Lucas made him feel so out of control. It felt dangerous, being around him, like anything could happen.

Well, anything is certainly happening right now, Ash thought, looking down at Lucas and his thickly-muscled torso, the power implied by those shifting, tightening ropes of muscle. Even that orgasm hadn’t calmed Lucas down; his cock was still hard, now pointing up at the ceiling.

I’m so afraid of what you do to me, Ash though. It’s why he had to get control, why his entire life was about getting control. That fear of letting go.

But Lucas was going to let him take control. That had always been the thing about Lucas. The thing that made them click, before it inevitably drove them apart, his easy-going willingness to let Ash take the driver’s seat.

For a time, anyway.

Better enjoy this while it lasts, he thought.

And enjoy it he would. He ran his hands down Lucas’ flanks, feeling the heat of his skin, his own body aching to be bared. He had to take his hands off Lucas just long enough to unbutton.

Lucas wasn’t just lying there passively, either. He laughed and reached his feet up, getting his toes under Ash’s belt, tugging and pulling.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” Ash said.

I missed the way you smile at me. I missed your laugh.

Such dangerous territory. He could let himself have feelings about this. This was just a release, just a way to blow off steam. He couldn’t invest it with meaning and emotion.

Couldn’t I?

Lucas was starting to sit up now, to use his hands to undo Ash’s pants. Ash pushed him back down. “You stay,” he said.

Lucas wasn’t a dog. He didn’t obey very well. He pulled Ash’s cock from his pants and began eagerly kissing it—not sucking it, just kisses and licks and little flicks of the tongue that sent shudders down Ash’s spine.

This is what it feels like to be wanted.

But it wasn’t like when Ash had just sucked off Lucas. There was no sense of being captured, having Lucas dominate the situation. Lucas was just…

He’s showing me he likes me. He’s showing me he wants me.

It was almost too much for Ash. He’d never been good at these emotions. It’s not that they made him angry, but they made the need to take control so urgent, he couldn’t fight it. He pressed Lucas back onto the bed. His lips were almost violent. Fingers tangled in Lucas’ fingers, holding him down.

His cock was so hard. It demanded attention. Demanded that he nudge Lucas’ muscular thighs apart, that he shove himself in—

“Hey,” said Lucas, softly.

Ash looked down at him.

“Hey,” Lucas said again. “Wait a minute, okay?”

Ash didn’t want to wait a minute. He wanted to fuck Lucas. Wanted to show him who was the boss. Wanted to…

“What?” whispered Ash.

“I’ve got some stuff, let me just…” Lucas twisted beneath him, reaching for his nightstand. Ash watched as he pulled out condoms and a bottle of lube.

“Okay,” said Ash, his breath heavy and fast at this point. He reached for the supplies, but Lucas swatted his hands away.

“You calm down,” said Lucas.

It was an order. He gave me an order.

He did it with a smile, a grin so full of knowing, so heavy with the history between them that Ash just wanted to grab him up in his arms and kiss him again…and yet, it was an order. Lucas was taking control.

But I’m the one who is supposed to be in control, I’m the one who—

The lube was cold. Like ice. Suddenly every nerve fiber in Ash’s body was at full attention on his cock.

He looked down. Lucas was gentle drizzling the lube onto Ash’s cock, dim light from the lamp making it sparkle and glisten.

He wanted to tell Lucas, you’re putting on too much, the condom is going to slip off, here, let me do it, but he found himself wordless, as Lucas set the bottle aside and took Ash’s cock in hand.

In one agonizingly slow stroke, he communicated what he was going to do to Ash.

“Lie there. Relax,” Lucas said.

It was almost impossible. Ash’s mind was going a mile a minute. What’s wrong with me, why do I always have to be in charge, why do I—

But as much as he wanted to use logic to take control of things, his body had other ideas. No one had touched him like this in years. No one had simply paid attention to him like this. Lucas was going so slowly, Ash couldn’t lie still; by the hand Lucas’ hand had slid all the way up his shaft, the flesh of the base of Lucas’ thumb rubbing against the flare of Ash’s cock-head, he shuddered, he whimpered.

“Don’t you ever let anyone take care of you?” Lucas asked quietly.

It wasn’t a question that demanded an answer.

Please take care of me. I spend so long taking care of everyone else. I rebuilt the company from the ground up, I protected my family name, I…I…

All thoughts swept away like mist. There was nothing in the world but his hard cock, and Lucas’ slow, sure hand. The tip of Lucas’ thumb, gently rubbing his slit. The feeling of his precum adding to the lubrication, the little circles Lucas made of it with his thumb. The entire universe focused down on this one sensation, and the kind look on Lucas’ face.

We don’t have to be rivals. We don’t have to be enemies.

Maybe there were more thoughts like that. Impossible to tell, because what Ash felt now was a quickening of his breath, an almost painful inevitability in the tightening of his balls. He wanted Lucas to go faster, to pump his cock, but Lucas was in charge now, and his slowness was part of what was driving Ash to the brink.

He called out, helplessly, eyes squeezed shut, hips pumping upward as his orgasm hit. Pulse after pulse wracked his body, Lucas murmuring encouragement as Ash fucked his hand, out of control, out of his mind, out of his body practically, the orgasm whipping through him until he was left breathless and covered in sweat, staring at Lucas.

Lucas, who crept towards him.

Lucas, who put a tiny kiss right next to his mouth.

“You don’t always have to be in charge, you know,” Lucas whispered to him.

