Unrequited Sloth (Sinful Knights #5)

1. Gabriel

GAbrIEL

This was going to be Gabriel’s year.

On the whole, he had his shit together. He’d started a new job working with his best friends last year and was already making a big impact.

He owned a two-bedroom flat that was all his.

Yes, it had a mortgage on it, but he lived in London, so home ownership on a single income was not an easy feat, even if you were earning six figures.

And that was the issue: his single income.

Gabriel was thirty-six, a hopeless romantic, and perpetually single.

He wasn’t sure why. His friends and family all said he was a great catch.

There was just one problem. For the past two years, Gabriel had secretly been in love with his soon-to-be brother-in-law.

He was a horrible big brother, and thankfully his sister, Alex, had no idea.

If she had, she would have said something.

Alex was not a woman who kept things close to her chest. She was six years younger than Gabriel and was marrying a wonderful man on Valentine’s Day, which was only six weeks away.

Gabriel needed a plus one for the wedding, and he was going to take one of his best friends, but they both had boyfriends now.

He couldn’t turn up on his own and watch his sister become Mrs Bobby Kavanagh, though.

Bobby was Gabriel’s dream man, except for two minor problems: he was marrying his sister, and he was straight.

It wasn’t the first time Gabriel had fallen for a straight guy, but he had a type, and it was jocks in suits.

The way the tailored fabric pulled across a broad chest and back on a handsome guy with blond hair, blue eyes, a cut jaw, and designer stubble made him want to throw his legs over his head and start begging.

He may have been describing Bobby with that description, but he wasn’t that fussy; he’d take a brunette as well.

Having lived in South London growing up, he’d bought a place in East London.

He loved his family more than anything, but his mum did like to interfere in his love life.

There’d been no issues when he’d come out.

His father was Ghanaian and his mother Kenyan, so he had been hesitant, but they’d never given off homophobic vibes.

His mother had baked him a cake, and his father had taken him to the boxing ring so he could learn to fight back if anyone gave him any shit.

Thankfully, he’d never had to use those skills, but he’d loved spending time with his dad learning to protect himself.

When he’d first met Bobby Kavanagh, he’d put it down to just fancying the guy.

His sister had great taste in men, but some guys she’d dated had been arseholes, and occasionally, not so subtly homophobic.

Bobby wasn’t like that. For starters, he had two older brothers who were both gay, which had made Gabriel do a ton of research to see what the probability was of Bobby having some of that same-sex attraction gene in him as well.

Even if Bobby were bisexual, though, Gabriel wouldn’t do anything to hurt his sister.

He just got obsessed with things, and eventually his interest would wane.

But that hadn’t happened with Bobby, as the man wasn’t just drop-dead gorgeous, he was an amazing guy as well who doted on his sister.

He was always chatty to Gabriel, and had even invited him to his stag do in Las Vegas at the end of the month, which he’d not been able to get out of.

His mother and sister had guilt-tripped him by saying Bobby was including him and it would be rude not to go.

His feelings for Bobby aside, the idea of spending a long weekend with a group of straight guys, most of whom were on the same rugby team, was not his idea of fun.

He planned to slink off one night to the gay bars when he was there.

Bobby had gotten in touch a few times in December and asked to meet up, but Gabriel had said he was busy.

He wasn’t sure why he wanted to meet privately.

At Christmas he’d asked again, but Gabriel had said work was hectic and he didn’t have any free evenings.

That was partly true. Work was always hectic, and he wouldn’t have many free evenings in January because “Operation Plus One” was in full swing.

It was the first week of January, and he was on a date tonight.

He also had two others lined up for later in the week.

Gabriel always liked to pursue one guy at a time, but he was on a tight timeframe, and he had no intention of sleeping with any of these men, at least not until the second date.

“I’ve always had this fantasy about being fucked by a black guy,” said his date, about two minutes after their first drinks had arrived.

Gabriel didn’t even splutter. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard someone say that.

Black men were often fetishised, and some of his friends played into that stereotype to their own advantage, but not Gabriel.

Part of him wanted to call this guy out over his micro-aggressive racism, but he didn’t want to cast a cloud over the evening, and besides, he needed to make something clear to Barry.

