Page 67 of Just a Bit Guarded

“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 ignoringhis 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 lovedhow 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.

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