Page 54 of The Company We Keep

In the end, he sought out the only relief that seemed to be able to eclipse everything he was holding in his head: Carrow.

Carrow hadn’t heardDust return from his errand, but he smiled when the man padded barefoot into his office. Dust was bare-chested and his hair was still wet — from a shower or a dip in the pool, Carrow didn’t know.

“Are you busy?” he asked, crossing the office and standing to one side behind Carrow’s desk.

“Always,” he joked. “What’s up?”

He hopedCarrow wouldn’t question it. He didn’t want to have a conversation. He just wanted to feel something real and concrete about his life.

Dust pushed one arm of Carrow’s chair, spinning the man to face him and sinking to his knees.

“Can I?” he asked, spreading the man’s knees and tracing a hand across his groin.

Carrow sucked a surprised breath but didn’t protest. He hummed deep in his chest.

Carrow cupped his cheek, wiping a droplet leftover from his shower off of his face. The movement was undeniably affectionate. Yes, this is what he needed. He just needed someone who knewDust, who could appreciate him for what he’d become and what he wanted to be in the present.

He undid Carrow’s fine belt, helped him shift until the beautiful suit pants billowed to the floor to sit around hisankles. The quality of Carrow’s breathing had already changed, and by the time he was undressed, his cock was rock hard and straining.

Dust went slowly and his boss responded with everything he needed: praise, a hand stroking through his hair, fingertips at the back of his neck, a confident voice saying his name like it was the best compliment that existed in this world. He swallowed around Carrow, taking him deep, working the man with his lips, his tongue, his throat.

Every noise Carrow made took Dust further away from the mental ditch he’d dug himself into in the shower.Thiswas his reality. He could have Carrow whenever he wanted and they were good together, a feedback loop of desire and respect that grew stronger every day, even when Dust got to his knees for the man. He loved every minute of it, the power he had over Carrow, the certainty that he was wanted and worshipped.

He stroked up Carrow’s thick shaft while he lavished attention with his mouth, indulging in a moment of obscene enjoyment at the taste of precum.

Dust didn’t need to tease the man today, to prove anything or draw things out for very long. This was more about Dust’s needs, anyway. The orgasm he was about to give Carrow was just a bonus as he escaped his own fears.

Carrow pulled him forward for the last few strokes, warning in a gravelly voice that he was close. Dust sucked a muffled breath through his nose before swallowing around his boss’ cock, taking him as deep as he could even as he felt the first throbs of orgasm rocking through Carrow. He gulped around him, fighting the reflex to gag and willing his muscles to relax as Carrow hipped forward, helplessly fucking Dust’s throat as he came. He was so deep, Dust couldn’t even taste him.

Breathless, Dust pulled back. He sat back on his heels for a moment, looking up at Carrow. The sight was beyond sexy, Dust’s hair mussed, his mouth spit-slicked and lips flushed a deep red. Carrow caught his breath and worked a hand through Dust’s hair, smoothing it.

“What did I do to deserve that?”

Dust smiled and shrugged before dragging the back of one hand across his mouth. The kid was so effortlessly handsome, it was surreal.

“You’re just you, I guess.”

It took everything Carrow had in him not to moan openly at the sound of Dust’s cock-wrecked voice.

Dust returnedto his suite to get dressed with a renewed sense of purpose.

Continuing to live and work in this world meant that he’d always be walking a tightrope.

Of course there would be bad days. He would be forced to give up more information that he wanted to hold on to. He would return to the penthouse confused and hating himself. But Carrow would be there. The Company would be there, waiting for him.

Dust would have to learn to live in the moment — to abandon the life at his back and not worry about the dangers that lay in front of him if he continued to play this game.

The time he spent with The Company was reward enough.

Something about Dust’spresence bridged the gap that had been forced between Carrow and his crew. He had been so afraid of losing them, of hurting them, of becoming so attached to them that he could no longer function as an effective leader, that even without knowing it, he had come to hold them all at arm’s length even as he treasured them.

But Dust’s fast bond with Vashvi and Wayles drew him in.

Suddenly, in August, it seemed that the youngest members of The Company were ganging up on him — insisting that he get out of the penthouse sometimes to indulge in a harmless bar hop with them, causing mischief after hours in between jobs, or begging him to join them in the pool on hot afternoons.

It had become a golden summer.

Carrow had always thought of The Company as his family — but over that season, he began to allow himself to be amemberof that family in addition to its protector.

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