Forever Love, Inc. - 12/12
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12/LUKE
Luke Snyder stepped off the elevator onto the neurosurgery department of Oakdale Memorial’s new wing and immediately spied his target standing in front of the nurse’s duty desk, giving instructions to the steely-haired female seated behind the desk. Luke checked his step for a moment, waiting for the conversation to draw to a close, then-as Reid Oliver gave a nod of dismissal and shifted his weight to step away from the desk-Luke prepared to launch his attack.
“Dr. Oliver!” he exclaimed crossly. “We need to talk about your latest dating disaster!”
Reid Oliver looked over his shoulder in Luke’s direction and a faint light of welcome gleamed in the man’s eyes before he schooled himself into his characteristic scowl. “Oh, no,” he shot back, “you can’t pin that on me, Mr. Snyder. The guy was a complete halfwit!”
Reid spun on his heel and marched down the corridor away from Luke. Luke paused only long enough to smile his greetings at the on-duty nurse-who shook her head indulgently as she headed off to fulfill the neurosurgeon’s orders-before hastening to give chase.
“Halfwit?” Luke challenged, as he caught up with Reid, jogging a bit to keep up with the doctor’s purposeful stride. “That man is the most popular professional event planner in Oakdale!”
“That’s because he’s the only professional event planner in Oakdale,” Reid retorted with a sniff. “Most of them run for the hills when they realize it’s impossible to hold an event in this town that doesn’t include fist fights, gunfire, or a deranged lunatic waving a knife at you.”
Luke gave a long-suffering sigh. “Reid, you know that wasn’t Aunt Meg’s fault. She had a bad reaction to her new medicine, and she thought you were Damian back again.”
“Who said I was blaming her?” Reid asked pointedly. “I told you she was looking at me funny, just like I told you that dragging me along to that bridal show was a bad idea!”
Reaching an intersection in the corridor, Reid took a sharp turn to the left. Luke tagged along right by his side as the doctor kept going, moving away from the patient rooms and toward the wing’s administrative offices.
“Look,” Luke explained, with an air of exaggerated patience, “Katie needed me there to help her pick colors for her wedding, and I needed you there for moral support. And when I said moral support, I didn’t mean making the event planner run out of the place in tears.”
As they reached the central reception area for the surgery division, Reid’s new personal assistant looked up from her computer, a look of eager attention gracing her bright young face. Reid gave a gracious nod at the woman, but made no further acknowledgment as he moved quickly through the lobby in the direction of his office.
“The guy had an entire flock of white doves caged next to the hors d’oeuvres table,” Reid retorted, a look of disgust twisting his face. “Do you know how many communicable diseases those things carry? You should be thanking me for saving everyone from a fatal case of histoplasmosis.”
Luke gave an indignant laugh. “And should I thank you for running away and leaving me to deal with the fallout?”
“Leaving y-?” Reid gaped, pausing at his office door with one hand resting on the doorknob. “That was… I got a 911 page!” he exclaimed, bristling with outrage. “Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think it sets the right example if the Chief of Surgery blows off his on-call duties to play nursemaid to a bunch of screaming bridezillas.”
Reid stepped into his office and Luke pushed through behind him, closing the door behind him. No sooner had Luke reached behind him to flip the latch on the office door than Reid was on him, pushing Luke back against the door and capturing his lips in a hungry kiss.
Luke gave a sigh of pleasure as he opened his mouth eagerly beneath Reid’s, Reid’s tongue snaking its way inside to tease him with quick, swirling strokes against Luke’s own. Luke’s hands lifted to Reid’s head, tangling in the luxurious mess of curls as he savored the taste and feel of Reid’s kiss. If Luke had thought that the frantic pace of the past eighteen months might have cooled his craving for that kiss, then this was just further proof of the error of that thought-like any true drug, continued exposure to Reid’s addictive kisses had only strengthened the intensity of his craving. He tightened his grip on Reid’s hair, drawing him closer as the kiss grew hotter, more urgent.
Breaking the kiss with a lingering tug at Luke’s bottom lip, Reid turned his head to lick his way along Luke’s jaw, sucking at the pulse point beneath Luke’s ear. “Want you,” Reid whispered, his hands slipping around to cup at Luke’s ass.
