He was the most perfect catch in the whole fuckin’ world, and I couldn’t have him.

I hated admitting it to myself, but I wanted him more than I wanted this project to get finished. On the phone yesterday, I shot harder than I ever had before. The only thing missing was his warm hole to catch it.

There was no doubt I was starting to get in over my head. That was a bad sign, especially when we hadn’t even gotten a chance to kiss yet.

Of course, there was our little interaction in jail. The boy held my hand, and in some circles, that held more weight than a blowjob.

There was another issue, of course. After I gave him the gift and tried wooing him, he hung up on me. He hadn’t agreed to the terms yet, but if he did, I wouldn’t allow any more abrupt hang-ups.

All I wanted was to care for him, to make him feel loved, safe, and attended to.

It was a biological need that all alphas had in them, but I had wasted so much time on other things. Instead of focusing on real relationships, I focused on my bank account. This felt like my last chance.

I couldn’t keep going over our situation in my head, or I’d lose it. At the moment in particular, I had business to attend to.

Jack stood in front of me, grimacing. “Hey, bright eyes. Focus on the prize,” he said.

I blinked my eyes rapidly and coughed. “I’m here. Let’s go check the street out. Sound good?”

As we walked toward the block, he looked at me strangely.

“I’m worried about you,” he said.

I was uninterested in his worries. Jordan’s too. None of their concerns mattered. My one priority was getting this project closed quickly, so I could get to Matthew’s faster.

“Your head isn’t in the game. It takes longer to get ahold of you now, and you haven’t followed up on any of the zoning issues. I have the planning authorities riding my ass. I need you to promise me that this is going to get done,” he said.

I looked at Jack even stranger than he looked at me. He was an older man with an affinity for cigars, and the way he bit into the tip sent shivers down my spine.

“In ten years, I’ve never fucked up a deal. Can you say the same thing for yourself?” I asked.

Jack laughed, but it was the kind of laugh that sounded angry, and a tiny bit scary. “I don’t lose,” he said. “And I sure as hell don’t fuck up.”

I tried not to laugh—fucking up was better than fucking down, in my opinion. Jack, of course, wasn’t the kind of guy to get the joke, so I kept walking until we came across a thin barrier of protestors.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

The protestors’ faces were red with passion. These were the workers my project was going to displace. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a block come together to try and fight us, but it was the first time it hit me on an emotional level.

This is bad, I thought.

Luckily, my business name was left out of the deal. As far as anyone was concerned, I was just another anonymous investor. Still, I didn’t want to be seen with Jack.

As we walked, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. None of this sat right with me anymore.

“This is starting to worry me, Jack. Why didn’t you tell me about the protest?”

Jack spat a speck of tobacco on the concrete and looked at me with burning embers for eyes. “I told you, dammit. I said they were organizing, and you told me it wouldn’t matter. Now, does it matter or not?”

I looked at the crowd intently and sighed. It mattered, but I wasn’t sure how much. If this thing got squashed fast, people would forget, and I was pretty sure they didn’t have the means to go to the mainstream press about this.

I grabbed Jack’s shoulder and made him look me in the eye. “I’ll fix this. Don’t worry,” I said.

“You’ll fix this because you have to fix it. I don’t have time to keep coming down here. We need this block finished. Leveled. Flattened until it looks like a fresh pancake. You hear me?”

“What’s with the time constraints?” I asked.

“None of your fuckin’ business,” he said with a straight face.

I left it at that and shook his hand, assuring him that this would get taken care of. The protest was raging, but they wouldn’t stop us from demolishing the block. No one could do that. And anyone who felt hurt by that didn’t know how the modern economy worked.

Watching him walk away, I took a deep breath and stepped into a bar on the corner, some empty place called the Sixty-Six. A man my age with an unshaven face was working the bar, and he waved in my direction.

“What are you having?” he asked.

“I have to be quick, so I’ll just take a whiskey on the rocks,” I said.

The man smiled and nodded his head. “Great choice. Sawyer, by the way.”

The bartender held out his hand. I smiled back and told him my name, loosely shaking it. “Hunter.”

Sitting at the bar, I couldn’t stop thinking about the faces of the protestors. They were hurt. That’s what irked me the most.

The bartender slammed a glass of ice onto the table, quickly pouring the amber liquid. “Salúd,” he said.

“Cheers.” I quickly downed the harsh liquid in one solid gulp. “Damn. That’s good shit.”

“It’s okay,” the man said, shrugging.

I nodded, but I wasn’t able to keep a smile for very long. “What do you think about the commotion out there?” I asked.

The man fumbled with the bottle of whiskey, but before he could turn around, I noticed the anger flash in his eyes and twitch the corner of his lips. Within a second, I put up my hand and cleared my throat. “You know what? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked such a stupid question.”

He set the bottle down and eyed me curiously. “Do you really care about my opinion?”

Shrugging, I motioned for another glass of whiskey, hoping the alcohol would start to do its trick soon enough. “I do,” I said.

Strangely, I did care. For the first time in my life, I wanted to know. The man poured me another drink. Afterword, he leaned forward against the bar and thought about it for a moment.

“I don’t know how to feel yet. Part of me wonders if it’s already over. These deals tend to move fast,” he said. “I didn’t tell the others, but I received the buyout offer months ago. Threw it in the fucking trash. We may not have money, but we do have our principles.”

“You aren’t worried about them forcing you out?”

“Let them come at us. We’ll give them more hell than they can take,” he said.

I hung my head, mortified that I was the one causing all of this. I swallowed, mouth dry. “I’m… sorry.”

Suddenly, my shoulders felt heavier than ever. I felt the urge to leave, so I quickly finished my drink.

Sawyer took away my empty glass to clean it. Turning around, he set it in the sink. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault,” he said. “But if you want, you can add your voice of concern with the people on those streets. It could help our cause.”

I couldn’t stay any longer. As soon as his eyes were off of me, I placed a hundred dollar bill on the counter and walked out of the bar, sweating bullets.

Crouching down against the curb outside, I inhaled the cold air to try and calm down, but my throat felt like it was shrinking. The protestors were scattered around me, unaware of who I was. But their chants never ended.

I tried to think of something that could bring me back to the zone of happiness. Matthew came to mind, but every time I checked my phone, there was no reply.

Eventually, I picked myself up and stepped back into the comfort of my black, luxury vehicle. When I was inside and away from the angry protesters, I could breathe easier.

For the tenth time, I checked my phone for any sign of Matthew, but the cute after-school special with the perfect twink body I was lusting after was nowhere to be found.

In the tinted car, I leaned my seat back and called him one last time. Our recent conversation was so hot, and I just needed to hear the sound of his sweet voice painting a delicious picture that drove home the idea of gentleness and obedience.

It looked like I was in luck—he answered. “Hey, I’m working,” he said.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day,” I said.

A soft chuckle came from his throat. I felt my cock grow against the center of my pants.

“I’ve been busy,” Matthew said.

I relaxed my voice. “I can’t take care of your needs if I’m not near you,” I said. “A daddy needs to be near his toy.”

In the background of the phone call, I could hear the abrupt sounds of horns and construction crews. “Well, this toy has to get back to his shift,” he said. “Can we pick this up where we left off tomorrow?”

I swallowed and cleared my throat awkwardly. There I was, one of the most powerful men in New York City, and the guy I was crushing on had complete control over me.

“Tomorrow,” I said.

I hung up the phone and exhaled loudly when I saw just how rock solid my cock was. Yes, this was going to be a long, and very hard day.