Breathe (His Command Book 5) Page 8

  “You’re not living on the street, are you?” Marshall asked. His hand resumed stroking Oliver’s hair. The rage had passed. With a few sentences and a dose of dry humor, Oliver had talked him down.

  “No. My friend Cedric took me in, and I’m staying with him. He’s the manager here. He’s, uh, Silver’s brother-in-law, technically. I guess.”

  Marshall opened his eyes. “Sterling?”

  “Yeah. I always forget his stupid name. Do you know him?”

  Marshall closed his eyes again. “I was a regular here for years. Sterling and I are old friends. He runs this place well, and he’s one of the most outstanding gentlemen I know.”

  “Well... I’m staying with his brother-in-law—his husband’s brother’s boyfriend, soon to be fiancé. So I guess it’s a small world. Six degrees of separation, right?”

  If Oliver was staying with Sterling’s brother-in-law, then he was staying somewhere safe. The thought of leaving Oliver with another alpha—especially during his heat—was hard to bear, but Sterling would never associate with a disreputable man. Marshall invested his faith in Sterling’s judgment. Oliver would be fine.

  “So I’m not living on the streets right now, but I am, effectively, homeless. I need to find a job, make back the money that I owe Cedric, then make enough so that I can afford a pretty significant deposit on a new apartment.” Oliver shifted on Marshall’s lap, and another spike of pleasure speared Marshall’s groin. “I’m not going to have a phone for a while, but I still want to talk to you. Can I send you emails? I have a laptop. Or we can hop on Skype, or... what else? Facebook? Do you have Facebook?”

  “Let me get you a new phone,” Marshall said.

  “Um.” Oliver peeled back from him again to look him in the eye. There was distrust in his expression. “No? That’s a pretty expensive thing for you to buy me, and then I’d have to pay for the plan, and I can’t even afford to pay for groceries.”

  “I’ll pay for it.” Another hundred dollars a month was a drop in the bucket. Marshall wouldn’t even notice it was gone. “You need one if you’re going to find a job.”

  “I’ve been borrowing Gabriel’s phone—Gabriel is Sterling’s husband’s brother.” The hesitation and uncertainty plastered on Oliver’s face was almost painful. “You really don’t need to.”

  “I want to.”

  Oliver frowned. For a man who was so outspoken and courageous about so many topics, it seemed strange that he’d back down from the offer. Marshall let his hands part from Oli’s body, giving him as much space as he could considering their circumstance. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s just...” Oliver’s frown intensified. “I don’t want to feel like you have to buy me. That’s not... that’s not how this works.”

  Marshall was stunned. He looked Oliver over, doing his best to pinpoint where his sudden doubt had come from. “You think that I’m trying to buy you?”

  “That’s what older guys do, right?” Oliver sank down onto Marshall’s lap. The pleasure he created wasn’t intentional, but Marshall felt it all the same. “They meet a younger man and buy him everything to make sure they win his love... but I don’t want that. You don’t have to buy me to make me...” He trailed off, his cheeks turning pink. “... shit.”

  “To make you love me?” Marshall offered him a half-smile.

  “I mean, it doesn’t necessarily have to be love,” Oliver murmured. His cheeks turned pinker by the second. “I just meant, in general, having feelings. Liking someone. You know... I don’t want you to think that I only like you because you’re buying me shit. That’s not the way I want this to work.”

  The more he spoke, the deeper he dug himself. Marshall’s smile grew. “What is it, exactly, that you want to work?”

  “Well, fuck me, I guess.” Oliver sighed. “I guess, after how we got along online, that I was hoping maybe you’d want to knot my ass on a regular basis.” The cheeky smile on his face did away with his embarrassment, and Marshall’s affection for him grew. “Like, maybe really regularly, so often, in fact, that you won’t want to go find other attractive young men to bring to your... kink club bathroom stalls.” Oliver scrunched his nose in distaste. “At least we’re alone.”

  “Not many people know about this bathroom,” Marshall admitted. “Sterling pointed it out to me close to ten years ago, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of The Shepherd’s best-kept secrets.”

