Faded in to You

by Remmy Duchene

  “Abi, my man!” Ravinder said, reaching between the seats to pat the driver on the shoulder. “You’re a life-saver.”

  Abhay laughed. “I do not know about all that.”

  “We’ll see you later,” Ravinder said.

  Abhay nodded.

  Thaddeus enjoyed the interaction between Abhay and Ravinder. The way Ravinder spoke to the driver wasn’t as if he was above Abhay. There was a mutual respect there that Thaddeus loved. He climbed out of the other side of the car and closed the door. He walked around the vehicle, buttoning his suit jacket.

  He wasn’t sure why but Ravinder hurried ahead of him toward the building. Thaddeus didn’t complain. He took that moment to stare at Ravinder’s ass. He didn’t even know if Ravinder swung that way. For all Thaddeus knew, that comment in his office about not going on a date was just a smart-assed comment. That sobering thought made him look up and shake his head. The last thing he wanted to do was hit on a straight guy—again. That naked comment back at the house had been way out of line.

  What the hell is wrong with you?

  Thaddeus leaned into the bar and spoke into the bartender’s ear. The man nodded and, after a couple of minutes, another man appeared at their sides.

  “This way to the VIP,” he said.

  Thaddeus tapped Ravinder on the shoulder to get his attention and they followed their host to their area. Usher and Lil Jon blared from the speakers and he had to admit it was the last thing he’d expected. Taking Ravinder’s hand, he followed the host through the gyrating bodies and they were set up in a section with a velvet rope. He handed the host his credit card and fell into one of the seats.

  “If you require a bartender, simply press this button here,” the host said, pointing to the white orb in the center of the glass table.

  “Thank you,” Thaddeus said.

  The hostess left them alone, and Thaddeus returned his attention to Ravinder.

  Ravinder didn’t seem impressed. He kept rubbing his palms against his thighs and looking around.

  “Ravinder?”

  “Hmm?” Ravinder didn’t look at Thaddeus.

  “Breathe.”

  “I’m breathing,” Ravinder said. “I’m just not a club person.”

  Thaddeus extended a hand to him. At first, he thought Ravinder wouldn’t accept it. He almost choked when Ravinder took the hand he offered. Thaddeus pulled gently and shifted so Ravinder fell against his chest. He then eased Ravinder into the seat beside him. “You should get a drink,” Thaddeus offered. “What’s your fancy?”

  Ravinder laughed softly then chewed on his lower lip, as if contemplating something. He looked so handsome in that moment that Thaddeus had to turn away. He was tempted to reach forward and kiss Ravinder until Ravinder forgot all about the nerves Thaddeus knew were raging through Ravinder.

  “I probably should,” Ravinder said.

  Thaddeus pressed the button. His cell phone vibrated against his thigh, and Thaddeus pulled it out to check who was messaging. Thaddeus smiled.

  I’m at a club. He texted Ko back. What’s up?

  You’re at a club? Ko responded. You?

  Thaddeus smiled. Yes, smart ass. A club. I’ll tell you about it later.

  Okay.

  He dropped the phone back into his pocket and looked up to catch Ravinder staring at him. Ravinder offered him a smile.

  “Lover checking up on you?” Ravinder asked.

  “Lover?” Thaddeus tilted his head. “And what if it was someone checking in? Would you be jealous?”

  “Hardly. Just curious. You didn’t smirk as you read your message. You actually smiled.”

  Thaddeus said nothing in reply. He’d leave Ravinder wondering, if he was truly curious as to who was on the receiving end of the messages. “Ravinder, in all seriousness, why do you dislike me so much?”

  “I don’t really…dislike you. I mean, I don’t…” Ravinder took a breath and stood. He rubbed his palms against his legs again and walked to the rope.

  It seemed he was watching the dancers on the floor. Thaddeus kept his eyes on Ravinder’s strong shoulders until the host entered with a bright smile.

  “Do you wish to place an order?” he asked.

  “Yes. Ravinder?” Thaddeus asked.

  “Rum and Coke, please,” Ravinder said.

  “Guinness, please,” Thaddeus said.

