Page 62 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Chapter Fourteen
No matter how hard Fazil pushed it away, worry slithered in the back of his mind as they headed back to Seattle. The knowledge that his time with Todd had to end because his life—the one he’d created and loved—was back in Pittsburgh. He didn’t mind the job at Singularity, but only because he knew it was finite.
He and Todd? Old patterns threatened to surface.Hispatterns. Except Todd had circumvented those. Fazil rubbed his eyes. How ridiculous was it to pretend they’d fought and skip to the end?
It worked, though. He felt better than he had in years. And he desperately wanted to make up for a fight they hadn’t had—the way theyalwaysmade up. Fazil snorted and shook his head.
Todd looked over. “What’s up?”
“Thinking about make-up sex.”
Todd gripped the steering wheel and grinned. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but that was the best part of breaking up with you. The mind-numbing orgasms later.”
He couldn’t help the laugh. “God, we were something back then.”
“We’re better now.” Todd slid his hand over the wheel and shifted in his seat. “If the past two nights are anything to go by.”
“At sex?” Fazil shivered, the anticipation catching his breath and heating his blood. “Well, practice makes perfect.”
Todd barked out a laugh. “You’ve practiced a lot of things you’d never have done in high school.”
That went for both of them.
Closer memories surfaced, snatches of conversations. “Can I ask you something”—the question came out tight—“more personal?”
Todd sat up straighter. “Sure.”
“What happened? After I left?”
Todd exhaled.
“You said it wasn’t a good year.” He dreaded asking. Steeled himself against finding out.
Todd focused on the road, his jaw working. Finally he spoke. “I need you to understand that none of what I did was your fault.” He gripped Fazil’s knee. “Noneof it. Everything I did, I did to myself.”
Fazil’s stomach dropped out of his body. “I... Okay.”
“I mean it, Z.”
Not good at all. “It wasn’t my fault,” he said.
Todd put both hands back on the wheel. “When I realized you were gone for good, I fell off the deep end. Since I hadn’t been with anyone else, I figured I should gain some experience—you had more than me, after all. And I wanted to figure out the wholegaything.”
Fazil bit his lip. “I’m—”
“Shh.” Todd flexed his fingers on the wheel. “My story. I know you’re sorry. Still not your fault.”
It sure as hell sounded like it was.
“When I wasn’t working at my dad’s shop, I’d hop in my car and drive into Philly to whatever gay bar I could find. Different one each time. Moved on to Jersey later, but same thing. Never the same place twice.”
“They let you in bars at eighteen?”
Todd shrugged. “I had a good fake ID, and I never ordered a drink.” His voice became hard. “No one had issues with an eighteen-year-old who wanted a nice, hard fuck in the men’s room, so yeah, they let me in.”
“You...” Fazil sank into his seat. “The first time you had anal was in a men’s room at a bar?”
“Yep.” Sharpness surrounded that word. “First night, I sucked some older dude off, then let his friend turn me around and bend me right over.” Todd twisted his face. “I was really,reallydumb.”
