Chapter 12: Say It Again, Kid

They did not make it up the stairs of Eli's building without stopping.

Gabe kissed him on the second landing, hard, with Eli's back against a mailbox.

He kissed him again at the third, with both of Eli's wrists caught in one of his hands above his head.

"I'm still angry," Eli said against his mouth.

"Good."

"I'm going to be angry for a week."

"Be angry in your bed," Gabe said. "Where is it?"

Eli's apartment was one room with a mattress on the floor and a desk full of archive boxes.

The door had barely shut before Eli got both hands on Gabe's coat and shoved it off his shoulders.

"Sit," he said.

"Eli."

"Sit down."

Gabe looked at him for a long moment.

Then he sat on the edge of the mattress and let his hands fall open on his knees.

Eli stood over him, breathing hard, and for the first time in his life he felt like the one in charge of this man.

He unbuttoned Gabe's shirt one button at a time.

His fingers were not steady.

"You left," Gabe said hoarsely. "Two summers ago. To Chicago. For that archive fellowship."

"You knew about that?"

"Frank told me over the phone. You didn't tell me yourself. You left for ten weeks and I found out from your father."

"You weren't speaking to me."

"I wasn't speaking to anyone. I was a coward."

"I wanted you to ask me to stay."

Gabe's hands came up and took hold of his hips.

"I would have asked," he said. "I'd have asked you for anything. That was the problem."

Eli swallowed.

He pushed Gabe's shirt off his shoulders and pressed his palms flat against the broad chest, the heart going fast under his hand.

"Then ask now."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Open Legs Said Daddy & His Best Friend I'm Their Biology Teaching Aid from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.