Riding up the elevator at the Beverly Wilshire on his way to meet a man he was devastatingly attracted to for “drinks” made Jake feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. It wasn’t just the fact that sex was—at least implicitly—on the table. It was the sneaking suspicion that he was selling out.

It wasn’t as though he’d never sold out his values before. He’d enthusiastically signed on to the 2008 campaign even though his boss hadn’t come out for marriage equality. He was smart enough to realize that the country—at least the people they needed the votes from—hadn’t been ready for a president pushing for gay marriage.

And then they’d pushed for almost two years on a health care bill that was far from perfect in its final form. Personally, Jake thought a public option or single-payer model was the right direction. But the senators they’d counted and whipped and pressed hadn’t been willing to go there.

Both times, the greater good had been more important than his own, personal reservations. But tonight was different. The thing he wanted—Michael’s cock and his mouth and his hands—was in direct opposition to the greater good.

Jake gave great head, but he held no illusions over the influence of sex on men like Michael Garcia. The guy exuded power from his completely invisible pores. And he had the billions to back it up.

Although he was proud of what he and his partners had built together—they’d made millions of dollars on ads and touring—Jake was nothing but a gadfly. Once this moment passed, who knew if their business would be viable? If people stopped having to take to the streets or tying up congressional phone lines, would they care if Jake came up with a funny quip a minute about the current political scandal?

If people were able to get back to their regular lives, and reality television left politics, Jake would be relieved. But he’d also be at loose ends. As much as he and his partners joked about becoming moguls, everything could disappear at any moment.

Michael, on the other hand, had reshaped the way people lived their daily lives. Down to a person, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t use one of his company’s products in the course of a morning. Regardless of whether net neutrality survived, Michael would, which meant that he and Jake were not equals. They never would be.

And the dynamic made Jake feel dirty. As though he was selling out in a way he couldn’t justify. Not to his partners and not to himself. Still, he pulsed with want for the enigmatic power broker.

The elevator doors opened into the suite. About to press the button to return to the lobby when Michael appeared, Jake stepped into the room. They’d remodeled since the early nineties, and Michael wasn’t tacky enough to have champagne cooling in a bucket and a bowl of strawberries.

Instead, he held a scotch in one hand and Jake’s favorite brand of—domestic, cheap—beer in the other. The fact that he’d clearly done some research and the way his golden skin showed where he’d undone several buttons of his very expensive shirt made his decision surprisingly easy.

Part of Jake wanted to drop to his knees and suck Michael off while he enjoyed his scotch, right in the foyer of the suite. A big part.

The smile that spread across Michael’s face told him that the other man was thinking the same thing. For a moment, Jake wondered if he’d order him to act out their likely shared fantasies right then.

“This is still your favorite, right?” A hint of vulnerability endeared him even more.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Yes.”

As he took the beer from Michael, their fingers touched and Jake’s knees wobbled. Michael motioned to the couch in the living room of the suite. Thank fuck there wasn’t a bed in his eyeline. If there had been, Jake didn’t really think he’d be able to speak.

Jake sat down, expecting Michael to stretch out in the armchair opposite him. Instead, the other man sat next to him on the couch. If he spread his long legs, their knees would touch. Almost as if magnified, he did just that. Michael had to have noticed him jolt on contact, because a smile spread across his handsome features, making him look younger. And, unfortunately for Jake, even more attractive.

He took a pull of his beer, and Michael mirrored him, making the moment even more intimate. Why had he insisted on drinks? Alone? With a man who looked and walked and smelled like sex?

Things in his life had been going so well that of course he had to screw it up. That had to be what this whole thing was about. Right now, he ought to get up and leave. Thank him for the beer and take off. It didn’t matter that Michael would probably think he was nuts. He likely already did.

“I should go.” But he didn’t move.

Michael leaned forward and put his hand on Jake’s knee. “Do you really want to do that?”

Jake shook his head.

“Why did you want to have drinks if you were just going to run away?” Michael took a sip of his scotch, and a drop lingered on his lower lip. Jake had to fight his urge to suck that droplet of liquor off. His willpower held, but just, when he continued to talk. “For the record, I don’t think this is a great idea either.”

“But we’re not on the record.”

One side of Michael’s mouth quirked up, and he shook his head. “No, we’re not, are we?”

Jake bit the side of his mouth and tracked Michael’s gaze as it roamed over his face. “You feel it too.”

“Was I that obvious?”

“Was I that bad at convincing you that I hated you?”

“No.”

“But still?”

Maybe it was inevitable that Michael said, “I still wanted to bend you over the desk and fuck you.”

“That would be messy.” It would make a mess of the studio, but that’s not what Jake was trying to say. The two of them together would just be messy. And hot.

“It would.” Michael looked down and his dimple popped out.

Fuck him, but Jake couldn’t make the right decision and walk out the door if he tried, when Michael brought out the big guns, those dimples. “But I’d still like to hear a whole lot more about bending me over a desk.”

