"Next up," Jayden said as he scrolled through items on his tablet, "the matter of the empty Vice President seat."

"I have a suggestion," Mathis said.

"Is that suggestion 'post it on the intranet as an internal vacancy and see who applies'?" Jayden asked. "'Cause that's what we're gonna do."

The board sat in stunned silence. All except Foster, who scribbled minutes furiously.

"I like it," Caspian declared.

"Same," said Carter.

"Good." Jayden smiled cheerfully. "Next." He scrolled further. "In light of Dr. Covington's arrest and subsequent denial of bail, along with the huge amount of bribery he's been engaging in, I'm going to call in an external auditor to go through our books and make sure we're on the level. If you want to admit to accepting bribes from Brock, feel free to send me an email and I'll let you go with grace and your pension intact, even though you aided the person who murdered my father. If we find evidence of corruption within the audit, though, you get to leave under a cloud and without any benefits at all, so have a think about that. I might even pass that evidence to the police."

The table erupted in protests and affronted exclamations. How dare Jayden accuse them of collusion. How dare he imply they were all guilty.

He just scrolled to the next item on his list.

"What did you say to them in there?" Jo-Ann grinned as the board filed out like thunderclouds.

Jayden perched on her desk. "I may have suggested they were a bunch of backstabbing assholes and they could either 'fess up and leave quietly, or stay quiet and get found out when we do the audit."

She gasped at him, hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. "I foresee a whole bunch of emails being deleted, pronto!" she laughed.

"Which is why we have offsite backups." He winked and stood. "I'll be in my office if you need me."

"It's good to have you back, Mr. Deus."

Jayden flipped her a salute as he walked away. "You know what? It's good to be back."

He was just about done packing his laptop into his bag to leave the office when his phone buzzed, so Jayden shouldered the bag and pulled his phone as he headed for the door.

He had one hand on the handle as the message loaded, and he had to pause right where he was.

It was a photo from Lucas. It seemed to be a shot of his window, overlooking Central Park, but there were little specks of something in the frame, so he tapped on the image and zoomed in.

His cheeks burned, and his cock stirred hopefully.

Lucas had drilled hooks into the ceiling and floor, and attached leather restraints to them.

"Oh my God," he breathed.

His phone buzzed again, so he closed the picture and read the next message.

I promised one day I'd fuck you up against this window.

His thumb sped across the keyboard. I'm on my way!

And then he summoned an Uber, because damned if he was gonna wait for a train!

It took an hour to get home. An aggravating hour of Lucas sending him all kinds of pictures. Close-ups of a restraint. The view over Central Park. A photo of some lube. A shot of his cock.

Jayden was squirming in his seat by the time the Uber pulled up outside his home, and he rushed out with a hasty thanks, and zoomed across the lobby with an equally hasty greeting to Elise, Tony's replacement.

He jabbed the elevator button and sped out just as fast once it dinged on his floor.

Lucas wrenched the door open before Jayden could fumble with his keys, and gave him a lazy smirk. "Hey. How was your day?"

Jayden shot past him, ditched his bag on the couch, and immediately began tearing his own clothes off. "It was great," he groaned. "Threatened the board, caused a stir, the usual."

"Great."

Lucas sauntered over and crossed his arms as he watched Jayden undress. For the first time in weeks Lucas was wearing a suit instead of jeans and a t-shirt, and the sight of those lines struggling to contain Lucas' muscles only made Jayden more desperate to shed his clothes.

"Glad you took my advice about treading softly," Lucas added with a slowly-growing smile.

Jayden laughed. "I thought about it. Then I figured I'm there to fight, not be a politician. I decided to start as I mean to go on." He tossed his socks onto the couch, then straightened up, biting his lip in anticipation.

Lucas stepped in and gripped his wrist, then twisted his arm up behind his back and used the hold to propel Jayden toward the windows. His hand was firm, and he knew exactly how much pressure to exert to get Jayden to move without causing him any pain.

