Tea or Consequences

by KC Burn

  Riley hesitated for a moment. “Sure.” Why the hell not? He was already lost and confused; it could hardly get worse.

  THE SECOND Cup within walking distance of Alberto’s had been crowded and noisy; they finished their drinks quickly and with a minimum of conversation. At least there hadn’t been any additional touching. Riley wouldn’t have been able to hide just how much he enjoyed Tad’s proximity while slouched in the coffee shop’s armchairs.

  In short order, they were back out on the street.

  “Let me walk you home,” Tad offered.

  Already drowning in mixed messages, Riley agreed. Tad had already proven to be a better date than the last half dozen Riley had endured. It didn’t even matter that his teenage infatuation predisposed him to like Tad. After tonight, he’d have been suckered in regardless.

  He was a fucking idiot, but since he’d already leaped without a safety net, he might as well enjoy getting escorted home. Not everyone could have a big, strong policeman take them right to their door.

  “You’re in Liberty Village, right?”

  Riley blinked at him a moment before he remembered giving his address as part of his interview after Gabrielle’s death. “Yes.”

  They weren’t far from his condo, and they walked in silence. Riley couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. Tad seemed to be thinking hard, and Riley didn’t want to do anything to destroy the illusion that he and his date—or even better, his boyfriend—were heading home for some rather more carnal entertainment.

  Normally the sight of his gray-bricked building filled him with contentment. Not so tonight.

  With a sigh, Riley opened the security door and turned to say good night to Tad, who merely gestured for Riley to go ahead and followed him to the elevator.

  He fidgeted a bit as the elevator plodded up to his floor. Had any date walked him right to his door? But this wasn’t a date, and he needed to remember that. Maybe Tad needed privacy to talk about Riley’s information? He should probably invite Tad in.

  Shit. He’d had another allergy attack that morning and had been moving sluggishly until the antihistamines had kicked in. What if he’d left dirty laundry or other embarrassing items out in the open? Although he usually kept his condo neat and tidy, he hadn’t been expecting company.

  Tad followed him in silence. At his door, Riley paused before putting the key in the lock and turned to offer an invitation inside.

  Only to find Tad right up in his space, close enough that Tad’s body heat sent his own temperature soaring. Shock kept him paralyzed while swarms of butterflies erupted in his belly. He was nervous and excited in a way he’d never been. Tad’s warm brown eyes were dark with hunger, and Riley barely refrained from whimpering aloud when Tad cupped his face in his strong hands.

  Blood surged into his groin as Tad’s lips covered his, the kiss swallowing the sounds Riley could no longer hold back.

  Oh God. Tad was definitely not straight.

  The touch of those lips broke his paralysis, and almost involuntarily, he wound his arms around Tad’s waist.

  Tad pushed him up against the door and devoured his mouth. Riley licked and nipped and sucked in response, the kiss hotter than molten lava.

  Time came to a standstill as their mouths merged and dueled. The thick ridge of Tad’s erection bumped against Riley’s, the sensation weakening his knees. He wanted to get them inside to a bed, but he didn’t want to stop long enough to make the offer.

  Instead he moved his hips in a restless rhythm, more and more frantic the deeper and longer they kissed. Riley clutched at Tad’s back while Tad gripped the sides of his head as though Riley might escape. No fucking chance of that. Orgasm was too close.

  Before either of them tipped over the edge, Tad pulled out of the kiss, his brown eyes glittering and his heaving breath skating warm across Riley’s cheek. He took a deliberate step back and shoved his trembling hands through his tousled hair.

  Riley blinked and licked his kiss-swollen lips, trying to restore cognitive function and figure out why they’d stopped. Coming in his pants like a teenager wasn’t maybe the most dignified, but he hardly cared.

  “Inside?” His voice had deepened well into phone sex operator territory.

  Tad groaned. “I can’t. Jesus H. Christ, but I can’t.”

  His suit pants did nothing to conceal just how much Tad would like to accompany Riley into his bed, and he curled his hands into fists to keep from stroking that hefty erection.