  The host nodded and left the space, and Thaddeus rose to stand behind Ravinder. He pressed a hand against Ravinder’s body, just below the back of his neck. Ravinder jerked from him and spun away.

  “I’m sorry.” Thaddeus took a step away. “I didn’t mean to assume… Maybe this was a bad idea. It’s obvious you are not enjoying this, so let’s call Abhay and get you home.”

  “We don’t have to do that.”

  “Come on, Ravinder.” Thaddeus reached a hand out to press the button again, but Ravinder caught his hand. “Call Abhay.”

  Ravinder excused himself and left the VIP area. Thaddeus watched him for a while until he disappeared into the sea of bodies. Frowning, he flopped into the seat and called the hostess. Thaddeus requested his credit card back, making up some lie about something coming up. The hostess left him and returned with his credit card and printed out statement of what he was billed for. There were no drinks on it, just the VIP.

  Thaddeus signed the slip and accepted a copy. He set the card into his wallet but crumpled the piece of paper in a fist. With that finished, he left the club to find Ravinder outside looking up at the sky.

  “I wasn’t always such a fuddy-duddy, you know.”

  “Fuddy-duddy?” Thaddeus asked.

  “Well, boring. Suddenly I can’t seem to remember how to have fun.” Ravinder sighed and lowered his gaze.

  “Don’t beat yourself up over it.” Thaddeus turned his head as the sound of a car came around the side of the club. He recognized it and pressed his lips into a thin line for a second. “There are worse things to be than boring.”

  “You think?”

  They climbed into the backseat of the luxury car.

  “Yeah,” Thaddeus said. “I do.”

  * * * *

  Long after he was alone in his hotel room, Thaddeus stood by the window, one arm resting against the cool surface, staring out at the city below him. Though he had his computer open, he couldn’t seem to focus on coding. He watched the cars move swiftly along the streets and most often followed them until their lights blurred into one big, red glow on the highway. Thaddeus sighed.

  He got some work done, pushing Ravinder to the back of his mind. It took him a few hours but he managed to alter his Tiberius program to accept the backup from Rose Linx. He saved it all and turned off the computer for the night. When he was lying in bed, he dragged a hand down his abs. He thought of Ravinder and his cock jerked to life.

  “Really?” Thaddeus asked, looking down at it. “We had this conversation earlier in the shower.”

  He rolled to his side.

  Chapter Six

  “So, the progress you’ve made since you’ve been here is amazing,” Paresh said. “We have three new clients.”

  Ravinder nodded. “Modesto is on a trial basis,” he reminded his boss. “We have to play it really carefully with them. How is Thaddeus doing with the system?”

  “Well, we managed to talk him into reinstalling Rose Linx. He’s even written some new coding to use one of his old software programs as backup, so if we do get hacked or we crash, we won’t lose much.”

  “I see,” Ravinder said.

  “We have the new servers and he’s gotten them up and running on a beta version of Tiberius. Once he has the new codes for our version of Rose Linx, he’s going to install it as primary and use the beta Tiberius to back us up. I’ve even asked to keep our backup servers just in case we have to move things over.”

  “That’s good,” Ravinder said. “This makes my work easier. People love the idea of Thaddeus working on the system.”

  “They do?”

  “
Yeah. They know with his skills, Rajput will be number one again. Hell, a few of them think it will be better than it was before.”

  “I love the sound of that,” Paresh said, then asked, “Are you and Thaddeus getting along?”

  Ravinder gave him a small smile and nodded. He didn’t have the heart to tell Paresh that their night out had ended a dud and the two of them hadn’t said one word to each other for two days. What would he say to Thaddeus? After the major disaster that was their club night, he just felt like an idiot. Then again, it served the jerk right. He had told Thaddeus he didn’t want to go out. But the guy had pushed the issue.

  “Good,” Paresh said with a nod. “Having the two of you together works.”

  That made Ravinder feel even worse for lying to Paresh. Once the meeting with Paresh was over, Ravinder stopped in his office long enough to set up a few more posts in Hootsuite, then checked his email to see if there was any chatter about his contest idea. There wasn’t even a mutter. With a frown, he turned off the computer and hurried down the hall to see if he could find Thaddeus.

