He knew he shouldn’t have worn a suit and tie.

“Welcome to our headquarters! Er, not that we have other locations. Not full-time, anyway. Don’t worry about being late. I’m not even ready. I’m so sorry.” This had to be Kyle—the voice on the intercom matched this peppy yet sibilant, rapid-fire speech.

“I—that’s fine,” Nic assured Kyle with a quiet laugh. He was relieved not to be in trouble for showing up late, nor for showing up in formalwear when everyone else was probably going casual. “GPS pointed me the wrong way.”

“Oh, they do that! Right this way, please.” Kyle scanned his card against a reader near the staircase door. When he twirled to hold the staircase door open, his skirt flared out a little.

Kyle was wearing a skirt, over men’s skinny jeans and boots, and a blouse, and chest hair peeked out from the top of the blouse, his biceps unmistakeable. And his suspenders reached under the skirt, presumably to his jeans waistband. It made Nic wonder if he was wearing garters, which was a wholly inappropriate thought for their first meeting.

He awkwardly stepped through the doorway and Kyle brushed past him to trot upstairs at top speed, already talking again.

“I’m so glad you showed up. Well, I mean. Of course you would. Just, we’ve been waiting for this new software since before I was born. I mean, I’m only twenty-six, but I’m fairly sure the program lectures me on those damn millennials every time I open it.”

All Nic could do was laugh, his cheeks flushing as he kept up with Kyle for this flight of stairs, then waited next to it for Kyle to scan them into the second floor. “I… I’ve run into some programs like that. I’m the same age.”

But he wears it better than me. Kyle was a whirlwind in dress, speech, and personality, whereas Nic… well, Nic was all layers of moodiness and caution. Nic’s first impression was that what you saw was what you got with Kyle. It was… overwhelming, but not in a bad way.

In fact, in quite a good way. He was exactly the kind of guy to fluster Nic, but this was strictly professional.

He went with the first thing he could think to say. “Um. Have you been working here long?”

“A few years now! I got the job almost straight out of school. Lucky bastard, I know,” Kyle beamed. “I didn’t think anyone would hire me wearing platform heels and blue eyeshadow straight after a night out, but Denver—that’s my boss—told me I’d better not stop being me.”

“Wow. That’s cool.” Nic didn’t exactly have room to connect with him over that, given that he was dressed in the safest, most boring suit there was. So instead, Nic just felt awkward over not having more to say or more flashy clothing, even if Kyle didn’t seem to notice or mind.

A guy maybe five or ten years older, a little grey-haired but with a roguish smile on his lips, was holding the final door for them.

“Leaving me so soon?” Kyle gasped, pressing his hand to his heart.

Denver waved a hand. “There’s a donor… thing.”

“A thing,” Kyle repeated teasingly.

“I’ll explain later,” Denver tutted, then smiled warmly at Nic and reached out for a handshake. “Nic? I’m Denver. Kyle will take care of you. Kyle, remind Ben and Ash to take their lunch break, not spend lunch hour making out and complain they’re hungry later. Again.”

Even Nic had to laugh under his breath as Kyle chortled. “Right, boss. Catch you later.” Kyle clapped Denver’s shoulder on the way by, then ushered Nic inside.

The office was small but cute—room for maybe eight or ten people to work comfortably, or more if the desks were crammed together, plus a few side offices and meeting rooms. Nic had been to smaller charities.

Everyone Nic spotted nodded or raised a hand before getting back to what they were doing. In the corner, there were two guys squinting at a computer screen, designing a poster. They were squeezed onto the same roomy office chair. Ben and Ash, he assumed, unless everyone here was gay and dating a coworker.

Just being around gay men now, after so many years in his tiny Idaho hometown, was a thrill. Nic had to try not to stare at them and give the wrong impression.

They were all, to a man, dressed down. A sweater and tie next time, Nic decided.

“Okay, let’s head in here,” Kyle gestured toward one of the side rooms, scooping a pile of papers off a desk on his way by.

Wherever he walked, he did it with a strut, like the world was his catwalk. Nic decided he liked this guy already.

“Phew. All right.” Kyle closed the door behind them. There was a small round table there with eight chairs set up around it. “Before they start flirting with you and keeping us busy all morning.”

Nic grinned. “I see why my boss wanted the token gay guy to work this job.” Then, his cheeks flushed. Had that been a totally inappropriate thing to say about Greg? “Not in a, like, discriminating way…”

“No, no,” Kyle laughed and winked. “I know what you mean. I used to tell my ex-boyfriend to wear his ugliest sweater to visit me at work.”

Nic couldn’t help a laugh. Kyle was so attentive and welcoming that he was starting to unwind. He liked the vibe here already. Flirting and all, it sure beat the white cubicles at his office.

“So, here’s what we have right now. I’ll show you all the documentation we have on it, and the gaps, and then… I guess it’s up to you what you need to see.”

“Great. I studied the specs already,” Nic nodded. “From what you sent over, it shouldn’t be too hard.” He was back on his home turf: computers, and what made them tick. It was a stereotype, but it was true—a lot of shy guys liked them because they were a shitload easier than people.

Kyle pulled up a chair next to him and scooted so close their knees bumped, opening up his pile of paperwork to start showing Nic what they had. Kyle’s proximity distracted him, but Nic tried his hardest to stay focused on Kyle’s points, not the ways he made them.

