16. Good Friends
16
GOOD FRIENDS
Gabriel
The rest of the day is an absolute blast.
Magnus kept to our pact and gave me everything I gave him — and he certainly gave as good as he got. In fact, I may have got even better.
How he managed to swallow my entire cock is a complete mystery to me. I've read about deep-throating but thought it was only a porn thing. Wrong! My cock twitches at the mere memory. It was absolutely incredible.
The rest of the morning was spent in bed cuddling, fooling around, talking, and dozing off every now and then. Around two in the afternoon, we scurried into the restaurant to snaffle the last remnants of the buffet lunch, before falling back into bed as soon as we could.
Now, it's almost half past five. I tore myself away from Magnus a little more than an hour ago to squeeze in at least one short weight-training session before we meet up with Susan and Klaus for dinner at six p.m. We have another tango class at seven p.m. Why does this vacation have so many appointments?
I sigh, but that isn't the real reason I've been sitting on this weight bench staring into space for several minutes now.
What happened today … no, what’s happened over the last few days, is messing with my head. Or more accurately, when I'm with Magnus, I know I want him. Hell, I can't keep my hands off him. But when I'm alone, like I am now, the world seems to have turned upside down.
I’ve never been hot for a guy before, so how does this work?
Scratch that. If I’m honest, I’ve never been this hot for anyone! The strength of my feelings is overwhelming. If I had my way, I’d never let Magnus out of my sight. Even if he were a woman, I’d be surprised by this need. But he’s not a woman ...
My cell phone starts to vibrate — it's the alarm I set to make sure I kept to my schedule. I pick it up off the floor next to weights bench to turn the alarm off, but then an idea strikes me. I navigate to the messages I shared with Daniel yesterday and hold my breath as I type the message I wanted to send yesterday, but couldn’t bring myself to.
Me: How did you know you were bi?
Without pausing to overthink it, I press send. My heart is beating fast, and I'm not sure if I'd like Daniel to answer immediately or later. Or not at all ...
Then I force myself to turn off the screen and put the dumbbells back on the rack. By the time I'm done in the gym and am making my way back to Magnus, Daniel still hasn't answered. I'm disappointed and relieved at the same time.
Magnus
When Gabriel comes back from his workout, something’s off. He’s gone a little quiet. Maybe he’s introspecting. I am worried about him, and I’d normally ask if he's okay, but after his last reaction to that question, I leave him alone.
Luckily, he thaws out by the time we meet Susan and Klaus for dinner, and at the tango class, he’s back to relentlessly flirting with me. Towards the end of class, I’m practically climbing the walls from the permanent boner I’ve been trying to hide. My guess is he was tired after his workout.
After class, Susan tries to get us to join her and Klaus at the Hawaiian bar on the upper deck. It’s not late — only nine o’clock — but if I don't pounce on Gabriel soon, I'm going to go crazy. Gabriel seems to feel the same way because he brushes off his sister without a second thought.
Rather than being upset, Susan laughs and says, "You two are worse than us," while waggling her finger between Klaus and herself. And I'm so horny I'm not even embarrassed.
When we enter our cabin shortly after, I expect Gabriel to jump me just like he did this morning. Instead, he pulls me into a tender embrace, and the kiss that follows is intense but gentle. I soak up this closeness, this intimacy that he’s created between us, with every pore of my being. As much as I love sex, this is what I've been missing these last few months — since I broke up with Aaron.
Then I give myself to Gabriel. This morning, he announced he wanted to explore every inch of my body. So, I let him. He studies it intensely, taking his time to find every place that makes me shiver, that makes me moan. None of my previous lovers have known my body as fully as Gabriel does right now.
Gabriel
Magnus is sleeping deeply in my arms while I lie here in seventh heaven. It was my dream to explore his sexy body, and holding him like this now is another dream. He’s hot as fuck! But I can't sleep. My body is tired, pleasantly worn out from training, tango dancing, and fooling around, but my mind is whirring — damn it!
My cell phone beeps and I snatch it from the nightstand so it doesn’t wake Magnus. I’m switching it to silent when I see a notification. I’ve got a message from Daniel, although I can’t see the message itself — Face ID won't work at this angle. I stare at the small screen until it goes dark again.
What has Daniel said? The suspense is killing me and yet I don't want to look. My stomach tightens and I’m so agitated I can't lie still.
As carefully as possible, I slide out of Magnus' tight embrace, and to my great relief, he doesn’t wake up. He turns onto his other side and sleeps on. Lucky him! As restless as I am, I can barely tear myself away from the sight of him. Magnus is just too adorable! But when my phone vibrates again, I sneak out onto our small balcony.
