“Uh…I found something better to do.”
“Oh yeah?” Henry instantly sounded more awake. “Details, brother. I need details.”
“I don’t kiss and tell. You’ll have to trust me.”
“Breakfast in an hour,” said Henry. “I need some information, some proof; at least a name and pictures of you together. I’m not asking for a blow-by-blow of your night.” He started cackling, and Sam swore.
“Asshole. You’re pretty proud of yourself with that one, aren’t you?” Sam took out his clothes for the day and collected his razor and shaving cream.
“You have to admit it was a good one.” Henry chuckled. “Blow by blow.”
Sam couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s crude joke. “Jesus, you’re pathetic. Are you looking for pointers or something? Let me get ready and I’ll see you in an hour.”
He ended the call and got into the shower. He’d have loved to have taken a shower with Zach, but the man didn’t ask, and Sam wouldn’t push himself to ask either. Besides, he thought as he soaped himself up, it wasn’t as though one amazing fuck made a relationship.
Sam hoped he could keep his heart as hard as his dick the next time he saw Zach.
Chapter Five
Sittinginhis second meeting of the morning, Zach’s mind began to wander. There was only so much interest he could muster toward a discussion of the hybridization of apps for android, windows, or iOS.
Jesus, people, it’s not world peace here, it’s an app.
He drummed his fingers on the table, and his leg jiggled a dance out of boredom, imagining Sam upstairs, enjoying a lazy morning in bed. Zach resented sitting here, when he could be upstairs with Sam, kissing and touching him. Making love to him. Desire burned hot through his bloodstream.
“Zach, what do you think of the way they’ve integrated their native user interface? This company has worked for years to make their coding available for all platforms.”
Startled out of his sexual fantasy, Zach guiltily realized he should pay attention; after all, they were putting him up for the weekend.
“Uh, yeah, it’s great.” Could they tell how much he didn’t care? But he needed to at least attempt to make the effort and show some enthusiasm. His dirty dreams could wait until later. “I wanted an app that would pull from all the different social media sites of the user. By integrating their Yelp reviews, Facebook page likes, posts on Tumblr, and other web footprints, I thought it was a unique way to pair people up for a dating site.”
That was his spiel, the one he’d used when he sold the site to a software company for an insane amount of money. And it had proved to be a winner, as people flocked to the website to sign up for the monthly service. He was glad for his foresight to include stock options in his sales contract and had gifted Julian and Marcus some stock in the company as well. Zach hadn’t forgotten how his friends staunchly supported him, even though they freely admitted they had no idea what he did.
“It’s brilliant, Zach, just brilliant,” gushed Cicely Long, the director of development for Rocket Launch software. “In the first year alone we’ve had over twenty thousand subscribers, with hundreds signing on every day.”
“Good. I’m glad,” said Zach. He wondered how he could create a dating site for others to find love, when he was so woefully inadequate in his own personal life. The night with Sam Stein had been a wonderful distraction, but Zach knew it was a one-off, designed to give him dreams to last a very long time. This morning when Zach threw out the dinner invitation, he’d hoped Sam would’ve wanted to spend another night together. Instead he’d vacillated and failed to pick up Zach’s hint, giving at best a noncommittal answer.
Even when he tried to be a player, Zach was a failure. Always had been. He was too awkward, too certain people wouldn’t like him. This was why he didn’t normally bother.
The meeting broke up, and he saw by his watch it was lunchtime, but he had to call his mother first. She’d be anxious to talk to him, and he didn’t want her to worry unnecessarily. Finding himself a secluded spot in the lobby, he sat in a comfortable chair and pulled out his phone.
“Sweetheart, how are you? How is the conference?”
His mother’s familiar, voluble tone filled his ear. “I’m fine, everything’s good.”
“I was worried when I didn’t hear from you last night. Usually you call me when you check in, to let me know everything is okay.”
The slightly condemning tone sent that familiar stab of guilt through Zach. No matter how hard he tried, he ended up disappointing someone. Considering her fears, he tried hard not to worry her and let her know where he was.
“Sorry, Mom. I got caught up in something that lasted a bit longer than I thought, and it became too late.”
“That’s all right. As long as you’re okay. Anyone nice there that you like?”
Another thing for him to feel guilty about. Cheryl Cohen never gave up the hope that he would meet a nice girl and settle down. “A grandchild would be so lovely” was her usual refrain.
But, Zach justified to himself, there had never been a right time to tell his mother he was gay. She had been as thrilled as anyone when Julian and Nick got together, but after commenting to him how disappointed Nick’s parents must be that he would never have his own children, Zach shut down any thoughts of confessing his own sexuality to her. She’d had enough pain and loss in her life; why tell her she’d lost the only chance for a grandchild by having Zach as her son?
“I’m here for business, not to find a date.” He heard a smothered chuckle and darted a sideways look, catching the eye of the man sitting a few feet away on the sofa. Zach’s face burned when he realized the good-looking man had overheard his conversation, and he hastily looked down, away, anywhere but at the laughing stranger.
