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Season to Taste - 42/42

Explicit Hangster - Celebrity Chef Bradley and Naval Aviator Jake Seresin who have a relationship spanning the globe before they realize how tightly bound they are to one another.

PROLOGUE/1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (interlude) 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (interlude) 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 (interlude) 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 (interlude) 41

CHAPTER FORTYTWO

“I don’t care about the weather ruining the day Maria. As long as Leo and I am married then I consider the day a success. Mission accomplished.”

Jake is quite frankly sick of talking about nothing but the wedding. Reassuring his sisters, Silvia, and Vi that he doesn’t care if they end up getting married in a fucking barn. However, he guesses he should have listened and answered some of their questions more clearly, because it’s come back and bit him on the ass. Or come home to roost as Phoenix has gleefully pointed out.

“I’m not spending the night before our wedding day apart. We spend too many of our days and nights apart as it it…”

“It’s bad luck!”

“It’s bullshit is what it is. We’re doing this together and this is just… making it very very public.”

He doesn’t care about the photographers and cameras that will be there, he cares that Leo will be there, and as if summoned by mere thought he’s there and Jake reaches for him.

“Come here…” Leo says, and he’s wrapping his arms around Jake’s waist, nuzzling into the crook of Jake’s neck and Jake knows exactly what he’s doing, which is distracting him and calming him down all at once. “Jake’s right, I already talked to Olivia and Nicola. We aren’t spending the night apart beforehand.”

“Fine,” Maria huffs, and she stalks off and Jake lets himself slump again Leo a little, because of course his sisters will respect what Leo wants but try and browbeat Jake, despite it being his fucking wedding.

“Just a couple more days and it’ll all be over and we’ll be on a beach lying in the sun…”

“Yeah. You in nothing but a swimsuit for an entire two weeks. Definitely looking forward to that…”

“Who says I need a swimsuit? It’s a private beach.”

“Ugh. Killing me…”

“What a way to go,” Leo says with a laugh and Jake laughs with him.

… … …

The rehearsal and dinner go off without any problem, and it’s loud and chaotic and Jake is so glad his Italian is as good as it is, because he understands what everyone is saying. Mostly. Because he’s the asshole Jake knows and loves, Leo has taken to switching to French whenever he doesn’t want Jake to know what he’s talking about, which Vi, Leandro and Silvia all speak perfectly fluently as well.

They’ve just finished practicing their first dance, led by Jake seeing as he actually had to learn when he was at USNA, and Jake shakes his head as Leo starts a rapid fire conversation in French and Jake pulls a face and rolls his eyes, catches Leo’s quick glance and pokes his tongue out. He gets a quick kiss pressed to his cheek, later murmured in his ear and he shakes his head and decides to go and annoy Leo’s other parental figures.

Maverick is standing beside Admiral call me Tom Kazansky, and they’re both looking emotional, but then again it seems par for the course recently, everyone’s emotions close to the surface. They’re having the ceremony as early in the day as possible to allow for the hope that his mom will be less confused, but he’s also prepared himself for the scenario where she simply cannot attend.

“Maverick. Admiral.”

Admiral Kazansky lets out a tired sigh, he finally seems to have given up trying to get Jake to call him anything less formal, and Maverick also seems to get a kick out of it. He wonders when Admiral Kazansky will click that Jake is now doing it more to be a bit of an ass than anything else.

“Hangman… you. The. Uh. The dance song. Did… you choose that?”

“No. Leo wanted it.”

“Oh…”

“What?”

“Did Bradley tell you why he wanted that song?”

Jake hears Maverick’s voice crack, then the cough to clear it.

“No. He didn’t…” he’s about to ask why it’s significant, but like Leo has pointed out, he’s smart about the important stuff. He knows without asking that this song was part of Leo’s parents’ wedding ceremony in some way, maybe their first dance song as well. Sneaky asshole.

“Excuse me Mav, Admiral. I need to go and talk to someone…”

… … …

Bradley wakes up with Jake pressed along his back. In deference to the fact that it was the night before their wedding they had let themselves be booked into a little boutique hotel. Vi told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t going to be cooking the morning of his wedding when he’d moaned about there not being a kitchen. He turns in the bed to face Jake, kisses him slowly and sweetly to wake him, grins against the answering smile he feels appear.

