Jacked (2 page)

Kissing Donovan had either been the biggest mistake of Ty’s
life or the best idea he’d ever had. Right now the answer to that was up in the
air.

Getting the no-nonsense programmer to notice him had been
something he’d all but given up on. One afternoon, late in the first year of
company start-up, he’d found himself looking at Donovan a little differently.
It could’ve been the way the light of the barbeque pit had warmed his brown
eyes, or the way his thick hair had moved in the breeze that night. It might
even have been the sexy way Donovan had of pressing the amber rim of a beer
bottle to his lips and tossing back his head. But that’s the day it had
happened.

Ty had spent the next several months trying to talk himself
out of it. The half year after that, Ty had gone on a whirlwind of dating to scrub
the sexy geek from his mind, only to come to the conclusion that it was time to
confess. Time to rip the protective bandage off the wound, tell Donovan he was
gay and live with the fallout.

Ty hadn’t expected the fallout to be the cost of one hot,
delicious kiss from the pouty lips he’d admired for more than a year. He
shouldn’t have kissed him. Forgetting itwould be impossible. Ty might
have been able to put it in the back of his mind—at least for twenty-four
hours—had Donovan not been acting weird at work the next day.

It was the small stuff. Donovan seemed to drop things that
required bending over a lot. At his desk, stretching happened more often than
usual and if Ty wasn’t mistaken, Donovan seemed to be drawing attention to his
mouth. He tapped his lips with a finger while he thought, or with the end of a
pen while he was on the phone. The small, darting looks to Ty didn’t help
either.

By lunch time, Ty didn’t know whether to be annoyed or
amused. He was pretty sure either would mean pulling out his hair with
frustration. He waited until the others had taken off for lunch before he
hauled Donovan by the collar to a back corner.

“What the fuck?” Ty began.

Donovan swatted at Ty’s hold. “You’re wrinkling my shirt.
Cut it out!”

Ty released him roughly. “Are you
trying
to be a
dick?”

Donovan smirked. “Trying to be one and having one are two
different questions. Which one did you actually mean to ask?”

“Wow. You
are
a dick.”

“Then you should be overjoyed,” Donovan teased.

Despite himself, Ty grinned. He planted a hand on Donovan’s
chest and shoved. Ty followed Donovan as he stumbled back, hitting the wall.

“Got another question for me?” Ty asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure? Because I think you do. What else are you
curious about, D?”

“Nothing,” Donovan breathed, brown eyes wide and a little
fearful.

“You’ve spent the day strutting around the office in front
of me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were flirting with me. But that
can’t be, can it? You’re straight,” Ty accused.

“I’m straight,” Donovan repeated. His gaze slid to Ty’s
lips.

Ty smiled. His stomach flipped as he realized he hadn’t been
the only one affected by that kiss. Ty moved his hand from Donovan’s chest to
his groin. Hard cock pressed his palm. Ty lifted his brows with interest.

Donovan shoved at him. “Hey!”

Ty rubbed. “Hey,” he acknowledged, though his voice dropped
suggestively.

Donovan squirmed but Ty kept him pinned him to the wall. He
took his hand off Donovan’s dick though, opting to press his body against his
business partner’s. Ty undulated, rubbing his pelvis on Donovan’s. A shuddering
groan escaped Donovan and the man immediately blushed.

“Ty. Don’t. I’m not interested,” he said unconvincingly.

Ty halted. “Really?”

Eye to eye Ty saw the battle going on behind Donovan’s dark-chocolate
gaze. A small wrinkle pulled between his eyebrows and he licked his lips. Ty
saw all of it. He even saw the moment when Donovan’s expression changed.

Donovan captured Ty’s head in his hands and kissed him. Hard
lips attacked Ty’s like a starving man feasting. His eyes were open and Ty read
the confusion, desperation and panic before Donovan closed them.

Ty kissed back, catching Donovan’s bottom lip between his
teeth and biting gently. He tried to slow Donovan down, to make him feel. Donovan
pressed his tongue forward, invading Ty’s mouth, and whatever self-control Ty
had been holding on to splintered into a million pieces of need.

His hips jerked and at the sound of need leaving Donovan
lips, Ty began a slow, clothed ride. The friction amped up the tension faster
than Ty expected. He was hot, leaking and ready in an instant.

