Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 3

he seemed to forget Zach existed most of the time. For a personal assistant, Zach didn't have a whole lot to do with his boss.
    And he wanted to. Jack's name might sound like his, but they were completely different and he liked that. Zach was medium height and build, with gray eyes and hair he'd dyed a different color so often he didn't always recognize himself in the morning now that it was a sober dark brown. He'd gotten a kick out of the twist of choosing to go normal, though. Kind of like going undercover. Plus, he'd needed a job and something had told him that purple hair wasn't going to fly here. All those macho men with tool belts and hard hats...hot, some of them, sure, but not exactly into alternative lifestyle choices. Not that he'd hidden the fact he was gay. He had standards. No way was he working anywhere that had homophobic assholes on the payroll.
    Brandon had shrugged when Zach had brought the subject up at the job interview, his face impassive. "You'd be here to answer phones, keep my coffee cup full, handle all the crap so I can get the real work done, and jump as high as I tell you to, Mr. Calder. I don't see how being gay would help you do any of that better, and I don't see how it'd make you do it any worse. If anyone gives you crap about it, you tell me, otherwise I'm not interested. You want the job?"
    Staring at Brandon's muscular body -- he had to be six-four easy -- and wondering just what it'd be like to climb his new boss like a tree and nibble his nuts, it'd been hard to concentrate for long enough to accept. He didn't have a daddy kink exactly, but he did go for older men when he could get them, and at thirty-five to his twenty-two, Jack Brandon qualified.
    Tall, big, sandy hair cut short and honest-to-God green eyes in a craggy, beat-up face....Brandon was hot in a forbidding, too-much-to-handle kind of way.
    Gave Zach shivers -- the good kind -- just picturing being underneath all those muscles and hearing that rough growl of a voice telling him just what to do to make his boss happy. It was getting to the point where a nod and a 'Good coffee. Thanks' gave him a boner.
    Sadly, though, not only was Jack failing to register on Zach's well-honed gaydar, there were also zero signs of the lust he felt being directed back at him.
    Jack -- God, it was hard to think of him by his first name, though the one time Zach had tried 'sir', he'd almost come in his pants and Brandon had choked on his coffee for some reason -- was straight. Accept it and move on , Zach told himself. Usually a few times a week.
    "You short on work?" Brandon's voice was icy. It beat indifferent, but not by much.
    "Uh, no, sir." The honorific didn't get him nicely flustered this time. It just popped out automatically. "Well...kind of?" He stood, though he did get a thrill out of being loomed over. It just didn't feel right lounging in his seat with his boss on his feet. "I've done everything you wanted me to do." Shame a blow job wasn't on the list. "Finished an hour ago, in fact."
    Brandon's frown became a scowl. "And you just sat here playing with your dick, is that right?"
    Oookay. That had crossed a line. Before he could point that out, Zach realized Brandon was looking meaningfully at the paperclips. Oh. That dick. Right.
    Brandon put his hands on Zach's desk and leaned across it so their faces were close. "You're doing okay here, but you can do better. If you want to stick around, show some initiative. Ask me if there's anything you can do. Walk around the yard and get a feel for how things work and see if you can come up with any way to make things run smoother. Don't just sit at your desk looking bored out of your mind. That's not good for you or the business."
    "I didn't -- you never seem to want me to bother you." It wasn't a whine or a protest, though secretly he did resent the way Brandon's gaze would pass over him as if he didn't exist some mornings. "I didn't know you wanted more from me. If I did, you could've had me, uh, it."
    The words hung between them. God, had he really just said that? He was blushing again, heat rising until he wanted to splash cold water on his face -- and dunk his dick in ice to get it to behave.
    "I want my money's worth out of you," Brandon said evenly. He wasn't blushing. He wasn't even breathing hard. Zach felt like he'd run up three flights of stairs. His heart pounded and he could feel each exhaled breath of Brandon's warm on his face, like the echo of a kiss.
    Except Brandon