William's POV A fire was burning in my head until I felt like I had a coal brassier on my shoulders, and my eyes had narrowed to pinpricks of light. I drew in breath because everything else felt impossible at that moment The smile on his face was infuriating and I found my hands clenching into fists. But if my father was aware of how I felt or whatever was going on between us, he did not show it. “Tristan.” I said shortly. My father looked excitedly at the both of us. “I simply can’t tell you how much of an honour it is that you decided to come down for the event today, Tristan.” “It was nothing. I needed some time away from the office. I’m sure William felt the same. He’s been working an awful lot doing over mistakes he’s made that would have otherwise been costly.” My father looked at me with new eyes. “Do you need help with work, William? This is the first time I’m hearing of you redoing tasks.” “I wondered the same thing too, Mr. Bracknell. I was already pleased to ha
William's POV My entire face felt soaked in perspiration and moving my tongue was easily one of the most difficult things I had done all through today, still I tried to focus my attention on Caleb, his form swirling in front of me. I tried to reach out to touch him, just to be sure that he was real, and tumbled forward. I was propped back up. Caleb’s smell hadn’t changed either. I wanted to vomit. “It’s alright,” he said sweetly. “I’ve got you.” “Unhand me,” I muttered with a leaden tongue. “What was that?” “Unhand me,” I said more forcibly. “I’m fine.” I imagine that Caleb must have pouted like he was so used to and given me a look. “William, you are anything but fine. I don’t even know who told you to come here in the first place, trying to drown your sorrows? You’re a lightweight and you’ve consumed so much already. You’re not fine.” His words pierced my head like thumbtacks, but they brought along some needed clarity. Not much, but enough to focus if I really trie
William's POV I went straight to my room and tossed myself onto the bed, rubbing at my eyes. I had no idea what was going on. There was so much I could not wrap my head around, with Tristan, with Caleb… I was completely lost, but for now, all I could do was sleep until much later in the day when I woke up, took a shower and decided to see Adrian. But on second thought, I decided to call him instead. He answered on the second ring. “William,” he said flatly causing a lump to form in my throat. I had not really thought about how I was going to broach this topic with him. “Hey, Adrian,” I said. “How’s it going with you?” “Could be better.” “Right.” “And work?” There was silence on the other end, the duration of which I felt like stabbing myself several times in the head. How could I have forgotten that he was no longer working at the company? Tristan had fired him, after all. Because of me. “Listen, Adrian, I’m sorry. I know I’ve apologized before about the entire thin
William's POV This had to be a joke! “Because the work I’ve suffered to do has suddenly been made obsolete? You’re absolutely right, Tristan. I’m flipping excited. Look at me giggling and chasing my own tail around goofily.” Tristan put the pen down and pointed at me. “You’re an idiot, William. You should already know this by now, but since you require me to spell it out for you, you don’t need to work on any of those old projects again. Including the ones that you had to redo. I’ve scrapped them all.” “Why?” “Because they were just fine the first time that you sent them. And now you don’t have to do any more work on them.” I stared into his eyes and he stared into mine. The room was charged with something I couldn’t place. Understanding slowly filtered in. “You cancelled the other jobs… you didn’t want me to do extra work.” He scoffed and stood from his chair. “I know you like grunt work, William. You want to feel like you’re useful. Like you’re doing something. But you
William's POV He reeled back, hand to his lips. There was no blood, but of course he was going to be dramatic about everything. “You hit me.” “I’m going to do a lot more than that if you don’t start talking. How many more times do I have to tell you to leave me the hell alone, Caleb?! Are you suddenly retarded?” “I’ve been trying to speak with you for God knows how long now, William! You don’t give me a chance. I call, I send text messages… you don’t even want me to open my mouth at all.” “I want you to leave me alone, Caleb. I don’t want to talk with you because you never listen. All you want to do is what you think you should do. You don’t ever listen.” “I listen.” He said, scandalized. “No, you don’t! You’re not listening even right now. You’re only interested in whatever you have to say, but you don’t understand. I don’t want you, Caleb. I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore. Is that so difficult to understand?” He stepped away from me, opening and closing hi
William's POV It was dark when I finally got back home, and feeling a mix of anger and stress, I collapsed unceremoniously onto my bed. I exhaled for a long time, my eyes closed as I tried to even my breathing. I had not meant to cuss in the middle of the road, but the minute I took in the mangled metal that was supposed to be the driver’s door of my car, all of the frustration from the time when Caleb had shown up at the office came to the fore, and I shouted loud enough for a pew passersby on the pedestrian walk to give me funny looks. It was horrible. It was so horrible. The gash on the side of the car was not going to buff out easily, I knew, but where the heck was I going to be able to repair the door of the car, especially now that it was almost sundown? At the very least, no one would see me clearly, driving around in the heinous atrocity that was now my car, but oh, it was going to be such a difficult thing. I wondered if I was going to be able to haul the door into the
