Chapter 8 #2
“Jobs are more about who you know than what you know, Goodman. Ask anyone.”
“Hmm.” He took another huge bite of toast, unconvinced.
“Did I mention that Myles and Jason work for Rubicon?” I asked casually.
“Wu-ba-cawn?” He coughed toast crumbs onto the counter and struggled to swallow his last bite.
“I mean, Rubicon? As in… as in… the company that creates applications for half the Fortune 500 companies? The one that, along with Seaver Technologies, has been voted the best tech company to work for in Boston for the last five years? The one that won the Safe Transportation grant for improving railway safety and won a Stevie for creating the OneUS voter education app?” His voice hummed with excitement.
Whatever the hell a Stevie was.
“Probably? They’re a huge company, and the headquarters is in Cambridge. Myles works in finance there, and Jason works the tech side. And if the networking’s not enough to convince you, Myles throws great parties, catered by the best restaurants in the North End. Tons of Italian food.”
“Damn. You’re speaking my love language.” Gage bit his lip.
“And there’ll be dancing, probably.”
I wasn’t sure why I was trying so hard to convince him.
I didn’t particularly want to drive down to Boston again so soon.
These last few weekends of the season would be packed at the orchard, and Webb probably needed the extra help.
And frankly, I hadn’t been in the mood for socializing since last spring.
But for some reason, I wanted to do this for him. I wanted to be the one to help him, even if he didn’t really need my help.
“Dancing. So, like.” He shot a look at me from under his lashes. “There’ll be guys? Good-looking, single men?”
Oh. Wow.
No good deed went unpunished, huh?
“I… guess? It’s a party, so there’ll be all sorts of people. Men, women if you’re into that.”
“Which you are.” He said it as a statement, but the look he gave me made it sound like a question.
“Sometimes,” I agreed, though I hadn’t been attracted to a woman in… Damn, had it really been months?
And double damn, how long had it been since I’d been attracted to anyone but Goodman?
I cleared my throat. “You know, the more I think about it, we don’t need to go to this party. I can just ask Jason to—”
“Nah. Let’s go.”
“What?”
“We should go to the party. I’m game. And we can get separate hotel rooms this time. For privacy.”
“Oh.” My fingers twitched to touch him. “Yeah. Okay.”
Remember he’s a billion years younger than you, idiot.
He’s barely figured himself out.
He’s starting his career, and you’re trying to cling to yours.
He’s hot, you’re horny, that’s all this is.
Remember all the reasons you put a stop to this weeks ago.
But the words of reason refused to sink in.
“You can see if Myles or one of your other acceptable fuck buddies is free tonight. Because, I’m telling you as your friend, you totally need to get laid, Knox—” Gage laid a sympathetic hand on my bicep, and it sent a bolt of lust to my balls so sweetly painful I had to grip the counter.
I snorted. He had no idea.
“—and so do I.”
Oh.
By the time Gage and I stood on Myles’s penthouse balcony that night, I recognized that the enormity of the punishment had fuck all to do with the size of the good deed.
I also regretted that I hadn’t tied him to the bed in my hotel room or conveniently lost Myles’s address when Gage had shown up at my door in a pair of tight as fuck green trousers, a fitted patterned shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and his hair even more mussed and just-fucked than usual.
If we’d still been doing friendly erection checks, I would have told him honestly that his dick print was very, very visible, and I was extremely uncomfortable.
“You look… nice,” I’d gritted out instead, because never let it be said that being almost forty had taken away my awkwardness.
“Yeah? Okay, good. It’s thanks to Toby, my almost brother-in-law,” he’d explained, running a hand down his shirt over his flat, toned abs.
“When I told him what I’d worn out the last time we were in town, he’d immediately FedEx’d me this outfit and a couple more.
” He’d grinned slyly. Sexily. “He says that while he admires the ‘youthful insouciance’ of my T-shirt collection, wearing them in public makes it impossible to take me seriously. So what do you think?” He’d spun in a circle. “Does this say serious?”
Oh, indeed it did. As in, he was seriously sexy, which made me seriously horny, seriously distracted, and seriously jealous.
I had also seriously not considered the consequences of taking Goodman and his dick print to a party where a bunch of sex-starved, forty-something jackals would salivate over him like he was filet mignon… until it was too late.
They’d attacked in a pack the moment we arrived, thrusting a drink in my hand and pulling Gage onto the makeshift dance floor until he’d finally begged off to catch his breath. We still hadn’t made it out onto the balcony where Jason was, though I’d sent him a text to come and find us.