  “But, I mean, I was thinking that maybe we could meet in other places, too. Imagine the possibilities. Bathroom stalls at the mall, at the movie theater, maybe even wherever you work at lunch.” Oliver’s cheeky smile grew into a grin. He traced a finger down Marshall’s chest. “We could work our way up to the bathroom at your place.”

  Fear cleaved Marshall in half. He couldn’t bring Oliver home. As far as Oliver was concerned, he was a normal, healthy individual. Marshall didn’t want Oliver’s pity any more than Oliver wanted him to buy his love. The second he brought Oliver home and he spotted his oxygen compressors, masks, cannulas, and medication...

  No.

  Marshall couldn’t have it. For the first time in years, he’d met someone who treated him like he was a regular human being. The spark of love they shared, born from their digital relationship, was too fragile to weather something like disease. The second the truth came to light, Oliver would leave him. No one would want to stick around with a man who’d accepted his own mortality and had thrown in the towel. But Marshall was selfish—he wasn’t willing to be alone just yet. Oliver was a radiant source of light in an otherwise dark time, and he would do whatever it took to make sure that light kept shining. Soon, he would accept the inevitable. But until then, he needed Oliver with him.

  “I think we can make that work,” Marshall said at last.

  “Such enthusiasm.” Oliver chuckled. “I don’t blame you, though. I’m a little foggy-headed from what you just did to me. Or, I guess, what I just did to myself. I rode you pretty hard, didn’t I?”

  “Very hard,” Marshall agreed. He was grateful. He never would have made it through a session so heated if he’d been the one doing the thrusting. “You were voracious. You’ve set high standards for yourself going forward.”

  “Those are the kind of high standards I have no problem meeting.” Oliver tilted his head and let their lips brush together. Marshall closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation. “Although I don’t mind breaking out of the box sometimes, you know. I’d just as eagerly fuck myself on your dick absentmindedly while watching something on television as I would in a club bathroom.”

  “You just met me. How do you know that for sure?”

  Oliver pulled back, grasped both his shoulders, and gave Marshall a dirty look. “Don’t even try to start. I haven’t just met you, Alcrest. Before I disappeared from the internet, we talked every day. I know you better than that.”

  “Do you, now?” Marshall tugged Oliver back and kissed him just long enough so that he gasped and squirmed. His knot was starting to shrink, and it wouldn’t be long before they separated. “If you know me so well, then how about you come back to my table and meet my friends? All of them must have seen us go off together. I don’t think there’s any doubt in their mind as to what we just did.”

  “I think I’ll save that cripplingly embarrassing moment for episode five,” Oliver mused. “It’s the one where you’re hosting a barbecue for all your friends so they can meet me, but it turns out I have a job interview the same night and I get stuck in gridlock traffic, only to find out once I arrive that the guy I just interviewed with is your best friend, and he was stuck in traffic, too.”

  “You know, I can see if any of the companies Crawford oversees are hiring. What is your degree in? You never told me.”

  “Marketing.” Oliver made a face. “But please, don’t set me up to work with your best friend. I don’t want to be a pity hire, you know? I want to earn my place—and not that way, you pervert.”

  Marshall smirked. and Oliver wasted no time in smacking h
im on the shoulder.

  “I missed you,” Marshall said.

  Oliver smiled. His shoulders relaxed, and he wove his hands through Marshall’s hair. “I missed you, too. But do you know what the best part of missing someone is?”

  “No.”

  His smile grew, and the barriers keeping Marshall’s heart safe dissolved. “It makes it that much sweeter when you get to see them again.”

  12

  Oli

  A little after eleven on Monday morning, there was a knock on Oli’s bedroom door. He lifted his head, minimized his conversation with Alcrest, and pushed his laptop aside. It had to be Cedric, who’d likely just woken up.

  “Hey, come in,” Oli said. “It’s not locked.”

