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“Sorry to be gone for so long,” Daniel said to Jasper, leaning in for a kiss that landed on Jasper’s hastily turned cheek.
“Well, we’ve gotta get going,” Leland chirped in. “Long night ahead of us.”
Jasper perked up at that, but Leland was ushering me out with a hand to my back before I could assuage his concerns.
It was a race for the lobby elevators. I didn’t want to be stopped by anyone. Not in the state I was in.
“What the fuck?” Leland asked when the elevator doors shut.
“It’s your fault. No more making him jealous.”
“Come again?” he said.
“I caught him and Daniel kissing in his office, Leland! On their way to doing more. He thinks you and I are sleeping together.”
“So he thinks you’re fucking me, and in turn he almost fucked his husband? You do realize how absurd and twisted you two are, right?”
“I don’t care,” I growled. “Stop it or you’re fired.”
He held his hands in the sign of surrender. “Okay. I promise. Can I still take you out to get laid?”
“Have you always been this determined?” I laughed at his absurdity. “Let me get showered and changed first.”
“Of course. Wouldn’t want you dragging the scent of sex to the club. It would defeat the purpose.”
I’d left the offices of Parker, Mitchell, & Ward convinced that stopping Daniel and Jasper, and then having Jasper’s cum slide down my throat, meant I’d won something. Thinking I’d use Leland’s forced night out as a celebration of my win. Didn’t take long for the euphoria to subside, or for hollowness to return.
They’ll be going home together,I’d thought. What then? I wasn’t the only one who’d been left unfulfilled from our ordeal. My mood had blackened further, and all I could do was hope that Daniel kept his hands off his husband.
Daniel
3 Years Ago
THE GRADUATION CEREMONYis over, and I patiently wait off to the side near the arena exit closest to Jasper. By the stage, a dark-haired, petite woman fusses over the tassel on his cap as he smiles down at her warmly.
I must look like a peacock angling my head this way and that way, but as family members and friends come down from the stands and converge on the graduates, it gets harder to see Jasper through the mayhem.
“Finally,” I murmur as Jasper and the woman, who looks to be a few years older than him, make their way arm in arm toward the exit doors I stood next to. My hands are full with the gifts I now feel foolish for purchasing, but it’s too late to question my choices now.
Jasper’s steps falter when he notices me, and I brandish my best disarming smile. “Mr. Ward?” he asks hesitantly, then peers behind him as if maybe I’m here for someone else. “What are you doing here?” His friend drops his arm to answer her phone, then points to the doors, mouthing that she’ll be right outside. He nods and continues his approach until we’re close enough to hear ourselves over the ruckus of voices without shouting.
“I came to see you,” I say.
“Alright.” His brows lower as if he can’t understand why I’d go through the trouble, and then we both wait for me to say something else.
“These are for you.” I gesture with the flowers I hold in one arm, and the expensive bottle of scotch—equipped with a bow at its neck—in the other. “You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve been married to my work for so long; I’m out of practice when it comes to courting someone. I wasn’t sure if flowers were the way to go, or something a bit more masculine like a twenty-year aged single malt.”
“Hmm, sounds pretty sexist to me,” he says good-naturedly, and not for the first time I’m struck with how fierce yet delicate he is. It’s definitely the bright hair and even brighter eyes, I tell myself. The long lashes and well-defined long limbs. The lost look he wears well. With the proper guidance, he’d be great in the courtroom.
“Did you just say courting?” he asks with delay, as if that part took a while to filter into his brain. Or perhaps he’s teasing me for my choice of phrase. I blame my prim parents.
“Yes,” I laugh, tugging at my collar. “I seem to remember you telling me you don’t date within the workplace. Well, your internship ended two weeks ago, you’ve graduated law school—with honors, I might add.” I take a step closer. “So, are you free for dinner?”
He looks to the door his friend went through, maybe hoping to be saved.
“It doesn’t have to be today,” I say, transferring my gifts to him. The move should remind him of all the trouble I went to, and hopefully it’ll make him feel like he owes me something. I was a great attorney for a reason. I needed a yes from him.
“I’m not dating material, Mr. Ward—”
