It had been Lucas on the phone earlier, of course. Ash had casually glanced at the screen as he and Callum went down to the car.

There was a voicemail, but he didn’t trust himself to listen to it until he was alone…and that would be a while.

But why would Lucas call?

Even in his sleep-deprived state, Ash could come up with alternative theories.

He’s pissed off that we did that. No, wait, maybe he’s apologetic.

No matter what it was, it was going to be awkward as hell answering that voicemail, and so he decided to put it off.

He wanted to talk to Lucas. Of course he did. Even though he was sure that Lucas wouldn’t agree to a repeat of last night, even though they both had to know it was just a random, onetime event.

Actually, he realized, that’s what he was afraid of.

As long as he didn’t talk to Lucas, he could pretend it might happen again. He could think about meeting up with him, slipping the clothes off his strong, broad frame, and…

Shit. Get your head straight, Ash.

He blinked. They were in the restaurant with Ron From Denver. Callum was laughing at something Ron had just said and glanced over at Ash: Time for you to laugh too. So Ash laughed at what he assumed must be a filthy joke, given the gross, sly look on Ron’s face.

This was what he hated so much about being around Lucas, the way he couldn’t think of anything else while Lucas was on his mind. The unpredictability of it. All his logic and calculation out the window, his food untouched on his plate, the conversation in front of him going right over his head.

Get yourself under control.

But he couldn’t. Trying not to think of Lucas was only bringing him to mind that much more. The scent of him, the way his sweat had tasted. The way his stubble had felt against Ash’s lips.

If you get a hard-on here at the restaurant, you will die of embarrassment, you will lose the Denver contract, and your company will go under. You’ll be homeless. All because of Lucas Phelps. And then Dad will have won, because it will prove the two things he has always said: The Phelps are our natural enemies, and Ash isn’t good enough to run the company.

That did it. Thoughts of Dad were quite effective at turning any emotion into bitter anger…and anger helped you think.

He could put Lucas aside for now. He would call him later. After work. Let him hang for a while. Not like a punishment, but buying time to compose his thoughts, so he could put together some rational reasons they couldn’t be together again.

Because he knew Lucas was going to say there could be no repeats. That was going to hurt…so it was smarter to get there first.

Lay out the reasons nothing could happen between them.

The reasons Ash was going to be alone. Again.

* * *

When the commotion began, Ash was back in his office wondering whether he should call it a day. He hadn’t eaten his lunch, hadn’t wanted to drink much, but his nerves felt raw by this point. The last thing he wanted to hear was raised voices in the hallway outside.

“I don’t care who you’re here to see, you don’t belong here,” Callum was saying.

When Ash emerged from his office and saw the scene, his breath caught in his chest.

There was Lucas, looking angry, and Callum, even angrier.

“Dude, this has nothing to do with you,” Lucas told Callum. “I’m here to see your damn brother.”

“Let me make this real simple for you,” said Callum. “You’re a Phelps. This is The Cray Building. You might’ve seen the sign. That sign means You Don’t Belong.”

“What’s going on here?” asked Ash.

Lucas looked over at him. “Your brother’s being an asshole.”

What is that expression on his face? Is it anger at Callum? Why is Lucas here at the office? Why does he look excited, worried, whatever that look is?

Callum looked over at Ash. “I swear to god, if this is something about the land—”

“It’s okay, Callum,” Ash said. “I’ll find out what it’s about.”

Then his brother grabbed his arm and pulled him into his office. He whispered, “Dude, I don’t care what is going on, but you can not bring Lucas here. Do you know what Dad would do if he found out? I don’t care what scheme you’re cooking up with Phelps, you can’t do it here. And honestly, Ash, I’m a little disappointed in you.”

“That’s not news,” said Ash. “You’ve been disappointed in me ever since Dad got arrested. I think you wanted me to turn myself in, to save him.”

Callum looked over his shoulder. “What the hell is going on, Ash? Why is he here?”

“I don’t know,” said Ash. He could say that honestly at least, even if he couldn’t describe how anxious it made him, not knowing why Lucas was here.

He’s coming because I wouldn’t pick up the phone.

He’s coming to explain why he can’t see me again.

“I swear, man, I don’t know what to do with you. If you’re plotting against Dad—”

“I don’t want to get into a discussion about Dad,” said Ash. Or about anything else.

