3. Sebastian Courtland
3
SEBASTIAN COURTLAND
“How did you end up here, drinking with us?” Pierce’s voice was evil and sly, dragging a groan out of me while Rome cackled like a fucking hyena.
“To hell with you both. It’s been a hard day.” I sank lower in my chair and glared at two of my oldest friends as they snickered at me from the sofa in my lounge. The assholes had come to my house, intent on annoying me, and I’d made the mistake of allowing them to stay.
I’d met Pierce Sutton and Rome Ashbridge while away at college. Because I was the craftier manipulator, I’d convinced them to move to Cincinnati with me after we’d graduated. The only one missing from our usual quartet was Declan. We went all the way back to high school, and he now worked as CFO for Courtland Enterprises.
Pierce’s thin mouth twisted into a smirk as he stared into the amber whiskey in his crystal tumbler. “Rome got it out of your bodyguard Carl that you were in fine form today at Bluepoint Industries. That should have put you in a good mood.”
I opened my mouth, but Rome was faster.
“Except he had this romantic dinner for two planned with his assistant.” Rome sat up, placed his fingers to his lips, and faked looking around the room. “But…but where is he? He didn’t turn you down again , did he?”
“Asshole. You’re both assholes and jackals. I’m sitting here with my heart in shreds, and you’re laughing at my misery.”
Naturally, my pity party earned me even more laughter, to the point of Rome falling into Pierce and nearly sloshing his drink out of his glass. Pierce snorted and shoved Rome off him.
“Really, Cor, how long have you been pining for this guy?” Pierce mocked.
“Well, he’s worked for me for three years, so I’d say three years,” I said while flipping him off.
It was sad. I was pathetic. And hopeless.
Byron Graham was adorable and perfect in every freaking way. From how he styled his dark-brown hair so that it had a perfect part and this little swoop to the way his suits exquisitely hugged his narrow frame to the way his lips twitched when he was trying so damn hard to hold in whatever inappropriate thing he wanted to say in response to my idiocy.
The first time I saw him had been like getting hit by a semi. For several critical seconds, I hadn’t been able to remember my own name. I hadn’t even been able to breathe. Thankfully, Janice from HR had been there to maneuver the bulk of the interview.
But just to add another incredible layer of ganache to his perfect pastry, Byron was also the most competent, brilliant, efficient assistant I’d ever had in my life. It was as though he could see into my mind and anticipate all the things I needed. He could read a room like no one else and say or do the perfect thing every damn time. It was so fucking sexy.
That was exactly what made him off-limits. He was the perfect assistant, and I couldn’t afford to lose him.
So, I’d learned to make do with sneaking smiles out of him, long lunches where we talked business, and the occasional after- hours meeting where we ordered dinner in and Byron loosened his tie enough to unbutton the top button of his shirt.
I was pathetic. There was no way past it. I was fantasizing about my assistant, and the vultures I called friends were carving up the remains of my heart for laughs.
What the hell was I supposed to do?
“I don’t understand why you torture yourself like this? Just change the employee handbook, and get rid of that stupid rule stating managers can’t date their direct reports,” Rome stated before throwing back the last of his whiskey with a clink of ice in his glass.
I rolled my eyes and did the same. The burn was exquisite and helped to push away the chill surrounding my heart. “Because that rule is there to protect my employees. How shitty would it look if I got rid of that rule and then asked Byron out? If I have some unscrupulous managers in my company, they’d pounce on their team members and think they had my approval.”
“Well,” Pierce said so slowly. “You could sneak around with him.”
I shoved out of my chair and grabbed Rome’s empty glass on my way to the wet bar for a refill. Since I couldn’t have a work meeting with Byron, I’d summoned over my friends for a night on the town. We were waiting for Declan to leave the office and meet up with us for a late dinner.
“Enough about Byron and my sad love life,” I grumbled because I was afraid of letting it slip how many times I’d considered Pierce’s suggestion. “Work was exhausting enough without rehashing it.” I paused for a second, wracking my brain for something else as I splashed more whiskey in our glasses. “Oh! I heard from Simon today.”
“Simon? Simon who?” Pierce inquired.
“Holy shit! Sawyer’s little brother,” Rome gasped as I handed him his glass.
“Yep.”
Rome chuckled and shook his head. “I haven’t thought about that squirt in years. What’s he up to?”
“That squirt just finished grad school, old man,” I said, relishing any chance to make Rome wake up to his own aging body. He wasn’t twenty anymore. Hell, he wasn’t even thirty.
“Fuck.”
“What did he want?” Pierce demanded, his tone sharper than I would have expected.
“He’s moving to the area for a job, and he wanted to meet up with us.”
“Why?”
Pierce’s stubbornness and shit attitude left me wanting to chuck an ice cube at his head. Thankfully, Rome was sitting right next to him and could punch him in the shoulder for me.
“Because we were best friends with his big brother,” Rome snapped while Pierce scowled.
“We were all close with Sawyer, and I think he’d appreciate it if we looked out for his baby brother,” I said, which got that glare directed at me. Whatever . “It’s not like we have to chauffeur him to Little League and attend his recitals. He’s a fucking adult with a master’s degree. I think we need to invite him out for dinner. Answer any questions he might have about living here.”
