Breaking through the Bond (Espen Jetties #2)

14. Jamie

14

JAMIE

It had only been a couple of days since I last saw King. We’d spent the entire weekend together, getting to know each other better. It still amazed me how quickly I’d gone from clubbing every weekend to being a one-man guy. Unfortunately, with King starting his off-season training and me having to be at work, getting together wasn’t easy.

Almost at the end of my day, I forced myself out of my daydream about King and focused on pretending to work. I could keep my mind on him and risk getting caught by Halford. It had been a peaceful week up until now and I wanted to keep it that way. Dreams and thoughts about more time with King would be waiting for me when I left the building for the night.

While looking at the code on my screen—code I’d finished hours ago—I imagined the ways I’d write it if I’d ever been allowed to let my creativity shine. Instead, I wrote the most mundane and basic code. Some days I still dreamed about a time when I might have been challenged. When I could have spent time in every department in the company.

Being stuck with coding and software was never where I imagined I’d be for my entire career. For all my love of technology and computers, writing code was the thing I least enjoyed. Well, when I was required to do it in the most basic of forms.

Tim was right, this place was a waste of my talents, not that I’d admit it to him. There was only so much I’d ever accomplish here, but I refused to use money to get my way. If I couldn’t work my way up, then here I stayed.

A notification sounded from my email program. I glanced at the clock in the bottom corner. Thirty minutes left. A voice in the back of my head screamed not to open it until tomorrow. It could wait. And if I wouldn’t have been waiting for a message from one of the other programmers working on the same project, I probably would have been able listen to that voice and ignore it. Instead, I opened the message and groaned. It wasn’t the email that I’d been expecting.

See me.

The only two words in the entire email besides Halford’s signature. What could he possibly want at four thirty on a Wednesday?

Only thirty minutes left.

Go see him and get it over with, I told myself.

Then I could come back to my desk and countdown until the end of the day. Reining in all my attitude, I stood from my desk and took the long hall down to the only office on the floor. Of course, the egotistical prick would make sure his subordinates would feel below him by working in cubicles.

I didn’t bother talking to anyone on the way past the other desks. I didn’t want to get delayed on the way there. Better to get in and out, without making him wait.

I reached the end of the hall, where Mary sat at her desk. Mary Hughes had the unfortunate luck of being Halford’s secretary, a role she inherited when he took over the company. Mary probably dealt with the most shit from the asshole sitting in the office behind her.

“Jamie.” She smiled. “What are you doing on this side of the building this late in the day?”

“I got the good old see me email.”

She winced. “Oh dear.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “He’s been meeting with staff all day.”

Meeting with staff was code for ripping people new assholes in his strange perverse pleasure. I’d been surrounded by CEOs all my life and never once had I seen one of them enjoy torturing their employees. The guilt they usually felt after having tough conversations was real. Halford was probably the type of asshole to go home and jerk off over his excitement of ruining peoples’ days.

“Let me see if he’s ready.” Mary picked up the phone. She knew better than to push the conversation too long and get caught when he grew tired of waiting. She hung up and nodded toward the door. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

I reached for the handle. The door opened and Halford sat behind his desk. He’d surrounded himself with the trappings of his wealth. He wanted us to know how much money he was worth when we stepped inside. Except instead of being impressive, it was ostentatious.

“Shut the door, Mr. Deary.”

I closed it and walked forward, standing in front of his desk like an errant child. The man refused to put chairs in front of his desk to have a conversation. Another thing he enjoyed, making us stand here and wait while he insulted and yelled at us.

Taking his time, he took a folder from the side of his desk and opened it. He glanced over the sheets inside, not saying a word. After a couple of minutes passed, he looked up and folded his hands in front of him.

“Mr. Deary, would you like to explain to me why your projects reflect a lack of creativity?”

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. “Excuse me, sir? I’m confused. In the past, you’ve made it clear you wanted this type of coding.” I gestured toward the printed code sitting on his desk.

“I have never said that I don’t appreciate creativity.” His voice carried, echoing throughout the room. “What I don’t appreciate is your use of incorrect code that no one can figure out how to fix.”

“It’s not incorrect code.”

He slammed his fist down onto the desk. “It is,” he thundered.

I curled my hands into fists at my sides, digging my nails into my palms. As much as I wanted to tell this fucker off, now was not the time.

