“That wasterrific,” he said in a dreamy tone.
“You bet yourass it was.” Connor wrapped his arms around Tim, hoping to trap and keep thesexual warmth between them as long as possible. Because when it disappeared,the two of them would have some tough decisions to confront about where thehell they went from here.
Chapter Five
“How did theinterview go?”
Damn it. Tim had hoped to reenter the suite andgo straight to his room without having to answer any questions. Since it waswell past midnight, he figured everyone would be asleep by now. Except Caleb,watching television from the sofa, ruined that hope.
Tim collapsedonto the loveseat, dangling his long legs over its arm. “Why aren’t you in bedwith your wife?”
“I can’t sleep,and all my tossing and turning was getting on Rochelle’s nerves. I thoughtwatching some TV would help me feel drowsy.”
“Fess up. Youand Roch had a fight and she kicked you out, didn’tshe?” From the way Caleb’s jaw clenched, Tim knew he’d struck a nerve, so hechanged the subject. “But to answer your question, my interview went fine. More than fine, in fact.”
“Ohreally?”Caleb raised his eyebrows. “So it was worth missing a family dinner?”
“Definitely. I got a scoopthat will likely get me a raise and allow me to pay you back for this trip.”
Caleb let out alow whistle. “No wonder you were gone so long. Jill said that you had probablyhooked up with one of the locals and forgotten about us.”
Tim felt hisears heat up. His sister always had a knack for making predictions that hit alittle too close to home. “Nope, tonight was all about business.”
If Jill had beenthere, she’d have immediately caught on to Tim’s lie and tried to get moredetails out of him. Thankfully, Caleb just nodded and said, “Glad it workedout.”
Tim tried towatch television with Caleb, but since it was in Spanish, it didn’t make muchsense to him. “I think I’ll hit the hay. I figure if I go to breakfast and hangout with you guys in the morning, no one will give me any shit for taking theafternoon to work on my story.”
Caleb shrugged. “Youknow as well as I do that Jill will have a fit. She wants us to spendpractically every moment of every day of this vacation together.”
“She’llunderstand,” Tim said with a lot more confidence than he actually felt. He toldhis brother goodnight and went to his room.
Only afterstripping out of his clothes and getting between the sheets did Tim think aboutwhat had taken place over the last few hours. He’d left Connor sleeping in hisbed, taking special care not to wake him for reasons Tim still didn’tunderstand. He told himself he wanted to get back to his room before any of hisfamily noticed just how long he’d been gone. But deep down, Tim knew he merelywanted to avoid a “morning after” conversation with Connor and the impact itcould have on the story he wanted to write.
I am going to write a story, Tim toldhimself, but with a lot less certainty than he’d felt only six hours earlier.He’d never turned on the recorder again after Connor confessed to having aheart attack. Tim cursed himself for drinking those vodka tonics. Without them,maybe he could have kept his eyes on landing an exclusive interview with abillionaire who hadn’t spoken to the press in years. Instead, the drinksloosened Tim’s inhibitions and caused him to act on his attraction to Connor.
As he drifted tosleep, Tim thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. People fucked each other andthen worked together all the time. His last conscious thoughts were hopes thathe and Connor could follow this same pattern.
****
By three o’clockthe next afternoon, Tim had completed a rough draft of his article. From atable in the outside bar where he first met Connor, Tim e-mailed a copy to hiseditor, Matt, at the Chronicle.
Matt called himback about twenty minutes after he’d sent it. “Are you serious?”
“Asa heart attack.”
He listened toMatt groan at the pun. “Spare me. You got solid confirmation on this?”
“I recordedConnor saying that he had the heart attack. The rest of the stuff about thepossible impact on Albright Software Media is what I researched on my own herein Cedros. Once I get back to Philly, I’ll be able tofirm it up by talking to other Albright insiders. I just wanted to getsomething to you now so you’d have it in the pipeline.”
“Good thinking. Butwe’ll still have to run this through Legal.”
“Ofcourse.”Tim sighed, knowing the Chronicle’sattorneys would do their best to gut his article in the name of protecting thepaper from lawsuits.
“Do you haveanything else from Albright other than his copping to the heart attack and thesurgery?”
“That’s not enough?”Tim asked, his tone defensive because he knew the point Matt was about to make.
“It’s a scoop,don’t get me wrong. And Shelby’s going to be thrilled with how much publicitythis will generate for the Chronicle,”Matt said, referring to the publisher. “But I was thinking more along the linesof your career. You’re going to get a lot of attention from this article. Ifyou could get Connor to open up a little more, the story would be a lotstronger.”
You could have done that last night if you hadn’t beenso busy getting fucked by him, Tim’s subconscious scolded, but heignored it. “I did the best I could,” he said, crossing the fingers of hisright hand. “Connor was reluctant to do the interview in the first place. Ididn’t want to push too far and have him back out altogether.”
“Now that theice has been broken, see if you can try to get him to do another sit-down,”Matt urged. “Try to get him to discuss how the surgery affected his outlook andhow that might shape Albright Software Media’s future.”
“I’ll try, butI’m not sure if I’ll be able to….” Tim stopped when he felt a warm hand on hisshoulder. He turned around and almost dropped his phone when he saw Connorstanding there.
