want a thumb in your ass, sweetheart, that make it better?”

“I want your mouth on my dick.”

“No, not for another ten minutes. You’re going to come too fast to start anytime before then, and I promised you forty minutes before you come. It’s going to be work to hold you back as it is.”

Gabriel damn near took the hair out of Arthur’s head. “
God.
Stop—no more nice, just do it—”

“Who said I was being nice?” Arthur sucked the balls into his mouth once more, laughing as Gabriel swore and pulled tighter at his hair.

He brushed his hand against Gabriel’s nipples, shifting to the side so he could reach Gabriel’s mouth to run his thumb across the seam of Gabriel’s lips, not once lessening the suction on his sac.

With a defeated whimper, Gabriel sucked it inside. He got it good and wet, and when Arthur nudged it at his hole, Gabriel drew it inside.

Arthur groaned and made love to those sweet balls as he fucked Gabriel gently with his thumb.

“
Arthur.
” Gabriel was clawing at Arthur’s head now, gasping and fucking mindlessly at the air. “Please,
please
.”

Arthur licked up the underside of his shaft, stopping short of the glans. “What are you going to give me to let you come early, sweetheart?”

“Whatever you want.”

Arthur turned his thumb slowly. “Careful. There’s a lot I want.”

“I can’t—you have to.
You have to.
”

Arthur took the tip—just the tip—into his mouth, but when Gabriel tried to thrust, he drew back. “I’d love to spank you.”

Gabriel stilled. “Sp-spank me?”

“Yes.”

Gabriel swallowed. “W-when? During?”

“After.” Arthur sucked the tip again, going partway down. He let Gabriel thrust into him a few times. “Over my knee,” he said around his mouthful. He licked the tip and ran his tongue into the slit. “Make you come in my mouth, then bend you over my knee and spank you raw.”

Pleasure curled in his belly when Gabriel didn’t balk, only said, tentatively, “How…how many? Sp-spanks?”

“Forty. One for each minute this was supposed to take. The last fifteen would be hardest. The last five really sharp. You’ll feel them tomorrow.”

Gabriel hesitated, his leg curling into Arthur. His eyes didn’t open.

Arthur sat up enough to kiss that leg. “I won’t leave you tonight. I promise.”

“You’ll call me tomorrow?”

“I’ll cook you dinner too.”

Gabriel’s ass tightened around Arthur’s thumb. Then he relaxed with a shudder. “Okay.”

Gabriel couldn’t believe he’d agreed to be spanked. His chest tightened with tension, and worry snaked like worms in his belly. He opened his mouth to tell Arthur he’d changed his mind.

Arthur closed his lips around Gabriel’s shaft and sucked the words out of his head.

Crying out, Gabriel threaded his fingers into Arthur’s hair and tugged him farther down, thrilling when Arthur actually let him drive the blow job. He pulled him down, and down. He hesitated, because he was a little long, and guys usually couldn’t—

Arthur hummed, gripped the base of Gabriel’s shaft, tightening as he deep throated, all the way to the root, pushing the tip into his throat.

Gabriel shuddered and thrust his hips into the resistance, his hands falling away, rising up above his head as if moved there by invisible strings.

Paul hadn’t been kidding. Arthur knew his way around a cock. It wasn’t just the ups-and-downs and the suction…it was the variability, the rhythm and the pauses, the way he curled his tongue in wicked licks along the shaft. Heavy-lidded, Gabriel lifted his gaze enough to watch for awhile, but the erotic image of Arthur’s bright red head bobbing up and down nearly did him in.

Arthur’s free hand snaked over to massage Gabriel’s balls, and the electricity curdled at the base of Gabriel’s spine.

Arthur was
so good
, though, that he knew when to back off, when to push, reading Gabriel’s sighs and gasps like a light meter, pushing him forward only to draw him in. Gabriel’s hands flew everywhere, gripping cushions, Arthur’s hair, shoulders, arms. Sweat ran down his face, his neck, maybe his groin, but that was mostly saliva dripping from Arthur’s mouth.
God, his mouth.
His hands on Gabriel’s balls, his taint, teasing but not entering his hole.

Hot mouth gliding up and down, slick and tight, faster and faster and faster…

The electricity burned hard, hot and sharp. It raced up Gabriel’s spine, down his legs, rattled in his teeth as he pumped helplessly into Arthur, over and over and over, until he couldn’t move at all. He floated on a sexual haze as the scruff of Arthur’s beard rubbed his cheek. Like a babe, Gabriel rooted for his mouth. When they kissed, he tasted himself, and he groaned, seeking more.

Arthur lifted his head, and Gabriel fumbled with thick fingers to touch his face. “You…you didn’t…do it. Spank me.” He was supposed to go over Arthur’s knee now. While part of him still shivered deliciously at the idea, he wasn’t sure he could maneuver himself there.

“Later.” Arthur brushed his thumb over Gabriel’s bottom lip. The scent of musk hit him, and he shuddered a sigh.

All scents drifted away as Arthur rose. Gabriel summoned enough energy to catch his wrist. “Don’t…go.”

“I won’t.” Smiling down at him, Arthur smoothed Gabriel’s hair from his face. “You rest a minute. I’ll go make you some dinner.”

Gabriel’s eyes shuttered closed. “Don’t leave.”

A hand, rough-skinned but gentle, ran down his cheek. “I promise I’ll be here when you wake up.”

That’s not what I meant,
Gabriel wanted to say, but his mouth wouldn’t work. As a blanket draped over his body, he sank into sated softness and drifted away on a beautiful haze.