“Morning.”

They keep kissing, fingers trailing over bare skin and Bradley wonders if they’re going to have time for anything before they’re meant to be up. It’s still early though, and they’d definitely made time last night, leaving early despite the catcalls. Jake had seemed a little preoccupied but happy, and Bradley’s pretty sure he could have been described the same way.

“Happy wedding day…”

“Yeah… going to make it happier?”

“Of course,” Bradley laughs, licking over Jake’s collar bone and inhaling deeply, smelling the peppermint-rosemary-green-tea of his own body wash that Jake now exclusively uses, regardless of whether he’s deployed or at home and it reminds him of what he got made. “Wait, wait… I got you something…”

“You got me a present?” Jake asks, pulling back to judge him, one eyebrow going up and Bradley can’t help smirking, feeling smug. Because he has, but it’s not just for Jake. Neither is the other little surprise he has planned. “You… of course you did. What did you make me this time?”

“I didn’t make anything. I had an idea and got in touch with the company and… well. Here. Open it.”

He hands the bottle over. It’s the same brand of body wash that Bradley has been using for years; sent to him to try out for free years ago, and to feature on one of the shows. The particular scent of peppermint-rosemary-green-tea had touted itself as reducing stress, and Vi had told him he needed it. Now it reminds him of a lot more, so many moments with Jake. However he misses the citrus undertone of Jake’s old bodywash, smelling that sharp sweetness mixed with the mint and he watches as Jake flips the lid open.

“It smells…” Jake frowns. “It’s like you’ve mixed your body wash with my old one…”

“Yeah. Probably a bit more complicated than that, but that’s pretty much what I asked them to do,” Bradley says, and he goes back to placing a trail of kisses up Jake’s neck, the smell of the open bottle tickling his nose and he knows this moment is going to be a new scent memory and he breathes in deep.

“You… got us a bespoke body wash?”

“Yeah. Want to go try it out?” Bradley asks, pulling back to grin at him.

“Oh… yeah. Fuck yeah.”

They keep kissing as the shower warms up; he hasn’t had a chance to look at the time, but at least he and Jake don’t have hair and make-up to worry about. It feels early enough. Phoenix and Vi both had muttered about unreasonably early starts, and Jake’s sisters are also getting everything done. He’s glad he only has to worry about shaving and doing his hair, knows Vi will have opinions regardless. Does even when there is a team of makeup and hair artists working on him.

Jake is grabbing supplies from his toiletry bag, grumbling under his breath about having to stay away from home the night before his own wedding and Bradley laughs, catching his mouth in a kiss as he takes the lube from Jake’s fingers, wants Jake’s hands on him instead. They don’t have infinite time; he knows Vi won’t hesitate in barging in if they don’t keep to the timeline she’d pressed into their hands two days ago. Fortunately, he’s pretty sure this won’t take long.

After years together they know each other’s bodies intimately, how to get each other off as quickly as possible, and how to drag it out and make it really good. Jake has treated it like a job to learn all of Bradley’s little quirks, ones he himself didn’t know he had, and he loves Jake more every day for it. He pushes his ass against Jake’s cock, lets his head tip back so Jake can lick at his neck.

“Can’t wait to marry you…” Jake murmurs, and his fingers are already slippery with lube, slipping between his ass cheeks and Bradley lets his eyes fall closed and just relax into the sensation. “Getting to call you my husband.” He’s still a little loose from last night, when he’d insisted on Jake fucking him just in case they slept in today or ran out of time. He should have known that wasn’t going to happen, not with how early Jake rises, but still.

“Yeah…” Bradley murmurs, because it’s the same for him. They’ve had quiet conversations in the dark and feel the same about so many things, fingers tracing over ring fingers and pulse points. And right now pressing lube into him.

“You want me to wear a condom? Or you want to have my come dripping out of you all day?”

“Jesus Jake…”

“Or I could just pull out and come all over your ass…”

“Yeah. Yeah. That…” Bradley breathes, because he also doesn’t want Jake to leave him to go and hunt out a condom. He groans then, breath catching as Jake just slides into him. It’s tight, just the way he likes, the fine line between pleasure-pain as Jake presses into him, fingers of one hand digging into his hip, the other wrapped around Bradley’s cock, not yet doing anything other than hold him proprietarily. His mouth and teeth are on Bradley’s neck and shoulders, stubble scraping against skin already sensitive from last night.