If he hadn’t gotten laid in too long, that wasn’t Kyle’s problem to deal with.

But after they reviewed the papers and Kyle grabbed his laptop to show Nic use cases live, it got harder to ignore those tingles running up and down his spine.

Nic took over before long, clicking around the software to figure out the main functions and how they compared with what the charity needed. And though he kept his eyes firmly on the screen, Nic could swear he felt Kyle studying him from the side as he clicked around.

The whole time, Kyle maintained a conversation that was entertaining, but not distracting. How the hell he did it, Nic had no idea.

“You just moved here? Oh, my gosh.” Kyle drummed his fingers on the table. “Welcome! What do you think so far? Where were you before?”

“Pretty… big.” Nic took notes on his phone as he observed the number of identical outbox emails. They had no way to pull resources from the database directly into email templates, so they copied and pasted often. A function could do that a lot faster, and automatically. “Um, I lived in Idaho, then Minneapolis before. A little smaller, a little colder.”

“Oof,” Kyle breathed out. “So cold. I’d turn into a Kylecicle instantly. I’d never make it through November.”

Nic laughed. “Yeah, I’ve barely worn a sweater since getting here. I like that.” He nodded at the screen. “You literally copy and paste?”

“Let me show you.”

Nic wasn’t quick enough to pull his hand away from the nipple in the middle of the keyboard that served as a mouse, and Kyle’s hand blanketed his for a second.

Their hands were about the same size, but Kyle’s fingers were thinner and longer, the nails chipped and showing the remnants of clear polish. More importantly, the palm brushing against the back of his hand made Nic’s body shiver to attention again.

Down, boy. Nic took a breath and slid his hand across the keyboard and away, nodding in apology.

Kyle definitely didn’t mind. He just winked sideways at Nic and turned his attention to the screen, pursing his lips and clicking around. “Mmmm.”

Nic did his best not to look at Kyle’s pretty pink lips. He really needed to work on finding a boyfriend now that he was living in the big city.

But not this guy. Christ, he wasn’t going to be the one to break what professional distance there was between them. He had the feeling if he did, Kyle was the kind of guy who would be in his lap and think nothing of it. That would be one hell of a mixed signal. Where he came from, standing a little too close and looking once too often was bold.

Not that he’d fit in with Kyle, however gorgeous he looked. His chest ached. He wished he were bold enough to catch Kyle’s attention for more than a polite yet fun business meeting. Whoever the lucky guy was going to be, or already was, Nic already envied him.

“There.”

Nic nodded dumbly and took notes, then squinted at his phone. “Yeah, that’ll be easy.”

“Really? Oh, my God, you’d save us so much copying and pasting,” Kyle enthused. “You’re my new favorite superhero.”

Nic’s cheeks flushed as he reminded himself Kyle wasn’t the kind of guy who meant that for real. He just offered an easygoing smile. “Yeah, that database structure’s simple. I’ll have a markup of all the stuff we discussed by the next meeting.”

“Really? It’s that easy? Well, for me. I hope you don’t have late nights for this,” Kyle breathed out, his eyes wide.

It did feel nice to be a superhero, if for a few weeks. “Not too many.” Nic couldn’t resist exaggerating slightly. He had a cushy job—not in the support side, where midnight escalated calls could wake him up, but the nine-to-five division. Unless a project were running late, but nothing could come up to derail him that badly from a simple project like this.

And simple meant cheap for the charity, which he was sure Kyle would appreciate.

Kyle was beaming at him, saying something about having pizza for their next meeting.

Nic smiled and stood, his senses on overload. His elbow brushed along the table and knocked the stack of papers off the table before he even noticed. “Oh, shit.” He bent instantly to start gathering them up.

Never make yourself a nuisance on a client’s turf, he scolded himself. It was a rule that had helped him score a job here at Synergy, a prestigious firm even within the L.A. market.

“No, no, it’s okay! I’m a klutz. I’ve dropped laptops—oh, I’m not supposed to say that to techies,” Kyle breathed out, crouching by the papers to help Nic gather them up.

Oh. They were close, just inches and a few booklets and papers separating them now. He could smell something sweet—shampoo, maybe—and a touch of something that made his skin crawl with desire.

Burning chemistry pricked Nic’s thighs and stomach and hands and every inch of his skin the second he looked up into Kyle’s eyes from so close. It made him rock back on his heels, suddenly dizzy.

Kyle smiled brightly at him and took the papers he was holding to shuffle them into his own stack, his fingers trailing along the backs of Nic’s hands.

If Nic didn’t know better, he’d have said it was deliberate, but Kyle was standing up now and setting everything back on the table. Nic pushed himself to his feet quickly and patted the papers. “Sorry about that. Um, okay. So, until our next meeting.”

“Until next time. Take it easy. I can’t wait to see what you make for us,” Kyle beamed at him, pulling open the door.

Nic barely remembered anything between the meeting room door and the parking lot as he followed Kyle back out to the front door of the building. He made conversation about something—the drive over. He admitted again that he’d gotten lost and played it up to make Kyle laugh, but of course, he didn’t tell him about the homophobic asshole at the gas station.

Nic’s cheeks flushed as he raised his hand in a quick wave and got into his car.

With that, he’d survived his first encounter with the force of nature that was Kyle Everett.

Nic let out a breath once he was in the car. It took him a second to even remember that he needed to find his car keys, let alone remember where they were.

I’m so fucked.