Choices

by Mia Malone

  I laughed happily and pointed at the small sign indicating the name of the conference room I used as my office.

  “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Then I lowered my voice and added, “And I agree.”

  George would be incredibly disturbed by the suspicion that something might not be entirely kosher in his books.

  “Thanks,” Peggy mumbled. “For the record, I actually like George.”

  “So do I,” I said.

  He was at least fifteen years my senior and a bit patronizing, but I’d lived in the corporate world for many years, so I was used to it. I’d stopped listening many years ago when men of all ages took it upon themselves to explain that ROI was an acronym for return on investment or the importance of monitoring working capital. He was also vain to the point of being ridiculous, but that wasn’t unusual in the corporate world either.

  I liked him, though, and found the way he seemed to worship Jacob incredibly endearing. This devotion had extended to putting Matthias on a very high pedestal, which I thought was cute but unfortunate. A CEO needed a strong financial counterpart to tell him when he should grease the wheels or when to hold back, and George did not have the gumption to do that.

  The one taking on that responsibility in the company seemed to be Len Jackson, and I’d found him and Matthias arguing loudly more than once. I tried to hold back because I was a short-term management consultant in the company, so it really wasn’t my business, but I’d ended up in heated discussions with one or both of them more than once.

  “Right,” Peggy said. “I’ll talk to my friends and see if they know anything about this.”

  “Good. As you said, the numbers aren’t significant, and there could be a perfectly valid reason, so don’t make a stink out of it.”

  “Of course not,” she said but frowned again as her eyes slid over the excel sheet we’d created.

  “That’s for next week,” I shared. “It’s Friday, and I’m having drinks with my friend Layla tonight. Do you want to join us?”

  Her eyes lit up, but then she smiled cheekily.

  “No status report tonight?”

  She did not have to raise her hands to do air quotes around her words. I could hear them quite clearly anyway.

  “Matthias is having dinner with his kids,” I calmly replied as if it wasn't both surprising and a little embarrassing that she'd figured out what I tried really hard to keep under the wraps.

  “Nina...” She tilted her head to the side and speared me with her pale blue gaze. “No one knows. I’ve seen how he is with you, and how you look at each other, but I doubt the others think anything of it. You’re not acting inappropriately.”

  “I –” I swallowed and smiled wryly. “He was a bit of a surprise to me.”

  “Bet you were one to him too,” she said with a chuckle. “You’re good for him. He’s a lot less grumpy.”

  Really? I liked hearing that and couldn’t hold back a smile.

  “So,” I said and waved toward the door. “Drinks?”

  Layla and Peggy hit it off immediately, and I smiled when I heard them laugh loudly on my deck. Then a deep voice said something, and the laughter turned giggly in a way that made me roll my eyes toward the ceiling, but also reach for another glass.

  Luke had apparently decided to join us.

  Chapter Ten

  Afternoon delight

  Matthias

  He woke up slowly and lay there for a while, inhaling the scent of the soft, warm woman in his arms. His dick was hard, but he decided that it would be rude to jump her like a goddamned horn-dog for the third time in one night, so he’d just think of unsexy things. Many, many unsexy things.

  “Hey.”

  Her voice was just a quiet whisper, but the sleepy smile went straight through his chest in a warm flash.

  “Sleep well?” he asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Like a baby,” he murmured and moved until he was half on top of her.

  “Matthias,” she breathed out.

  His dick twitched, which made her eyes widen, and then her lips twitched.

  “Yeah,” he rasped out and cleared the slightly embarrassing hoarseness out of his voice. “Under the circumstances, you should probably call me Matty.”

  “Under the circumstances?”

  “Makes my dick hard when you say my name,” he said and had to grin at her surprise.

  “Doesn’t take much for that to happen,” she murmured.

  He wasn’t going to share that it was all her, or that he still was a bit stunned by his level of horniness. It wasn’t so surprising because what they had was still new, but so far, it didn’t seem to fade away. Quite the opposite, actually, and they hadn’t slept separately many nights since their skiing weekend.

  “Plans for today?” he asked and leaned down to kiss her neck.

  “Jacob is coming for dinner, you know that.”

  He did indeed know and looked forward to spending the evening with the old man who was a more frequent visitor these days.

  “That’s later,” he murmured into her hair and slid a hand down her side. “Much later...”

  “Matty,” she said and damned it if his dick didn't like the way she said his childhood nickname too.

  He kept moving his hands, but when her breath hitched, he slid his tongue over her ear and murmured, “We should probably find out if you like an inverted missionary.”

  She stopped moving and blinked a few times in surprise, so he rolled to his back, waved a hand over his crotch, and grinned.

  “You on top, baby,” he said, reached into the drawer in his bedside table, and stretched a small package out toward her. “Will you do the honors?”

  To his surprise, she looked stunned.

  “I’ve never done that.”

  He started laughing, and she rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, but grabbed the package and used her teeth to open it.

  She fumbled a little, but if she’d asked him, he could have told her that it actually made him harder since it meant that she moved her hands along the length of him.

  “Heaven,” he rasped out when she finally moved over him and slowly lowered herself to take him inside.