“So, Gage, you’re from Florida? That’s adorable,” my gym friend Rodney purred. “I was in Miami Beach for Pride last month. Maybe next time you could show me around.”
“Oh, cool.” Gage smiled tentatively. “But Miami’s kinda far from—”
“You mean you and your sugar daddy were in Miami Beach, Rod,” Curt corrected snidely. “How is Gandalf these days? Still suffering from arthritis of the dick? Now, Gage, sweetheart, I was telling you about Madonna’s early years—”
“Curtis, you’re embarrassing yourself.” Dustin shook his head sadly. “Gage doesn’t give a shit about Madonna, and at least Rod can get a sugar daddy. You might as well get the Louis Vuitton logo stamped under your eyes because that’s the only way to make that baggage attractive.”
Forget Goodman finding a guy to leave the party with. I was afraid he’d get caught in the jackals’ mating display and be torn limb from limb.
“He’s actually here to see Jason,” I muttered. “About business.”
I watched Jason stroll across the floor, eager for him to arrive… except then he did arrive and immediately greeted Gage with a warm smile and a hand on his upper back and a “Hey, Gage, let’s chat about Rubicon outside, where we can hear ourselves think,” and I was not a fan of that at all.
When they left, the others made outraged squawks and trailed after them, and I debated going, too… But Gage looked back at me and shrugged happily enough, and I refused to be one of the pack of assholes clamoring for his attention anyway, so I forced myself to look away and focus on my drink.
“Evening, handsome,” Myles said archly, coming to stand by my side. “I thought you’d never get here.”
“We’ve been here half an hour. You’ve been busy doing host-y things.”
“Remind me to have someone else host next time.” He shook his head. “Anyway, what have I missed? Where’s this kid you’re unofficially headhunting for? And what’s your cosmopolitan done to deserve the scowl you’re giving it?”
My gaze strayed from my drink to the balcony.
“Oh ho! I see I’ve been upstaged at my own party. Who’s the sweet young thing with the fine ass? Wonder what his face looks li—”
I made a noise of disagreement that possibly sounded like the growl of a feral animal.
“No, wait! Never say that’s your infant job applicant?
How is it fair for someone to be a technological wunderkind and have a rear view like that?
” Myles made a tsking noise and turned his too-knowing gaze back to me.
“But I thought you’d decided he was far too young.
Since when do we make calf’s eyes at hot boys we’re not planning on dicking down, Knox? ”
“Hey! He’s not just a piece of ass, okay? He’s smart, too. Sweet.” I had no right to sound so defensive, but I couldn’t help it. “And a hard worker.”
God, I sounded like a lovesick idiot.
“I see.” Myles laughed softly. “And have you been working him hard? Or just wishing you had?”
I bristled. “Neither. He’s too young to know what he wants.”
“Dear God. Did you see the look he just sent you?” Myles’s laughter was a little harsher than I remembered. “Didn’t seem indecisive to me.”
“Not the point.”
“Yes it is. Don’t be that asshole, Knox. When we were young, we knew exactly what we wanted. If you like him, like him. Because if you don’t take that invitation, someone else will, and you’ll regret it.”
Like I didn’t already know that. Like I hadn’t been torturing myself with that knowledge for over a week. My reasons for resisting him were fading before my very eyes.
“I came here tonight to help him find a job,” I reminded him. “And also to… to hang out with you.”
I tried to make it sound flirty, like I’d been eager to see him.
It came out sounding like an item I wanted to check off a list.
Myles lifted a hand to pat my chest. “Thank you, but no.” His eyes danced. “I’m not yet so desperate as to fuck a man while he’s thinking about someone else, Knox Sunday.”
“What? No. I wouldn’t hurt your feelings like that.” I hesitated. “Not on purpose.”
“Mmm. No. Because you’re not cruel, you’re just stubborn and criminally oblivious. So why are you hurting his feelings by rejecting him?”
I frowned. “It’s not like that. He’s going to find someone else—”
“But he’s already picked you, darling. And before you tell me ‘it’s not like that’ again, let me call your attention to the fact that Jason is talking very excitedly about something over there, yet your infant is glaring at the precise spot where my hand is on your chest. Add that into your calculations. ”
I turned my head to seek out Gage and found that Myles was totally correct. Gage was staring, while pretending to listen to what Jason said. I was very familiar with Goodman’s “I’m nodding, but I don’t actually hear you” expression.
When he caught me looking, Gage looked away guiltily. Sadly. And my heart skipped a beat.
I am in control.
All is well with me.
Oh, who was I kidding? I was nowhere near in control.
I was a mess.