He slammed the folder shut and practically threw it across the desk. By some force of nature, it didn’t fall to the floor.

“Redo it. Quickly, if you can even manage to finish anything quickly. It needs to take you less time to complete these projects.” He waved his hand, dismissing me.

Too fucking long? What a joke. I walked out of his office and barely restrained myself from slamming his door shut. Mary gave me a small smile as I walked by. I had to get out of there before I blew up. I made a beeline for my desk.

“Hey, Jamie. Want to grab a beer after work?” Oscar called from his cubicle.

Oscar didn’t give a shit about me being gay. I couldn’t say that about everyone in the office. There were always a few assholes everywhere. Most days we spent bitching about Halford, but today I’d had enough and needed to get the hell out of here.

“Not tonight.” He narrowed his eyes at me, and I knew he was about to ask, so I cut him off at the pass. “I’ll explain tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get one then.”

He nodded. Without another word, I tugged on my coat. With long, quick strides I moved toward the elevator. Screw that asshole. I was done for the day after that bullshit. If only I’d brought my car, then I could open it up on the highway. Since I didn’t, I went straight home.

By the time I got there and changed, the anger was still riding me. I’d put on shorts and a T-shirt, going straight for the bottle of vodka and my game room. Killing zombies had to help release the tension.

A few hours and drinks later, nothing was helping. All the things I wanted to say to Halford kept coming to the surface. I had to get out of the house, and I knew the one person who could help me forget. I picked up my phone.

Me: Want to grab a drink with me tonight?

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too much with their training schedule.

King: Hell yeah. Where?

Me: Extreme? In an hour.

King: I’ll be there.

I shut the game off and went upstairs for a shower. Drinking in a sea of sweaty bodies with King pressed tightly to mine sounded like the perfect way to relax. I dressed in a pair of jeans and a navy blue, short-sleeved button down. It molded to my skin enough to grab King’s attention and that was all I needed.

The car ride to Extreme didn’t take long and before I knew it, I was stepping through the door. I caught sight of King from across the room. He sat at the bar with his back to me and a drink in front of him. The muscles in his arms and shoulders were clearly defined in his T-shirt, and made me want to rub my hands all over him.

Even just the sight of him had the memories of the day falling away. My feelings changing from anger to lust. I walked up behind him and ran my hands around his waist. He turned his face, and I stole a kiss. Well, not exactly stole, King was more than willing to devour my lips.

Being able to kiss King in front of others was exactly why I chose Extreme. We hadn’t been there together before, and Extreme didn’t discriminate. Straight, gay, bi, pan, they didn’t care.

We broke apart. As much as I wanted to stick my tongue down his throat, I’d wait until we were in the middle of the dance floor with less eyes on us.

“I missed you,” I whispered, taking the seat next to him.

He slid a glass of clear liquid over. “Missed you too.” His gaze searched my face. “Everything okay?”

“It is now, but for tonight I want to forget about my shitty day.” I drank down some of the liquid. The burn, my normal tension reliever, didn’t seem to be doing the trick. I finished it off and waved the bartender down to order another. This time a double.

“If you change your mind, I’m a great listener.”

I could feel eyes on us. It was hard not to notice King. Today, I really wasn’t in the mood to have my face plastered everywhere. I downed my drink in one swallow and set the glass on the bar. King lifted a brow at me. Ignoring it, I held my hand out to him.

“I’m sure you are, but right now I’d really like to get sweaty with you.”

King took my hand and stood from his stool. On our way to the dance floor, he stopped and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me close. “Anything you need, honey.”

The reminder of our weekend together and the nickname he kept calling me in bed made blood rush from my head straight to my dick. Memories of sinking deep into his body, then switching and him slamming into mine jumped to the surface. I groaned and adjusted myself in my jeans.

“Just a really bad day and I want to forget.”

“Then let’s dance and get lost in each other.”

King and I moved toward the middle of the crowd, coming together as soon as we found an open spot. The music pulsed through me, grounding me, but I found it was King’s presence that really helped me push it all aside. The way he held me tight and kissed on my neck. The way his hand cupped my ass while his tongue explored my mouth.

This man was becoming everything to me. I may not have gone out that night looking for forever, but the more time I spent with King, the more I thought I found it.