William's POV After Adrian had left, I stayed outside staring at the direction his car had left in, wondering just what kind of game the universe was playing. It had been months since I broke up with Caleb and I wasn’t healing any easier from that. But oh, when things just started to look like they were beginning to get even remotely better or make any sense at all, Tristan steps into the play. My father and the weight of Bracknell Inc. on my neck wasn’t enough burden apparently, but then there was also my family honor and the little matter of my dignity. And then Adrian stepped in. That’s three men already and I haven’t even had the chance to gulp in a proper breath of air into my lungs. I sighed tiredly and begin to walk back to the house. I didn’t know that I could deal with things much longer. I could not say or know how much longer I could stand this torturous ordeal until I broke down and snapped and gave everybody a piece of my mind. My father was hardly ever home. As CEO
“Tristan” Was the only word I could manage after gawking for what felt like eternity. I was really playing it smooth.Tristan stood up to his full height. He had been standing before, but it felt like he’d made himself smaller somewhat, just so he could enter the office and speak with me.All at once, I was both angry and amused.I wondered if he did this every time, with everyone—showing off.“I’ve been expecting you in since morning.” He said.I looked at him flatly and the documents in my hand. “I didn’t come in today. I just wanted to grab some more files and see how much more work I could get done.”“Forever industrious,” said Tristan, slinging an arm casually around my neck. “See, this is why I love you, William. You just go full steam ahead without needing directions or validation from anyone.”Gingerly, I took his hand away from my shoulders, trying not to focus on the fact that he had just said he loved me. Again.I chucked it up to casual talk. Endearment in modern context w
Ellie and Mavis and I strode into Food Palace, both Ellie and her husband looking like a million bucks, while I hoped to be able to pass for only slightly ruffled.I had not checked my hair to see if I had any of that sex hair. I had gotten the smell out of my mouth and taken a shower and tried my best to look as spruced up as possible, but there was no denying at all.Tristan had messed with me, and it showed, no matter how much I tried to hide it. It was evident in the way that I walked. I looked around, hoping that Tristan was not somehow following us around. I didn’t peg him for the stalker type, but one was never sure about these billionaire dark princes that seemed to want everything to always go in their favor—wanting to always be in control.I sighed as we slid into a booth and Ellie chatted up the attendant who came around almost instantaneously.“Welcome to Food Palace, the one stop for everything food.” The man said. He was an interesting glass of wine, tall and beautiful i
My breathing was finally slowing down, but Tristan was still standing over me with that same cold detachedness. I could not place what had happened, when he had made the switch, but back at his place, the first night that we had had sex, he was carefree. He looked alive back then. Now, he seemed like an entirely different human being, completely focused on wringing every single inch of pleasure out of me.It seemed like so long ago since when we had first sex.Tristan seemed like a completely different human being now.I wondered if this was how he normally was—if he was always this cold and detached human being, or he had only been gentle as an act for me.I could hear him rolling the condom over his cock and it filled me with a new desire, a need that burned in my groin, excusing my already-burnt out cock. I was still trying to catch my breath.Tristan’s hands gripped my ass firmly as he tried to position himself, then my cell phone rang and for once, I was glad for a distraction be
I looked at Tristan, my eyes lingering on his before dipping down to see just how hung he was.“You look like you’re in a fix, Tristan Richmond,” I teased.Tristan only said gruffly, “Shut up. Come here. Finish this.”“Afraid I can’t, Tristan. I’m just your employee, or whatever else it is that you said, or isn’t that right? Employers shouldn’t maltreat their employees, you know.”“You’re still in my office.” He smirked. He moved back so that he was half-sitting, half-leaning on his desk again, just the barest part of his butt resting on the hard wood. The top was still cluttered with all of the documents that he had to review.I rolled my eyes at him. “Actually, Tristan, I just sucked you off in your office, so it’s more or less my office now. I’m the one on top.”“No, you’re not.”“Yes, I am, Tristan.” I retorted, as though we were children caught in a game of who was wrong.Suddenly, Tristan moved from his desk. So quick like he had sprung off the desk and charged straight for me.