  The short respite allowed some blood back into Riley’s brain. This was a phenomenally bad idea. Tad was investigating the murder of Riley’s boss, and until just minutes ago, Riley had thought Tad was straight.

  “I….” Riley had no idea what to say here.

  Tad bit his lip, then looked away. “Shit. Riley.” The husky rasp of a still-aroused Tad did nothing to put a damper on the desire still raging through Riley’s veins.

  “I’m sorry, Riley. This shouldn’t have happened. If… if you could maybe not mention this to anyone….”

  The sour twist of Tad’s lips indicated dislike of what he’d just said, and Riley decided to gamble.

  “If I’m not going to say anything, can’t we go inside? Finish what we started?”

  The silence lengthened while Tad stared at the door over Riley’s shoulder. Had he overstepped? Had he somehow misread things? Although it was hard to misread a tongue down the throat and a hard cock seeking a playmate.

  “I can’t tell you how much I want to follow you to your bed and fuck your brains out.”

  A shiver ghosted down his spine. Did Tad have any idea how good that sounded? But he waited as Tad chased after the right words.

  “We shouldn’t. I’m investigating a suspicious death.”

  Fuck it. “I didn’t have anything to do with that, but we probably shouldn’t have been kissing either. What’s that expression? Something about being hung for a lamb or a sheep?”

  A laugh burst out of Tad, surprising them both. “That’s not even close.”

  Riley shrugged. “Yeah, well. You know what I mean. We’ve already crossed a line, right?”

  “It… asking you to keep it a secret isn’t right. It makes it seem like I’m ashamed, and I’m not. Even if we were to do this, it couldn’t be anything but sex. Just sex.”

  Had he lost his fucking mind? Probably. And he was probably going to lose his heart in the process too, but he couldn’t stop himself. “No strings. We don’t tell anyone. And you’re not asking, I’m offering.” Like a desperate, lovesick fool, but he didn’t have the willpower to say no to this chance to have Tadeo Martin in his bed.

  “I need you to think about this. Think if this is something you can live with.”

  Riley thought it might be more whether it was something Tad could live with, because Tad actually had more at stake, strings or not. But he understood it would be wiser to make a decision like this without the influence of mind-melting lust.

  He nodded, because he couldn’t quite trust himself not to beg.

  Tad brushed a thumb over Riley’s bottom lip, the conflict obvious.

  “Good night, Riley.” Without waiting for a response, Tad strode down the hall and banged through the door leading to the stairwell.

  For all that Riley was the drama major, that had been a rather dramatic exit. Riley smiled as he let himself into his condo.

  Offering Tad a secret friends-with-benefits might backfire in a major way, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d decided on a course of action that didn’t seem altogether wise.

  Chapter SIX

  THANKS TO another sleepless night, for which he blamed Tad, Riley arrived at work before Alisha and was able to get to his desk without any interrogation. He had no idea what to tell her about his “date,” mostly because he had no idea what had happened. They’d decided to “think about things” and Riley had spent the night—after jerking off—weighing the pros and cons and waffling about his decision.

  The only thing he kne
w for sure was that he wanted to keep seeing Tad. Since Tad was so adamant about no strings, obviously no romantic relationship would come out of this. No boyfriend, no husband, no forever, but Tad was good company. Being friends Riley could handle. Being friends with benefits, at least temporarily, was better than nothing.

  Eventually Riley would meet a man he could share his life with, and his misplaced affection for unavailable men would vanish. He hoped.

  If it weren’t for his promise of discretion, he’d like to get Shaun’s or even Alisha’s perspective on the situation. Maybe if he swore them to secrecy…. Although he could guess what Shaun would say. Most of it would be variations on the theme of “dumbass.”

  Hell, he’d even like to talk to them about the investigation. Riley wondered if maybe Tad had told him more than he should have. Nothing in the news had mentioned penicillin, and to be fair, Tad hadn’t referred to it since the night of Gabrielle’s death. Riley didn’t know if they’d confirmed penicillin or if Tad had merely been testing various stories to check for media leaks.