  That had been wrong, he realized.

  Heaven was when she tilted her head back and let the orgasm rush through her. The way she cried out softly while her pussy was squeezing him made it impossible to hold back, and he put both his hands on her ass to press her down hard. She leaned forward, so he wrapped his arms around her, buried his face in her neck, and let himself come in long, hot shivers.

  ***

  “Try to massage anything into my beard, and I’ll use my mighty fists.”

  He was in Tony’s barbershop and had meant it as a joke but still wished the man didn’t laugh so hard. Luke looked into his coffee in an unsuccessful attempt at trying to conceal that he was laughing too.

  “It isn’t a beard, it’s long stubble,” Len said with a chuckle.

  “You’re still not massaging anything,” Matthias said, focusing on Tony in case the wily guy ambushed him with his hands full of beard-lotion or whatever-the-fuck.

  “Nina is doing all the massaging you can handle, my sources tell me,” Tony said and wiggled his brows.

  “And who are your sources?”

  Len raised a hand, and muttered, “Yeah, that’d be me.”

  “For fuck’s sake,” Matthias sighed and gave his friend a long look.

  “Out of the four of us, you’re the only one getting some on a regular basis,” Len protested. “The rest of us has got to –”

  “Gossip,” Matthias cut him off.

  “I was going to say rejoice in your happiness, but yeah. Gossip works too.”

  They grinned at each other, but then the implications of what he’d just heard hit Matthias.

  “You realize what we’ve become, right?” he asked, and added with considerable emphasis, “Women.”

  “What?” Luke chuckled.

  “We�
�re sitting at the hairdresser, drinking coffee and gossiping.”

  Luke’s eyes widened, and he put his coffee down with a loud thud.

  “Fuck,” he said distinctly. “Beer anyone?”

  “It’s one o’clock.”

  “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” Luke retorted.

  “Reykjavik,” Len said.

  “Huh?”

  “Capital of Iceland. It’s five o’clock there right now.”

  Why Len knew some of the shit he knew had always baffled Matthias, but right then it was useful.

  “Good enough for me. Let’s have a beer,” he said, and added with a grin, “I might even have two.”

  A few hours later, they walked over to Nina’s place since neither of them was in any condition to even breathe in close proximity to their cars. Luke had shared this undeniable truth, and Len chimed in that they should obey the law enforcement officer, so they nodded drunkenly and started walking. The fact that Len had flipped a few letters around and accidentally called Luke an occifer made them laugh, and they were still cracking up about it when they entered the house.

  Matthias was the first to walk inside, and he stopped to smile at the man sitting next to Nina on the couch, calmly drinking what looked like a cup of coffee.

  “Daddy-o,” he said and smiled widely, feeling good about just about everything.

  ***

  Nina

  Matthias texted to let me know that he was off to do manly things with Len and the others, although I wasn’t sure which others he was referring to or what kind of manly activities they would engage in.

  It turned out to be Len, Luke, and Tony, and the activity had apparently been to get rip-roaring drunk.

  “Daddy-o,” Matthias said and added with an affectionate grin, “You old goat.”

  Jacob pushed out a cough, and his eyes widened, but before he could comment on his son’s slightly unflattering greeting, Len appeared.

  “Jacob,” he said and swayed a little when he pointed at us. “Not goat. Hippie.” He smiled sweetly and added, “Hippie-dippie.”

  Then he nodded a few times as if to confirm the accuracy of his words.

  “Hey guys,” I said. “You look like you’ll need some coffee.”

  “Hey,” Luke rumbled. “Probably a good idea.”

  He looked completely sober and moved calmly into the kitchen, where he began fiddling with my espresso maker. Matthias swayed a little as he walked over to me. Then he leaned in and stared into my eyes.

  “Coffee is life,” he stated.

  I wondered what the hell had happened since they were pretty much shit-faced in the middle of the afternoon, why Luke hadn’t joined their drinking session, and why Tony was dancing when there was no music on.

  “Astute,” Luke said, and I narrowed my eyes.

  He had pronounced the word with a slight slur, and he was a pretty intense guy, but the way he focused on making coffee was a little over the top.

  “You look sober,” I said and joined him by the kitchen counter. “But you’re not,” I concluded when I felt a whiff of his breath.

  “Smashed,” he shared and turned to me with a crooked grin. “Completely.”

  “What happened?”

  He blinked a few times, and then he said slowly, “We had beer.”

  Since he clearly had to work hard at enunciating the uncomplicated words, I decided that he indeed was as drunk as the others, even though he handled the portafilter flawlessly.

  “And whiskey,” Matthias added.

  “And tequila,” Tony shouted. “But there was no music, and I don’t dance well without music.”

  “I’ll get it,” Matthias mumbled and started tapping his phone.

  Then Tom Jones belted out Delilah on high volume from my sound system, and everyone froze, except Tony, who cheered and started swaying his hips.

  “Unexpected choice,” Luke muttered and pushed a double espresso toward Len.

  “Nope,” Matthias said decisively. “Typo. Not the one I wanted.”