A noncommittal grunt left Pierce, and I let it go. Pierce had always taken Sawyer’s death the hardest.
Sawyer had been the fifth member of our crew in college, but he’d died in a swimming accident prior to graduation. We’d met his brother Simon when he and his parents had come for a visit. It had taken all of two seconds to see that Simon idolized his older brother and did everything he could to emulate him. Thankfully, Sawyer had doted on Simon as well, rather than being an asshole toward him as teenagers were prone to do. God knew I hadn’t treated my younger sister the best while we were growing up.
However, in my defense, Aggie had been and always would be a pain in my ass.
“When’s he get into town?” Rome asked.
“He didn’t give me a specific date. Just sometime this summer. I told him to reach out to me as soon as he gets settled. We can arrange a dinner or something.”
“Fine. Fine. I think we need to get back to this issue you’re having with your executive assistant,” Pierce countered in a brisk tone that left me sighing and Rome cackling maniacally.
“There’s no need to tread that ground again,” I grumbled. “I’m attracted to Byron, but I don’t see any way around it.”
“Except for sneaking,” Pierce pointed out.
“And I’d be fine with that—to start. To see if we’re a good match.” I was confident in my heart, though, that he was the perfect match for me. “But we’d have to figure out something long term, so he didn’t get hurt.” With another groan, I waved my empty hand at those assholes because they’d sent my brain down that dead-end road. “All of this is useless talk. He would never go for it. Let’s put aside the fact that he’s not attracted to me. The man is straight as an arrow.”
“He’s straight?” Rome choked out. “I thought you said he was gay?”
“Straight as an arrow, meaning he’s not the type to break the rules,” I bit out. “While he’s never said the words, he has given me enough clues over the years to make me confident that he is gay.”
“But he’s never actually said it?” Pierce asked.
I was going to kill them both. This was not what I’d been looking for in a relaxing evening after a somewhat shit day.
Luck shone in my favor as my phone vibrated with a call from Declan. I put my glass of untouched whiskey on the table and rose to my feet as I answered the phone.
“Hey, Declan! What’s taking so long? You getting out of there? Your boss is a real asshole.”
Declan grunted. I wasn’t sure if he was agreeing with me or acknowledging my shitty joke. His grunts were much easier to read when I could see his face. “I finished compiling those new numbers you wanted. As I was leaving the report on your desk, I found your assistant passed out in your office.”
“What?” The single word leaped out of my mouth in a shout that I couldn’t stop. My heart tried to crawl into my throat, and my knees turned to water. “What happened? Is he hurt? Have you called an ambulance? Does it look like someone attacked him?” As I fired questions at him, Pierce and Rome rose to their feet as if they were preparing to jump into battle with me.
“You misunderstand,” Declan replied with his usual measured tone and patience. Nothing ruffled Declan’s feathers. “He is unconscious, seated at your board table, surrounded by papers and a bottle of your scotch. It appears he came in here to do some work and drank enough to pass out. He doesn’t appear harmed at all. Just sleeping off his alcohol.”
My relief dropped me back into my seat, my head resting in my empty hand. “You’re going to kill me one of these days, Dec,” I muttered.
“It wasn’t my intention to scare you. I thought you should know, since this seemed out of character for your assistant.”
“It is. He has my permission to use my office after hours, and I’ve invited him more than once to have a drink so long as he promised me he wouldn’t drive intoxicated. But getting drunk isn’t his style.” Something bad must have happened after he’d left the office to deal with that personal matter. “Do me a favor. Stay there. Don’t wake him up. Keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t try to drive home. I’ll be there in less than an hour. After I relieve you, you can head out to dinner with Pierce and Rome.”
“As you wish.” Declan hung up, but I was used to his brevity.
When I pocketed my phone, I found Pierce and Rome staring at me in shock.
“Your unflappable assistant is drunk in the office?” Rome asked.
“In your office?” Pierce added.
“Yes, and you both need to forget you ever heard about that. Something is wrong. This is not like Byron, and he needs my help. You two assholes go meet Declan for dinner. I have other plans.”
I needed to get to Byron.
My always perfect, stalwart, brilliant assistant was as Declan had described him—passed out, seated at the long shiny table off to one side of my office. The lights were turned low around most of the room. There was a glow over the table that glinted and danced along the crystal decanter and empty glass on Byron’s right. The decanter was only half-empty, and I’d had a good bit out of it prior to Byron taking some. Either Byron had been drinking before he’d made it to the office, or he was a cheap date.
As soon as I spotted Byron, I got rid of Declan, sending him off to dinner with our friends. I stood beside Byron’s sleeping form, my eyes skimming the scattered papers in front of him. They were reports from all the different departments and subsidiary businesses. There was also a legal pad filled with his notes, but the farther I traveled down the page, the less legible they grew.
After whatever shit thing he’d gone through, he’d returned to work on Courtland Enterprises’ problem of falling revenue. My heart simultaneously swelled and broke for him. If there was anyone in desperate need of a break, it was my poor assistant.