  The ex-hacker wasn’t in his office, so Ravinder wandered down to the server rooms and found him in room three, peering intently at a hard drive that had all the lights on it glowing red.

  “I’m not a computer person, but even I know those lights shouldn’t be that color,” Ravinder said.

  Thaddeus shot to his feet and whirled around.

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Thaddeus said nothing. He hunched down again, gripped a silver bar on the hard drive and yanked. There was a click and a partition opened up as a small thing that looked like a metal slab came loose. Ravinder watched as Thaddeus inspected it for a moment then stuck it into the side of the customized laptop. He stared at the screen, lips in a thin line, then began tapping away at the keys.

  “Okay,” Ravinder said. “What’s with the cold shoulder?”

  “Nothing.” Thaddeus continued working. “You wanted to be left alone, right?”

  “Paresh wants us to work together.”

  Thaddeus looked at him then. “I know. But do you always do as you’re told?”

  “Why are you making my life so hard?”

  “Your life isn’t what I’m trying to make hard,” Thaddeus said.

  Ravinder gasped softly. The innuendo hadn’t escaped him. Chewing on his bottom lip, he watched Thaddeus type away silently for a second before the computer beeped. Thaddeus pulled the slab from the computer then pushed it back into the hard drive. This time, it lit up green.

  “Just because Paresh wants something”—Thaddeus faced him—“doesn’t mean he has to get it. I navigated Mumbai for a week before you, and since you I’ve managed on my own for two days. There is no need for a collaboration with us. Besides, no means no, right?”

  Ravinder offered a one-shoulder shrug, and Thaddeus went back to his hard drives.

  “I can’t imagine staying at the hotel all the time is much fun,” Ravinder said. “I have a swimming pool, a lot of room.”

  “Ravinder, why are you here?”

  Ravinder tossed his hands up. “I’m trying! Okay?”

  Thaddeus dropped his arms to his sides and pressed his lips into a line, as if in contemplation. “All right,” he said, pushing the hard drive back into the system. He dragged a silver bar down and locked it in place. With all that done, Thaddeus then turned and drew himself to his full height to stand before Ravinder. “I accept that you’re trying.”

  Ravinder’s heart raced. He felt as if he was going on his first date again.

  “Okay,” Thaddeus repeated.

  “Um…” Ravinder rubbed his palms into his thighs. “Where were we?”

  “You were just about to ask me out.”

  “That’s not true. Aside from a few comments, you don’t even know for sure if I’m gay.”

  Thaddeus smirked. He reached across and wrapped his arms around Ravinder’s waist and pulled him in. Ravinder crashed into Thaddeus’ chest with a gasp. Before he knew what was happening, Thaddeus was kissing him, plunging his tongue into Ravinder’s mouth. Unable to stop himself, Ravinder accepted the carnal assault, tangling his tongue with Thaddeus’ and moaning at the heat it caused to surge through him. His toes curled in on themselves and he leaned heavily into Thaddeus’ hard chest.

  But the kiss was too short for his liking. It ended before he could remember how to breathe through it again, and he was left panting and clutching at Thaddeus’ shirt.

  “Oh, no.” Thaddeus said huskily. “You aren’t gay at all.”

  Those words shot through Ravinder’s mind like a spark of light in the dark. He realized he was still clutching at Thaddeus and shoved away from him. He wiped the back of his hand across his lips. “The hell did you do that for?” Ravinder asked.

  Thaddeus rested a hand on his hip. “You were there too, weren’t you?”

  “All I wanted to say was that I have space if you want to get out of the hotel from time to time.”

  “Noted.”

  “So…yeah. I’m…gonna…um…go.”

  “Okay.”

  Ravinder backed toward the door then turned on his heels and all but ran from the room. He hurried into the men’s room, locked himself into one of the stalls and inhaled deeply. It was as if he hadn’t breathed in forever and his lungs needed oxygen. He sucked in air, panting, making his head spin. His knees trembled at the memory of the kiss, of the way Thaddeus had felt against him. There was a manly way in which Thaddeus had held him, like they’d been in a movie and kissing for the first time on screen. It was romantic, yet loaded with depravity, and he ached to have it happen again.

