Chapter 16 #2
As they all come together on the ground floor, where a central dancing area has formed, they look blissed out, bobbing and swaying and spinning to the music.
The bass thumps harder. Candles flicker.
Leo can’t help but scan each face in his group, seeing the joy in them, feeling the same warmth he felt the night of Tie Break Tens, the kind of warmth, he’s realizing, can only come from finding a group like this.
He lets himself slip into its tenderness, its safety.
“We’re getting another round for everyone!” Liv shouts, and Ollie follows behind her, whispering something in her ear that makes her laugh.
“Ugh, this is my song!” Billie says sarcastically as the DJ transitions to the next house track, nearly indistinguishable from the previous one.
Leo squawks and moves closer to Gabe. “I love her.”
Gabe laughs, grabs Leo’s waist, and pulls him in.
They let their limbs intertwine as they dance, familiarizing themselves with each other’s movements, anticipating what the night holds.
Leo pulls his gaze away from Gabe’s chest and makes eye contact with Ollie as he’s walking back to the group with Liv, balancing drinks in their hands.
He feels himself tense, but the sensation is gone in an instant as Ollie offers him a knowing smile, then clenches his fist like he just won a point in a match. Leo huffs out a laugh.
“Love you, dude,” Ollie says as he hands Leo a new French 75.
“You too,” Leo says.
He leans his head back to look up at the skylight at the top of the house, and he can’t remember the last time he felt this free.
“You have a nice place here,” Leo says as he hovers near Gabe’s hotel bed, a little buzzed, making an inside joke with himself.
The lights low, he watches as Gabe puts his phone down on top of his romance novel on the nightstand, and he hears the modern disco sounds of Jessie Ware’s album That! Feels Good! begin to play, the unofficial soundtrack of gay sex everywhere.
“So,” Gabe says, stepping up to Leo, putting his hands on his waist.
“So,” Leo says, his breath caught in his throat, his heart beginning to race, almost in sync with the song’s drums.
“I feel like I should just ask,” Gabe says.
“Ask what?”
“Have you, you know, gone all the way before?” Gabe asks. “With another guy? Because I can take the lead here. I’m happy to, actually.” He smirks.
Leo looks at him for a second, then bursts out laughing.
“What?” Gabe asks, slightly horrified.
“No. I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you. You’re the sweetest for checking,” Leo says, and he kisses his cheek. “But this isn’t my first time. Far from it. But, duh, how would you know that? I’m glad you asked.”
“Oh,” Gabe says, surprised.
“I just started telling people in my life that I’m gay, like, this week … and I’m only telling those people for now,” Leo says, and Gabe nods assuringly. “But I’ve been, um, let’s say, sexually active for a long time now.”
“Let’s not say ‘sexually active,’ ” Gabe says, nose turned up, like he just sniffed sour milk.
Leo cringes. “Yeah, I just heard how that sounded.”
Gabe laughs.
“So, yeah,” Leo says. “I, um, came prepared for tonight. Literally and figuratively, if you know what I mean. Just in case.”
“Wow, a little presumptuous, don’t you think?” Gabe teases. “But I guess that answers my next question.”
“Something tells me you’re cool with the answer,” Leo says.
“Yes,” Gabe says. “Very cool.”
“I suppose we should take these off,” Leo says, removing the masquerade mask from his face, then doing the same for Gabe, unsure why they were even still wearing them.
They kiss their way onto the bed, and as Leo and Gabe furiously take off each other’s clothes, piece by piece, Leo is almost quivering as he feels the heat radiating from Gabe’s skin.
Looking up at Gabe as he lies underneath him, Leo can tell Gabe is studying his body, first admiring his tousled brown hair, which is gaining a blond tint from the spring sun, then staring into his eyes, and finally following the trail of hair down from his chest to where it disappears into the waist of his pants.
“You’re beautiful,” Gabe says.
Leo wants to disappear into this man. He settles, instead, for another long, feverish kiss.
Gabe lays Leo back onto the bed, takes his arms, and moves them above Leo’s head.
He kisses Leo down his neck and then buries his face into the hair of his armpits, licking.
Leo lets out a moan and, at first, feels the heat of embarrassment rush over him, but forgets all about it when Gabe continues kissing down his torso.
Gabe sits up and, except for his chest rising and falling, remains perfectly still for a few seconds. It’s as if he’s savoring this final moment, a farewell to a time when they never would have laid bare their bodies and their feelings like this.
“I need you,” Leo says, breaking the silence.
Gabe smiles, a hunger in his eyes. He takes Leo in his mouth and another moan emerges from Leo, without embarrassment this time.
Leo’s hands grip the white sheets as he writhes, Gabe taking the whole of him over and over.