“The thing is, I know you want him to stay in jail. And Phelps? I know he wants to bring us down. I’m just warning you, Ash. If it turns out you two have some secret plan going on—”

“Callum, before you finish that threat, can you just take pity on me and how little sleep I got last night?”

His brother stood there for a second glowering, looking like he might launch into another lecture, but finally he shook his head and left the office, the door swinging open behind him.

Lucas looked in from the hall.

“Come in,” said Ash. “And close that door.”

He had to think quickly and speak quickly. Had to get his message in before Lucas could start.

Look, I know why you’re here. And before you say anything, I want you to understand, last night can’t happen again.

Wait, no. Was that really what he wanted to say?

Last night can happen…one more time. But just once.

Maybe twice.

But we can’t make a habit of it.

Too late. Before he could get any of these thoughts into order, Lucas said, “It’s Ricky Talbot. He’s the one buying the land.”

Every other thought froze inside Ash’s head. All the fear and trepidation he’d felt about talking to Lucas, about seeing him again, it was all crowded out by this new feeling, something between fury and confusion. His hands tightened into fists.

“Ricky. Fucking Ricky Talbot? How do you know?”

Lucas explained. It wasn’t a very thorough explanation, and it left Ash with a million questions. But it made sense. It made perfect sense.

“So it’s revenge,” he said after Lucas told him what he knew. “Does that make sense to you?”

Lucas shrugged. “I guess it does. We fucked up his life during high school.”

“Well, you fucked up his life during high school, by stealing him from me.”

“Didn’t we cover that ground pretty thoroughly last night?” asked Lucas.

But at the mention of last night, they both stood silently, awkwardly.

Oh hell…tell me we don’t have to talk about it now.

He didn’t want to be the one who gave anything away. He realized that, staring at Lucas now. It would be humiliating to say let’s do it again and then be refused by Lucas. But it would be so much worse if they said never again but didn’t really mean it.

Ash could see that happening. Neither man wanted to be vulnerable. Neither was used to giving an inch. They might both go home miserable, but neither would be the first to admit how he felt.

The first rule of business is, if you don’t have time to think, take action. Any action. Something definitive. Things will sort themselves out later. And so he reached for his phone.

“I’m going to find Ricky. We’re going to put a stop to this today.”

Lucas put out his hand, stopping Ash from getting the phone. “Wait a second, Ash.”

“We’ve got to stop him. You agree with me, don’t you? You do, it’s your land too. I don’t know why he’s doing it—is it really revenge, is it something else?—but I do know we have to act quickly.”

“Okay, yes,” said Lucas, his hand still firm on Ash’s. “I get that. I agree. But the minute you make that call, we'll get swept up into events, man. Things will happen fast. Ricky turns out to be extremely rich. Like, putting you to shame. I didn’t even know that. If we try to fight him…”

“Try? I’m not trying anything. I’m going to fight him,” said Ash.

I wonder how much money we’re talking about here? Cray Reliable has an army of lawyers…but how big is Ricky’s army?

“Listen to me,” said Lucas. “I understand. But before you do that, before you take the step that’s going to shift both our lives into high gear for a while…I think we have to talk about last night.”

Ash slid his hand away from Lucas. He kept his face still.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

At that, Lucas laughed, and it was such a bright sound, it was like someone had switched on a light in the office. “God no, I don’t want to talk about it! I could go the rest of my life never mentioning it! But…dude. I think we have to.”

Ash shook his head. “I don’t know. These things happen, they’re not—”

“They don’t,” Lucas said. “These things don’t happen to me.”

He stared at Lucas for a long moment.

“No, I guess not,” Ash said. “They don’t happen to me either.”

“In fact, the only time they do happen, you’re involved.”

He was so tense, his shoulders had tightened up again, but that just reminded him of Lucas massaging him with his strong fingers, and that made him tense up still further, because he couldn’t acknowledge just how good it made him feel, because then he would—

He got up and walked to his window, looking down at the world. “Shit. What are we going to do, Lucas?”

“What do you want to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

Lucas huffed. He walked over to the window next to Ash. Neither of them looked at the other. Lucas said, “Are we going to do this? What’s it going to take, writing what we want on note paper, and sliding it across the table to one another? You’re a damn businessman, you tell me what you want, same as if I was a customer asking for…light bulbs, or whatever the hell you make here.”

“Electrical fittings.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s a big damn risk, Lucas.”