  The door opened. Cedric, still in his pajamas, stepped in and approached the side of the bed Oli had taken to sleeping on. “Good morning. Special delivery.”

  “What?” Oli sat up a little straighter, his legs crossed beneath him. He was rocking fleecy polar bear pajama pants, even though the spring weather wasn’t all that frigid. After his unexpected encounter with Marshall on Saturday night, he’d been all about comfort, and there was nothing more comfortable than his fleecy pajamas. They made Oli want to nestle amongst the sheets and do nothing all day.

  “It arrived last night while I was at work.” Cedric hitched an eyebrow and handed Oli a box. It wasn’t particularly large—Cedric carried it easily with one hand. The print on it was bright and evocative and left little to the imagination. Oli knew right away what it was—a cellphone.

  “That bastard.”

  “He said if you wanted to get even, you could meet him in episode six.” Cedric shrugged. “If you have any idea what that means, let me know.”

  Oli had every idea what it meant, and his heart chirped in appreciation even as he grumbled about the gift. He held the box loosely in his hands, looking down at the model information on the front. It wasn’t even a burner phone—Marshall had gone out and gotten him a new Galaxy Note.

  “That bastard,” he mumbled.

  “You already said that.”

  “I told him not to do this.” Oli lifted the box to show Cedric as if Cedric had no idea what he’d delivered. “I explicitly told him not to.”

  “I think it’s a sweet gesture.” Cedric shrugged. He pushed his bed-head out of his face and smoothed it down. “I talked to Sterling about him, you know—”

  “Oh my god.” Oli dropped the phone on the bed and covered his face with his hands. “You’re trying to Dad me, aren’t you? Getting your practice in early before Cedric Two-Point-Oh arrives. I see how it is.”

  “No.” Cedric snorted. “I have zero intentions of Dadding you. I just noticed that he was hanging out with Sterling, and so I asked Sterling what he knew about him. Marshall is a nice guy. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but if there is something, you picked a winner.”

  Oli flopped back on the bed, his face still hidden in his hands. “I can’t believe you’re giving me your stamp of approval.”

  “Why not?” The bed dipped. Oli peeped out from between his fingers. Cedric had come to sit beside him. “When I was in the midst of my despair, you talked to me about Gabriel.”

  “Well, yeah, but I didn’t go snoop on him.” Oli grabbed one of his pillows and hid his head beneath it. When he spoke again, his voice was muffled. “Now Sterling’s going to tell Marshall, and Marshall’s going to think things about me.”

  “Things like what?”

  “Like how lame I must be, using my friends to snoop on him.” Oli lifted the pillow to glare half-heartedly at Cedric. “Sterling is one of his friends.”

  “Sterling isn’t going to say anything.” Cedric patted his knee reassuringly. “Did you eat already? I’m going to go make breakfast. Gabriel needs to eat something, and I know he’s been avoiding food.”

  “I ate.” Oli cast the pillow aside and continued to wallow in mock despair. “Thanks anyway, Dad.”

  Cedric rose from the bed and shrugged a single shoulder. “Are you sure I’m the alpha you should be calling that?”

  “Oh, fuck you!” But Oliver laughed when he said it, and even when he threw his pillow and hit Cedric directly on the back, Cedric was laughing, too. “Get out of here, you traitor. I see how it is now. I spent six years making fun of you for your whips and chains, and the second I start dating an older man, you see an opportunity for revenge.”

  “Too bad you don’t want to hear more about your new beau,” Cedric said from the doorway. There was laughter in his words that never quite fully emerged. “Because he’s much more than whips and chains. If you knew half the things I did...”

  Oli’s face went red-hot, and he scrambled to find something else to throw at Cedric. Cedric laughed and closed the door. It was a good thing, because the only thing Oli could think of to throw at him was his new phone, and he wasn’t going through that drama all over again.

  The phone was fully charged when Oli took it out of the box, and it had already been set up with a SIM card, service activated. A new message waited. The contact information had been pre-programmed into the phone, so Oli knew who it was from as soon as the screen blinked on.

  Marshall Alcrest.