It felt like all the air in the room had been sucked out, just by the words that Tristan declared. I cocked my head at him, unsure of what I had heard. “Mr. Richmond, I’m so sorry, I tried to stop him…” But Tristan was glaring only at me, his eyes trained and focused. I stared, my head still cocked, wondering just who this new creature sitting behind the desk was. I opened my mouth to speak, but Tristan beat me to the chase. “You can leave us, Guiseppe,” Tristan said to the man who crouched by his side. His lawyer, I supposed. He had black hair slicked back and eyes like charcoal. He was beautiful with a kind of animal savagery. But I was not concerned about this man. My eyes were fixed only on Tristan. I inhaled as the lawyer walked past me, his briefcase drawn close. He gave me the stink-eye, but I didn’t care about him. I wasn’t looking at him— “I asked you a question, William,” Tristan said calmly as he pulled the cover over a folder that he held. Alexa tugged at my elbow, w
For all of the words that I had thrown at my father… all of the things that I was feeling in my chest, I still drove slowly, weaving through a light traffic as I tried to get to the office.I was thinking about a million other things, but as I drove, everything everywhere looked pretty normal. Didn’t look like the world was ending on account of the way that both Tristan and my father, and quite literally everyone that I knew was acting.Still, I understood why they were acting the way that they were. There was a lot of publicity. It was a lot of publicity. And my father had been right. There was in fact bad PR. This kind of thing was exactly the sort of news that counted as bad publicity. Not because Tristan and I were gay. I doubted all of America gave two shits anymore about anyone’s sexual orientation, but the fact that he was my employer, and was breaching a serious code of ethics in the corporate space.Tristan was one of the higher-up people. He could not afford to make mistake
I stared at my father, shell-shocked.He was holding me close to his chest, but I felt more distant from him than ever before, the light receding from my eyes with every movement of his hand on my back, patting me.“It’s alright, William, he was saying, but it wasn’t alright at all, and I knew that it was not going to be alright for a very long time if I didn’t say something now. Something was terribly wrong.I pulled myself away from my father and cocked my head, trying to understand if I had heard him correctly.“Dad?” I asked, trepidation and a little confusion in my voice. “Pulling me out of Terra?” I laughed nervously. “What does that mean?”His eyes were pure and his gaze was straight as he looked into my eyes.“It means I’m taking you off the project with Terra Corporations. I had hoped back then that you would be able to handle the stress and deal with this entire thing for us at Bracknell Inc., but I see now that that was a mistake.”He had more lines on his face and even thr
I stared at my father, shell-shocked.He was holding me close to his chest, but I felt more distant from him than ever before, the light receding from my eyes with every movement of his hand on my back, patting me.“It’s alright, William, he was saying, but it wasn’t alright at all, and I knew that it was not going to be alright for a very long time if I didn’t say something now. Something was terribly wrong.I pulled myself away from my father and cocked my head, trying to understand if I had heard him correctly.“Dad?” I asked, trepidation and a little confusion in my voice. “Pulling me out of Terra?” I laughed nervously. “What does that mean?”His eyes were pure and his gaze was straight as he looked into my eyes.“It means I’m taking you off the project with Terra Corporations. I had hoped back then that you would be able to handle the stress and deal with this entire thing for us at Bracknell Inc., but I see now that that was a mistake.”He had more lines on his face and even thr
I explained everything to Ellie, starting with why she had been unable to reach me, up till the point where Tristan had left this morning and for a while, both her and her husband just stared, speechless.I took a drink of the tea that they had served me and moved back in the chair. I would be silent too if someone just unloaded everything that had happened so far onto me.It seemed like everything had happened all at once, had been fast-forwarded and then the hot looping mess had been poured into my lap. I brought the cup of tea to my lips again.“You mean to tell me…” Ellie started. She’d risen up from her chair and had started pacing round the room. “Let me get this straight. You and Tristan had sex.”“Yes.”“You and Tristan had actual sex.”I frowned at her. “Is there a point you’re trying to make, Ellie?”“What? No, I’m just…” she paced and spun. “And then he left you just like that? All alone in his house? That was kind of harsh.”I sighed. “Honestly, it’s what I would do too. I
“How do you keep getting my number, Caleb?” I shouted. “What is wrong with you?”To my surprise, Caleb’s voice was calm when he responded, “There’s nothing wrong with me, William, I’ve told you before. If there’s anything that’s the problem with me at all, it’s you, William. You’re refusing to hear me out. You’re refusing to see what’s in front of you. I love you, William. Why won’t you—”I ended the call and squeezed the phone in my hand. I unlocked it and went straight to number, blocking and then deleting it, but not before a text message from Caleb had come in:STOP FIGHTING THIS, WILLIAM. I’M STILL HERE FOR YOU. LET ME LOVE YOU. RETHINK OUR RELATIONSHIP.I deleted the text message and blocked the number.It occurred to me that every person that I probably knew was seeing this news, unless they were not online or like to keep abreast of current topics.My father had already called. Now I understood what he had meant when he said I had killed him. He had read the news already. He h