“Reid,” Luke breathed wildly, digging his fingers into Reid’s back and shoulders. His groin brushed against Reid’s, his cock already swelling with arousal. Reid grunted at the contact and nipped sharply at the lobe of Luke’s ear, his hands pulling Luke closer to increase the friction between them.
Luke tugged at Reid’s shoulders and angled his head to bring their mouths together again, his body shaking with the intensity and heat of the fiery kiss. Shifting his weight from the door, he pushed blindly at Reid, directing him across the room and dragging him down on top of him on the inviting surface of Reid’s plush leather couch. Reid nipped at the base of Luke’s throat, then he shifted to straddle Luke’s thighs and began a long, leisurely journey down Luke’s body.
“Why do you… insist on keeping these shirts?” Reid rasped, lifting up the hem of Luke’s blue-and-orange polo to trail a line of kisses down Luke’s sternum. “You know… they just make me want to rip them off of you.”
Luke had pulled this shirt from the back of his closet specifically for this occasion, and he gave a chuff of breathless laughter. “I think you just answered your own question.”
Reid stopped to lap at Luke’s navel, and Luke’s hands moved restlessly from Reid’s hair to his back, struggling to pull Reid’s scrub top over his head so that Luke could touch and stroke every inch of Reid’s skin he could reach. Luke’s jeans had grown painfully tight, his cock straining against its confines, and Luke groaned with a mixture of relief and anticipation when Reid hastily tugged at his zipper to expose the aching column of flesh to the air.
“God!” Luke yelped, when Reid moved without hesitation to swallow his cock in one smooth motion. He slapped a hand over his mouth to cover the sound, but the resulting vibration from Reid’s muffled chuckle drew a long moan from his throat.
Luke was soon lost to any sensation but the heat and moisture of Reid’s mouth, the feel of Reid’s hands and tongue, stroking and sucking his cock-pulling back to lap at the tip of his leaking cock-before swallowing him once again. When he felt the tightening sensation that warned of approaching orgasm, he tugged frantically at Reid’s head, lifting him away from his pleasurable assault.
Reid’s eyes met Luke’s, their cool blue depths gone dark and glittering and hot. His lips were moist and swollen and open as short pants of air fell from his mouth, and Luke nearly groaned aloud yet again with the sheer strength of the want consuming his body.
“Inside me,” Luke panted, writhing impatiently beneath Reid.
With a predatory smile, Reid scaled Luke’s body and leaned in to devour Luke’s lips again. As Luke frantically pushed at the waistband of Reid’s scrubs, he heard the faint sounds of Reid fumbling for the flat box stashed underneath the low couch, tipping off the lid and extracting the condoms and supply of lube stored inside. Shucking Luke’s pants and shoes and kicking his own to a pile at his feet, Reid wasted little time, sheathing himself and stretching Luke with all the deft assurance of his gifted surgeon’s fingers.
Both men groaned as Reid slid into Luke, breaching his entrance at just the right angle to hit Luke’s prostate, setting off waves of pleasure that built in tempo and urgency. Reid closed his fist around Luke’s cock again, and Luke flung his head back with a low cry. A few strokes more was all Luke needed, crying out Reid’s name as his orgasm shook through him. Luke tightened around Reid as he withdrew and entered once more, and the movement set off Reid’s own orgasm; the man gave a guttural groan and collapsed on Luke’s chest, his own chest heaving from the exertion.
As Luke lay floating in the languorous moment that followed, Reid moved to tie off and discard the used condom and to wipe away the traces of their activity from Luke’s skin, before falling back into Luke’s arms. The tender way that Reid snuggled against him was a side of the ornery neurosurgeon’s personality that no one but Luke had been privileged to know, a side that tugged at every instinct in Luke’s soul to cherish and protect, and Luke stroked the hair from Reid’s sweaty brow with a loving touch.
“I like these early morning quickies,” Reid said, with a tired smile. “We should do this more often.”
Luke gave a lazy chuckle at that. “Won’t people start to get suspicious of you always disappearing off to your office with me?”
“I’m pretty sure they’re already past suspicious.” Reid heaved another sleepy sigh, and Luke pressed a kiss against his forehead.
“Were you in surgery all night?” he asked sympathetically.
