Chapter 26
A phone buzzed on the nightstand, a low, annoying sound that penetrated the fog of Will’s post-coital high.
Will opened his eyes. He came face to face with Gadiel, who was still tucked under his arm after the last round of sex. Gadiel peered at him lazily, his blue eyes soft and glassy. “Your phone.”
“I know,” Will said, making no move to reach for his phone. Their bare legs were still entangled, their bodies pressed so tightly there was no space between them. It was so unlike him. Will had never been one for post-coital cuddling, but now he was loath to remove his hands off Gadiel, loath to put any distance between them.
Gadiel had a mole just below his right ear. Will leaned in and pressed his lips against it, making Gadiel shiver and arch his neck, giving him better access. Christ, he was so pliable, so needy. So eager for contact, even after days of non-stop sex. Will couldn’t get enough of it. Baby. He was so —
The phone buzzed again.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
“It can wait,” Will said, sucking a hickey into that pretty neck.
“It’s been vibrating all week,” Gadiel said with a chuckle, but thankfully he was too blissed out to really press the issue. Will didn’t have a good enough answer to why he’d been ignoring his phone. He knew it was probably Scott again, wanting to know what Will had decided—wanting to know when he was quitting the job. Will still hadn’t talked to him since their phone conversation the night he and Gadiel had started fucking.
Fucking.
The word somehow felt wrong even in the privacy of his own thoughts. This didn’t feel like fucking, though there had certainly been plenty of fucking over the course of the past week. This felt like... It felt like nothing he’d ever felt. Even looking at Gadiel felt special. Will couldn’t stop looking at him, transfixed by the smallest changes in Gadiel’s expression, by his stunning blue eyes that sparkled when they looked at Will. It was beyond addictive. He could look into those eyes forever.
Fuck. He would say that he didn’t recognize himself, except the issue had been apparent for weeks now. He’d always looked at Gadiel more than he should have, even back in the beginning. The more he’d learned him, the real him, the worse the issue had gotten. It was like a weed, growing in spite of all attempts to prune it back, tear it out by its roots. The sex just made this fixation more obvious, harder to be in denial about. Now he looked, and touched, and had, and somehow it still wasn’t enough.
The phone buzzed again.
Will kissed his way up Gadiel’s neck, to his soft, sweet mouth. Gadiel parted his lips for him, sucking greedily on Will’s tongue and making soft, pleased noises around it. Christ, even kissing him felt better than it had any right to feel. Will’s body was absolutely spent after two rounds of sex, but the hunger he could feel in Gadiel—hunger for him—was absolutely intoxicating in a way that had nothing to do with sex. He loved how unapologetically needy Gadiel was, the way he clung to him, wanting his affection and touch. It pushed all his buttons—buttons he hadn’t even known he had. He wanted to fuck his boy into the mattress, to take care of him, to give him everything, because he was everything. It felt like this boy, this young man, had been born to be under him, born to take his cock, born to look at him with hearts in his eyes. Born to be his.
Will’s mind went blank. What?
“Will?” Gadiel murmured, blinking at him dazedly, his cheeks flushed and his lips swollen. He looked vulnerable and soft, his eyes warm and full of trust. Beautiful. He was so damn beautiful. Will wanted to kiss him all over, take him apart, and worship his body, worship him from the inside and love him.
Love him?
His throat tightened, his heart starting to pound. No. He was just... confused. Thinking with his dick. What he felt for Gadiel couldn’t be love. He was mistaking lust—and affection and protectiveness—for love. Great sex messed with one’s brain chemistry. That was all. It had to be.
The phone buzzed again.
His mind still reeling with unease, Will reached for the phone absently and stared at the screen without really seeing it.
It took him a moment to unlock it.
As he’d expected, it was a string of messages from Scott.
The last one said, Are you even alive? If you don’t answer, I’m coming to the apartment again! Or calling the police!
“It’s Scott,” Will heard himself say.
Gadiel pressed his cheek against his bare shoulder, looking at the screen of the phone too. “Huh. That’s a lot of texts, and you didn’t even answer. No wonder he’s worried.” He put a finger on the screen and scrolled up, reading the older messages. Will didn’t even consider stopping him—and that unsettled him. Normally he couldn’t stand people being nosy and reading his messages. But this was his—this was Gadiel. It felt different.
Because you love him, asshole.
Will clenched his jaw, the feeling of unease growing. He couldn’t love Gadiel. Gadiel was... a very bad choice for love, for multiple reasons.
“Oh,” Gadiel suddenly whispered.
Frowning, Will looked at the screen too and read the message Gadiel was staring at.
Have you fucked it out of his system yet? When are you quitting?
His stomach clenching, Will looked back at Gadiel. The bright light in his eyes was gone, his body stiff against Will. Then he was pulling away.
Will grabbed his arm. “Ignore that. Scott is an idiot.”
Gadiel chuckled, without meeting his eyes, and sat up, his back to Will. “Right. Of course he is. Did you two have fun laughing at me? I bet it was hilarious—”
“Listen to me—” But before Will could say anything else, his phone went off. He considered ignoring it, but when he saw Zain’s name, he had to answer it. This could be important.
“Yes?” he said tersely, his gaze fixed on the hickeys all over Gadiel’s bare shoulders. He couldn’t even remember leaving them.
