Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

just saying, relax, I’m definitely interested in you that way. And I promise, when we take the next step…” He moved closer and whispered in Zach’s ear, so close his lips touched the curves of it and Zach’s hair brushed his face. “Then I’m gonna blow your mind.”

He’d bet Zach blushed, but he couldn’t see it in the dark. He certainly made a weird little sound in his throat, almost a squeak. He spoke in a hoarse voice. “Are you trying to drive me insane?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Well, you’re doing a good job.”

“I’ve practiced. I’m a master of the art.”

“The art of teasing.”

“Just enjoy it. Kiss me again.” He could be straightforward too. Zach filled his arms again, and Adam felt him trembling as he sought to restrain his passion. When Adam let him unleash that passion, he suspected his own mind would be blown too. He came close to weakening and giving Zach what he wanted, right there on the bench, but Zach was the one who stopped eventually.

“It’s getting late,” he said, pulling away. “And if you’re not coming up, I’d better go home.”

“You do look like you could use some rest,” Adam said, his breathing and heartbeat slowing back to normal. Wow. He tried to comb his hair back into place with his fingers. “Get some sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow, if you want.”

“Yes. I mean, of course I want to. I’ll call you.”

They parted with one more kiss, and Adam watched Zach until he turned a corner before heading off into the night too. Perhaps tomorrow night? Or should he try teasing Zach for another couple of days? He was a lot of fun to tease. No, tomorrow night. He had Zach primed.

He started making plans. It would be perfection.

Chapter Three

“Benesh, where are your quarterly reports?”

“Ah, Professor Phillips.” Zach tried to unobtrusively slide the papers he’d been studying into a file. They were not about his mineral survey analyses but rather his personal project. He’d printed them out to see if looking at them on paper would help him spot the error he must have made. But the latest analyses had all reproduced his first results. He’d started to get nervous. “I’m almost done, sir. I’ll have them to you soon.”

“Yes, you will.” Phillips scowled at him, and Zach tried to look innocent. “You’ve been logging a lot of computer time lately—not on your survey work.”

“That’s…just something else I’ve been working on. After hours, of course.” And it had been. Mostly. “Actually, I wonder if I could talk to you about that. Some of the results I’ve been getting—”

“The reports, Dr. Benesh. They’re due in two days.”

“I know, sir. But I’d appreciate it so much if you could check the results of my scans. I’m worried that—”

“You know I don’t have time. And neither do your colleagues—yes, I know you’ve asked them.”

Zach grimaced. He’d asked several colleagues, not only Dr. Palmer, hoping one of them would have some time. Asking Phillips himself could be counted as an act of desperation.

“Get your reports finished; then we’ll take a look at this other thing.”

“Oh.” That would be soon enough, surely? Nothing was going to happen in the next couple of days, was it? “Yes, I suppose that will be okay.”

“Glad you approve,” Phillips said, eyebrows raised. “I want a progress report on my desk by seventeen hundred.” He strode out of Zach’s lab. Zach glanced at the folder with the quake scan results in. He glanced at his screen, which sat waiting for him to work on the quarterly reports. He sighed and turned to the screen.

ZACH SENT A progress report to Phillips at 16:58 and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. God, he needed some sleep. He’d been awake worrying half the night. But he wouldn’t get his head down anytime soon. He was off the clock, so he could either turn to his own work or he could put in some overtime and get the damn reports done and out of the way. Get Phillips off his back. He sat for a moment trying to decide, when a message popped into his inbox.

Adam.

I just finished work. Any plans tonight?

Yes, Zach had planned to spend another evening and then—he hoped—a night with Adam, but he could no longer spare the time. Damn. Maybe they could meet after he finished for a very late supper. If he wasn’t asleep on his feet by then. Regretfully, he replied to the message

I’m sorry, I can’t make it. I have to put in some overtime.

A reply came back a moment later.

Okay, I understand. Call me tomorrow.

Adam would have plenty of other things to do anyway. He seemed to have many friends here. Zach felt a ridiculous surge of jealousy for those friends. He got up and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee, hoping it would keep him rational as well as awake. He had no reason to be jealous. Adam was the one keeping him waiting for sex. He wasn’t likely to run off and jump into someone else’s bed because Zach couldn’t make it for a date this evening. But Adam had made more than one excuse of his own. After that first kiss in the bar and after the concert and their dinner date. It did look like a pattern. Was Adam seeing someone else?

No, that couldn’t be true. He wouldn’t be seen out in public with Zach if he had. And he wouldn’t keep Zach waiting either. He’d want to sneak around away from prying eyes and grab the chance to have sex.

Unless he was playing some other more complicated game.

So much for staying rational, Zach thought wryly. He put the coffee on his desk and continued working on his reports. At least he could legitimately claim that as overtime work.

AT NEARLY 20:30, a new message came through from Adam.

You’re not still at work, are you?

Zach wished he could say no. He’d moved on from the reports to the