7. Abbot
ABBOT
A step inside the front door, Abbot backs Ned up against the coat rack and kisses him. Ned ought to be in Boston, but he’s right here, his cheekbone bumping Abbot’s glasses askew.
That, at least, wasn’t part of the past month’s daydreams, and it anchors him as he rights the frames. “You’re here,” he says, shoving his fingers beneath Ned’s jacket, warming his hands on the skin of his neck beneath his shirt collar. “When you came into the conference room—”
“Yeah, well, this whole plan went a lot more smoothly in my head,” Ned says, working on the buttons of Abbot’s coat. “And we got here a hell of a lot sooner.”
“I’m not complaining.”
“I am. Pat is the worst.” Ned unzips his own coat, then stills as he takes it off. “What is this, anyway?” He holds out the envelope he’d tucked in his pocket, his thumb dangerously close to lifting the unsealed flap.
“Nothing.” Abbot plucks it away and sets it on the small table that holds his mail, empty now since he didn’t stop and retrieve it. It had seemed an unnecessary delay just moments ago. Now he sees how neatly flyers and bills would hide the stark white envelope.
Don’t ask, he silently pleads. Surely Ned doesn’t want to wait any longer, not now. He can’t really care what’s in that envelope, not enough to delay getting upstairs. “I have a bone—”
“—Yeah you do—”
“—But it’s not thawed,” Abbot says quickly. “Come get it? I’ll do Baxter’s water.”
He fills Baxter’s bowl and the dog dives for it, clearly thirsty. When Ned opens the freezer door, Baxter trots over, his entire body wriggling as he waits for the beef bone.
“Don’t eat that on the couch,” Ned calls to the dog as he rinses his hands. “On your bed, okay?”
Abbot hands him a towel and leans in to kiss him. Ned dries his hands, then laughs into their kiss as he fumbles to set the towel on the counter. Abbot lets himself be pressed back, hands tight on Ned’s waist, and Ned cups his cheeks, fingers cold from outside, and his mouth so very warm.
When they part, Ned holds his upper arms and presses their foreheads together. “That was a marathon getting back here.”
“Come upstairs,” Abbot whispers.
“You don’t want to hang up the towel?” Ned teases.
“I don’t want to wait.”
“Pat owes us one,” Ned says. “And Chris. The guy can talk, can’t he?”
“You’re talking,” Abbot says.
“I’m trying to…” Ned’s hands slide down to Abbot’s ass. “Savor…” A firm squeeze. “The moment.”
Abbot snakes his arms around Ned’s shoulders. “Let’s reschedule the savoring for later.”
“I’ll add it to the agenda,” Ned says. “I want to hear about the guy in college, too.”
Abbot presses into his body. He needs that envelope and the discussion both to fall from Ned’s mind, and take Beverly with them. “I’m entirely certain that’s not why you drove up here tonight.”
“Isn’t it?” Ned asks, nuzzling Abbot’s neck.
“We can talk on the phone.”
They have talked on the phone. And texted and spent hours on video calls and Abbot has filled his days with Ned as much as he could this past month, but it’s nothing compared to being together, sharing the same space, breathing the same air.
“And you never once mentioned him,” Ned says.
Abbot shuts him up with a kiss. Of course he didn’t, when he could talk about anything else.
He’s satisfied for Ned to know nothing about that time.
Reto was a long-ago infatuation, memories of him steeped in those years in Zürich.
An embarrassment, really, his entire focus caught up on that man, vying for his attention yet barely making an impression.
Ned is different. Ned is here, in his kitchen, stealing a night together because he couldn’t wait another two days.
And they have a future together, too. Adams, Abbot thinks, and touches Ned’s chin. “Come with me,” Abbot whispers and leads him up through the darkened house.
He doesn’t bother with lights. He’s waited a month for Ned, and thought he’d have to be waiting still. But Ned is here, laughing as they try to keep kissing on the stairs, grabbing the banister for balance, giving Abbot’s ass a playful slap when he turns and jogs up the steps.
No, Abbot doesn’t want to dwell on that prior version of himself, and he certainly doesn’t need Ned’s curiosity about it either.
Abbot flicks the lamp on and pulls Ned to him, pressing him to sit on the edge of the bed.
He kneels, drawing his hands up Ned’s thighs and leaning in for a kiss that’s all heat and tongue and the nip of teeth.
Yes, there’s Ned moving with him in answer, distracted by the push and pull of their mouths, no more questions on the catch of his breath.
His eyes are dark when Abbot draws back to study him for a moment before leaning in again.
