“Only with those specific staff and none of his regular patrons around. All the time we spend together is at my place or his, but only if his dad isn’t around. And I don’t even know what the deal is with that because he won’t tell me.”
I chewed on my nails as I thought. “Mm… Have you thought about talking to his mum? You got along well when you went to get the costumes.”
“We did get along,” Teddy said, flashing the briefest of smiles before frowning and planting his face in his hands. “She loved me, and fed me, and I did think about talking to her, but I don’t know if we’re solid enough for that. The other day, I asked him if he would come on a double date with you and Finn. He said yes, but only if we ate in damn Jersey where no one knows us. When I pushed back, he got all weird and huffy. I called bullshit, we had a massive fight, and now I’m pretty sure he hates me. I can’t see how talking to his mum would make things better.” He then raised his head and broke me with a puppy-eyed glance through his sad, floppier-than-usual hair. “Scar, I don’t know how to make him feel safe with me.”
I grabbed his face and shoved it back in against my boobs. “Teddy, darling. Asher doesn’t hate you. He’s nuts about you, babe. I know he is. Obviously, something deeper is going on with his dad, but you have to know it’s not you that makes him feel unsafe. It’s the world. Remember, you came out at, like, twelve. You were so brave and comfortable in yourself, but not everyone is like or can be like you. Maybe he just needs more time.”
“And I want to give him that time. I want to show him the world can be safe and that he is okay with being his authentic self. But he keeps holding back, and it’s hard not to feel like he’s ashamed of me. I don’t know. Maybe I’m selfish, but I want to go out and show the world he’s mine, and I want him to do the same.”
“God, you are such a beautiful man.” I beamed sloppily, applying a heavy dose of smoochy head kisses that had my mind traveling back in time, trawling across years of heartbreak and happiness that Teddy and I have helped, nursed, and loved each other through. “I love you so much, and I believe with all my heart that if you give Asher the time, he will love you too.”
“You think so, Scar? You really think that we boogers from across the pond can finally find happiness here?”
“I do, Theodore. In fact, I know so. We are deserving of it, and we will have it.”
For maybe the first time in my life, I actually believed that.
Thursday saw Theodore taking a personal day and Finn and I working late. It was the norm for me on a Ben-free week, but one that was made even more enjoyable with my man humming away behind me. The office was empty, and it was just Finn, me, and the romantic glow of Sixth Avenue streetlights.
“No hanky panky tonight, Big Boy,” I bossed. “Wemustfinalize this exterior, or Jason will bloody shank us.”
“Uhh, I’m pretty sure I can keep my hands to myself for a few hours. You just worry about yourself, Little Miss Grabby.”
“Alright, then, let’s put some money on it….say, twenty quid?”
“I honestly don’t know how much that is, but since you will be paying, I guess it doesn’t matter. You got yourself a deal, Red.”
Cocky bastard. I’ll show him.
It should have been easy. As Finn said, it was just a couple of hours.
It was not easy. The man had turned me into a nympho. I tried to distract myself, to focus on other things. The mountain of work that covered my desk, for one. But it was Finn. Finn and his perfectly highlighted silhouette. Finn and those arms and how the muscle tensed and flexed just gripping his pen. Finn and his V-tapered back and powerful thighs that could hardly squeeze under his desk.
How can I leave him alone when he looks like that? I can’t. It would be a crime against sex itself!Shards of the pencil I chewed fell like gray confetti, littering my dress and desk and smudging into a further mess when I tried to clean it away. My eyes stayed fixed on Finn until the pencil finally snapped in half. It was discarded—as were my knickers—and I stalked my prey.
“I thought we were working,” he said, sensing my approach.
“Can’t concentrate. You’re too pretty and distracting.” Before I could whisper, “Fuck me,” into his ear as I’d planned, he spun in his chair, grabbed me by the waist, and pinned me against his desk.
“Thank God. I haven’t stopped thinking of having your tits in my mouth all day.” They’d been in his mouth only two hours before, but he was literally tearing me out of my dress, exposing, and gorging on said tits, so I didn’t bother to correct him. My skirt was hitched around my waist, and his eyes nearly popped from his head when he saw my naked flesh. “Red! You’re not wearing any underwear.”
“I know. I’ve been sitting there bare, just waiting for you.” It was a lie, but it was sexy, so…worth it.
Every hair on my body rose as he scraped his teeth along my neck and released a deep, dark chuckle. “Ohh, you are trouble, aren’t you? And I bet you’re so wet, too. I want to dive right in and drown inside you.”
“I want that too, but I want your cock inside me even more.” I pushed him away, draped myself over the desk, and ground my ass against his cock. “Take me now.”
Mumbling something about going to hell and loving it, Finn began rifling through his drawer. “We weren’t going to do this, remember? We made a bet. You owe me… Oh, fuck. I don’t have any condoms left.”
“Noooo….” I slammed my fist into the timber, then remembered my half-decade-length spinster lifestyle. “Well, I’m on the pill…”
“And we both haven’t been with anyone for a long time, right?” He nodded with extreme enthusiasm. “I went and got tested, too. I’m good to go.”
“Me too! Let’s fuck!”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Let’s do this, Big Boy!”