He braces his forearms against the wall, spreads his legs further apart and pushes back, a little gasp escaping as Jake pulls out a little and then fucks straight back into him sharply. Jake’s groans make his own cock jerk and that’s what get Jake’s hand moving, a rhythm he’s perfected while he fucks Bradley. He mixes it up depending on what he’s aiming for; and Bradley knows better than to reach down and touch himself. Jake will tell him if he’s allowed, has never failed to make it good for him. Sometimes turning him around and dropping to his knees and sucking Bradley down until he can’t take it anymore or dragging it out and edging him for fucking days; the resulting orgasm bringing him to tears and scream-sobs of pleasure.

He can count the number of times he’s fucked Jake on one hand. Past the first time he’s never felt the urge, more than content to have Jake’s body covering him, holding him, pressing into him. The few times Jake has asked, and Bradley uses the term ask very loosely, it’s been intense, sure Jake was going to shake apart, certain he was going to halt Bradley in the act. The most recent time had been about ten weeks post mission, and Bradley is fairly certain Jake was trying to chase away the fact that he had almost died by reaffirming their own connection.

“Leo… you with me?”

The hand on his cock is tight, Jake grinding up against him and Bradley’s attention snaps back to the present, the realization that this is the last time they’re having sex as un-married men and he lets out a little half-hysterical breath and nods, his breath coming in hot hard pants, mixing with the steam from the water.

“Jake… yeah… yeah… come on…”

“Fuck I love you…”

Bradley laughs again, because Jake sounds almost angry about it as his hips slap against Bradley’s ass, then he’s shifting slightly. Bradley swears under his breath, the head of Jake’s cock now incessantly pushing, dragging over Bradley’s prostate with every thrust of Jake’s hips. The hand on his cock has sped up and his entire body is lighting up with all-over shiver-tingles, nerve endings all alive and he groans, so close to coming, his gut and balls tight with anticipation. He’s repeating Jake’s name over and over like a mantra, then the fingers digging into his hip are gone, and he knows Jake is jerking himself off frantically. Feels the hot splatter of come on his lower back, Jake’s teeth in his shoulder, his groan vibrating against his back and he lets out a whine.

Then Jake’s kissing what is undoubtedly going to be a bite mark, and there are fingers pressing back inside him, seeking with practiced precision and –

“Jesus fucking Christ Jake…”

“Yeah… come on. You can come for me now…”

He shudders apart at the request-command, Jake’s hand working his cock and fingers inside him and he knows when his knees go from beneath him Jake will be there to catch him.

… … …

“Oh for fucks sake… you’ve both got beard burn. This is why you should have spent the night apart…”

“Pretty sure you don’t want us fucking each other in the aisle…”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You willing to risk it?” Jake asks and Bradley snorts in amusement.

Vi rolls her eyes and scoffs, and she looks stunning in her burnt-orange off-the-shoulder dress, dark curls pinned artfully on top of her head.

“You look beautiful…”

“Grazie. Vorrei poter dire lo stesso…”

“Fuck you too…” Bradley says with a laugh and Jake is laughing as well and he’s so glad that Jake can understand Italian now.

“He’s plenty beautiful,” Jake murmurs, giving him a wink and Bradley knows he’s blushing, can’t hide how Jake makes him feel even if he wanted to.

“Ugh. I can’t even with you two. Not on your wedding day. Here. I got you both something…”

Then she’s shoving little boxes at them and Bradley takes it with curiosity.

“You got us…”

“Cufflinks… oh my god. It’s… are they F-18s?” Jake asks, and of course he’s already well ahead of Bradley, opened his and looking at them closely with a wide grin on his face. Bradley snaps his little box open and stares at the tiny golden whisk and knife crossed over each other.

“Grazie Vi…”

“Mmm. Now do something sappy like swap one with each other and there, you’ve got something new and something borrowed…”

Jake mumbles under his breath about superstitious bullshit, but his fingers work effortlessly to remove Bradley’s plain cufflinks and replace them with one each of their new pairs, before he places a kiss on the side of face and he turns his head to capture his mouth in a proper kiss, although not a long one because he doesn’t trust Vi to not kick them both in the shin.