At some point I must thank Susan for booking us a cabin with a balcony. The small space has been a lifesaver for me over the last few days. It’s the perfect place to decompress and regain some composure.
I fall into one of the recliners, avoiding the one I spent the first night on. It’s irrational to think they’re different, but my back hurts just looking at it.
My cell phone vibrates again, and this time, Face ID gets my mug square on. My cell phone unlocks and automatically opens my message exchange with Daniel. My eyes fall immediately on the first message he sent tonight.
Daniel: Sorry for not replying earlier. We got back late last night, so we’re still in bed.
Ah, damn, the time difference. I hadn't thought about that at all. I'm not a hundred sure what time zone we're in right now, but Daniel is roughly eight or nine hours behind us. That would put it around noon or early afternoon for him.
And okay, but too much information — way too much information. I didn't need to know where they are. Although why not?
I hold my breath and read the next message. It skirts my question.
Daniel: Why do you want to know?
The message is tail-ended by a winking emoji.
Daniel: Is there maybe something you want to tell me?
No!
Shit!
Maybe.
Daniel must have seen that I'm online, because my phone starts vibrating in my hand — he's calling! What am I going to do? I don’t want to pick up! But he knows I'm reading his messages right now.
I hold my breath and tap Accept.
"Verieux, my man!" I hear cheerfully. "How's the cruise?"
I groan. Where do I start?
"If that's how you sound when you're on vacation, maybe you'd better not take another," he replies cheekily.
I stick my tongue out at him even though he can't see me. Then my mouth takes over.
"Okay, let's see. My sister promised me she’d found a ‘delightful creature’ to share my cabin. And she definitely delivered. Except it's a man. She also secretly signed us up for an intensive tango course while we’re onboard. That means I’m spending four hours every day pressed tight against this man ..."
Daniel's burst of laughter stops me in my tracks. It's nice to hear that my suffering is amusing my old friend so much! If he were here, I’d throw him overboard.
"And now you're having a meltdown because you got a hard-on when his hips brushed your cock a few times too often," he says, chuckling.
Yes and no!
I’m suddenly stumped for words and the silence drags out.
All of a sudden, another voice pipes up. "Daniel’s a total ass! Maybe I shouldn’t move in with him after all.”
Nico? If he heard everything I just said, I’ll sink into the ground with shame! It’s bad enough that Daniel’s laughing at me, but Hovenberg too …
"You’re not going anywhere!" Daniel rumbles. "You're going to stay here if I have to tie you to the bedpost."
Okay! Now that really is too much information.
Luckily, Nico sticks up for me right then. "Gabriel is hardly the type to freak out over a little physical contact, no matter how embarrassing it might be at the time."
I hadn't thought of it that way. He's right. If, for whatever reason, I had tangoed with Daniel, or heaven forbid Nico, and gone hard, we’d have laughed the whole thing off.
There’s silence for a moment. A long enough silence for me to wonder what they’re getting up to — especially because they’re still in bed.
But unfortunately, in the brief moment when silence has fallen over our conversation, Daniel and Nico seem to have continued talking in that unnaturally wordless way that some couples are so uncannily good at. The next sentence catches me off guard.
"Nico’s right! What aren't you telling us? Did you do more than tango?"
"Yes ... Well ..." How much do I tell them? I can’t think of anything worse than unpacking my sex life in front of my teammates. I curse myself for messaging Daniel for advice, and the feeling only worsens when I hear him giggling again.
Then I hear a grunt, as if someone has rammed an elbow into his ribs, and Nico Hovenberg swiftly goes up in my estimation! He’s also the next voice I hear.
"I see. So you guys have been making out. Hand jobs, a few blowjobs maybe, but you haven’t fucked yet."
These clear words make me squirm and I blush furiously. Nico doesn't mince his words, but I have the feeling this kind of talk is not easy for him. Locker rooms are full of talk about last night's conquests, like how big a girl’s tits were, how tight their pussy was ... and the few locker rooms we’ve shared were no different. Nico always stayed out of it, though. So did I. And Daniel wasn't particularly chatty either. But now Nico seems to be taking charge, even if it’s costing him.
"But even that wouldn't freak you out," he diagnoses, "if it were just a physical thing."
How the hell does Nico know me this well? We've barely exchanged five words since school. Except at Olympic training camp and at the Games itself, when we were teammates for the first time in years. I did make a special effort to get to know him because he was such an outsider, but it was always about ice hockey! But this doesn’t feel like talking to a teammate. It feels like someone’s looking right into my soul.
"I like him," the confession slips unbidden from my lips.