Lucas was biting his lower lip, nodding. “I thought the same thing. You know what though? You wouldn’t hesitate to give me an answer if you wanted me out of your life. Right? If last night meant nothing to you, if you never wanted to do that again, I don’t think you’d have trouble telling me. We’re enemies, man, we don’t have to be polite to one another. If you’d grossed me out last night, or if I thought it was something I didn’t want to happen…I’d tell you. Or avoid you. I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you asking if we could talk about it.”

Ash puzzled over that for a second. “So you’re saying that the very fact that neither of us wants to talk about it, means we had a good time last night, and want it to continue?”

“Are you saying you want it to continue?”

“Oh for god’s sake, Lucas!”

“Okay! Yes!” said Lucas. “Are you happy? I had a really good time with you. I feel cheated that we didn’t get to spend more time together. It feels stupid that we’re standing here talking instead of taking our clothes off. I don’t know what that means, long-term. I have no idea what to do. I’m not saying I want you to be my boyfriend or anything.”

“Thank god for that.”

“I’m just saying…I’m lonely, I like you okay, I want to fuck you. There.”

Ash looked at him skeptically. “So…not a relationship.”

“I don’t know.”

“But fucking.”

“Probably? Yes?”

Ash tapped his finger against the desk. “So what does that make us? Enemies with benefits?”

“I mean, if you’ve got to put a name to it…”

Ash was on him before he could say another word. It was like a dam had broken. Had this been all it took? Just permission to feel something? He was clutching Lucas with an urgency he hadn’t even realized he felt, kissing him hard. And Lucas was kissing him back, hands on him, pushing him, pinning him to the wall next to the window.

Lucas was stronger than he was. That was a change. Somehow it excited Ash even more. But…but…

“Wait,” he gasped, as Lucas’ lips touched his throat. “We can’t do this, not in here.”

Lucas was already undoing Ash’s pants. “Sure we can. Allow me to demonstrate.”

“Seriously…oh…dude, these walls are like paper-thin, and—”

All his words went away, as he felt the warmth of lips, the heat of Lucas’ breath, on his cock. Lucas had wasted zero time getting into his pants, and now he was licking him, nibbling on the underside of his cock, and even though Ash knew this was a mistake—wrong time, wrong place—he couldn’t stop Lucas, couldn’t stop himself, either, the way his cock grew so firm, rising under Lucas’ attention.

He tried to steady himself, putting his hands back against the wall, but holding still wasn’t an option. Not with that eager mouth Lucas had, sucking on him, his tongue stroking all the way down to the base of Ash’s cock. Not with the way his hips began pumping of their own accord. There was no way to fight it.

“Your mouth…oh god, Lucas, come on, suck me hard…”

He took Lucas’ head in his hands. Ash thrust hard into his mouth, fucking his lips, fucking his mouth, while Lucas eagerly received him.

It was somehow even hotter, knowing there were people right outside that door. Any minute, the phone could ring, or someone could knock.

Someone might just walk in.

The thought drove him mad with desire. This was so wrong. You can’t get sucked off by your worst enemy, in a place where you could be caught this easily. It sent a thrill through his entire body, the wrongness of it.

Now Lucas was using his fingers to grab Ash’s ass, kneading the well-muscled cheeks, sending even more pleasure through Ash’s pelvis. He could feel his body getting ready to climax, ready to fill Lucas’ mouth with a load of cum.

What he wasn’t ready for, was the intensity of it.

The way, when his orgasm hit, that it wracked his entire frame. The way his toes curled, knees buckled, the way he had to grab on to Lucas’ shoulders just to keep from falling, as his hips bucked uncontrollably and he called out:

“OH MY GOD, LUCAS, I’M COMING!”

Lucas let go of his ass, and instead wrapped his arms around Ash’s hips, holding him steady so he could suck out every drop of the cum that was shooting from Ash’s cock. Ash’s mind was gone, he was panting hard, reeling from wave after wave of orgasm passing through him, shaking him, leaving him weak and defenseless.

As the orgasm finally subsided, Lucas helped lower him to the floor. He couldn’t stand, not on his own, not feeling like this. Lucas was gentle with him, caressing him, kissing him. His lips tasted salty like cum.

For a little while, he was too weak to move. Too in awe of the feeling that had just swept over him.

It didn’t make any sense. It was just a blow job. The simplest thing in the world, a mouth on a cock, there was no reason it should have been that explosive.