He’s waited so long for this. The little sound in the back of Ned’s throat.
How his hand grips the side of Abbot’s neck.
Abbot parts his lips and Ned answers him and this is what he’s wanted, the smell of Ned’s skin and the slide of his tongue, and how when Abbot hauls him closer, Ned wraps his arm around his neck and they hold each other, breathless and growing frantic.
Ned gets his hands up under Abbot’s dress shirt and undershirt both, smoothing over the bare skin of Abbot’s back, fabric bunched around his wrists.
Abbot’s glasses bump Ned’s cheek. He takes them off and sets them on the nightstand, then unstraps his watch and dumps it in a heavy pile.
Ned tosses his next to it, and when Abbot yanks Ned’s belt off and tugs his pants down his legs, Ned doesn’t bother retrieving his wallet or phone before he kicks the pants off, sending them across the floor.
With a hand on Ned’s shoulder, Abbot presses him back to rest his weight on his elbows and nudges his knees apart. Ned’s boxer briefs are tented, and Abbot tickles his fingers up his thigh beneath the fabric, slides his hand down to his knee, and then back up again.
Ned’s hips shift and Abbot grazes his knuckles up the long ridge of Ned’s erection, listening for the change in his breath, then thumbing the head of his cock through the fabric to hear it again.
“Hey. Shit. It’s been a while. Have mercy.”
Abbot presses his face to the crease of thigh and hip and inhales. How he’s missed the deep scent of Ned’s body, the smell of him impossible to truly grasp in memory. Ned’s hand lands heavy on his head, and when Abbot breathes over the bulge of fabric, his fingers grip, relax, and then grip again.
“Although I absolutely blew off some steam before I drove up,” Ned says and yes, he talks and talks, but this topic at least is one Abbot is thirsty for.
“Did you?” Abbot asks.
“I was thinking about you all day,” Ned says as Abbot noses at his cock. “I couldn’t—ah—focus and I had to—to—”
Abbot pulls his waistband down.
Ned lifts his hips and his cock bobs free. Abbot takes him in his mouth, and Ned hisses. “That’s so good.” Ned lets out a high, breathy laugh. “Abbot, that’s so good, like that, just like that.”
“Aren’t you going to tell me more?”
“I can’t,” Ned moans.
Yes, Abbot knows what he likes. Has spent hours cataloguing and studying and Do you have a damn spreadsheet?
Ned had gasped once. Now, he laps at the head of Ned’s cock and works his underwear down and off so he can tug at Ned’s balls, smooth his thumbs over the thin skin at the inside of his thighs, taste the need that seeps onto his tongue.
“Abbot,” Ned says, the word a low croon. And then louder, more urgent. “Abbot. Hey.”
“Hmm?” Abbot hums. Ned’s legs twitch and he smiles around his mouthful and does it again.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Ned says, each syllable stumbling into the next. “Do you want to fuck? Because I can’t—”
Abbot weighs the option, wanting to just continue like this, bring Ned to a whimpering finish and then on the agenda, as Ned had said—
No, Abbot can draw this out. Distract Ned as thoroughly as he knows how, and enjoy doing it. They’ve done plenty of talking this past month. Abbot has no need to hurry back to that, not now of all times.
He sits up and it’s all the answer Ned needs, hauling his shirt off as Abbot works the buttons of his own.
Abbot steps out of the rest of his clothes and lets Ned pull him down onto the bed.
Oh how Abbot has missed this, the warm press of Ned’s bare body to his, how in sync they are, moving together up the mattress, yanking the covers down, Abbot on his back and Ned bearing him down, kissing and kissing and kissing.
Ned touches him everywhere, skating up his ribs, drawing a hand down the outside of his leg, sucking kisses down the length of his neck and back up to his ear, his jaw, his mouth.
Abbot touches him too, a hand tight in Ned’s hair, another grabbing his ass, his waist, encouraging him close so Ned can grind his cock into Abbot’s stomach.
They’re good like this, and have been since those early days, back when Abbot was still shocked to find Ned in his bed.
They move together now in a familiar dance of their bodies, their hands, their mouths, caught up in each other on the bed as their reunion plays out like it does so often, the miserable time apart ending when they finally find themselves back together at last.
Tonight’s more desperate than usual, with too many weeks between now and when they last had any time alone, but the steps are as familiar as ever, crowding close to kiss each other, anticipation building even as relief courses through Abbot at finally being back here.
His breath catches as Ned touches him, a squeeze of his fingers around Abbot’s cock, a gentle tug at his balls, Abbot’s legs shifting open wider.