  Riley chuckled. That sounded far-fetched even to him. If Tad stayed in Riley’s life after this investigation was over, then Riley could figure out why Tad did what he did. And if Tad was only around for the investigation? Then Riley would have his answer—he was being used.

  He spent the next couple of hours whittling down the messages he’d ignored in favor of cleaning out Gabrielle’s office, and then it was time to get ready for the fireworks, otherwise known as the Cody bombshell.

  Riley made coffee and took it to the executive conference room, making sure he had everything set up a good fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time.

  Ten minutes to detonation, Cody showed up. François and Floriana were both legendary for showing up late to meetings, but if Riley had been in Cody’s place, he’d want to make sure he was in the conference room before the others. Less likely to be ambushed that way.

  “Good morning, Riley.”

  “Morning.”

  Cody didn’t look substantially better than he had the previous day, but Riley supposed that was normal for a man preparing to face down angry stepchildren mere days after his wife died. Riley was expecting François and Floriana to look haggard when they showed up too.

  “Would you like some coffee, Cody?”

  “Yes, thanks. You don’t have decaf, by chance, do you?”

  Riley was fucking good at his job. Most times decaf went to waste, but he’d thought there were about equal odds that people would either want a pick-me-up or had been drinking so much coffee since Gabrielle’s death that they’d need a break.

  “I do.” Riley poured Cody a cup from the black carafe. “Do you normally drink decaf?” He’d need to know for future reference.

  “Yes, I do. A few years ago I practically bathed in the caffeinated stuff, but then it started to give me heart palpitations.”

  Riley raised an eyebrow. Cody seemed too young to have those sorts of problems, but he supposed there could be underlying issues, or he could have been drinking coffee by the gallon.

  Cody sat back at the head of the conference table. Riley had to admire the psychology of the move. He was here waiting for everyone to come to him, in the seat reserved for the most important person in the meeting. Riley hoped he was going to try for true collaboration and compromise with the Gautiers, or the battles and manipulation might never end.

  There was no time for any more chitchat—Floriana flung open the door and strode in, François and Mattie on her heels. Where Riley stood, he’d only be visible if anyone turned around to sit at the table, which he was sure they’d do momentarily.

  “What could possibly be so important you had me clear my schedule, Mattie? Our mother is barely…. Our mother just died.” Floriana sniffled and brought a tissue to her eyes.

  Riley would have bet his week’s pay that Floriana had been about to say her mother was barely cold in her grave, but remembered at the last moment that her mother hadn’t been buried yet. The funeral was scheduled for Saturday, assuming the coroner released her body in time.

  Cody chose that moment to stand, the movement drawing everyone’s attention.

  “You,” Floriana snarled like a second-rate actress in a bad B movie. “What are you doing here? Isn’t it enough that you got your gold-digging hands on part of my mother’s money, but you have to show up at the company she worked for years to build? You’re an infection in the very air.”

  “Can we please calm down?” Mattie tried her best, but after having seen Floriana’s vitriol on Friday, Riley had sort of expected this to devolve into a shit-slinging melee. He’d even brought in paper cups for the coffee, just in case.

  “I’d choose my words more carefully if I were you.” Cody’s measured tone made his implacability undeniable. Here was a man who’d easily be as successful as Gabrielle, once he had a couple more decades under his belt. “I have every right to be here, as we’ll soon explain.”

  François and Floriana sat in stunned silence as Mattie and Cody outlined the basics of Cody’s contract and the fact that the three of them were now more or less equal.

  However volatile Floriana had been, Cody’s contract had incredibly, amazingly, and perhaps alarmingly stunned her into silence.

  “I can’t accept this.” François shook his head. “I just can’t believe my mother would do this to us. First her ill-advised and secret marriage—which I hardly believe can be legal. She must have been coerced. But then, to plan this… this… alteration. Gautier Cosmetics has always been a family company.” The tone was calm but the words inflammatory.

