Chapter Three
Derek
Harold was the first to move, easing himself gently from me, then rolling out of bed. He grazed his hand along my hip before heading to the bathroom.
The water ran, and soon he was back with a washcloth. He sat on the bed, met my gaze, and pressed the warm cloth against my belly.
More intimate than any act I’d ever had done to me before.
He’d removed the condom, and he did a quick swipe of his own belly, wiping away my cum. After placing the cloth on the bedside table, he rolled into bed, and lay on his back. His arm went around my shoulder as he urged me to roll into his embrace. I pulled the sheet and blanket over us and laid my head on his chest. The crinkly hair against my unshaven chin created an odd friction.
I drew lazy, random patterns across his sexy abs. Yes, he was a damn fine-looking man, but I sensed great depth.
“What are you running from?”
His softly spoken words caught me off guard. I’d thought we might engage in pillow talk. Plan our next tryst—if there was to be one—exchange favorite position notes.
Hell, what did I know? I was the one who was usually out the door within an hour. Grab a cab home, have a quick shower, settle in for the night. I didn’t do…whatever this was.
“I’m not running.”
I tried to keep the defensiveness from my tone.
“Try again.”
He feathered his fingers through my hair. “If you don’t want to tell me, that’s okay.”
He sighed. “But I’d like to do this again, and I feel truth is important. You’re hiding something, and maybe it’s none of my business—"
“—it’s not—”
“—but I like to know where I stand.”
I grazed my knuckles against his cock. The hand gripping my shoulder tightened.
“Tell me why you’re running.”
“I’m not—"
But I stopped myself. If this was going to become a thing, and if we had a future, I had to be brutally honest with him.
“I’m not running. Was I chased away? Maybe.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat that always lodged there. “You have to understand, I grew up with my grandparents after my parents died in a boating accident when I was three. I have no memory of my folks.”
He made a sound low in his throat. Probably sympathy, but I knew I had to keep going. “I loved them, but they were much older, and I knew soon I’d have to make my own way in the world. I studied like crazy and got into business school at the University of British Columbia. I earned my CPA status and did an MBA. By the time I graduated, my grandparents had passed.
“But I was doing okay. I took a job with a firm I’d done a study semester with. A boutique accounting firm in downtown Vancouver who catered to the wealthiest of clients. I set my sights on making partner by the time I hit thirty-five. And I was well on my way.”
He rubbed his hand up and down my arm. Was he sensing my growing discomfort? I didn’t want to continue, but I had to.
“One night I was working late—a common occurrence—and I found a stack of papers in the copy room on the printer. I checked to see who they belonged to. One of the senior partners. She was my mentor, and I worked on all her files, so it surprised me she had a client I didn’t know about.
“I know what I did was wrong, but I was curious. I perused. And then read. And then delved.”
I swallowed. “I stayed all night reviewing the account, and by morning I had irrefutable proof she was engaging in…well I want to say shady business practices, but what she was doing was flat-out wrong. She’d created a scheme so her client could move his money offshore and avoid paying significant taxes. Everything they were doing was illegal. Immoral. If they got caught, both of them would be in serious trouble.”
I scrubbed my face. “And the kicker? The client was obscenely wealthy. He had more than enough money to pay taxes, and plenty of loopholes existed for him to drive a truck through. But instead of paying his fair share, he was looking for a way to cheat the system. And my boss’d given it to him.”
“What did you do?”
He asked it quietly. Unobtrusively.
“I confronted her the next morning.”
I laid my hand flat across his stomach, absorbing some of the warmth into my icy fingers. It couldn’t have been comfortable for him, but he didn’t complain. “She tried to tell me I was wrong. That I didn’t know what I was doing. When she saw she couldn’t persuade me, she tried to bring me in on the deal.”
“Did you consider it?”
“For a nanosecond. She was offering me big bucks. But the thought of being complicit was too much. I threatened to go to the other partners, and she fired me. On the spot. Threatened me too. Said if I ever told anyone, she’d get me blacklisted. I’d never work in Vancouver again.”
Harold stiffened. “I take it you didn’t hold your peace.”
“Oh fuck, no. I went to the other partners, and when they shut me down, I placed an anonymous tip to the fraud line with the tax department. It quickly became apparent they needed my testimony, and I figured…well, why stop now? She’d already blacklisted me, so I did what I needed to do. And yes, I’d acted illegally when I took those papers, but the government was happy to overlook that fact. They raided the offices, and despite the best efforts of the partners, the government discovered schemes for dozens of clients.
“Within a month, it all fell apart.”
God, he smelled good. His scent was lulling me. “All the dominos fell. I, uh, have to go back to testify. Unless they all take a plea deal. The clients are claiming they didn’t know the scheme was illegal, and the accountants have hired expensive lawyers, but they’re facing the revocation of their licence to practice.”
I closed my eyes. “And, yes, they blacklisted me. Several firms considered hiring me, especially because of my high ethics, but I was just too toxic. The job opened up here, and I took it.”
“You’ll be doing a lot of good.”
“I hope so. I really do. If this winds up being transitional, I guess that’d be okay. But, truthfully, I’m ready to settle down.”
My hand grazed his cock again.
“Much as I’d love to go again, I’m not twenty, and Benjamin’s waiting at home.”
I stiffened. He had a boyfriend at home? I didn’t like the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t do cheating. Probably my only hard-and-fast rule.
He gently eased me away, and something inside me snapped. “You know the way out. I need a shower.”
“Hey, what—"
I didn’t give him a chance to ask the question. I hoofed it into the bathroom, locked the door, and held my breath. I couldn’t hear anything, and I cursed the solid door, but eventually, after a long silence, I heard the door to the room close.
After letting out the breath I’d been holding, I took a piss, and then headed into the shower.
Serves you right.
Thinking there might be something.
With a guy you barely knew.
Yet when I returned to the room, and the smell of sex hit me, I found I couldn’t regret what I’d done. Harold had made me feel alive. Forced me to connect with someone, if only for a short time.
I was grateful the room had two queen beds, so I didn’t have to lie in our spunk-filled love nest.
Jesus.
As I went to strip the bed, I found a note on the pillow.
When you’re ready to stop running, you know where to find me.
Of all the arrogant… Yet I couldn’t bring myself to throw out the note. Maybe I could have a friend. I didn’t do cheating, but maybe…did I want to be friends with someone who took sex so casually?
Except it hadn’t felt casual. It’d been the opposite of casual.
Damn.
I dropped onto the bed in defeat. I wasn’t going to sleep on the fresh bed. I was going to sleep enveloped in his scent. I was going to dream of him, and the life we might’ve had.