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

earthquake scan results after only an hour, and the time had flown since.

Still here for at least another couple of hours.

He had to stay. He’d have to take these results to Phillips in the morning. The implications were becoming frightening.

You work too hard. Nothing more came through from Adam. Zach stretched and then slumped in his chair, remembering how good it felt to have Adam in his arms. So strong, so fit, skin so firm and warm. His cock stirred at the memory of Adam’s lips against his, tongues exploring, their hands exploring, but, annoyingly, stopping short of going further. Zach had to learn patience. Adam had said unequivocally he wanted to have sex with Zach, so it was only a matter of waiting, and he should try to enjoy the anticipation. But anticipation had only ever meant frustration to him. Adam liked to tease. Zach didn’t like it, but he’d have to put up with it. He’d put up with a lot of teasing, because he’d never had a man as gorgeous as Adam interested in him before.

Adam was so attractive that Zach could hardly believe he was interested. Sometimes he feared Adam only wanted to play with him, lead him on, and have him worshiping at Adam’s feet before allowing him the privilege of sex with him. Then Zach would be a notch on the bedpost, and Adam could move on to teasing another man into begging for his favors. No. It couldn’t be that way, could it? Adam was a nice guy.

But even a nice guy could abuse the power good looks gave him. Did Zach dare to believe Adam’s interest in him was entirely sincere? And if it was, then he wondered about what Adam had said about having lower standards with a smaller pool of potential lovers to choose from. Did Zach count as lowering his standards? He thought he had a reasonable body; he tried to stay in shape. But he had his father’s nose—a nose which someone once said entered the room half a second before he did. And his hair had been called a disaster area. He’d experimented with wearing it cropped, but when he wore it too short, his mother said he looked like an escaped convict. Still, Adam seemed to enjoy running his hands through it…

He derailed that train of thought and turned back to his terminal. Work. Stop thinking about Adam.

Twenty minutes later, not thinking about Adam became impossible as Adam walked into the lab. The sound of the door opening in the otherwise silent building startled Zach, and he looked up to see Adam emerge from the dimness into the pool of light around Zach’s desk. He had a bag over his shoulder, a cardboard tray in his hands, and a big smile on his face.

“Evening. I brought dinner.” He stopped by the desk and put down the tray and his bag.

“Adam! You didn’t have to do that.” Zach had been getting hungry and toying with the idea of going to raid a vending machine, but this looked much more enticing—and made him feel bad for his suspicions about Adam earlier, thinking he was screwing with Zach’s emotions. If he wanted to retain a keen edge on Zach’s frustration, he wouldn’t do this; he’d leave Zach to get more and more frustrated. Unless the charming gesture was a move in the game. He jumped up and grabbed his coffee mug. “Let me get us some coffee.”

“Wait.”

When he turned back to see what Adam wanted, Adam pulled him close and kissed him. The handle of the coffee mug slipped around Zach’s fingers, dripping some dregs onto the floor. Wanting to melt into Adam’s arms, he began to relax against him, but Adam let him go and stepped back, grinning.

“Oh yes, you’re a hungry man. Go get the coffee.”

Zach hated to tear himself away, but the aroma of the food had left him unable to deny his hunger was the most urgent problem. He brought two mugs of coffee back to his desk, where Adam had distributed the food from the tray.

“These are from the Dome Bar.” Zach recognized the bar’s logo on a napkin. “I didn’t know it did takeout.”

“It doesn’t usually, but I asked nicely.” Of course—who could resist Adam asking nicely for anything? “Here, hot steak-and-cheese sandwich. Get that into you.” He pulled up a chair, sat across from Zach, and tucked into another of the sandwiches.

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do this, but I’m glad you did.” Zach quickly demolished his sandwich and a piece of cake—a dense chocolate-and-walnut loaf. Satisfied, he leaned back in his chair, drinking coffee and enjoying watching Adam finish his cake. This distracted him for a while, but a glance at his terminal reminded him of why they were having a picnic in his lab, and he sighed.

“Was that a sigh of satisfaction?” Adam grinned.

“In part. Thank you again for bringing the food. You must let me reimburse you.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Adam tasted his coffee, then added more sugar to it. “I’ll be insulted.”

“Then I pay the next time we go out.”

“Good plan. Hmm, shame we’ve never introduced lobsters around here, or I’d take serious advantage of your higher pay grade.”

Zach grimaced. “Ugh. You like lobster? Aren’t lobsters basically giant bugs?”

Adam snorted. “That’s a myth.”

“They’re segmented. They have exoskeletons. They have far too many legs. What is that if it’s not a bug?”

“I think I know more about biology than you, rock-botherer. They’re arthropods, but they’re not insects.”

“Very well, I bow to your superior knowledge. But why do they have to bring them to your table whole like that? They don’t being you a steak with the horns still on.”

“That’s what I’d call a very rare steak.” Adam finished his coffee. “Okay, what now? Is there something I can do to help you out?”

He’s going to stay? Zach’s stomach fluttered. The next best thing to going home with Adam would be having Adam stay here with him. But