“Right. You now both look… ready to get married. Jake, Javy is waiting for you downstairs. We’re doing the illusion of you seeing each other for the first time. Try and look like you’re in love… oh… huh. You won’t have a problem.”

“I’d hope not.”

… … …

It’s obviously not the first time he’s seen Leo today, but it is the first time they’ve locked eyes with the intention, knowing they’re walking toward each other. Their aisle song had been some song that both he and Leo had agreed on, from a list made by Maria, but played by a string quartet; it had sounded good. Fine. Neither of them had had an opinion. Until last night when he’d pivoted and likely caused Maria and the string quartet more stress. However this is better, an instrumental version of the same song that Bradley had asked for as their first dance song.

As the music starts playing he pauses and waits, wonders if Leo will notice the change, and he does. Jake is watching him closely enough as they walk toward one another that he catches the falter in his step as he notices the tune, his mouth dropping open slightly as he registers. Then his lips go flat and Jake can see the trembling of Leo’s chin and fuck, he’s crying, but okay, no, he’s also smiling, a little shaky, but Jake knows he’s done a good job as they get closer.

They’re both in dark blue, bespoke suits he has no idea when he’ll wear it again. However he doesn’t care, because Leo looks stunningly gorgeous and happy as he walks toward Jake. Then they’re standing face to face and he reaches for Leo’s hands, brings them up and presses a kiss to the knuckles of each hand.

“You asshole…” Leo breathes and it just makes Jake grin wider, because his words might be saying one thing, but his eyes, the look on his face, they say something completely different.

“You could have told me…” Jake says under his breath.

“I… I didn’t want to say anything. How did you… Did someone tell you?”

“I figured it out…”

“Smart…”

“Mmm. I mean. Maverick was sort of emotional about the song choice, so I did have a hint that maybe the song was more important than you let on…”

“I didn’t want to make you have a song you didn’t like…”

Jake rolls his eyes and shakes his head minutely, because they’ve gone over this before but he’s suddenly aware that they’re having this conversation in the aisle of their wedding and everyone is waiting on them, and Leo seems to have the same realization.

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

“I love you. Ready to get hitched?”

“More than ready.”

… … …

Apart from the little stolen moments everything seems to blur, but he tries to set in amber the moments he wants to really remember. Seeing Leo for the first time, linking fingers as they turned to walk down the aisle together, the officiant welcoming everyone, Vi doing a reading and speaking about having a front row seat to their developing relationship.

His mom as she sits beside his dad, it isn’t a good or great day for her, she’s a little confused but she knows what a wedding is and recognizes Leo; has had time to watch the small collection of videos so she knows she’s a guest of honor. It’s enough, and the fact that she’s here at all is something he’s grateful for, the earlier hour of the ceremony meaning she won’t be as tired, and then the lunch celebrations which are just going to roll into an all-night party.

As they read their vows with shiny-wet eyes he knows that someone is translating them into Italian for over half the guests, little headphones pressed to ears so they can follow what is being said. Then he’s taking rings from Javy and holding Leo’s hand in his, the officiant looking between them.

“Jake, repeat after me. I take you, Leonardo Bradley Bradshaw Gallo…”

There’s a sob from the crowd and Jake turns, notes that Leo does as well. Sitting beside Admiral Kazansky and Maverick, Leandro has gone pale, is now crying along with Silvia and okay, Jake’s clearly not the only one in the dark with this little surprise and he turns to Leo and shakes his head a little. Asshole he mouths and he didn’t think Leo could look happier, but his grin widens, eyes glint with mischief and Jake’s entire life feels perfect.

“I take you Leonardo Bradley Bradshaw Gallo,” he repeats dutifully.

“To be my lawfully wedded husband.”

… … …

He doesn’t have a chance to bring it up, there are so many people. It’s family, and the Dagger squad, and Jake did not expect for there to be so many brass at his wedding. The fact that they’re there as Leo’s side of the family is wild, and he wonders if this is what it would be like marrying into some type of royalty. There’s so many photographers he knows he’s going to be so grateful for them capturing lots of moments he will either forget or simply won’t get to see. Lincoln dumping the rose petals in a single move by overturning the basket. Lincoln’s younger sister then sitting down and picking them all up and placing them back into her basket. Little anecdotes he’s heard from his sisters throughout the day.

