More Than a Suit Box Set

More Than a Suit: Tobie-5

“What the hell are you doing here, Tobie? Didn’t you just get back from Italy? God, you must be running on fumes.” John was guzzling coffee in the break room. He looked like he hadn’t been to bed all night, yet again.

“We got back last night. Mal asked me to be here today.” I was running on empty, but, in spite of my misgivings, I couldn’t help how good it felt to be working with Mal again so soon. I was so screwed. I grabbed my coffee and went into the small conference room at the end of the hall. Mal and Tess Wilkins, the other associate in the running, were already seated at the table.

“Come in, come in,” Mal said.

John and I seated ourselves at the small table.

“Okay. John and Tess, I asked Tobie to come in this morning to assist me with my evaluations. I will be making a decision about the position on Monday. You’ve both worked extremely hard and done well this past week. I want to congratulate you on that.”

“Thank you, Mal,” John and Tess replied, at the same time.

Mal handed two files to the associates and explained what he’d like done. “You have until five o’clock to finish this project. Tobie will do the initial review of your work, asking questions and checking your numbers. I will do the final evaluation. Take the files back to your desks and get to work.”

John and Tess left the room, leaving me alone with Mal.

“Come with me to my office, Tobie.”

“Yes, sir.” I followed him down the hall.

“Close the door.” I shut it behind him and took a seat.

Mal leaned against the front of his desk with his legs crossed, hands in his pants pockets. “How do you feel this morning? A little jet lagged, maybe?”

“To tell the truth, my head is killing me and I need more coffee. How about you, sir? Are you so used to doing this that it doesn’t affect you anymore?”

Mal chuckled. “Hardly. I’m as tired as you are, I bet. I’m just used to it. Why did you run away, Tobie?”

“Beg pardon? Run away from what?” I feigned ignorance.

Mal’s nostrils flared. “Don’t play dumb with me. The kiss. Last night. Your ass moving away from me at the speed of light.”

Okay, then. “I wasn’t running away.” He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, yes I was. But don’t you see? We could screw up our jobs by making things personal.”

“Says you. I don’t agree. You’re assuming that we can’t work together and have something personal, outside of work. Why are you being difficult? Don’t you even want to try? What are you afraid of?”

“How can you ask that?” I rubbed my forehead. “Look, I know what I want, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Mal leaned forward a little. “Tobie, let’s get things clear between us, right now. Yes, we work together, and I’m your boss. You’re in line for a promotion. Okay, duly noted. How about this? We’ll be professional at work, get our jobs done, as usual. But outside of work, we start to explore the attraction between us. As fast or slow as you want. One doesn’t make the other untenable. From the little I know of you, integrity, honesty and loyalty are high on your list of things you value in yourself and others. Those things make me want to know more about you. And, if things start to get serious, I’ll let corporate know, and we’ll see what happens. This isn’t about work, Tobie. It’s about us. I think it’s worth the risk to find out if there can be more. Do you?”

God, that sounded so reasonable and tempting. Still, what if…“Sir—”

He glared at me.

“Sorry. Mal, are you sure? What about—” He used the desk as leverage and pulled me out of my chair and into his arms. I grabbed onto his shoulders for balance and looked up at him with wide eyes.

“You think too much, you know? That brain that’s so good with numbers and finding brilliant solutions doesn’t know when to quit outside those parameters, does it?” He used one hand to brush the hair from my forehead. The brief touch of his fingers soothed me.

“Take a leap of faith, Tobie. Don’t be afraid.” My heart was pounding. I wanted to, but—“Say ‘Yes, Mal, I think it’s worth the risk.’“ I remembered the last time we’d done this. I couldn’t help but grin at him.

“Yes, Mal. It’s worth the risk.”

“Good boy,” he said. “Now let me taste those lips, baby. I’ve had wet dreams about your mouth and I didn’t get nearly enough last night.”

I slid my arms around Mal’s neck, pressing in close. “But we’re at work.” I moved to almost a hair’s breadth from his lips.

“Door’s closed.” I could feel his breath on my mouth.

“Sounds pretty damn convenient.” I rubbed myself against him a little.

“Maybe I just got lucky.”

“Maybe.”

“Kiss me, Tobie.”

I slid one hand up to cup Mal’s head, loving the feel of his closely cropped hair and pulled him down into a heated kiss. We fed on each other like we hadn’t had a meal in months. Mal dragged one hand down to my ass and squeezed. The other grabbed the back of my head to tilt it for a better angle of attack. I moaned into his mouth and sucked hard on his tongue, giving a good imitation of what I could do to his d**k.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. We jumped apart guiltily. Mal winked at me as he licked his lips and moved to sit behind his desk and shuffle some papers. I combed my hair as much as possible with my fingers and grabbed a random file and took a seat just as Mal said, “Come in!”

The door opened, and Tess entered.

“Sorry, to interrupt, but John and I are gonna grab some takeout real quick so we can eat at our desks while we work.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks.” With a smile, she left, closing the door behind her.

I breathed a sigh of relief and put the file back. “That was close.”

“But nothing happened.”

“Yeah, well, now I have a hard-on, thanks to you.”

“So do I.”

“I need to go back to my desk and do some work. If I stay here any longer, I’ll jump your bones. Then, everyone in this building will know what we’re doing.”

“Sounds tempting.”

“Behave.” I went back to my desk and tried to ignore the sexy man in the office behind me.

By the end of the day, the associates were evaluated and sent home. I thought that Tess had a slight edge, but John’s solution was a lot less conventional than hers and yielded similar results, which would be attractive to Mal. He gave them the day off on Sunday. John had to visibly restrain himself from hugging Mal before he left, he was that grateful. I could tell Mal was trying not to smile, and I barely held back a snicker myself.

Alone in the office at last, Mal said, “We’ve worked hard enough for one day. How about we go out to Mary’s tonight? Get started on that ‘getting to know each other’ idea?”

“Sure. What time?”

“Ten o’clock? We don’t need to be at work until about noon tomorrow, so we can sleep in.”

“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Never know ‘til you put it out there. You only live once.”

“John says that all the time.”

“I like John. He’s a character.”

“Yes, he is. See you at ten.” Before I could leave, Mal grabbed my arm and pulled me in for a kiss that almost made me come like a sixteen-year-old.

“Something to remember me by, until tonight.” He patted my ass and sent me on my way.

I felt the imprint of that kiss all the way home.