“My private jet is waiting for Gadiel at the Teterboro Airport. Get him there within the next two hours.”
Will froze.
“What?” he croaked out.
Zain made an impatient sound. “Tell him to pack. Our father wants him to come home. The wedding preparations are underway. His presence is needed.”
Wedding preparations.
Will heard himself say, “We’re returning to Dubai today?”
Gadiel’s back went rigid.
“Gadiel is returning today,” Zain said. “There’s no point in you coming to Dubai only to fly back immediately. Your job is done. His new bodyguard will be waiting for him on my jet.”
“I didn’t say that I wanted to quit,” Will said carefully, gripping the sheets in his fist. Gadiel’s back was still unnaturally stiff and straight.
“You didn’t need to,” Zain said. “I’m firing you.”
“Can I know why I’m being fired?” Will said evenly.
Gadiel whipped around, his eyes wide.
Zain’s voice was cold as ice when he replied, “In your job interview, I asked you whether you were straight for a reason.”
Will closed his eyes. So Zain knew. He must have had people watching them. He knew Will had been less than professional.
The thought made him feel nothing. No guilt, no shame, no concern for his professional reputation. Nothing seemed to penetrate the numbness that had settled inside him, the sense of surreality. Gadiel was leaving. This was it.
This was it.
“Understood,” Will said tonelessly and hung up.
Letting the phone fall onto the bed, he lifted his gaze and met Gadiel’s.
They just looked at each other for a moment.
“Your brother has his jet ready. It’s leaving in two hours.”
Gadiel nodded, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. His eyes were wide, unsure, lost. He looked at Will as though...
“He fired me,” Will said, his voice rough like sandpaper. “I’m not coming with you.”
Gadiel’s expression went absolutely blank, the vulnerability that had been in them a moment ago wiped clean.
“All right,” he said at last. “I guess... I guess it makes things easier for you.”
His jaw working, Will pursed his lips. Gadiel’s lack of reaction bothered him. More than it should have. Fuck, what was wrong with him? Had he actually wanted Gadiel to be clingy? To ask Will to come with him?
“Right,” Will said stiffly. “It does make things simpler.”
Gadiel glared at him with such force it seemed he was trying to burn him with his eyes. “Fine, then,” he said, his face pale and his gaze dark. He lifted his chin and sneered. “Thanks for being a serviceable bodyguard—and a serviceable fuck. But I’ve had better.”
Will knew he was just goading him. He knew Gadiel was just lashing out. He always did that when he felt unsure or vulnerable.
But it worked all the same.
Will didn’t even realize that he was moving before he toppled Gadiel back onto the bed. “Have you?” he said, his heart pounding and his vision red as he glowered at the younger man under him.
Gadiel’s lip wobbled. “Yes,” he said viciously, and then they were kissing, kissing as though trying to swallow each other’s air, all teeth and raw need. It was the worst kiss of Will’s life, his pounding heart trying to claw its way out of his throat, his body grinding mindlessly against the smaller body under him. There were no thoughts in his brain besides take, claim, mine, take.
“I wish I never met you,” Gadiel said against his lips, hands gripping Will’s face hard.
“The sentiment is returned,” he ground out, meaning every damn word. He wished he’d never met this infuriating, prickly, vulnerable mess of a boy. He wished he had never come to know him. He wished he would have gone on with his life, blissfully unaware of Gadiel’s existence and the way he could make him feel—the way he could make his control burn to ashes.
“I hate you,” Gadiel said against his mouth, yanking at Will’s hair. “Fuck me. One last time. Make me feel it.”
And so Will fucked him, roughly shoving his thighs apart and pushing his cock back into Gadiel’s hole. It was still slick and messy from their previous round of sex, but it still had to be uncomfortable. But Gadiel didn’t even flinch, didn’t make him stop. He clutched Will closer, moving his hips to meet Will’s thrusts. He was moaning, his eyes glassy and his cock hard against his stomach, bouncing with Will’s every thrust. Will thrust, thrust, and thrust, all animal need and tunnel vision, mouthing and sucking Gadiel’s cheek and jaw, needing to leave marks.
“Will...” Gadiel mumbled deliriously.
Gripping Gadiel’s waist tighter, he snapped his hips forward, deliberately dragging the head of his cock over Gadiel’s prostate to make him wail. He wanted to undo him, to unravel him until Will was all he could see, wanted to get him drunk on the feeling of Will’s cock making a home for itself in his deepest parts.
“Deeper,” Gadiel moaned, his fingernails digging into Will’s back. “Deeper, damn you.”
Will ground into him, shuddering. It wasn’t possible for him to get any deeper. This was it.
This was it.
He groaned, his thrusts becoming more erratic until he tumbled into orgasm with a hoarse shout. He fell on top of Gadiel, breathing hard. He barely had the presence of mind to wrap his hand around Gadiel’s stiff cock. It took him only a few strokes to make Gadiel come. Gadiel didn’t make a sound, shuddering and clinging to Will with all his strength. He was unnervingly quiet. It felt so damn wrong. Everything was wrong.
“I’ll get up in a moment,” Will said, breaking the strained silence. “I’m probably too heavy.”
“Don’t,” Gadiel breathed against his shoulder. “Stay like this for a little while.”
So he did.
Just for a little while.
Will closed his eyes, pretending he couldn’t feel the wetness against his shoulder.