Ned drops his forehead to press to Abbot’s. “I missed you,” he whispers.
“I’m glad you came up tonight.”
“I had to. I love you.”
Abbot touches the backs of his knuckles to Ned’s cheek. “I love you too.”
“Good,” Ned says, his grin goofy, his eyes bright.
“Let’s—”
“Yeah,” Ned agrees, and there’s the familiar scrape of the nightstand drawer, the pop of the plastic cap on the lube.
Abbot shifts, his knees drawing up, his feet flat on the bed. At his nod, Ned presses a finger inside of him, and Abbot’s chin comes up, his throat working.
Ned kisses his cheek once, quickly, before pushing up to kneel, one hand on his own cock and the other supporting the rest of his weight.
Oh. Oh. Ned slides in so slowly, and Abbot breathes through it, impatient and wanting to relish the moment all at once. He rocks his hips up and Ned answers with a gentle thrust, and then another, pressing into him.
It’s so good. It’s always so good, Ned’s smile so wide, his face flushed, his skin going tacky with sweat. Abbot relaxes into the feel of him, so very full with that low, dull throb of pleasure.
Ned lifts one of Abbot’s legs and hooks his arm underneath it, shifting his own weight, angling just so and—
“Ah,” escapes Abbot’s mouth and Ned laughs, his eyes already glassy.
Abbot’s skin feels too tight, delicious heat coursing through him, pooling in his stomach as he strokes himself, not the languorous touch of them taking their time, but quick, hard tugs on his cock.
Slow is for later tonight, when they’ll keep each other up far too late.
Now, Abbot grips Ned’s arm, and Ned puts his back into it, driving a stuttering “Ah, ah, ah,” from Abbot that he hears and cannot stop.
“I got you,” Ned whispers. “You feel so good, I got you, c’mon.”
“Don’t stop,” Abbot whispers, but Ned won’t, Ned never does, just holds him and pushes into him, over and over and—
“Oh, fuck,” Ned moans, the word breaking as Abbot’s blood rushes hot through him, muscles tightening, pleasure a hook inside him that tugs him forward until he’s spilling over, undone.
His entire body tingles, the world and his sense of it far away from the pant of their breath slowing, the shine of come on his stomach, the pillow that’s ended up sideways.
Slowly, Ned lowers Abbot’s leg, and he gently pulls out of him.
Another day, Abbot would let him get up and go find a cloth, but tonight he drags him down, enjoying the mess of their bodies.
He smooths the hair back from Ned’s forehead and kisses him once, twice, and then again, sinking into each press of their mouths, slow and liquid.
He gets cold before he’s done kissing Ned, a rude intrusion of reality into their hold on each other, and with a sigh, Abbot finally pulls away. He grabs the edge of the blanket, finds it, and hauls it up over them both, and that’s better, a warm cocoon of just the two of them.
How very lonely this bed has been. What a gift to have Ned here with him to curl into, as they hold each other close.
And they have the rest of this evening. The hours of tonight, and however much time tomorrow morning too, before Ned has to leave.
“Don’t get up,” Ned says, pinning Abbot’s foot with his when Abbot finally twists, sticking an arm out of their cozy den to reach for his pants on the floor.
“I’m not,” Abbot says, but Ned still keeps a grip on his waist as he stretches, then retreats back into the bed with his phone in his hand. “I’m getting food.”
“My budget says no, but I think my stomach is saying yes,” Ned says.
“I’ll pay for it.”
“Nah, I’ll get you back half.” Ned squirms close enough it’s hard for Abbot to tap at the phone and see the screen over his head. What a delightful bother, Ned’s head tucked against Abbot’s chest, his hair tickling his nose.
Ned stretches, letting his toes draw over the top of Abbot’s foot, then hooks his knee over his thigh. “Get those little crunchy things.”
“One order of little crunchy things,” Abbot says.
“What are they?”
“Curry puffs.”
“Yeah, those. And the good noodles.”
“What a shame. I’m only in the mood for the bad noodles,” Abbot says, and Ned’s laugh warms his skin. How did he survive a month without this man? He rolls toward Ned, letting his phone drop into the bed and drawing his hand down Ned’s spine, over his ass, along the length of his thigh.
“How much is it?” Ned asks, backing his ass into Abbot’s palm when he slides his hand up again.
“I didn’t look.” He’s busy, and they have time before the food gets here, and he sucks a kiss into Ned’s neck, kneading his ass. A month was entirely too long, and he’s very done with talking.