“Don’t stop,” Jasper mumbled sleepily, while Travis said, “Oh no, you don’t, Twinkle.”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have?—”
Travis didn’t let me finish. “The only person complaining about these sleeping arrangements is you.”
“My cock is complaining now. It was enjoying that,” Jasper added, opening one eye to look at me.
My cheeks heated, but then I let out a defeated sigh. “What time is it?” I asked as I lay back down between them, Travis pulling me back to where I’d been and then nudging me until I slipped my hand under the covers and into Jasper’s shorts.
Travis lifted his phone from the side. “Four am. Go back to sleep.”
“Yeap, I need you on your A-game today while we go sort this shit out. I need fierce Finn backing me up.”
“Yes, Professor.”
He snuggled closer, pressing a sleepy kiss to my temple. “Thank you. What would we do without you?”
I fell back asleep, wondering what life would be like to have people who wanted me around and didn’t think I was too much, but I knew the truth. In the end, everyone left.
TRAVIS
I was in awe,watching them with a sense of pride filling my chest. It started when I stepped out of my room this morning and found them both dressed and ready for the day. They looked like a hot power couple. Jasper in his suit that clung to his body perfectly, and Finn in his snug-fitting outfit that showed off his petite body.
They’d strode into the office like they owned the place, and Jasper was now tearing them down for the mistakes they’d made without raising his voice or uttering a swear word. He was like one of those parents who tell you that they aren’t angry, but disappointed. You could hear a pin drop.
“I don’t understand why you thought recalibrating the tech was a good idea. You’ve basically made every line of data you’ve sent since this team was set up worthless. It will take days and countless man-hours to fix this, plus we’ll have to restart your data collection, meaning you’ll be out of sync with all the other sites. Who authorised this? Because decisions this big should have a paper trail, and this has none.”
He looked around the room at the ten or so staff who worked here in the research centre, who all looked ashamed and also confused.
“None of us has done it. We were asked to start a couple of days late and told there was a problem with the computer system. When we got here, everything was set up, so we presumed it was done at the same time as sorting the computer glitches. Everything looked within the parameters we were given, so no one thought anything was wrong. We’re so sorry, Professor Fischer. I know I can speak for all of us when I say that none of us would do anything to jeopardise the project. We’re all really passionate about you and your work. It’s why we took the job,” Cordelia, the team leader, declared.
“Well, we’ve got to the bottom of it now. Finn will email you over the new parameters, and I will personally reset everything with Travis before we leave at the end of the week.”
Finn stood next to him. “We will be asking an independent person to keep an eye on the equipment and QAing the data before it comes to us, and if there are any more issues that are caused by human error rather than a result of the data, then we will be looking to replace the team as a whole.”
There were murmurs and whispers around the room.
“Any questions about any of this, please come to me. Professor Fischer and Doctor Jones have busy schedules for the rest of the week, but I’ll be happy to help.”
Jasper offered a nod. “Right, back to work. Thank you all for your time.”
Everyone filtered out, and I closed the door behind them. “Very assertive, Jas.”
His shoulders dropped, and he let out a huge breath. “God, do you think? I was shitting myself. I’ve never been good at dishing out the tellings off. This was not why I started this job. I feel so disconnected from it, it doesn’t even feel like my work anymore.”
Finn pressed his hand to Jasper’s lower back. “You only have to last the week, and then you get to spend a week on a boat.”
Jasper turned to look down at him, his frown flipping into a smile. “Yes, I do.” But then it slipped from his face, a scowl replacing it. “But then I’m back to the office. More meetings, more stakeholders, and talk about budgets.”
Finn laughed. “That’s the best bit. I’d rather be doing that than be on a boat. I’m looking forward to a week on land while you two sail the seas or whatever the phrase is.”
My eyes widened. “What? You’re not coming with us?”
Finn recoiled. “No! I hate boats. Hate water. Hate getting wet unless it’s in the bath or shower. Nope. No way.”
My eyes locked with Jasper, who looked incredibly guilty, and then Finn looked between us, obviously cottoning on to something being off because he slammed his notepad and phone on the table and put his hands on his hips.
“Something to tell me, Professor?”