With Byron sleeping so soundly, I gave in to one of my greatest wishes. I reached out and lightly touched his hair, letting those fine silken threads brush along my fingertips. I shouldn’t. It was wrong. But if I couldn’t ever date him, I wanted to look back and have this tiny thing.
I rested my hand on his shoulder and shook him gently. “Byron? It’s time to wake up. I’ll take you home,” I said in a low voice.
The young man jolted upright, a piece of paper stuck to his cheek. I swallowed the chuckle that rose and plucked away the paper. The movement drew his gaze up to me as he seemed to have taken zero notice of the fact that I was still holding his shoulder.
I’d expected horror when he saw me. What I got was the widest grin I’d ever seen on Byron’s face.
“S’bastian!” he slurred. “What’re you doin’ ’ere? Oh, no! Is it Monday already?”
This time I laughed, ignoring the flutter in my chest at the sound of him saying my name for the first time. Well, almost saying it. “No, it’s Friday night. I came to take you home. It’s not good to sleep here.”
“Oh! Then I gotta clean up my mess.” He turned away from me and stretched his arms across the table, dragging the papers noisily to his body. I jumped forward and snagged the decanter and glass as they moved with the papers, and I deposited them on the hidden wet bar.
“We can leave the papers to deal with on Monday. They’ll be fine,” I reassured him as I returned to his side.
“Okay.” It was the most affable tone I’d ever heard from him. He pushed to his feet and flopped into the chair again as if his legs refused to hold him. Byron directed a quizzical look at his legs, swaying in his seat as if he were also confused by what happened.
When he made another attempt, I grabbed his arm and held him upright, stopping him from falling a second time. As we made our way to the elevators, I wrapped an arm around him while Byron mimicked me, putting his arm behind my waist while he laid his head on my chest.
“You’re tall,” Byron declared with a lopsided grin. He wasn’t wrong. I had a solid six inches on him, and I appreciated that I had a considerable height and weight advantage over him since he couldn’t walk straight.
“And you are the happiest drunk I’ve ever met.”
Byron smiled, his eyes already drooping. I suspected he’d be asleep like a drowsy toddler within minutes of starting our journey.
We made it to the garage, where my bodyguard Carl jumped out to help me maneuver the noodle-legged Byron into the back seat.
“Where to, sir?” Carl inquired before I could follow Byron inside.
I frowned at Byron, who was slumped very low in the seat. It was unlikely Carl knew his address, and I wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea of leaving him home alone like this.
“Take me home. He can sleep in one of the guest rooms.” I put my foot in the car and stopped, turning to Carl. “I’m going to tell him I picked him up alone. You were never here.”
“Of course, sir,” Carl agreed with a nod and a completely blank expression.
When Byron sobered up, he’d be embarrassed as hell. Right now, I was hoping to convince him I was the only one who’d seen him like this. He didn’t need to know about Carl and Declan. That would add to his misery.
I slipped into the car and scooted closer to Byron than I normally would, so I could help him sit up. He was one hard stop away from being on the floor.
“I looooove this car,” Byron moaned as he rested his head on my shoulder. “This is the very best car.”
“Really? I didn’t know you were so fond of it.”
This was killing me. Everything out of his mouth was too adorable. I’d had no idea he was this cute. I found him excruciatingly adorable sober, but it was a different kind of adorable. It was like dressing a bunny rabbit in a suit adorable. Drunk Byron was simply the bunny.
“The seats are so soft and comfy,” Byron continued. He ran his left hand along the side of his seat. He turned his face up to me and smiled. “The car also smells like you.”
“It smells like me?” That was not what I’d expected him to say.
Byron nodded, still giving me that charming, crooked smile. “Couple times, you had Carl drive me to run errands. I sat here, and the car still smelled like your cologne. S’ nice.”
A big red warning light flashed in my head, but I smacked that shit as if I were shutting off my morning alarm.
I shifted, so I was facing him better, and bent my head. “You like how I smell?”
“Soooooo much,” Byron agreed. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “You smell so good. And yer sooooo sexy.” Just as my heart skipped at his declaration, a laugh burst out of Byron that ended in a snort. He slapped me on the chest. “But you know yer sexy.”
“The only thing that matters to me is if you think I’m sexy.”
Oh, I was a bad man. Such a bad, bad man.
But I’d been pining and longing for the tiniest hint that he thought of me as more than his boss. I couldn’t let this go.
Byron’s smile softened, and he raised his left hand to cradle my cheek. My pulse soared through the room, but I sat frozen, my eyes locked with his sleepy ones. “Yes, I think yer very sexy.”
He pulled me forward with the slightest pressure, and I went so damn willingly. Our lips brushed lightly at first, a featherlight touch followed by his hot breath dancing across my damp mouth. I went in for a second kiss, loving the happy grunt that left him, the way his fingers slid to the nape of my neck. The kiss was hot and tender. So perfect.
But as quickly as it had started, that hand on my neck went limp and he stopped moving completely.
I lifted my head to find Byron’s head resting against the seat, his eyes closed, and his lips slack. A soft snore rose from him.
“Fuck.”
He’d passed out.