And when Michael turned on his smile even higher, Jake didn’t have a chance of not begging him to bottom out inside him that night. Not a fucking chance.

Michael downed the rest of his scotch and put down the glass, which hit the table with a dull thud. Jake set aside his half-finished beer just in time for his mouth to get crushed against Michael’s.

He’d expected the billionaire to demand with every touch. But, while Michael’s mouth wasn’t tentative, it was more questing than dominating. His hands, however, burrowed their way under Jake’s t-shirt without any hesitation. The one that had been holding a drink was cold enough to send shivers over Jake’s skin.

Michael moaned into his mouth and separated only long enough to tug Jake’s t-shirt over his head. Breath heavy, Michael raked his gaze over his torso. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”

Jake wasn’t used to hearing that from lovers. He’d always been the funny, slightly chubby guy until he’d moved to L.A. and started hitting the gym during his plentiful time off. He didn’t know how to react when people complimented him on his physique. His skin flushed, but that didn’t change the fact that he liked the appreciative gaze and husky words from his lover.

He undid a few more buttons of Michael’s shirt, needing the tawny skin underneath. Despite the fact that people often assumed that he was hard-edged and sarcastic all the time, Jake loved to touch and be held—he loved foreplay. It seemed as though Michael was on the same page because his kisses were urgent but unrushed. There was no doubt that sex would happen, and they had all night to get there.

Jake finally got Michael’s shirt open, and the other man discarded the garment—which probably cost the equivalent of one of his car payments—by rolling his shoulders and letting it fall to the floor.

Michael stood up and reached for Jake’s hand. “I can’t believe we’re going to make it to a bed.” Jake had sort of assumed that he’d have his ass spread out over the coffee table. Going to bed with Michael was much more intimate than the sordid one-night stand that he’d mentally prepared himself for. Even their kisses, the earnest compliment, and the heavy petting was sort of sweet, as though they were discovering each other and would do this again rather than fool around and pretend it had never happened.

Going to Michael’s bed made Jake feel like this wasn’t him selling out so much as grabbing on to something he’d been craving for ages.

Before Jake walked into his room, Michael had been ready to fuck him without even taking off any clothes, and he wasn’t sure what had changed in the interim. During his epoch of blow jobs from randoms, he hadn’t taken anyone to his actual bed. The alley, the conference room, the bar bathroom, sure—but something about inviting someone into the room where he slept was far too intimate. His therapist had suggested that he not sleep with anyone new until he felt ready to sleep with them after having sex with them.

But this thing with Jake wasn’t just about following the rules. “I can’t resist seeing you naked on these expensive hotel sheets.”

That should make it better, but it didn’t. Despite the fact that they barely knew each other, and that the chemicals responsible for attraction were likely addling his brain, he had a connection with the snarky podcaster that he hadn’t had with anyone since his best friend. With the fuck thing amping that connection up, the idea that this was a one-time deal between the two of them made his stomach hollow out.

He couldn’t dwell on that because Jake sat on the end of the bed with his legs splayed, pulling Michael towards him. His dick was at mouth level, and he shivered with anticipation as Jake smiled and pulled the button on his slacks loose.

“You’re going to suck my dick?”

“Mmmhmm.” Maybe Jake wasn’t into dirty talk, but the sound he’d just made turned Michael’s already hard cock into more of a pillar of stone than it had already been. The muscles of the other man’s forearms flexed and shifted under his skin. Michael wanted to trace all of his skin with his tongue, but not before he got a little relief.

He didn’t know if it was just the recent dearth of sex on his schedule or the fire that licked his insides every time he looked at Jake or heard his voice, but he was desperate for the man’s mouth on him.

As though he could hear Michael’s thoughts, Jake began kissing the muscles defining his waist before pulling his cock out of his pants. Before long, Michael was shifting his hips and trying to get Jake to take him into his mouth, down to the root, before his brain liquefied in his skull. But Jake teased him, smiling up at him with a glazed-over, sexed-up look.

“I’ve been thinking about this for hours.” He licked his lower lip, already a bit swollen from their kisses. “And you’re going to rush me?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for days.”

“Not exactly what I was going for with the podcast.”

“Wasn’t the podcast.” Michael reached out and cupped Jake’s chin, ready to make him take his cock. “It was the way you smile in photos. Like you have a juicy secret to tell. You’re smiling at me that way right now.”

Jake responded by sucking him down whole, relentlessly trying to wring an orgasm from him. He was about to be embarrassed by how quickly he spurted. Somehow, Jake still had a smile on his face.

And that was the last thing that Michael saw before he closed his eyes, threw back his head, and fucked Jake’s hot, wet mouth until he came.

His vision blotted out for long moments, and he was sitting on the bed next to Jake when he finally came to. His dick was still hard, and Michael planned to rectify that, immediately.