Alex carried Gabriel’s suitcase down the front steps and put it in the back of his SUV. Gabriel had tried to grab the pull handle, but Alex was too quick. “You know you don’t have to carry my bags for me, right? You’re not actually my driver, you don’t have a little black hat and gloves, and I don't have any idea how much to tip you.”
Alex shrugged off the protest. “The hives, Gabriel. The hives.”
It was a two and a half hour drive southwest to Shenandoah mountain where the resort was located. On the way in, Alex gave him the rundown of the specific people Victoria had indicated that they needed to meet and mingle with while Gabriel typed names and notes into his phone.
Alex chuckled at Gabriel's studious approach. “I can’t believe you’re taking notes. You’re such a nerd.”
Gabriel hit him with a dose of side eye. “Force of habit. I don’t want to draw a blank on someone’s name at the wedding and not be able to do anything about it. Money is on the line, here, Alex. Dollar dollar bills. Besides, like you’re not a nerd? Didn’t you tell me a cool fossil fact half an hour ago?”
Alex laughed at that. He'd laughed a lot in the past hour. Gabriel made him laugh all the time, but today he was something akin to pathologically giddy. He was so happy to have Gabriel all to himself for the drive that Alex was tempted to get lost on purpose so he didn't have to share him at the wedding. “Fair. I’m wounded that you’re mocking my cool fossil fact, though. Who doesn’t love the Devonian and Silurian periods?”
Gabriel twisted his hair up into a knot and smiled at him. “Also fair. It was actually a very cool fossil fact, Alex. Don’t be wounded. Hey, do you mind if I turn the a/c up a little?” Gabriel had been feeling a little warm for the past half hour. He really hoped he wasn’t coming down with something. The timing could not be worse.
Alex cranked the fan up and the thermostat down. “Here let me. Is that cool enough? You feeling okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine," Gabriel reassured him, "and yes, that’s perfect. I just don’t want to get car sick in all these hills. I have very, very delicate inner ears. They were handcrafted in Murano.”
Alex made an impressed face. “Okay then, I’ll drive very carefully. You are the Foundation’s prime asset right now, and if I don’t deliver you back in good condition, Murano glass ears intact, there’ll be hell to pay with my mother. Seriously, though, if you start to feel bad, let me know. I’m not sure if you know this, but I am a medical doctor.”
“Doctor?” Gabriel lobbed him a conversational softball to test his reflexes.
Alex hit it over the fence. “Doctor. Doctor?”
“Doctor." Gabriel laughed at both of them. "Alex, we are definitely both nerds.”
Forty-five minutes later they arrived at a faux-rustic luxury resort with a gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As Alex pulled up in front of the hotel, a bellhop came forward to open Gabriel’s door for him and a second went to the back to collect the luggage on a brass trolley. Gabriel looked around at the beautiful setting and whistled low. “Nice. I love my new job.”
Alex went to the front desk and procured the keycards for their rooms. He handed Gabriel his set of cards. “Looks like you are in 1219 and I am across the hall in 1222. We’ve got a little over two hours until the cocktail party. Would you like to go up now, or get some dinner first?”
Gabriel considered. He was dragging a little, and he felt like a little nap might be a good insurance policy against any threatened illness. He also wanted to take his time getting ready for the event. “I'm sure there will be food at the party, so I think I might want to squeeze in a little cat nap so I can bring my A-game tonight, shmooze-wise.”
Alex studied his face, concerned. “You sure you feel okay?”
Gabriel really was fine. At least he thought he probably was. He certainly wanted to be. He just felt a touch off. In any case, he didn't want to worry Alex or abandon him to do all the buttering-up on his own. “I do, I promise, I think I’m just tired. Let’s head up.”
Alex dropped Gabriel off at his door. “Have a good nap. Let me know if you need anything. Meet me right out here at eight?” he suggested.
Gabriel smiled. “Sounds good. It’ll be just like An Affair to Remember,” he said without thinking. And then he heard himself and blushed furiously and hurried into his room to hide before he could see Alex’s reaction to his weird comment. One day, he’d learn to prescreen his comments, but apparently today was not that day.
Alex let himself into his room, closed the door calmly behind himself, and then stripped off everything he was wearing and walked straight into the shower. He grabbed the the brass lever and turned it as far to the right as it would go and pulled it towards him. A torrent of icy cold water blasted his face. He leaned forward to brace his hands on the shower wall and closed his eyes and just stood there, praying for relief.
Alex remembered his high school English teacher quoting Milton at her students: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” He wasn’t sure which of those things he was doing, probably both, but he had never understood that sentiment more than now. For weeks, he had taken on the role of friend and colleague so that he could be in Gabriel's company. For weeks, he had burned.
At this point, anything could set him off. A look, an accidental brush of a hand, a smile, a scent, auburn hair being twisted up, auburn hair being let down, a memory, or an off-hand joke about an old movie. His craving for Gabriel was insatiable. Every second that he wasn’t at work or with Gabriel, he was thinking of a way to get another fix. The effort required to disguise his rampant need was exhausting. The car ride had been exquisite torture. So close to Gabriel that he could almost feel the warmth of his body, that luscious clover scent being stirred all around the car by the air conditioner. Alex was going to die young at this rate.
Alex looked down, as if he didn’t already know that the cold water had done very little to help him. Still painfully hard. And for what might be the tenth time or the hundredth, he surrendered. He palmed his aching cock and he thought of Gabriel’s laugh, and the little curl that always escaped his messy bun to lie against his neck, and the bend of his wrist as he typed notes into his phone in the car, of his hands with their long slender fingers and the fascinating and ever-changing array of nail polish colors he wore, of his furious blushes, and his delicious scent.
Alex was so constantly close to the edge that it didn’t take long these days, and in a few strokes, he felt heat spill into his own hand and he tilted his palm to let it wash down the drain. He turned off the water, laughing darkly at how ridiculous he had become. Maybe that would be enough to get him through the evening. Maybe. As long as Gabriel didn't give him any of those laughing looks through his lashes. As long as he didn't tap the dent in his bottom lip with his finger while he was thinking. As long as he didn’t wear one of those shirts that clung to the planes of his chest and shoulders. Or a shirt with buttons that opened to reveal an expanse of fragrant, velvety skin. Or pants that clung to the curves of his hips and thighs… shit. Alex was hard again. He groaned and restarted the cold water.
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