“Another chapter in the amazing story of Reid Oliver, neurosurgeon of the gods,” Reid said lightly, before sobering again. “I am sorry I had to leave you like that.”
Luke snorted begrudgingly. “Some date,” he huffed. “You run off to perform a medical miracle, and I get stuck trying to talk some idiotic wedding planner into coming out of the hotel bathroom.”
“Aha!” Reid said, beaming triumphantly at Luke. “So you admit that the guy was an idiot!”
“A very creative, very well-respected idiot,” Luke conceded.
Reid gave a laugh at the judicious response, and dropped a quick kiss on Luke’s shoulder before resting his chin on Luke’s chest. “Just promise me you won’t try to hire that guy when it comes time for our big day?” he said plaintively.
Luke stiffened with surprise. “Our big day?” he asked cautiously, hardly daring to guess at Reid’s meaning.
Reid rolled his eyes expressively. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you eyeing those ‘His & His’ wedding cakes, Mr. Snyder,” he said. Pushing himself up from Luke’s chest with a grunt of effort, Reid reached for the box of condoms lying forgotten on the floor and handed it to Luke. “Here,” he said, shifting his weight off Luke to lie on his side on the inside of the couch and propping his head up on his bent elbow.
Luke took the box from Reid’s hand and a smile flashed on his face. “Again?” Luke asked, rubbing his leg up along Reid’s. “You know, for an old man, you certainly have a lot of stamina.”
Reid gave Luke a swat on his exposed rear. “I’ll show you old man,” he said threateningly, then nodded at the box again. “Look inside.”
Luke shook his head indulgently and then peered down at the contents of the half-filled box. Wedged amidst the foil-wrapped condoms lay a small folded package made of a felt-like material. With a curious glance at Reid, Luke pulled the fabric from the box and held it in the palm of his hands, gently unraveling the flaps to reveal a pair of men’s wedding bands inside. Perfectly matched in a solid platinum that shone brightly in the fluorescent light of the office ceiling fixture, the two rings were stunning in their simplicity, and Luke felt his heart start to balloon in his chest.
“You hid a set of wedding rings in a box of condoms?” he managed, over the thick lump that was forming in his throat.
Reid twitched his eyebrows significantly. “How’s that for wildly romantic?” he asked smugly. “So, what do you say?”
Luke gave a distinctly watery chuckle and leaned forward to bury his face in Reid’s shoulder. His impossible boyfriend had just proposed to him lying sweaty and half naked on Reid’s office couch, after a round of brief but marvelous lovemaking-and Luke was nearly overcome with the ridiculous, daft, amazing perfection of the moment. He shook his head disbelievingly against Reid’s arm, unable to find words to convey the range of emotions in his heart.
“If that’s supposed to be a no,” Reid said gruffly, “I think I should point out that this will be a huge blow to the success rate of Forever Love, Inc.”
Even if Luke hadn’t detected the nervous undertone of Reid’s dry comment, he would have felt it in the sudden stiffness in Reid’s thin frame. He pulled back, the thought of Reid’s unspoken fear of rejection clearing his head of fog like nothing else could.
“No!” Luke said quickly. “I mean, no, that’s not a no! I just-“ He shook his head again. “I didn’t think you cared much for civil unions, that’s all.”
Reid gave a dismissive shrug, the worried tension slowly creeping from his body. “I just think when it comes to civil rights, it ought to be all or nothing,” he said simply. “But I love you, Luke Snyder,” he added, cupping Luke’s cheek warmly as he stared into Luke’s eyes, “and I want you to know I’m in this for the long haul. So I don’t care if we use these for a quiet wedding someplace like New York, or have the biggest civil union ceremony this town has ever seen. I just want you to be mine.”
Luke surged forward and wrapped his arms around Reid. “Yes!” he said, squeezing Reid with a strength born of every ounce of love and happiness in his body. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Reid Oliver. I love you so much!”
Luke pulled back to see Reid’s beautiful eyes, awestruck but shining with a glow the likes of which Luke had never seen before. He raised a hand to touch the beloved, lopsided smile on the face he’d come to know so well….
…and with eyes brimming with tears of joy, Luke Snyder leaned in to meet the tender kiss of his very own forever love.