Donovan tilted his head, deepening the kiss as he lifted his
hips into Ty’s movements. Ty’s head swam. In the realm of possible fantasies,
this had never been one he’d expected. Yet here he was rubbing on the one guy
he’d wanted who’d been out of reach.

Donovan suddenly shoved. Ty flew backward, stumbling to
catch himself as he hit the conference table. Donovan’s lips were swollen,
parted—and horrified.

“Stay
off
me!” Donovan barked breathlessly.

Ty struggled to breathe normally and failed. “You kissed me,
Donovan. You kissed me.”

“You grabbed my dick.”

Ty remembered. He might’ve grinned because Donovan suddenly
looked freaked-out. “It was hard and available.”

“Hard maybe, but not available.”

“Then why
are
you hard? More curiosity?” Ty snapped.

“Who the hell knows? It’s not like it asked for my
permission. And it’s not like
you
asked before commandeering it.”

“It felt good. Admit it.”

Donovan snorted. “Of course it did. It’s a cock. It’s
programmed to want sex. That doesn’t mean it’s free-range dick-hunting time.”

“Which is the moment I remind you—you kissed me. If you didn’t
want this, why did you? Or the other thing with your hips? We both know why.
You wanted it.”

The bell over the shop door jangled. Donovan rolled to the
side and out of sight to the employee bathroom. Ty faced the wall where they’d
framed several screen captures of other programs. If he tried to get to his
desk, the other three would see his tented jeans.

It took another couple of minutes to get control of himself
before he made it back to his seat. Donovan got there too and they spent the
rest of the day ignoring each other. Which sucked. Because the encounter had
really shaken Ty. Part of him hurt as he replayed the way Donovan had flipped out.
Part of him wondered if he’d pushed too hard and had messed things up.

They’d had a great friendship and a creatively satisfying
work relationship for a couple of years now. Had yesterday’s kiss started something
that would ultimately destroy them? What if they couldn’t get back to what
things had been like before?

Ty lifted the curls off his forehead with the weight of the
problem. Because now that they’d kissed—twice—now that he’d felt Donovan
aroused in his palm, Ty wasn’t sure he’d be able to go back, even if Donovan
could. He’d held onto the crush too long. Seeing the crack in Donovan’s armor, which
suggested the barest possibility that Donovan could be receptive, destroyed
Ty’s reserve. He didn’t want to stay away. Not before and certainly not after.

So Ty made a decision. He waited until they were alone in
their area of the office. Then he leaned toward Donovan with the biggest, most
relaxed grin he could muster. Donovan eyed him warily.

“This afternoon was fun, but let’s face it. You’re straight
and you threw me for a minute or two there. I actually thought you were making
a play for me,” Ty said casually.

“I wasn’t.”

Ty shrugged. “I know. And besides, you aren’t my type.” Ty
gave him a once-over. “By a long shot. I’m flattered by the kiss, but even if
you begged me, I wouldn’t do you.”

Donovan frowned. “I’m totally do-able.”

“You wouldn’t know how. I’m interested in guys who get the
job done without a bunch of angst. Guys who know they like guys, not ones who
are experimenting, and I know that’s all you were doing. As far as kisses go,
that wasn’t bad. But sex?” Ty gave a short chuckle. “Not in a million.”

Donovan faced his monitor. “Glad to hear it. If you don’t
mind, I’ve got more code to write before I call it quits today.”

“Sure thing. Just wanted to let you know that we’re on the
same page. You’re off limits. I’m cool with that.”

He felt Donovan’s hard stare. Ty left the smug grin firmly
in place until his partner looked away.

* * * * *

Ty searched for cues from Donovan but the next day was like
living under a cone of silence. The guy didn’t say a word to him. Donovan had
stopped dropping things, yet he didn’t seem to have gone back to acting
normally either.

Typically Ty had no problem identifying when a guy wanted
him. It was in the long, sultry looks and lascivious grins. There might be a
cheesy wink or a suggestive smile. Donovan stared but he didn’t do any of those
things. He also didn’t joke around as usual.

Ty had known him for three years. Okay, a little longer than
that, but two years of solid working together as they got the company up and
running was a long time of close quarters working. He
knew
Donovan. He
knew his moods, and he knew his preferences.

He also recognized that Donovan wasn’t pleased with the new
development in their relationship. Probably because he thought Ty would jump
him again. And Ty wanted to, for sure. What stopped him were the confused
signals Donovan sent.

