Not Safe for Work(25)

“Barring any unforeseens, yes.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Just get it to me on time.”

“I’ll work it in,” I said through gritted teeth.

On the way back to the NSFW Zone, Teagan elbowed me. “What the f*ck were you thinking? Two weeks for something that involved? Are you insane?”

“We can do it. We always do.”

“Yeah, we can, but that gives us zero room for error.”

“I know,” I muttered.

“Christ. You know she’s going to staple our balls to that deadline.” She put her hand on my arm and stopped us both. “Jon, I’m serious. Are you okay today?”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure? You’ve been out of it all morning, and then…” She gestured back down the hall. “You spaced out during a Horizon meeting. I thought you were just getting laid, but…” She shook her head. “What is wrong?”

“Teagan, I’m fine.” I showed my palms. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

She eyed me skeptically, her piercings catching the light as she furrowed her brow.

“Everything’s fine. Just—” I f*cked the client. I can’t get Rick out of my mind. I think getting involved with him must have been a mistake, but I can’t decide because it was that damned hot. I cleared my throat. “Some personal shit.”

The piercings rose a little higher. “Jon, are—”

“I’m fine.”

She watched me for a moment, then sighed as if she knew there was no point in pushing. “I doubt that, so whatever it is, if you need to talk, let me know.”

“Will do.” We resumed walking, and I added, “So, think we can get that sucker built in two weeks?”

“Don’t have much choice, do we?” She glared at me, but a smirk played at her lips.

I laughed. “Then I guess we should get to work on it.”

*

Back in the NSFW Zone, I’d barely started—this would be another day of ill-fitting windows that didn’t want to cooperate, apparently—when the music suddenly shifted from a hip-hop mess to The Imperial Death March. Clearing throats, creaking chairs and clicking mice added an out-of-step percussion line to the ominous music, and a second later, the door opened.

Marie walked in, resting one hand on the doorknob. She cocked her head, listening to the music, then eyed Scott, who quickly switched it off.

“I see everyone’s hard at work,” she said flatly.

“As always,” Teagan said with the most artificial cheerfulness she could muster. I didn’t have to look up to know when the two of them made eye contact. The tension in the room raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

Eventually, someone looked away, and Marie went on with why she was here. As she interrogated everyone in turn about their current statuses and ETAs, I focused my attention on slicing off a sliver of plastic from the edge of an uncooperative miniature windowpane. I wasn’t sure an X-ACTO knife was the best thing to be using when my hands shook like this, but I needed to focus on something, and come hell or high water, I needed to get this window in.

Come on, McNeill.

I gritted my teeth and willed my hands to behave. They weren’t as compliant as they usually were, though. Not as compliant as Rick’s would have—

I shook myself. This was getting ridiculous. Granted, it was only my first day back at work after That Weekend, but my boss didn’t need to know. As long as I kept up on my work, which meant not thinking about how sexy he looked on his knees with my hand in his hair and my cock in his mouth. No thinking about coming inside him.

The X-ACTO knife slipped, narrowly missing the side of my thumb.

Get it together, idiot.

Finally, the window looked like it was going to fit. I carefully nudged it into place with my finger and a pair of tweezers. Just needed to line it up and—

The door opened again, letting in the sounds of footsteps and Mitchell in mid-conversation: “…done by the end of the week, but have a look at the in-progress structures.”

I could feel Teagan’s hackles going up—we both hated when clients came in to see unfinished models, since they usually didn’t look great at this stage. My hair stood on end again, but not for the reason it usually did when someone brought a client in here. I knew who was coming in even before I raised my head.

And when I did raise my head, our eyes locked from across the room, and for two full seconds, the world was silent. People were still talking, clicking, moving, but for that fleeting moment, I couldn’t hear them. We were too early into this to have any of that telepathy that long-term lovers developed, but his eyes and the hitch in his breath were clear enough—he heard me and I heard him.

I am going to do so many things to you tonight.

I know. I can’t wait.

Clearing our throats, we both jerked out gazes away, and the world around us resumed its noisy activity.

“Jon.”

I jumped. The window clattered onto the terrace. Clearing my throat, I looked up, eyebrows raised in a silent yes?

Marie nodded toward the model in front of me. “I assume that will be finished on time?”

Assuming he doesn’t distract me to the point I accidentally cut off a finger.

“Yes, I just have to finish a few things.”