Jayden did as he was wordlessly told, hurrying toward the newly-fitted restraints. The closer he got, the better he could see how the bolts they were attached to were recessed into the floor and ceiling, and without anything clipped into them they could easily be overlooked, which would be handy the next time his mom came to visit.

"You ready?" Lucas breathed in his ear as he pressed Jayden up against the glass.

Jayden let out a soft yelp at how cold it was. His skin shivered, and he felt his nipples harden in a heartbeat. "Oh, fuck, yes."

Lucas released his arm and rubbed his elbow, then raised the arm over Jayden's head.

Jayden tipped his head back to watch as Lucas wrapped one of the dangling leather cuffs around his wrist. It wasn't what he'd expected, it wasn't just a cuff. It was more like wrapping his whole hand in a padded leather takeout cup, with a strap which led up to the hook it hung from. Lucas aligned it so that it fitted tightly around him and his fingers naturally curled around the strap.

He moaned with need as Lucas took his other hand and did the same. His cock was pulsing back to life after an hour in the Uber, and it pressed against the cool glass, slipping across the surface.

Lucas crouched and pulled Jayden's legs further apart, then wrapped leather around his ankles. He tested each fastening and fitting meticulously, and then he set about adjusting the length of each chain until Jayden was thoroughly spread-eagled, arms and legs straight, body firm against the glass.

His breath fogged the window and his own glasses, until Lucas reached over and took the glasses from him.

"Gag?" Lucas offered.

"Oh God, yeah," Jayden whimpered.

"Blindfold?"

Jayden licked his lips, then shook his head. "I wanna see your reflection."

Lucas chuckled and ran a hand down Jayden's ass, gripping it tight and pressing Jayden's hips to the window. "Spanking?"

"Ohh." He felt the trickle of precum at the suggestion, and it made the glass slick for his cock to slide over. "Fuck yes."

Lucas lightly nipped his shoulder, then stepped away to a drawer. He brought something out, too indistinct for Jayden to make out at that distance, but the closer it got the more his skin flushed with desire.

It was a black leather strap with a distinctly cock-shaped gag.

"Open up," Lucas growled.

Jayden leaned his head back and opened his mouth, and the cock slid past his teeth and over his tongue. It was thick, solid, complete with little veiny ridges and a bulbous head. Exactly the kind of cock he loved to suck, it forced his jaw wide and when Lucas buckled the strap behind his head, the cock was so firmly in place in his mouth that he couldn't help but do just that.

Lucas stepped away again. Jayden didn't notice at first. He was too busy sucking on his gag and writhing against the glass, wondering whether anyone over in the park could see him. It was only when he caught Lucas' reflection back at the drawer that he noticed, and this time when Lucas returned he slipped something into his jacket pocket, and weighed something else in his right hand.

It was a long swatch of black leather, hilt in Lucas' hand, fingers curled around it.

Jayden's eyes widened. Lucas hadn't used anything like that on him before, and Jayden hadn't been spanked by anything other than a warm hand. A thread of worry coiled around his gut, and he had to remind himself that this was Lucas.

This was the man who had gone in unarmed and unarmored against a gunman for him, and he was hardly gonna go break Jayden after going to such lengths to keep him safe.

He swallowed around the cock gag and took a deep breath.

“Just remember,” Lucas murmured. “Flip me off if you want me to stop.” He set the leather gently against his ass, then traced it all the way up Jayden's spine. He used it instead of his hand to stroke softly over Jayden's back and shoulders, then down to and over his ass cheeks before he dipped it between Jayden's legs and rubbed his taint with it.

Any doubt that remained was pushed aside by the slowly-warming leather as it picked up Jayden's heat and reflected it back on his skin.

Lucas slapped him softly with it. The leather was padded, with a firm core, and it made a satisfying thwack with every hit. There was no sting to it, no bite, just a gentle smack that landed against one cheek and then the other, back and forth, in a gentle rhythm.

Jayden rested his forehead against the cold glass and his breathing came more easily. This, he knew. This, he needed, even yearned for. The tenderness, the build-up of heat, the way it would make him burn with need before too long, it was all utterly sublime.

