Page 2 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
He picked it up and scanned the sheet until his brain rammed up against a single familiar name: Todd Douglas.
Todd. Broad, tall, blue-eyed. Memories of his old leather jacket and cologne and that beat-up junker he’d driven to high school all those years ago, the one they’d made out in a million times. He’d given his first blow job in Todd’s car. Received his first, too.
He set the page down on the table because it was shaking too much in his hand. “Thanks.” No way it could be the same guy. Todd hadn’t gone to college. He’d planned to take over his old man’s garage in Warminster, PA.Seattleandcomputer engineerdidn’t jive with the Todd Douglas he’d known all those years ago. A common enough name, but the memories set his skin on fire and for a moment he hoped it was his Todd.
“Here’s the team now,” Stephen said.
Men and women filed into the conference room, eyeing both him and Eli warily, except for the last man. He locked gazes with Fazil and stopped.
Holy shit. Same blue eyes, same dark hair, but the roundness of seventeen had given way to the angles, lines, and hardness of a man in his prime. Todd still looked like he belonged in a mechanic’s shop, except for the decidedly geeky t-shirt that readThere’s no place like 127.0.0.1and clung to his chest in sinful ways. God, to run his hands down the length ofthatbody.
Eli’s chair squeaked as it rotated and Fazil peered at his laptop. The presentation he had to give in a few seconds might as well have been in a language he didn’t read.Shit. Get it together.
Thankfully, Todd sat as far from Fazil as he could in the suddenly way-too-small conference room. Todd was an engineer? No way in hell. He’d barely passed math class until Fazil had tutored him. Then again, after that, he’d gotten straight As. He met Todd’s stare a second time and he couldn’t tell if Todd wanted to fuck him or kill him.
Guess some things never changed. He shivered.
“You’re up.” Eli spoke quietly and with a hint of concern.
Fazil stood and nodded. “I’m fine.” He was. He had to be, despite Todd glaring at him from the back of the room. No other option.
Not like they could step outside and undo the past fifteen years.
“Good morning.” He clicked the laptop into presentation mode and picked up the remote. “I’m Fazil Kurt. I know you think we’re here to take your jobs, but we’re not. We’re here to save them.”
And he was off and running as if his first lover hadn’t walked back into his life.
***
Meeting concluded, Fazil followed Eli and Sandra from the conference room. Next up was lunch, and if they hurried, he’d avoid having to speak to Todd. Too many years, too many unresolved conversations, and too much temptation packed into a body that wasn’t at all seventeen anymore. Those arms. That jaw. He’d tripped over his words whenever his glance at the technical team had fallen on Todd.
He’d had to stop looking just to get through the damn talk. Luckily the presentation seemed to have gone over well. The Q and A had been intense but friendly, and the staff seemed to have good heads on their shoulders.
Todd had sat there, nodding sometimes, chewing on his lips at other points, but hadn’t asked any questions. Fazil’s heart thudded in his chest. Usually presentations didn’t faze him. But he’d never tried giving one when he actually knew what someone sitting in the room looked like naked.
Or at least he had known. His brain was rapidly trying to fill in the blanks as to what Todd’s naked body might look like now.
You could find out.Nope. Fazil exhaled. Not even going there. Their past was the past for areason.
Sandra paused in the hall near an office that bore her name. “There’s a nice pho restaurant nearby. Katiya from human resources will be joining us as well,” Sandra said.
“Excellent.” That from Eli.
“Fazil?” Todd had a deeper voice now, but utterly recognizable. It slid into Fazil’s brain and down his body, tightening his heart and heating his blood exactly as it had in high school, back when he never said no to that temptation.
So you like boys, too? Good, ’cause I like you, Z.
As he had then, Fazil turned and there Todd was, hopeful, surprised, and far sexier than he had any right to be after all these years. “Hi, Todd. Long time.”
“I’ll say.” He ran a hand through his hair. Same nervous tic. Fazil knew that look, too. No, Todd certainly didn’t want tokillhim.
Damn.
Fazil stuffed his hands into his pockets, partly to keep himself from reaching out and pulling Todd into the embrace he wanted, and partly to hide what that stare did to his dick.
“You two know each other?” A hint of surprise colored Eli’s voice.
“We went to high school together.” That was a much shorter explanation thanHe was my best friend and lover and broke my heart so many times it’s a wonder it still beats.