After some time, the length of which Leo can’t be sure, lost in the pleasure of it, Gabe lifts Leo’s legs.
Leo bends them back and, again, can’t control the sounds coming out of his mouth as Gabe kisses and licks, his eyes opening and meeting Leo’s from time to time with a mischievous glint.
When Leo puts his legs back down, he gets on his knees and gets to work.
In the back of his mind, he feels how surreal this is, being with Gabe after all these years, but he’s too distracted by the gorgeous man in the back of his throat right now to be too wrapped up in all that.
Gabe’s moans are the only sounds in the world right now.
Eventually, Leo lies back on the bed and Gabe lifts Leo’s legs again.
“Are you ready?” Gabe asks softly.
“Yes,” Leo says, and he watches closely as Gabe covers his dick in lube, Leo’s excitement building and building and building as Gabe continues stroking, preparing himself.
Gabe kisses him, and Leo takes a deep breath and exhales with a faint groan as he feels Gabe push inside of him. He places his hands on Gabe’s back and feels his way down, gripping his ass as he thrusts. They’re perfectly in sync.
Leo’s used to sex being transactional, but tonight it’s tender. Gabe isn’t in any kind of a hurry. He’s steady, sensual. Leo leans up and kisses him, then pulls back, looking at him in a way he’s never looked at a lover before.
“I’m yours,” Leo whispers, in case his eyes hadn’t already made that clear.
Gabe kisses him again, and only then does he begin to pump faster, unable to hold back, bringing both of them to the edge. Leo finishes on his own stomach, and Gabe quickly follows.
For a while, they lie beside each other in contented silence. At one point, Gabe begins to laugh, seemingly out of nowhere, and Leo can’t help but join him. Gabe turns off the music and then invites Leo to rest his head on his chest, putting an arm around him.
“Stay with me,” Gabe says quietly, an invitation that Leo never receives from the men he sleeps with or, at least, an invitation he never accepts.
But he settles in, listening to Gabe’s heartbeat.
Leo drifts in and out of sleep, waking in both disbelief and euphoria at the sight of Gabe lying on his stomach, dozing next to him, his dark hair wavy and wild.
He’s unable to fall back to sleep as the sun begins to rise, peeking through a narrow opening between the curtains.
He sees a distant sliver of the Arc de Triomphe and hears a few motorbikes buzzing by as Paris yawns and stretches, waking up slowly, as it always does.
A strong ray of warm morning light pools in the valley between Gabe’s shoulder blades, and the sheer beauty of it is so new to Leo that he could swear the color orange was born right there, on Gabe’s back.
As his eyes linger on the body before him, there’s a longing in his chest that definitely doesn’t feel new.
It’s lived there, at his core, for a long time. He knows that now.
“Good morning, Leonardo,” Gabe says as Leo stirs.
Leo must have fallen back to sleep. With the curtains drawn now, the room is bright and the streets below sound busy. Gabe’s eyes are shining and he’s lying there, on his side, still naked, like some kind of god. His hair is back in place and Leo detects a whisper of peppermint.
“What, did you have hair and makeup come in while I was sleeping?” Leo asks.
Gabe’s head flies back with laughter.
“This is so unfair,” Leo says, rubbing his eyes. “I’m crusty and have dick breath.”
“Does it look like I care?” Gabe asks.
Leo scans down and sees that Gabe is getting hard.
So, yes, they go at it again, without hesitation.
Once they’ve finished, Leo, crusty in more ways than one now, puts on his T-shirt and pants and stands by the bed, holding his suit jacket.
“So, um, when will I see you again?” he asks shyly. “I’m flying to Stuttgart later today. Will you be there?”
“Ah, no, I’m skipping the beginning of the grass swing,” Gabe says, standing there in just his briefs, the tease. “I’m actually heading to New York for some Pride Month events. You can tell Ollie I’m going to be on a panel with Billie Jean King.”
Leo chuckles. “That’s amazing. I wish I could be there.”
“Me too,” Gabe says with a gentle smile.
“Well, I’ll be in London, then Eastbourne, and then Wimbledon, obviously,” Leo says. “You’ll be at those, right?”
Gabe grimaces. “I’m, uh, playing Halle and then Mallorca,” he says. “But I will be at Wimbledon. Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Okay, good,” Leo says, stepping closer to him. “Hey, I’m sorry we can’t be together in public yet. I mean, without masquerade masks. I’m just not ready to tell the world yet. If you feel like I’m holding you back, you—”
“I feel the opposite of held back right now,” Gabe says, and then kisses him.
“Okay,” Leo says, shoulders relaxing. “Thanks.”
Leo opens the door to leave, and as he steps into the hall, Gabe follows behind him, turns him around, and gives him another long kiss. “You better write, Leonardo.”