  He squinted a little, and I wondered if perhaps giving him his glasses might improve things, but to my surprise, he turned toward me and wiggled his brows, and the song shifted. Afternoon Delight was suddenly playing, and he pulled me into his arms.

  “Let’s get rid of everyone,” he murmured into my hair, and I couldn’t hold back a giggle when I heard the corny song.

  There was likely no delight happening for either of us that afternoon considering the state he was in.

  “I get it,” Len said, nodded a few times, and grinned at Matthias. “You want us to leave.”

  “Yes,” Matthias replied and used two fingers to point at his eyes and then at Len.

  Jacob started laughing, and I pushed my face into Matthias’ chest to hide the fact that so was I. They were so cute, goofing around like silly boys.

  “We’re leaving,” Luke said. “Walking distance.”

  I assumed he meant to his home, which was three blocks away.

  “Can’t get home,” Len said and looked around the room. “Ten-minute drive, but I got drunk.”

  “I’ll take you,” Jacob said, looked at his son, who was busy nuzzling my neck, and started laughing. “I love you, Matty,” he chuckled.

  “I love you too,” Matthias said affably. “Now get out.”

  They left, but it took a little while to shuffle them out the door, mostly because we were all laughing, although I wasn’t sure if the sloshed men realized that Jacob and I were laughing at them and not at their silly jokes.

  When we got back inside, Matthias reached for the espresso glass Len hadn’t touched, emptied its cold contents in one go, and turned.

  “It has got to be you,” he said and moved toward me.

  “Me?” I asked and moved backward when he kept walking.

  “So fucking horny all the time.” He kept moving us until my back hit the wall. “All I can think about, baby.” His hands moved up to cup my breasts as he ground his hard crotch against me. “Want to take you any way I can.” His mouth moved over my neck, and heat washed through me. “Want your mouth around my cock.”

  “Matthias,” I breathed out and tilted my head to the side when his tongue slid over my earlobe.

  “And what I want now,” he said. “Is you against the wall,” he said. “Dad will be back, so I hope you’ll like...” He leaned back and looked at me. “A quickie.”

  The way he focused on me washed through my belly and south, and when he’d pushed my yoga pants down, I widened my legs. He pushed me up against the kitchen wall and moved his fingers over my clit, teasing me quickly toward the edge.

  “Now,” I said hoarsely.

  He slid inside and started bucking his hips, slowly at first, but when I wrapped my legs around his hips, he began pounding, hard and fast.

  An orgasm rushed over me, and when I moaned through it, he planted himself deep, with a loud groan. Then he pulled out a little, pushed inside again with another groan, and mumbled something softly into my hair, shaking as he emptied himself.

  “I could stay inside you always,” Matthias said after a while. “Favorite place in the whole world.”

  “Matty...”

  My voice was low and a little ragged, and I wondered what to do.

  Because I was falling for him, hard and way too fast.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to and really hadn’t meant for it to happen, but somewhere between running and working, and all the sex, he’d slid right into my life and settled there.

  “Couch,” Matthias murmured against my neck.

  He was sound asleep when Jacob came back, and the older man chuckled as he leaned over his son.

  “Passed out?”

  “Pretty much,” I said. “What the hell happened? Did you get anything intelligible out of Len?”

  “According to Leonard, they had to restore their masculinity, and men drink beer and tequila.”

  I couldn’t think of a group of men who was in less need of restoring anything
in that area, and that included Tony who, according to Luke, was gay, bi or something in between.

  “Okay,” I said slowly, and then I couldn’t hold my laughter back. “Probably better to not know what brought that on.”

  “Yup,” Jacob said and added with a wry grin. “He also shared that he thinks Matty is taking Viagra.”

  “What?” I breathed out.

  “Energizer bunnies were mentioned.”

  Oh, dear God.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” I wheezed out.

  Jacob started laughing and winked at me.

  “It was good to see them have fun, Nina. Don’t think Matty has been that drunk in the past twenty-five years.”

  “He’ll have a hangover when he wakes up,” I said with a grin, happy that the Viagra discussion seemed to be over. “Let’s make something hearty for dinner. He’ll need it.”

  “Pasta,” Jacob said with a nod. “Are the girls coming?”

  “Meghan will stop by, but they’re both going to parties with their old friends from high school, so they’ll stay with Dave in the old house.”

  “How long is he going to hold on to it?”

  “No clue and I don't really care. It's his choice where he wants to live.”

  “Can he afford it?”

  This was a relevant question since Dave was a high school teacher, so his salary would normally not be even remotely enough to cover a house like my old home.

  “He has no mortgage on it, and we split some pretty healthy investment accounts evenly between us. Yeah, he can afford it, at least for a while.” I turned to look at Jacob. “It’s so stupid, though. The house is enormous, and he could sell it and put a fraction of the profit into something smaller.”

  “You gave him the house, didn’t you?”

  I had indeed done that. I didn’t want it, and had not looked forward to going through everything we’d put in the garage and closets over the years, or the hassle of selling it, so I’d packed up what I wanted to have in my new home, and let Dave have everything else, including the actual house.

  “Yeah, he got the house, but he also got the task of sorting out all our old stuff.”