Donovan said no, he even kept himself away from Ty. There
was no touching of any kind, not in passing a tablet over or by handing him a
pen. But sometimes Ty looked up and caught Donovan watching him. It wasn’t a
speculative look of a partner who felt insecure. It wasn’t fear or anything
like that. It looked—
hungry
.

It had Ty’s head spinning. The
hunger
didn’t fit with
Donovan’s insistence that he was straight and didn’t want him. The looks didn’t
fit with Donovan’s words and they sure as hell sparked heat in Ty’s pants that
shouldn’t have been there if Donovan meant what he’d said.

Unless Ty was seeing things. Which was entirely possible.
Except, was he?

What the
hell
was the matter with him? Donovan
wondered for the thousandth time. When had he become someone who obsessed about
another person? Another
guy
person?

Ty so much as coughed and every goose bump Donovan possessed
rose on his arms. Ty walked by and anything Donovan was thinking flew out of
his head. He spoke and Donovan’s ears strained to hear every last syllable.
When had he become such a flake?

It was a kiss
, he told himself. Except it wasn’t. Not
completely. Not the grinding on each other part where Donovan nearly shot his
load in his jeans—
at work
!

In the past forty-eight hours since it had happened, every
sense was attuned to his business partner and he’d had to concentrate on sea snails
about seventeen times since the office opened its doors that morning. Why?
Because sea snails were disgusting and slimy. They weren’t sexy and they gave
him a perfect way to deflate his unruly erections. Because those had started
happening too often.

It pissed him off. Ty had fucked Donovan’s brain over and he
no longer knew which way was up. Something his cock made a regular attempt to clarify.
Stupid appendage
.

Ty said something into the phone and laughed. Chills raced
up Donovan’s spine and pinched his nipples into tight points. Heat rushed to
his groin, filling his cock with more eagerness than a heterosexual male had a
right to. Donovan covertly watched his mouth move. He’d had dreams about that
mouth for two nights. That should have squicked him out. Instead he’d woken up
horny.

Today he thought he’d been doing pretty well ignoring the
stray thoughts.

Ty rotated his chair around. They were talking about the
fight dome using inspiration off an old Mel Gibson movie and kind of getting
into it. Creativity had finally taken over and Donovan had a sense of relief he
hadn’t felt in days.

“Then the player goes in, the dome locks behind him and the
fight happens. But here’s the thing. Depending on how many weapons they’ve
accumulated and the game point value, the difficulty rating increases,” Ty
announced.

“Trap doors too. They need to lead to alternate levels,”
Donovan added.

“Or worlds. What if they served as transports to other areas
of the world or areas of the solar system?”

“Dude! We should do that! The gamer buys the program and
when they have a subscription, regular updates come out that give them the new
levels or worlds to download. Sony’s automated downloads keeps the game
growing,” Donovan suggested. “It’ll be the perfect pitch suggestion when we go
in with this.”

“Dear God, it would be a monster of a program,” Ty breathed
as he sat back in his roller chair.

“It would be job security at its finest. The contract is ours
and guarantees a commitment through the term.”

“It’s brilliant.” Ty’s blue eyes were wide with admiration.
“We’d be getting in on a huge market of gamers. Think our tiny operation can
handle it?”

“Totally. And we can hire on more employees as we grow. That
was always the intention. This would make it possible.”

Ty shook his head. “We’ll have to take this to Sony just the
right way in order for them to bite.”

“You can talk anyone into anything.” Donovan grinned
sheepishly. “Even making a straight guy think about flipping sides.”
Fuck,
why the hell did I say
that?

“Oh yeah?” Ty returned the smile. He cocked an eyebrow.

Donovan blushed. He tried to pass off the slip with a shrug.
“I’m not saying that’s what happened. It’s a
for instance
.”

“Of course not. Because you’re straight,” Ty hedged.

“That’s right.”

“Not even a little bit interested in men.”

“Exactly,” Donovan agreed.

“But perhaps more open-minded than before.”

Donovan’s grunt was noncommittal. He hoped.

It was this conversation that segued into Ty’s hand down
Donovan’s pants on the company staff room couch after hours that night. And it
was this conversation followed by said groping that had Donovan making a break
for his car and leaving Ty to lock up.

Donovan had to get away. Because he was pretty sure he’d
enjoyed that far more than he should’ve for a straight guy.