  His dick throbbed and Ravinder reached down and unzipped his pants. Sticking a hand in, he wrapped his fingers around his dick and pulled it out. His cock thanked him by dropping a large dollop of pre-cum on the floor before him. Ravinder groaned, dragging the tip of his index finger over the tender head. Unable to stop himself, he leaned his back into the wall and tightened his fist around his arousal

  He stroked himself slowly. Using the memory of Thaddeus—his smell, his taste, his heat—Ravinder bit his lower lip and drove his hips forward. Each pelvic thrust sent his engorged cock through his tight fingers and brought him closer and closer to the edge. Nothing could stop what was coming, not the sound of people entering the toilet, not the scrape of the stall door beside him banging closed and not Thaddeus calling his name. If anything, the hard sound of Thaddeus’ voice only made the ride to the end sweeter, hotter.

  Gritting his teeth, Ravinder clung to Thaddeus’ voice and allowed himself to be carried away. Pulling, stroking, rubbing, Ravinder had to cover his mouth with his free hand as his cock erupted, sending spurts of cum across the small space and splashing into the wall. He panted, his core burning at not being able to scream his ecstasy to the heavens. He wanted to shout it so loudly that Narnia would hear him.

  Shaking sweetly from his orgasm, he released his dick and braced his hand against the wall.

  “Ravinder?” Thaddeus called.

  Ravinder pursed his lips and exhaled. “What?”

  “You okay?”

  “Um…” Ravinder scrambled to grab toilet paper and clean up his mess. He dropped the soiled pieces into the toilet and flushed before sticking his still hard dick back into his pants. “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? You’ve been in there a while. You sound a little strained.”

  “I said I’m fine,” Ravinder said. He straightened his clothes, checked to see if he’d caught all of his spunk and realized there was a drop on his pants. Frowning, he grabbed another piece of toilet paper, licked it damp and rubbed at the white stain. Once he was sure there weren’t any other errant drops, he let himself out. He stopped at the sink and washed his hands, feeling shame flooding his soul.

  “You said you had a pool,” Thaddeus said, his voice soft. “I can’t really use the gym at the hotel. It’s always full of people. I’m feeling sluggish after not being able
to work out for a while.”

  “What’re you saying?” Ravinder dried his hands and faced Thaddeus.

  “If you don’t mind. I’ll take you up on your offer.”

  “Um, you will?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. I’ll cook you dinner tonight.” Ravinder lifted his chin and walked for the door. “Be there around…eight?”

  As he exited the room, he heard Thaddeus say, “Well, I’ll be…”

  Smirking, Ravinder continued until he was in the safety of his office. He fell into his chair and tried to breathe normally. He’d just flirted—at least he hoped he’d flirted—with Thaddeus Masterson. This man was the perfect definition of masculinity and power, and Ravinder had made a dinner date with him.

  That thought sent his heart hammering.

  Ravinder held his breath for a moment, hoping when he exhaled that his heart would go back to normal. But he thought of Thaddeus, of their kiss, of Ravinder jerking off to the memories of that kiss, and his heart went right back to storming in his chest.

  Chapter Seven

  After some contemplation, Thaddeus knew he couldn’t stay at the Oberoi for much longer. Staying at the hotel was nice and all, but it was beginning to drive him bat-shit crazy. At least in a house, he had a desk and room to stretch into.

  Thaddeus spent the morning seeing houses in and around Mumbai. There were two in the area where Ravinder was staying and even though they weren’t close to him, Thaddeus was a little apprehensive to seriously consider them. Yet, by the time the temperature had cooled down somewhat, he was exhausted. The last thing he wanted was to keep searching, so he went back to one of the houses in Ravinder’s area. He signed a lease for ninety days for the vacation home and collected the keys. Back at the hotel, he hired a driver, packed up and headed off to his place.

  Once Ko got back in touch with him, Thaddeus had some news of a place to stay. The only downside about the house was that it had no pool.