Lucas stared down at him, a look of tenderness on his face.

“That was…” Ash tried to find the words. “It was…”

Lucas nodded. “I know. I could tell. But…I think I should go. Just for now. You’ll call me later though, right? To talk about Ricky…but also…just to talk?”

Ash reached up and touched Lucas’ face. “Yeah.”

“Promise. No more bullshit between us. We want this.”

“We do.”

“Besides, you owe me one at this point.”

Ash smiled. “Trust me.”

Lucas gave him another kiss, and left him, while Ash lay on the floor, basking in the afterglow.

Later, of course, he had to get up. You can’t lie on your floor all day if you’re an important businessman. You have to stand up, zip up, straighten your shirt and tie. You have to face the world.

It wasn’t until he opened his office door, and saw his employees staring at him with expressions that ranged from humor to arousal, that he remembered how loud he had shouted during his orgasm.

Oh…fuck.

* * *

“What are you doing?” asked Callum. “Answer that. It’s a simple question. Really, really simple. What the hell are you doing?”

There were things Ash needed to think about. The past half-hour had left him shaken, in more ways than one. He was a man who could keep the entire corporate structure of his company, all the fiscal numbers and projections, all in his mind at the same time, but this? This was too much for him, happening all at once.

He needed time and silence, the darkness of his office with the lights turned down, maybe accompanied by a scotch and his faithful legal pad.

It didn’t seem like he would get the time or the silence.

“What do you want me to say, Callum?”

“What I want you to say is that I’m fucking hallucinating. That Lucas Phelps wasn’t just in here making you scream in ecstasy. Do you realize how many people heard that shit?”

Ash wouldn’t look at him. “I didn’t intend to let the entire company know.”

“You might as well have put it on the fucking intercom, Ash! But forget about this particular encounter. What I want to know is, how long has this been going on?”

Ash glanced at his watch. “About half an hour, give or take.”

“You’re going to make a fucking joke of it?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Callum.”

Callum slammed his fist on the desk. “You don’t get to not talk! If this was just…I don’t know, some random guy, whatever, I’d sit here and laugh about it. But Lucas Fucking Phelps?”

Ash picked up the letter opener from his desk and tapped his fingertip against the blunted point. “How much longer are you planning on yelling? I’ve got things to do.”

That shut Callum up, at least for a second. He looked startled that Ash wouldn’t engage, wouldn’t talk about it, wouldn’t at least argue with him. He poured himself a drink. But before he could take a sip, he said, “So that business at the wedding, that big confrontation with Lucas…was that all staged?”

“Of course not. What would the point of that be?”

Callum took a long swallow of his scotch. “You have to see how crazy this is. How unexpected and strange. You can’t be with Lucas Phelps. Whatever happened in here…it can’t happen, Ash. You know that.”

Ash set the letter opener back on the desk and clasped his hands together. “For the last time, Callum, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You have to. We’re going to talk about this, because it can’t happen. It’s not just me. Forget me. But what do you think is going to happen if news of this gets back to Dad?”

Ash scowled at his brother. “Why would it get back to Dad?”

“I don’t know, I’m just saying, what if?”

“There is no what if, because if someone tells him, I know who it will be. So back off on the threats.”

Callum set his glass down. “It’s not a threat. It’s me, predicting the future. Because if you’re sloppy enough to let the whole top floor know what you were doing in here with Lucas, you’re going to slip up, and he’s going to find out. He’ll cut you out of the company, Ash.”

“Neat trick, if he can manage it from his jail cell.”

“You know Dad. He’ll find a way.”

All the more reason for him to stay in jail, Ash thought. But no reason to add fuel to the fire by saying it aloud.

Still, the threat hung in the air. You had to deal with threats. If it had been anyone else, Ash would have come down hard on them. Would’ve explained just how he would dismantle them.

But this was Callum, and no matter how much he didn’t want his brother to interfere in his life, he couldn’t treat him the same way as he would an outsider.

“I’ve got things to do,” he said, rising from his desk. “Things that have nothing to do with this fight you’re trying to pick.”

Except that if I can stop Ricky, then Dad remains in prison, where he can’t hurt me or the company.

Callum looked away from him. “Whatever, man. I don’t know what the fuck has happened to your priorities.”

I’m trying to save the company.

And…maybe…myself.