Some of the stockholders gave Noah strange looks. Beckett took that as a warning.
“Why don’t Noah and I see if the catering has arrived yet?” he asked, tugging on Noah’s sleeve.
“An excellent idea,” Beckett’s father said with a wary look. “Send everything up when it arrives.”
Beckett understood that as a request to keep Noah away from the meeting. It was what he would have ordered if he’d been the one in charge.
“I know why you’ve dragged me out here,” Noah whispered once they were in the hall. “You wish topractice,” he said, his eyes alight with lust.
“Not while the meeting is taking place,” Beckett said as he walked Noah down the hall to the stairs. “We need to make certain—”
He got no further than that before Noah grabbed his arm and yanked him into the broom closet they were passing. It was lit by a narrow window at the top of one wall, and as soon as Noah slammed the door shut behind him, he practically leapt into Beckett’s arms. Beckett’s protest was silenced by Noah’s mouth on his.
It was maddening. Beckett had no idea what to do. On the one hand, kissing Noah always felt good. On the other, they were in a broom closet at the glassworks, for Christ’s sake. But yet another consideration was that kissing in the broom closet would keep Noah too occupied to interfere with the important meeting.
Since he didn’t know what to do, Beckett gave up and leaned back against the wall, allowing Noah to kiss him and paw at his clothes in the near darkness.
At least, until Noah hummed, “How wicked would it be for us to fuck right here in this closet, in the middle of the morning, with important work happening all around us?”
Beckett let out a heavy breath and leaned his forehead against Noah’s. “You know we cannot,” he said, keeping his voice as calm as possible.
“But wouldn’t it be scintillating?” Noah asked. “We could commit every sort of act of gross indecency, then walk right out of here, laughing at everyone who doesn’t know what we’ve done.”
Beckett swallowed hard, fighting the urge to weep. He kept his arms firmly around Noah, kissing his lips and cheeks lightly. His throat constricted, and he could hardly breathe. Noah was sick. He was so very sick, and it didn’t feel like there was anything Beckett could do to make him better.
“You know we cannot do that here,” he said as softly as he could, moving one arm so that he could stroke the side of Noah’s face soothingly. “It isn’t appropriate.”
“But I want you, Beckett,” Noah said, moving restlessly against Beckett, as though he would get a start on things while they were still clothed. Noah’s erection pressed against his hip. “I want you so desperately right now.”
“And I want you too, love,” Beckett said, hopelessness tightening his voice. He kissed Noah again, narrowly avoiding the way Noah tried to deepen the kiss. There didn’t seem to be anything for it but to say, “Why don’t we go home and spend the afternoon in bed? We’ll make certain Conrad knows to deal with the caterers once they arrive, then we can spend the whole rest of the day practicing.”
“But it would be so much more exciting to do it here,” Noah hummed, moving to kiss Beckett’s neck.
“I know,” Beckett said, “but not while Father is holding an important meeting.”
Noah let out a breath, sagging with extreme disappointment.
“If it helps, you could swallow my cock in the carriage on the way home.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Beckett wanted to smack himself. Never in a million years would he have imagined himself saying something like that. Especially saying it in a way that was meant to placate someone who was obviously experiencing a moment of mental distress.
But Noah leaned back, laughing, and took Beckett’s hand. “What a jolly idea,” he said, eyes too bright, even in the dim light of the closet. “Anyone might hear us when we stop at intersections. Can you imagine it?”
Unfortunately, Beckett could imagine it. That and a great deal more.
He let Noah drag him back out of the closet and along the hallway. His mind was already busy making up excuses to send to his father, and to give to the rest of the office staff before he left to take Noah home. It was busy scrambling for ways to do something for Noah as well, something more substantial than wearing him out with sex. He needed to get Noah to a doctor. He needed to find a way to treat his lover’s broken mind before it was too late for both of them.
ChapterEleven
The wild elation that had been with Noah for almost a week started to deflate. He knew it when he woke up a few mornings after the day of the stockholder’s meeting—a day that had degenerated into him and Beckett rutting in Beckett’s bed for hours. But Noah couldn’t quite remember it anymore. All he remembered was how good it had felt to be in the arms of someone who cared about him.
He woke with those arms around him and Beckett’s warm breath against his shoulder in the pre-dawn hours of an ordinary Thursday morning, knowing it was all over. He could feel it in his gut, weighing down on him, dragging him under. He could feel it as surely as he felt Beckett’s thigh wedged between his.
He’d been unfaithful to Marcus. He’d left everything he knew with the single-minded intent of returning to his lover, and he’d ended up in another man’s bed instead. He and Beckett had done wicked, wicked things in the last week.
But it was worse than that. It was so much worse.
He shifted as carefully as he could, turning until he faced a still-sleeping Beckett, though he kept their bodies as entwined as possible. He drew in a breath, letting the scent of his friend fill him, then let it out on a tragic sigh. Beckett was so kind and so beautiful. He looked so peaceful in sleep. His sweet face, which had been creased with worries more often than not in the last few days—though Noah didn’t understand why, since they’d been having a jolly time together—was completely at rest.