~*~ THE END ~*~
12/LUKE
Luke Snyder stepped off the elevator onto the neurosurgery department of Oakdale Memorial’s new wing and immediately spied his target standing in front of the nurse’s duty desk, giving instructions to the steely-haired female seated behind the desk. Luke checked his step for a moment, waiting for the conversation to draw to a close, then-as Reid Oliver gave a nod of dismissal and shifted his weight to step away from the desk-Luke prepared to launch his attack.
“Dr. Oliver!” he exclaimed crossly. “We need to talk about your latest dating disaster!”
Reid Oliver looked over his shoulder in Luke’s direction and a faint light of welcome gleamed in the man’s eyes before he schooled himself into his characteristic scowl. “Oh, no,” he shot back, “you can’t pin that on me, Mr. Snyder. The guy was a complete halfwit!”
Reid spun on his heel and marched down the corridor away from Luke. Luke paused only long enough to smile his greetings at the on-duty nurse-who shook her head indulgently as she headed off to fulfill the neurosurgeon’s orders-before hastening to give chase.
“Halfwit?” Luke challenged, as he caught up with Reid, jogging a bit to keep up with the doctor’s purposeful stride. “That man is the most popular professional event planner in Oakdale!”
“That’s because he’s the only professional event planner in Oakdale,” Reid retorted with a sniff. “Most of them run for the hills when they realize it’s impossible to hold an event in this town that doesn’t include fist fights, gunfire, or a deranged lunatic waving a knife at you.”
Luke gave a long-suffering sigh. “Reid, you know that wasn’t Aunt Meg’s fault. She had a bad reaction to her new medicine, and she thought you were Damian back again.”
“Who said I was blaming her?” Reid asked pointedly. “I told you she was looking at me funny, just like I told you that dragging me along to that bridal show was a bad idea!”
Reaching an intersection in the corridor, Reid took a sharp turn to the left. Luke tagged along right by his side as the doctor kept going, moving away from the patient rooms and toward the wing’s administrative offices.
“Look,” Luke explained, with an air of exaggerated patience, “Katie needed me there to help her pick colors for her wedding, and I needed you there for moral support. And when I said moral support, I didn’t mean making the event planner run out of the place in tears.”
As they reached the central reception area for the surgery division, Reid’s new personal assistant looked up from her computer, a look of eager attention gracing her bright young face. Reid gave a gracious nod at the woman, but made no further acknowledgment as he moved quickly through the lobby in the direction of his office.
“The guy had an entire flock of white doves caged next to the hors d’oeuvres table,” Reid retorted, a look of disgust twisting his face. “Do you know how many communicable diseases those things carry? You should be thanking me for saving everyone from a fatal case of histoplasmosis.”
Luke gave an indignant laugh. “And should I thank you for running away and leaving me to deal with the fallout?”
“Leaving y-?” Reid gaped, pausing at his office door with one hand resting on the doorknob. “That was… I got a 911 page!” he exclaimed, bristling with outrage. “Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think it sets the right example if the Chief of Surgery blows off his on-call duties to play nursemaid to a bunch of screaming bridezillas.”
Reid stepped into his office and Luke pushed through behind him, closing the door behind him. No sooner had Luke reached behind him to flip the latch on the office door than Reid was on him, pushing Luke back against the door and capturing his lips in a hungry kiss.
Luke gave a sigh of pleasure as he opened his mouth eagerly beneath Reid’s, Reid’s tongue snaking its way inside to tease him with quick, swirling strokes against Luke’s own. Luke’s hands lifted to Reid’s head, tangling in the luxurious mess of curls as he savored the taste and feel of Reid’s kiss. If Luke had thought that the frantic pace of the past eighteen months might have cooled his craving for that kiss, then this was just further proof of the error of that thought-like any true drug, continued exposure to Reid’s addictive kisses had only strengthened the intensity of his craving. He tightened his grip on Reid’s hair, drawing him closer as the kiss grew hotter, more urgent.
Breaking the kiss with a lingering tug at Luke’s bottom lip, Reid turned his head to lick his way along Luke’s jaw, sucking at the pulse point beneath Luke’s ear. “Want you,” Reid whispered, his hands slipping around to cup at Luke’s ass.
