Chapter Twelve
“You look pretty much back to normal,” Reid said, lifting Gabriel’s arm high over his head to watch the muscles shift.
He looked good. He’d been cute since day one, but the first time Reid had seen him, he’d been weak and frail. Now, he was all lean muscle except for a slightly soft belly, which Reid suspected had been there before he’d left, too.
His body was gorgeous, which wasn’t helping with Reid’s conviction that he wasn’t going to let things stay awkward between them.
Hefeltawkward around Gabriel. Even after weeks of not seeing him.
When he wasn’t around, Reid thought about him. When hewasaround, Reid couldn’t help wanting to be near him.
He’d even considered heading over to the UW campus in the hopes of running into him again, wanting to see him outside of his office. That had been a nice moment. Gabriel had seemed so much more relaxed when he was in his comfort zone, so much happier.
“I feel that way, too,” Gabriel said. “Thank you for all your help,” he added.
Reid smiled at that. “Hey, that’s what I’m here for.”
Reid backed away, hearing Gabriel jump down from the table. That sounded a lot better than it had before, too. If Gabriel left his office fitter and healthier than he came in, Reid was happy.
“So, uh… you don’t really need to see me anymore, do you?” Gabriel asked.
Reid turned to look at him, his heart sinking. Gabriel was right. There wasn’t really anything else he could do.
“I mean, you could keep coming in for checkups, but you really don’t need them…” Reid admitted, as much as he wanted to lie and get Gabriel to come in just a few more times.
Gabriel nodded, wetting his lips. “So I’m not your patient anymore, right?”
Reid blinked at him. He soundedexcitedabout that, and Reid wasn’t entirely sure why.
“I guess you’re not,” he said, his stomach turning over at the thought. Some small part of him had still hoped that he’d have the slightest of chances to get to know Gabriel better, even as a friend.
Clearly, that wasn’t happening.
Gabriel took a step toward him, moving to within six inches of Reid’s chest, the heat of his body seeping into Reid’s skin through his shirt.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “In that case… if I begged you to kiss me, you could either accept or reject without worrying about me being your patient, right?”
Reid’s eyes widened. He hadn’t been expecting this at all.
“I…” he said, his voice breaking. He swallowed, looking Gabriel in the eyes, his mind racing.
Gabriel wanted to kiss him. Again. And this time he was asking, and making sure he wasn’t putting Reid in an even more awkward situation.
“I’m sorry about last time,” Gabriel said. “I just reacted to how close you were and how good being around you makes me feel and I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t wrong, but-”
“Would you beg?” Reid asked, interrupting Gabriel’s nervous rambling.
This was a terrible idea, but he was going along with it anyway.
He’d barely stopped thinking about Gabriel since the moment they met. Chances like this didn’t come along all that often.
Besides, like Gabriel said, he wasn’t Reid’s patient anymore. They were just two consenting adults with one minor awkward incident behind them that Reid had forgiven by the time it was over, because it wasn’t as though he didn’t want it.
It wasn’t as though he hadn’t been barely stopping himself from doing the same.
There was just something between them. Something more than a spark of attraction. Something that Reid was sure ran deep, that he wanted to explore.
Gabriel blinked at him. “What?”