Yes, the similarity to Bobby was not lost on him, but they looked nothing alike. Well, not really.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to help you with that. A hundred per cent bottom here.”

“But you’ve got a nine-inch cock.”

Gabriel snorted. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Why would you advertise that if you aren’t going to use it?”

“I didn’t. It was the third question you asked me.”

“So, there’s no chance of me getting fucked tonight?”

Gabriel had to hand it to the guy. He was direct.

“I don’t fuck on the first date anyway, which I also told you before tonight.”

“Yeah, but people just say that, don’t they?”

Gabriel shook his head. He couldn’t help but smile. He’d had good banter with Barry online, and they both worked in the HR space – Gabriel in learning and development, and Barry worked in diversity and inclusion, which was ironic given what he’d just said.

“So, what do we do?”

“We can still have dinner.”

“But I need to get fucked tonight,” said the guy, looking like his favourite pet had just died.

Gabriel couldn’t stop himself from bursting out laughing. Barry didn’t seem to find the situation as amusing.

“You’d better get your arse into Soho, then. I’ll sort the drinks.”

“Are you sure?”

“Go, have fun, but one word of advice . . . use your inside voice with the whole ‘black guy fantasy’ as some of us don’t like to be fetishised.”

Barry’s jaw dropped. Before he could respond, Gabriel picked up his drink and headed to the bar.

This would give Barry time to leave, and he could settle the tab.

For a Tuesday in January, Knights Corner was surprisingly busy.

It was the only queer venue in the City of London, which was the financial district, referred to as the “square mile.” Gabriel worked in Heron Tower, which was only a five-minute walk away from the restaurant bar.

It had opened last spring and been a tremendous success.

“Everything okay, Gabriel?” asked Langdon, who was one of the owners.

“Yeah. Can I close out my tab?”

“That was a quick date.”

“What makes you think it was a . . . Jason?”

Langdon chuckled but said nothing to drop his brother in it.

Jason wasn’t his biological brother, but they were part of such a tight-knit friendship group they were closer that most real siblings.

To add another layer, Jason was not just Gabriel’s friend, but his boss.

They had been peers, but then Jason had moved company and hired Gabriel and their friend Dexter for his own team.

“Are you going to tell him I left after five minutes?” asked Gabriel.

Langdon didn’t say a word as he took the payment. Gabriel looked back over to where his date was sitting, and thankfully he’d gone.

“I guess tomorrow at work will be fun, then. Thanks, Langdon.”

Langdon just smiled and shook his head. There was no doubt Jason was going to know all about his disastrous date before morning.

“What happened?” asked Jason.

“Just didn’t work out,” said Gabriel.

They were in the staff kitchen, but it was eight o’clock in the morning, so hardly anyone was around. Dexter had joined them, of course. He’d said he was going to work from home, so Jason must have told him what had happened.

“How would you know that in five minutes?” Jason pressed.

“You know, I’m sure there’s a law that Langdon’s breaching by telling you my private business.”

“Langdon didn’t have a say in the matter.”

Dexter laughed, as did Gabriel. It was a fair point.

Jason might be five feet seven, but he was skilled at getting his own way.

He had his partner, Patrick, wrapped around his little finger.

They’d moved in together a few months ago.

Dexter was planning to buy somewhere with his boyfriend, Simon, who was their former boss. Yes, that had been messy.

“Well?” asked Jason, with a stern look on his face.

Gabriel was half a foot taller than Jason, but still found him intimidating when he had his “boss” face on.

“He had certain . . . expectations that I wasn’t going to meet.”

“Got it,” said Jason, with a concerned expression. “You’re still doing the other dates this week, aren’t you?”

“You know, this is not a conversation I should be having with my boss.”

“Don’t be silly. Did I tell you Patrick bought this new toy? You need to charge it up for a few hours, but once you get the settings right –”

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” said Gabriel, looking around to check they were still alone. “Yes, I’m going on the other dates, so let’s drop the matter.”

“Have you spoken to Bobby yet?” asked Dexter.

Gabriel glared at him. “I’ll see him at Sunday lunch. There’s no reason to speak to him before then.”

“What’s this?” asked Jason.