  “Of course,” Oli mumbled, screwing up his face in what he wished was anger, but what was actually secret delight. He glanced at his laptop, wondering if he should scold Marshall in their Skype conversation, or if he should fire back from his new phone.

  Oli sided with the latter.

  He opened up the message waiting for him and was about to jab the comment window with his thumb when he read the message from Marshall.

  I know that you didn’t want this phone, but there are times in life where we can’t always get what we want. I look forward to hearing from you, Oliver.

  Oli’s finger hovered over the screen. His cock twitched. Why the hell was he aroused? He’d been denied what he wanted, given a gift he wasn’t prepared to receive, and yet...

  He tapped his thumb to the screen and composed a reply. You’re a bad man, Mr. Alcrest, if that is your real name.

  As real as I am, Marshall replied. I’m glad you got it. Do you like it?

  Absolutely not.

  Too bad.

  Oli smirked. Are you learning to give my shit back to me?

  I never needed to be taught.

  Feisty. Oli bit down on his bottom lip and sank onto the bed again. Are you at work right now? What are you doing?

  Sitting through another meaningless meeting.

  At that, Oli laughed. He wasn’t even in the workforce yet, but he already knew how that went. He’d been forced to participate in enough disorganized group projects while in class to understand Marshall’s pain. So that’s why you weren’t replying on Skype. I guess you’re away from your computer?

  Quite far away.

  But close enough to your phone that you can reply to me instantly. Your boss isn’t going to get you in trouble if you keep texting your new boyfriend, is he? You just spent what, seven hundred dollars on a new phone for me? The last thing you need is to be let go.

  I’m in no danger of being fired, and money is not an issue.

  Then why don’t I make your meeting a little more interesting?

  Oli was fully aware that he’d contacted Marshall to chew him out for buying him a phone, but he couldn’t bring himself to stay angry. Every word Marshall wrote was magic, like his letters were carefully crafted rune spells meant to enchant Oli in new ways. There were some fights that were worth having, but dragging Marshall through the mud because he’d gone out of his way to provide him with a new phone? Especially when texting had been their only method of communication before shit had gone down?

  Oli couldn’t hold it against him.

  Oh? Marshall wrote.

  Oli smirked. You work in an office building, right? Multiple floors? Corporate drone?

  Yes.

  What floor is the least busy? Tell me where you might take me if I were there if yo
u wanted to spirit me away.

  The sixth floor.

  Oli set his new phone down, cracked his knuckles, and craned his neck. He glanced toward his bedroom door to make sure it was shut, then closed his laptop and curled back up under the sheets. Job hunting could wait. A half hour spent teasing the man he was falling in love with wouldn’t close any doors—but if Oli played his cards right, it might end up shaping his future.

  13

  Marshall

  “Since the board has approved the creation of the new marketing campaign, measures must be taken to...”

  You pull me from the elevator the second the door slides open, and before I can catch my balance, you’re already dragging me down the hall. You know the perfect place to bring me, don’t you? The perfect little hideaway where no one will hear all the naughty things that come from my mouth as you do depraved things to my body.

  Marshall glanced from the screen of his phone to Samantha, who managed to look every bit as furious as she did cool and professional. She was the only one in the board room who’d noticed that his attention was diverted.

  Somehow, he wasn’t surprised.

  You pull me in without a moment’s hesitation and close the door behind us. The room is cramped, isn’t it? A tiny bathroom stall, or maybe a janitor’s closet, or a tiny meeting room that no one uses anymore. Whatever it is, it’s ours, even if it’s just for a little while.

  Marshall kept his phone on the table, and he did his best to listen to the conversation going on around him, but his attention was pulled in too many directions—only one of which won out. Oliver stole the show. If he knew, he’d be beyond pleased. Marshall shifted in his seat and imagined the triumphant grin on his face.

  A hitched, ragged breath pulled Marshall’s mind back to what was important—he was starting to get flustered, and as his blood rushed and his heart beat faster, his lungs struggled to catch up.