He never thought about his wedding day, but he can’t imagine it getting better than this. The small details don’t matter, it’s the big things, like the happiness and love he just feels surrounded by. The combination of English and Italian which all just blur together now.

The food is of course plentiful and amazing, and Jake isn’t sure, but he thinks they may have shut the restaurants down for a week and pulled all the staff here. And because his husband loves him there are little bottles of sauce on every table; every single member of the Dagger squad finds him to give him shit about it personally, however they also congratulate him and Leo. The number of admirals who have congratulated him has started to make him sweat, a little panicky because while no one is in uniform they’re still admirals.

Clearly Leo picks up on something because he drags Jake off to the house, has clearly given instructions that they’re not to be interrupted and Leo drops to his knees and sucks him off to distract him, not wasting any time and not wanting any type of reciprocation because he likes drawing out his own arousal. That’ll be fun for both of them later. He’s fucking perfect for him.

“Fuck, getting too old for that. Need a cushion for my knees.”

“Serves you right…” Jake mutters, although he already has plans for them to have a bath together later. Relax and sleep. First though, he has a bone to pick now that they have a moment alone and he’s not getting a blowjob. “You changed your name.”

“Well, figured I’d be changing it anyway. So might as well go the whole way. Make it a five-barrel abomination…”

“You ever thought of double-barreling the last name Gallo and Seresin?”

“Uh… no.”

“Well. Maybe we should talk about that. And if I had Gallo as well maybe Hangman would get a different meaning…”

“Yeah? You’d want that?”

“Well, pretty sure my reputation as a complete asshole is completely shot to hell after today…”

“Yeah, it was definitely today that did it,” Leo says with a grin and Jake shoves him playfully, aware that he probably has a point. He’s always made it known that he had a soft spot for his family and boyfriend. Husband.

“Come on, we’re meant to be the guests of honor.”

“I wasn’t the one that needed to be distracted.”

“I thought all that was because you can’t keep your hands off me.”

“Mmm. True. Just a happy coincidence that it also distracted you then…”

“So happy…” Jake says, and he knows Leo understands him without spelling it out any further.

… … …

Despite their years together they’ve never managed to spend time in Italy together. It was something they had both agreed on immediately, a ten-day honeymoon in Italy. Private house, private beach. Big kitchen. Pool. No need to wear clothes, maybe just an apron when he’s cooking, which he knows Jake loves. It reminds him a little of their first chunk of time they spent together, when they’d both been circling around each other uncertain about what they were doing. He’s so glad he trusted his gut all those years ago.

Right now Jake’s swimming laps, his wry comment about how if he’s going to be doing nothing but eat Bradley’s food for ten days he needs to ensure he’s still fit enough to work. Bradley had simply said it sounded like a him problem, that he’d be in the kitchen. He’s made fresh pasta for later, as well as some dough for bread rolls. He’s not meant to be working on a new book, but he finds himself scribbling down some ideas anyway, startles a little when he feels a much cooler body press up against his bare back.

“Hey…”

“Hi. Mmm. Smells good.”

“I haven’t even made anything…”

“Wasn’t talking about food…” Bradley laughs, twists around so he can get a proper kiss, feels Jake’s arm go around his waist. “Why do people write that?”

“Write what?” Bradley asks, not quite sure what Jake is talking about, then sees Jake’s hand pressing his scrappy notebook open.

“Season to taste… surely people are going to do that anyway right?”

Bradley laughs, turns around so he can kiss him more easily.

“Yeah. You’d think so. But some people are sticklers for following a recipe. So it’s like a little addendum. Season to taste… make it perfect for how you want it.”

“Huh. So that’s what I’ve been doing all along with my ketchup then?”

Bradley opens his mouth to argue, closes it again.

Jake has a point.

An annoying one.

He’s lucky Bradley loves him.

“Yeah. You’ve been making it perfect all along.”

--- THE END ---

Their aisle song - instrumental of their first dance song.

Thanks for coming on the journey with me. It's posting on AO3 if you want to go and bookmark it, or re-read it with chapters going up Mon-Wed-Thurs.

I've also got two one-shots planned, which is why I have made it a series on AO3, so feel free to subscribe to the series there if you want to be notified of those updates. 👌

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