Not Safe for Work(42)

“Well, you’re a better man than I.” She yawned as she picked up her purse and coffee. “I’m crying uncle.”

“I don’t blame you.”

She started for the door, pausing to look over her shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t need to go home?”

“Oh, I do.” I looked up from pressing one of several pillars into place. “But I need to finish this first.”

“Well, don’t kill yourself.”

“I won’t. I’ll be fine.”

“All right. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“I’ll be here.”

Teagan probably hadn’t even reached her car by the time the anesthetic effect of silence kicked in. I didn’t bother turning on music; at this point, it would either irritate me or knock me out, and I was well on my way to the latter without the help of any music. My eyes grew heavier, my fingers less agile. I probably would have nodded off right there at the table had I not slipped with an X-ACTO knife and sliced my finger open. Cursing and muttering, I held a tissue against the cut for a moment while I searched for my coffee cup. I couldn’t even decide if the cut hurt or not. It just irritated me because it kept me from my damned work and meant staying here that much longer. The only reason it even kept me from my work was that my bosses wouldn’t be thrilled about me getting blood on a model again.

Once my finger had stopped bleeding and I’d drained another cup of coffee, I went back to the model. The very sight of it made me groan.

Almost done. It’s almost done. Then I can sleep. And I will probably dream about this stupid thing.

Sighing, I picked up the piece I’d been trimming when I cut myself.

At some point between finishing the northwest quadrant of the roof and tweaking a few spots on the mezzanine, I glanced at the clock. It was a little after two in the morning. Not that it really mattered. Time didn’t mean anything during these periods. Afternoon felt like the middle of the night. Midnight felt like noon. It was like having an unshakable case of jetlag.

I blinked a few times and forced myself to focus. Just needed to finish this, then I could get back to my normal life. Normal passage of time. Regular sleep. Rick.

His face flickered through my mind, and had I had the energy to do so, I’d have shivered.

My chest tightened. Hell, it even ached a little. This flurry of overtime had been so relentless, I didn’t realize until just then that I hadn’t seen him in almost two solid weeks.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. After all, Teagan and I were still required to attend meetings—keeping up appearances, according to Mitchell. So I’d seen Rick in the conference room, and I’d seen him in the halls. I’d seen my firm’s client, but I hadn’t seen Rick. I hadn’t seen my submissive. The man I’d been f*cking.

And I missed him. Even when I hit the exhaustion threshold—that point when I’d rather glue my balls to the floor than think about sex—I missed him. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Seeing him in the halls and in meetings wasn’t enough.

Then Marie put her foot down and said they couldn’t afford for Teagan and me to waste time in meetings with this many projects on our plates. Teagan was so happy, she almost cried. Me, I didn’t quite know how to feel. When I attended meetings, Rick’s presence was utter torture, the looks we exchanged driving me further out of my mind than the sleep deprivation and all the shit I was consuming from the vending machines. But then when I didn’t have to attend anymore, I wasn’t in the same room with him, and…f*ck.

Well. The sooner I finished this project, the sooner I’d finish the next one, and the sooner I’d have him again.

When my eyes refused to stay open, I took a break and went down to the employee locker rooms. After showering and brushing my teeth so I felt less gross and slightly closer to human, I headed back toward the NSFW Zone for another marathon session.

I’d just stepped off the elevator when I saw Rick.

And damn it, my knees almost collapsed out from under me.

I want you, goddammit.

He met my gaze, and to my horror—and relief—he immediately excused himself from his conversation with Mitchell and Dion. He looked right at me, tilted his head slightly and started walking in the opposite direction.

My heart sped up. What the hell?

But I couldn’t resist. Without so much as a cautious glance at my bosses, I surreptitiously followed him. The hallway turned, and I went around the corner just in time to catch him disappearing into the men’s room.

I glanced around. Did I dare?

Oh f*ck it. Let the whole goddamned company catch us.

I stepped into the men’s room. He didn’t even wait for the door to shut before he pulled me to him, cupped my face and kissed me.

My whole body was suddenly hot and cold all over, featherlight and ready to sink right through the floor. I was so f*cking exhausted, my body didn’t even know how to be turned on anymore, and my brain couldn’t remember how to be afraid we might get caught—all I could do was wrap my arms around Rick and kiss him for the first time in too damned long. I’d been missing him like crazy but hadn’t understood just how much until now. Until I had him in my arms, until he was kissing me hungrily like this, until I could almost feel my body rationing energy away from nonessential things like my heart and my brain so I could muster up just enough to get hard and come.