Page 38 of Balance

Matthew’s gaze held mine as he brought his hand up to his mouth. I watched his tongue slide along his fingers, cleaning the mess that had gathered there.

“No fair. I thought you were taking me for breakfast.”

His answering smile was sharp and dangerous. He hadn’t gotten off, and it was like I could feel his need when he looked at me. There was hunger there, but an affection too. Something soft underneath the jagged edge of his lust.

Wordlessly, he cleaned the cum from his fingers, then kissed me again. The taste of myself on his tongue made me want him all over again. The tangy, slightly bitter, salty taste was enough to make me want to rub up against him, but I refrained. We still had to walk past his entire office, and the last thing I wanted was for him to look like he’d been slightly-less-than-dry humped by me. As it was, I was going to have to do the walk of shame out of there.

“I did promise you breakfast, didn’t I?”

Matthew kissed me again. Softly and sweetly, the kind of kiss I always dreamed of deserving. He tugged my pants back up and set me to rights. Fastening the button and zipping the zipper. He straightened my sweater and carded his fingers through my hair until he was certain that I was once again presentable.

“Maybe we can hide in here until everyone is gone.” Embarrassment made my face hot.

He looked at me with a little alarm. “I’m so sorry. We should’ve discussed this beforehand. There’s no excuse for⁠—”

I cut him off by putting my hand over his mouth. “Matthew, listen to me. I’m fine. I’m okay with what we did. I’m okay with walking out of here and having everyone know that we just hooked up in your office. If I’m embarrassed, it’s only a little, and it’s nothing my dick doesn’t like.”

He looked down as though he had to see the evidence of my arousal for himself.

“As you can see, part of my brain is saying oh, God, they’re going to know. And the other part is like oh good, they’re going to know.” I removed my hand from Matthew’s mouth, and then he took it and brought it back to his lips. Cradled in his hand, he kissed my palm.

“Thank you.” Matthew kissed my palm again.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets ahead of himself.”

“No one’s perfect, but I do try to not cross any lines.”

I looped my arms around his neck, and my heart got giddy when he held me back. His strong arms circled my waist, and he leaned in, stealing another kiss.

“I have a safe word. I could’ve stopped you. But I didn’t want to. So long as I know that you’ll respect my safe word, I don’t think we need to discuss every new thing we do before we do it. If the mood is right, and we’re both into it, and it’s nothing that could cause either of us actual harm, then why can’t we go with the flow?”

“There are certain things that should be negotiated beforehand.”

My gaze narrowed. “Though I admire that you love sticking to rules, you’re the daddy in this relationship. And I trust you. I trust that you’ll stop if I need you to, and that you’d never put me in a position that might actually harm me, especially without discussing it first. So, I guess that’s a really long-winded way to say that you can suck my dick in semi-public whenever you want.”

Matthew let out a soft laugh and shook his head, like he was partly pleased with my answer and partly amused by it, and not at all horrified anymore that he’d sucked my brains out of my cock ten steps away from where he ran a whole company.

“What am I going to do with you?” he asked, his eyes pools of tenderness.

There was only one way to answer that. “Whatever you want.”

CHAPTER 20

MATTHEW

Bringing Troye to my office had proved to be a huge miscalculation. Not a mistake, because that implied regret, and there was nothing about him or the things we did that I’d ever regret. But I hadn’t considered how sucking him off in my office would affect me in the long run.

My office was now a place where I knew no peace. Though it was days later and any actual trace of him had vanished, I could still hear him. Smell him. Every time I looked up at my door, he was there, pink-cheeked and glassy-eyed. The memory of it haunted me, and I resigned myself to the fate of running a company perpetually half-hard.

It was worse when I was alone in my office with the door shut, so I’d started leaving the door open more often. Which was why Jett found it so easy to waltz in and close it behind him. Not that he needed an invitation anyway. He was my best friend and my business partner. We’d met in college, just two kids with more audacity than common sense and dreams big enough to sink us if we let them.

We didn’t. Partly because we were lucky. Partly because Jett was a genius. Partly because we didn’t sleep for the first ten years of Gemstone’s history. Now at forty, with our company solidly dependable, and a great team around us, Jett and I could afford to relax a little. Theoretically.

Jett strode over to the couch that was pushed up against the wall. The couch I absolutely had thought about fucking Troye over the back of, but hadn’t. Yet. He took a seat like he didn’t care if I wasn’t currently paying attention to him and was half in my own head about Troye.

There had always been something about Jett that was calming. Something that made it impossible for me to keep secrets from him. He was steady and still, with the patience of a saint. So when it took me almost fifteen minutes to give up the ruse of me actually doing work and acknowledge his presence, he didn’t even blink.

“What can I do for you?” I asked instead of blurting the contents of my mind like a Catholic repenting for things I didn’t believe were sins.