Epilogue
“Marcus,how about you fill us in on the modifications for the…” Sebastian’s voice carried across the table as he spoke to the manager of a Seaver Tech research division in Spokane whose face was plastered on a giant wall-mounted flat-screen, but Cam could barely force himself to listen. Despite the bright sunlight flooding the conference room through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him, and the extra-large coffee on the table in front of him, Cam wastired. On the other side of the thick, glass-block privacy walls which cocooned the conference room from the rest of the office, no doubt the employees of Seaver Tech were moving around, hurrying to finish their work before they could leave for the weekend. Cam was just a tiny bit jealous. He wondered for the twenty-seventh time why Bas always scheduled these meetings on Fridaymornings.
Not that having Sebastian at the helm again was in any way a bad thing. In fact, it was one major silver lining to all the shit that had had gone down on St. Brigitte and the even bigger mess they’d found when they returned. Emmett Shaw’s betrayal and the ramifications of it were things Cam and Sebastian would struggle with for a long time, but it helped to know Sebastian was back among the living, no longer swamped under the weight of his own grief, and he and Drew were closer thanever.
Cam’s cell phone buzzed almost imperceptibly, and he withdrew it from hispocket.
[Cort:]I feel like we need avacation.
Cam rolled his eyes as he read the message, but couldn’t stop the smile from tugging at his lips. He glanced across the table to find his boyfriend, the newly appointed head of Seaver Tech’s new Internal Security Division, waggling his eyebrowsmeaningfully.
Kendrick Cortland was completely incorrigible, and unconditionallyhis. He typed his reply quickly, knowing exactly how to provoke hisman.
[Cam:]You do realize we’re in the middle of a boardmeeting?
[Cort:]Think you mean a bored meeting.Ha!
Cam stifled a smirk – the dad humor was terrible - just as another text buzzedthrough.
[Cort:]FYI, Margaret agrees. We need avacation.
[Cam:]Margaret? My assistant? You chatted with her aboutthis?
[Cort:]Yup. We talked. Last night while I was waiting for you. She’s very concerned about your stress levels. You’re not getting any younger youknow.
No surprise there. Of course Margaret had agreed with whatever scheme Cort concocted; she’d been Cort’s BFF since pretty much day one. She told Cam she loved the way Cort had lightened his heart… which was such a sweet andaccurateway of putting it, Cam couldn’t be mad even when she conspired with Cort behind his back. His heartwaslighter these days. And fuller,too.
[Cam:]I am twenty-six,Kenny.
[Cort:]And apparently too senile to remember my name,brat.
Cam pushed his lips together, fighting the pulse of heat rising from his belly. With Cort, arousal was a steady current always running just beneath hisskin.
[Cam:]Shhh. I need to pay attention to themeeting.
[Cort:]Bullshit. You’re not paying attention. You’re probably thinking about lastnight.
The annoying man was not wrong, but Cam would be damned if he’d admit it. He put his phone facedown on the table and pretended to watch Marcus talk about…something… from the flat-screen on the wall, but in reality, Cam was definitely thinking about lastnight.
It had started out with a stupid bet, the kind that had become a daily occurrence in their relationship. Cam hadn’t known quite how competitive he was until Cort started turning every thrown wad of paper into a game of basketball, and every glass of wine into a round of Never Have I Ever. He also hadn’t known it was possible to laugh as much as he did with his rule-skirtingboyfriend.
Sadly for Cort, who was arguably even more competitive than Cam, his League of Legends game had never quite picked up, probably because he insisted on playing with Cam sitting beside him, leaning against his arm, massaging his shoulders and… other things. Cort’s matches invariably involved him being killed early on, while people on chat swore ripely and suggested anatomically-impossible moves in angry Russian. Six months after his first game, he was still unranked… but it didn’t seem to dull his enthusiasm for “practicing.”
Last night, however, Cort had suggested Cam demonstrate his own skills, while Cort took careful notes. Cam hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic. Only a month ago, he and Cort had bought a townhouse of their own, and they were still in the process of moving in. Between painting the rooms - and the laughter-filled competitions required to determine the colors each room would be painted - moving furniture around until Cort lost his temper then decided leaving the whole lot in the middle of the room would be a great way to start conversations, and the emotional rollercoaster ride of unboxing and hanging the family pictures Cam had taken from his parents’ house, he’d already been tired, but Cort had insisted. If Cam could finish a match before Cort got him off, he’d win the forfeit of his choice. Otherwise, Cort would have to settle for anIOU.
It had been too tempting toresist.
Besides which, Cam knew that he’d been able to complete matches in less than twenty minutes - sometimes less than fifteen. Tired as he was, distracted as he was, he was confident he could hold out. Cam had already decided he would hold onto that IOU because there was something special in the works for their first Valentine’s Daytogether.
“Fine,” he’d told Cort. “Let’s dothis.”
But of course, Cort hadn’t been able to resist stacking the tables against him. Within the first minute of the game, Cort had been naked and hard, and he’d stripped off Cam’s clothes, too, in recordtime.
Cort had started off with a slow, sensual massage that had completely killed every one of Cam’s defenses, then he’d crawled beneath Cam’s desk, like a fantasy come to life, and used that extremely-skilled mouth of his to make Cam scream before five minutes had evenpassed.
It had been the hardest, most satisfying orgasm Cam had enjoyed in weeks of very satisfyingorgasms.
He’d also been utterly crushed in hismatch.