“Reid,” Luke breathed wildly, digging his fingers into Reid’s back and shoulders. His groin brushed against Reid’s, his cock already swelling with arousal. Reid grunted at the contact and nipped sharply at the lobe of Luke’s ear, his hands pulling Luke closer to increase the friction between them.
Luke tugged at Reid’s shoulders and angled his head to bring their mouths together again, his body shaking with the intensity and heat of the fiery kiss. Shifting his weight from the door, he pushed blindly at Reid, directing him across the room and dragging him down on top of him on the inviting surface of Reid’s plush leather couch. Reid nipped at the base of Luke’s throat, then he shifted to straddle Luke’s thighs and began a long, leisurely journey down Luke’s body.
“Why do you… insist on keeping these shirts?” Reid rasped, lifting up the hem of Luke’s blue-and-orange polo to trail a line of kisses down Luke’s sternum. “You know… they just make me want to rip them off of you.”
Luke had pulled this shirt from the back of his closet specifically for this occasion, and he gave a chuff of breathless laughter. “I think you just answered your own question.”
Reid stopped to lap at Luke’s navel, and Luke’s hands moved restlessly from Reid’s hair to his back, struggling to pull Reid’s scrub top over his head so that Luke could touch and stroke every inch of Reid’s skin he could reach. Luke’s jeans had grown painfully tight, his cock straining against its confines, and Luke groaned with a mixture of relief and anticipation when Reid hastily tugged at his zipper to expose the aching column of flesh to the air.
“God!” Luke yelped, when Reid moved without hesitation to swallow his cock in one smooth motion. He slapped a hand over his mouth to cover the sound, but the resulting vibration from Reid’s muffled chuckle drew a long moan from his throat.
Luke was soon lost to any sensation but the heat and moisture of Reid’s mouth, the feel of Reid’s hands and tongue, stroking and sucking his cock-pulling back to lap at the tip of his leaking cock-before swallowing him once again. When he felt the tightening sensation that warned of approaching orgasm, he tugged frantically at Reid’s head, lifting him away from his pleasurable assault.
Reid’s eyes met Luke’s, their cool blue depths gone dark and glittering and hot. His lips were moist and swollen and open as short pants of air fell from his mouth, and Luke nearly groaned aloud yet again with the sheer strength of the want consuming his body.
“Inside me,” Luke panted, writhing impatiently beneath Reid.
With a predatory smile, Reid scaled Luke’s body and leaned in to devour Luke’s lips again. As Luke frantically pushed at the waistband of Reid’s scrubs, he heard the faint sounds of Reid fumbling for the flat box stashed underneath the low couch, tipping off the lid and extracting the condoms and supply of lube stored inside. Shucking Luke’s pants and shoes and kicking his own to a pile at his feet, Reid wasted little time, sheathing himself and stretching Luke with all the deft assurance of his gifted surgeon’s fingers.
Both men groaned as Reid slid into Luke, breaching his entrance at just the right angle to hit Luke’s prostate, setting off waves of pleasure that built in tempo and urgency. Reid closed his fist around Luke’s cock again, and Luke flung his head back with a low cry. A few strokes more was all Luke needed, crying out Reid’s name as his orgasm shook through him. Luke tightened around Reid as he withdrew and entered once more, and the movement set off Reid’s own orgasm; the man gave a guttural groan and collapsed on Luke’s chest, his own chest heaving from the exertion.
As Luke lay floating in the languorous moment that followed, Reid moved to tie off and discard the used condom and to wipe away the traces of their activity from Luke’s skin, before falling back into Luke’s arms. The tender way that Reid snuggled against him was a side of the ornery neurosurgeon’s personality that no one but Luke had been privileged to know, a side that tugged at every instinct in Luke’s soul to cherish and protect, and Luke stroked the hair from Reid’s sweaty brow with a loving touch.
“I like these early morning quickies,” Reid said, with a tired smile. “We should do this more often.”
Luke gave a lazy chuckle at that. “Won’t people start to get suspicious of you always disappearing off to your office with me?”
“I’m pretty sure they’re already past suspicious.” Reid heaved another sleepy sigh, and Luke pressed a kiss against his forehead.
“Were you in surgery all night?” he asked sympathetically.
