“I…” Sucking in a breath as his tongue flicked over my ear, I had to fight to respond with words. I needed him to know that I wanted it too. I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding. “Yes, I’ve thought about waking up to you like that…your mouth…all over me.”
He bit down on my ear, groaning as he pulled away. “I’ve thought about this for days. Why did my confidence only show up when Dare said we couldn’t come?”
I chuckled, shrugging and trying to ignore how obvious my desire was at the moment. “Um, something about being told no just turns you on?”
Pushing back, his heated gaze made it clear how much he wanted to keep going. “Probably.”
Then he grinned. “But I get to tell Dare how good I was and that’s going to get me a reward later.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “That’s cheating.”
Ryan waggled his eyebrows. “Be nice or I’m going to forget that I was trying to be good. I wonder how much I could play with you and kiss you before you’d come?”
Dare had clearly created a monster.
I loved it.
****
Some of my coworkers thought the closing of the stock market meant their day had ended, but mine never stopped that early.
Except today.
If I wasn’t careful, between the research and growing my client list, my day could be never-ending. But when I’d first joined the company, one of the icons in the office who’d been in the business almost his entire life dropped dead at his desk of a heart attack.
That’d been all the wake-up call I’d needed. I’d work hard and do my best, but I’d also make sure I had a life outside the office. So I went to the gym and tried to remember not to put too many hours in over the weekend, but I never left early during the week.
Not until my not-just-roommate said our Dom wanted us to go on a date.
When, after our long kisses in the kitchen, Ryan had said he wanted to take me out to dinner after work, I’d immediately said yes. Wednesday night wasn’t an ideal time, but with no meetings, it was doable.
I wasn’t at the bottom of the ladder anymore, but as I stepped out of my shoebox office, it still felt like it. I just had to keep reminding myself I was out of the mass of other new brokers, and I was doing better every month. One day, I was going to have a big corner office and my own assistant instead of sharing one with several other brokers.
“Sean? I’m heading out for the day. Thanks for your help earlier.” Sean was the only other out gay employee at the office, and it hadn’t taken a genius to guess that had been why he’d been assigned to me once I’d moved up. I wasn’t sure why the idiots in the back had decided it was a brilliant decision, but luckily enough, he’d worked out great.
From our first handshake there’d been no sparks at all. It was perfect.
He thought I was boring and that’s the way I wanted it. I’d never been in the closet at work, but I’d always kept my personal life private. So private, people had stopped asking me about dates and weekend plans after I’d worked there about six months.
With anyone else he would have asked about their plans or teased them about flaking off early, but with me, he just nodded. I’d felt bad to begin with about keeping people at a distance, but after I’d overheard him talking about me in the breakroom one day I’d stopped feeling bad.
He hadn’t been mean. In fact, he’d said lots of nice things about my abilities and industry knowledge, but he’d also cheekily told one of the other admins that I was the most boring person he’d ever worked with.
I had a feeling he’d meant the most boringgay guyhe’d ever worked with, because I was not the least social or most awkward in the bunch. I was fairly normal. At least, at the office.
My goal was to make a living, not make waves, and I didn’t regret that.
I was proud of everything I’d accomplished, and that was what I wanted to be known for. Not like James, one of the other financial advisors who’d been hired around the same time as me. He was most famous around the office for the amount of time off he’d taken and the number of women he dated in a month.
I’d take “boring” over that moron’s decisions any day.
Sean finished typing something and pointed to a stack of papers. “I’ll have everything for the new clients set up tonight and on your desk tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” I’d worked on some small investments for a funny lady who was almost ninety. I’d mainly done it because she’d been nice and I’d felt bad that her previous advisor hadn’t been much help to her. Once we’d gotten everything up and running and she’d seen her money start to grow, she’d started steadily sending all her friends in to meet with me.
At the rate I was going, I was going to end up with a huge percentage of my clients being over eighty, but they were fun and I was starting to see my own income rise, which was nice as well.
“Oh, and I added two more meetings next week to my calendar.” I gestured to the papers. “More friends who need second opinions.”