He could have laughed at the absurdity of his fleeting worry. This was Lucas. The man Jayden loved. The one he trusted with his safety and care. The one he could hand himself over to and not have to be what the rest of the world expected him to be.

The one who knew exactly who he was and what he needed.

The paddle began to sting. Lightly at first, but it grew to a firm bite, and Jayden sucked on the gag, running his tongue along the underside, swallowing around that huge head as the glass around his cock grew slippery and warm. The heat spread through his ass, rippling down his thighs and up his chest, and just when he thought he might not be able to take any more, the paddle fell away and was replaced by Lucas' hands.

"You like that?" Lucas growled in his ear.

Jayden whimpered and gave a weak nod.

"That's right," Lucas agreed. "You do. I know what else you like."

He made a soft, questioning sound.

Lucas' hands traced up his hips and over his ribs. Rough cotton pressed against his hot ass, hard length behind them digging between Jayden's cheeks. His fingers insinuated themselves between flesh and glass, and he lightly pinched Jayden's nipples.

Jayden bucked so hard that the chains overhead rattled with his movement. He sucked the cock gag in earnest, desperately wishing it was Lucas' dick in his mouth. And when Lucas lightly rolled his hard nubs of flesh between finger and thumb, Jayden howled against the gag and made hapless attempts to fuck the window.

Lucas' hands dropped away. He heard the rasp of a zipper and the click of lube, and then Lucas was invading him, pressing against him, slipping lube up inside him and fucking him with his finger as he did so. "God, I love you, Jayden," he growled as he ran a knuckle over Jayden's prostate. "I'm never gonna stop loving you. You're mine. All mine."

As Lucas' cock plunged into him, Jayden had to agree. He was Lucas', through and through, and nothing in the world could ever make him happier.

Lucas' hands rested against the glass either side of Jayden's shoulders. "Look at me," he ordered.

He forced his eyes to focus on Lucas' reflection, over Jayden's right shoulder, and found those smoldering eyes waiting for him. Lucas drove deeper, until the cotton of his pants rasped against Jayden's burning ass, and Jayden clung to the cuffs as Lucas began to fuck him hard and fast against the window.

It was so completely perfect. The flat surface and the muscle that pinned him to it, the way Lucas' heat burned through him and met the cold from the window, the way Jayden was spread-eagled and helpless and utterly at Lucas' mercy.

He felt his sense of self begin to slip away as his orgasm pulled inexorably forward. The lights came on behind his eyes and everything was just so goddamn perfect.

Every thrust, every grunt, every breath, Jayden was rendered completely incapable of stopping the tension which built inside him, the yearning, the desperate need for release, the growing inferno which crept closer and closer to the edge and then - with a howl that the gag could barely muffle - everything he was became fire and pleasure and explosive release.

He rested his forehead against the glass as he sagged in his restraints, body still shaking with tremors as Lucas' cock spilled deep inside him, and as he gasped weakly for air, he couldn't help but smile.

Lucas leaned against him and unfastened the gag one-handed. "Ready for me to take it out?" he breathed, sounding every bit as exhausted as Jayden felt.

"Mmhhh," he responded, not even able to nod.

Lucas eased it from his mouth with care, and Jayden heard it fall to the floor. He worked his jaw a couple of times, then decided he'd rather just hang a while and enjoy the sensation of Lucas' cum inside him. When he finally found the strength to speak, he licked his lips, then murmured, "That was amazing. I love you, too, and I'm never gonna stop loving you, either."

Lucas kissed his shoulder, and finally reached up to release the cuffs from the chains. He helped Jayden lower his arms slowly, rather than let them fall, and only then did he unbuckle the cuffs and massage Jayden's wrists.

"Good," Lucas rumbled. "You want a shower, or a bath?"

Jayden grinned. "Bath," he said.

"Your wish is my command."

As Lucas eased free of him, as he released Jayden's ankles and carried him through to the bathroom, all Jayden could think was that he was the luckiest man alive.