  Despite the provocation, Cody kept his cool, although his jaw tightened, emphasizing its model-like squareness. “Gabby was not coerced. And since I’m her husband, the company would still be a family company. Didn’t you question this when you signed off on the new department?”

  “You knew about this?” Floriana turned on her brother.

  “No.” François held his hands up defensively. “I mean, I knew we were adding the new marketing department, but that’s all I knew. I didn’t even know she had anyone in mind, and certainly not him.”

  The sneer said it all. François might not be as hotheaded as his sister, but he wasn’t any more thrilled with Cody’s presence.

  “Now that I’m here, I guess we’ll all just have to get along.”

  “Get along?” Floriana had recovered both her equilibrium and volume. “Like hell. As soon as we take you to court, you’ll be out of here, without one fucking penny of my mother’s money.”

  “Wrong.” Cody wasn’t just being contrary, he was confident Floriana wasn’t going to be able to get rid of him that easily. “I have lawyers too, you know. And the law on my side.”

  Floriana’s face screwed up in a vicious scowl. “You’re probably the reason the cops are crawling all over our lives, asking questions. You probably married her while she was drunk or something, then killed her before she could get it annulled, you useless branleur.”

  Riley blinked. Not only was that quite the accusation, but the slip of a French term into her speech—even if it was more or less to call Cody a wanker—made it sound almost like Gabrielle had possessed her.

  “Really? Are you sure you didn’t kill her to keep her from marrying me, only you acted too late?” Cody’s sneering response sent François to his feet, face flushed in outrage, and Floriana shrieked wordlessly.

  “Right, that’s enough of that.” Mattie finally spoke, trying to calm the waters. “Accusations like that have no place here.”

  It was brave of Mattie, because Riley was pretty sure François and Floriana could fire her, even if they couldn’t legally do anything about Cody. Yet. Riley was sort of surprised Cody was pushing to work here. No matter what happened, Floriana wasn’t likely to bend, and it would remain a never-ending hostile work environment.

  But if Cody had legitimately married Gabrielle and he was legally entitled to part of her legacy, then Riley supported his r
ight to fight for it. There wasn’t any arguing against the employment contract Mattie had produced.

  Then François seemed to notice Riley’s presence. “And what are you doing here?”

  Riley opened his mouth, but Cody beat him to it. “I have need of an assistant, and Riley was available.”

  François snarled, every bit as viciously as his sister. “I guess you have no loyalty at all.”

  “You do know I’ve only worked here three and a half weeks, right? And I’m contracted with Gautier by my agency. The one I’ve worked at for ten years?”

  Oh shit. Riley had not meant to get involved. He was supposed to be providing silent support, not mouthing off to vice presidents. Mattie shot him an exasperated look, but Cody looked pleased.

  “I’ll thank you not to speak that way to my assistant. Or should I file an official complaint with HR?” Cody tilted his head toward Mattie, who blanched but did her best to appear unruffled.

  If Riley were Mattie, he’d be stopping by the LCBO for some vodka or something on the way home from work. She was definitely going to have to balance on a fine line to keep the peace among the three VPs and make sure the company kept on ticking.

  However, François did take his attention off Riley. “Enjoy your undeserved ‘promotion’ while you can. You may have lawyers, but so do we, and I’ll bet ours are better.” François got to his feet. “I see no further need to continue this meeting, Ms. Tran. Unless you’ve got more unsavory information you need to impart.”

  Mattie shook her head. “No, nothing.”

  “I will want the company lawyers to review those employment contracts, though. I’ll be in touch about that.”

  Riley wasn’t sure if his contract was included in François’s pluralization or if it was merely a slip of the tongue, but he wasn’t worried about himself. He suspected Cody was in for a long haul, but if rumors were to be believed, getting a slice of the Gautier empire might well be a worthwhile endeavor.

  “I’ll have my assistant put something on both your calendars so we can discuss a transition plan to in-house marketing.”