“Another chapter in the amazing story of Reid Oliver, neurosurgeon of the gods,” Reid said lightly, before sobering again. “I am sorry I had to leave you like that.”
Luke snorted begrudgingly. “Some date,” he huffed. “You run off to perform a medical miracle, and I get stuck trying to talk some idiotic wedding planner into coming out of the hotel bathroom.”
“Aha!” Reid said, beaming triumphantly at Luke. “So you admit that the guy was an idiot!”
“A very creative, very well-respected idiot,” Luke conceded.
Reid gave a laugh at the judicious response, and dropped a quick kiss on Luke’s shoulder before resting his chin on Luke’s chest. “Just promise me you won’t try to hire that guy when it comes time for our big day?” he said plaintively.
Luke stiffened with surprise. “Our big day?” he asked cautiously, hardly daring to guess at Reid’s meaning.
Reid rolled his eyes expressively. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you eyeing those ‘His & His’ wedding cakes, Mr. Snyder,” he said. Pushing himself up from Luke’s chest with a grunt of effort, Reid reached for the box of condoms lying forgotten on the floor and handed it to Luke. “Here,” he said, shifting his weight off Luke to lie on his side on the inside of the couch and propping his head up on his bent elbow.
Luke took the box from Reid’s hand and a smile flashed on his face. “Again?” Luke asked, rubbing his leg up along Reid’s. “You know, for an old man, you certainly have a lot of stamina.”
Reid gave Luke a swat on his exposed rear. “I’ll show you old man,” he said threateningly, then nodded at the box again. “Look inside.”
Luke shook his head indulgently and then peered down at the contents of the half-filled box. Wedged amidst the foil-wrapped condoms lay a small folded package made of a felt-like material. With a curious glance at Reid, Luke pulled the fabric from the box and held it in the palm of his hands, gently unraveling the flaps to reveal a pair of men’s wedding bands inside. Perfectly matched in a solid platinum that shone brightly in the fluorescent light of the office ceiling fixture, the two rings were stunning in their simplicity, and Luke felt his heart start to balloon in his chest.
“You hid a set of wedding rings in a box of condoms?” he managed, over the thick lump that was forming in his throat.
Reid twitched his eyebrows significantly. “How’s that for wildly romantic?” he asked smugly. “So, what do you say?”
Luke gave a distinctly watery chuckle and leaned forward to bury his face in Reid’s shoulder. His impossible boyfriend had just proposed to him lying sweaty and half naked on Reid’s office couch, after a round of brief but marvelous lovemaking-and Luke was nearly overcome with the ridiculous, daft, amazing perfection of the moment. He shook his head disbelievingly against Reid’s arm, unable to find words to convey the range of emotions in his heart.
“If that’s supposed to be a no,” Reid said gruffly, “I think I should point out that this will be a huge blow to the success rate of Forever Love, Inc.”
Even if Luke hadn’t detected the nervous undertone of Reid’s dry comment, he would have felt it in the sudden stiffness in Reid’s thin frame. He pulled back, the thought of Reid’s unspoken fear of rejection clearing his head of fog like nothing else could.
“No!” Luke said quickly. “I mean, no, that’s not a no! I just-“ He shook his head again. “I didn’t think you cared much for civil unions, that’s all.”
Reid gave a dismissive shrug, the worried tension slowly creeping from his body. “I just think when it comes to civil rights, it ought to be all or nothing,” he said simply. “But I love you, Luke Snyder,” he added, cupping Luke’s cheek warmly as he stared into Luke’s eyes, “and I want you to know I’m in this for the long haul. So I don’t care if we use these for a quiet wedding someplace like New York, or have the biggest civil union ceremony this town has ever seen. I just want you to be mine.”
Luke surged forward and wrapped his arms around Reid. “Yes!” he said, squeezing Reid with a strength born of every ounce of love and happiness in his body. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Reid Oliver. I love you so much!”
Luke pulled back to see Reid’s beautiful eyes, awestruck but shining with a glow the likes of which Luke had never seen before. He raised a hand to touch the beloved, lopsided smile on the face he’d come to know so well….
…and with eyes brimming with tears of joy, Luke Snyder leaned in to meet the tender kiss of his very own forever love.
~*~ THE END ~*~