* * *

“Ron, look, we want to do the deal, right? You know us. We want to do the deal. But the price you’re asking, we need some guarantees. Twenty-four month contract, at the very least, is what we’re thinking. That’s what we’re thinking, right Ash? Ash?”

Ash had somehow made it home last night. The memory of how that happened was vague and clouded, but must have involved a cab, since his car wasn’t in the parking deck this morning.

Don’t think, he had told himself. That was the big instruction for the day. The moment he had opened his eyes, glancing at the chiming clock that was beseeching him to get up even though he’d only had an hour and a half of sleep, it was his first thought. Don’t think, don’t remember, don’t ponder, don’t imagine.

He’d never been good at following orders. Lucas intruded on his mind every second: Is Lucas making coffee for himself right now? Has he already been out to milk the cows? Does he even have cows? In the shower, Ash felt like he might doze off again at the comforting heat of the needle spray. He gave his cock far more attention than it really needed, to get the lube cleaned off of it, and then one thing led to another and he was thinking about Lucas again.

Does Lucas like a muffin for breakfast, or is he an eggs-and-bacon man? He can’t be like me, only doing coffee until noon.

“You’re acting like a teenager,” Ash said to himself, straightening his tie in the mirror. “Calm down. Stop thinking. That was a one time thing. Never again. Probably never again.”

And now, sitting in the board room, Callum standing next to the big screen on the wall, his presentation for the Denver guys showing all the reasons they couldn’t go any lower on price without the contract, Ash was thinking of Lucas again, this time thinking of how, after they’d turned off the lights, moonlight had come in through the window, and traced a silver line over Lucas’ jaw.

“Ash? Isn’t that right?”

He snapped to attention like someone who had just been woken from a deep sleep. At least he managed not to say Who? What? at everyone.

Callum was glaring at him.

Shit. What was I supposed to say? What was he talking about? I don’t even remember.

“Oh! Absolutely,” he said, putting on his stern face and nodding. “Exactly right.”

Ron, the representative from Denver with a bad comb-over plastering black strands over his pate, scowled.

Everyone was staring at Ash.

Was I supposed to say something else?

“You heard Callum,” he said, rising. “His word is law. Who’s up for drinks?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” asked Callum. At least he didn’t slam the office door behind him. That would’ve caused a scene in front of the employees. “What the fuck was that?”

Ash slid behind his desk, and rubbed his temples. You’d think that being an executive at your family’s company would buy you some time off when you needed it, but there were no nap breaks for busy men. “I’m sorry, Callum.”

“You’re sorry? We’ve been working on this deal for months, man! You can’t fucking bomb like this, we’ll lose all our leverage! We need them signing that contract, if we’re going to stay in business!”

“No, you’re right. I really am sorry. I didn’t get much sleep.”

Please don’t ask why.

“Yeah, that was obvious to everyone, between the yawning and the zoning out. Fuck, man. At least Ron will probably think you were out partying or something. But dude, I know the truth.”

Ash froze. You do? How could Callum have found out? It’s not like he’d advertised he was going over to Lucas’ place last night. Hell, he’d only planned to talk to Lucas, he didn’t realize anything else was going to happen, didn’t realize…

His phone was sitting on his desk. It lit up and began vibrating.

He grabbed it.

Is it him? It’s not him. Could it be him? Oh shit, Callum can’t see it. Before he could see the name on the screen, he flipped the phone over and hit the button to send the call to voicemail.

Callum was staring down at him.

He knows. But how does he know?

Another vision of Lucas, that eagerness on his face, the strength of his hands…

Snap out of it, oh god, don’t embarrass yourself.

Almost by instinct, he made sure his face was absolutely still, so he would give nothing away. His voice, level and even, he said, “The truth, eh?”

“Of course. You were up all night researching that goddamned land. Don’t try to deny it. You’re trying to figure out a way to keep Dad from selling.”

Oh, whew.

Ash held up his hands in surrender. “Um…guilty as charged.”

“You have got to give that up. I’m telling you now. You’re going to wreck the business we have now, just to save some land that isn’t worth a dime to us. I mean, forget about Dad right now, I know you want to keep him in jail, I know you want him to pay, but god, Ash, you’re going to lose us the one shot we have at staying afloat!”

It’s strange to think that literally the biggest issue on his mind the past few days had been totally replaced by visions of Lucas Phelps. It’s not that the land had become any less important—not at all. But the feeling of it had changed.

I have an ally. I have someone I can trust on my side.

He hadn’t put it together like that yet.

Whatever had happened between him and Lucas last night—and he wasn’t ready to put a name on it, he wasn’t going to read too much into it—the one thing it certainly meant was that they were on the same side, at least for now. And he could count on Lucas’ help with the land.

Or I’m just deluding myself, trying to give myself another excuse to see him again.

But Callum was standing right in front of his desk, looking fed-up, and he knew he had to answer his brother.

“Fine,” he said. “You’re right. The Denver deal comes first. I took my eye off the ball. I’m sorry, Callum.”

“Just promise me you’ll leave all this extraneous stuff alone until we sign the contract, at least?”

Ash sighed. “Look. Is Ron still in the building? Tell him we’ll take him out for steaks and scotch.”

“At noon?”

Was it only noon? He was so tired.

“Definitely at noon. Let’s get him sloppy enough that a two-year contract seems like the most natural thing in the world.”

Callum stood up straighter. He was a good salesman on his own, but they always worked better as a team, and he obviously had needed Ash’s input. “I’ll grab him before he can escape,” he said happily, the offense of earlier already forgotten.

Ash nodded and grabbed his coat. “Reel him in. Although…maybe you should drive.”