“Don’t stay away too long.” The words caught him off guard.
“Afraid I’ll forget you as soon as I ride off?” he finally teased.
Alec’s face lit up, the grin widening as he grabbed one of Keyes’s ass cheeks before stepping out of the hold. “I sure hope not. I want this.”
He laughed and ducked his head, only looking back after he crossed the threshold. He smiled at Alec and lifted a hand in goodbye.
Alec stood there, watching until he pulled away. The gate opened to him as he left the driveway. Keyes chuckled to himself as he pulled out onto the quiet street. It might be the stupidest thing he’d ever done, but he couldn’t deny this was the happiest he’d been in a long damn time.
=?=
Alec’s frustration from earlier had ended, replaced now with boredom. Probably not the best idea to skip work today. He stared at the new BenQ screen in his home office, another silly impulse buy he’d made last week with no real need for such a badass computer monitor.
How he’d wound up on YouTube Red, he couldn’t tell you. Especially since he’d started out on the Onion catching up on the news of the day. Alec leaned back in his new office chair, not even a faint creak in the springs to give him comfort. Everything in this enormous house was brand new. There was no intimacy here. The loneliness seemed more pronounced now that Key had set foot inside and Alec had realized that the biker was who he wanted. Screw what his family thought or anyone else for that matter. He couldn’t get the sexy, intriguing man out of his head.
Key.
Such a simple name for such a complex guy. Alec bit at the corner of his fingernail, thinking about how badly he wanted a repeat of their time together. He leaned farther back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, wondering how in the world he’d instinctively known sex with Key would be an awakening of sorts for him. That was exactly what it was. Something otherworldly. Incredibly satisfying. He’d discovered a depth of desire he hadn’t experienced before and a release that had rocked him to his core.
He had unconsciously made all these changes to his life, waiting for that one man to find him, and the knowledge hadn’t even freaked him out. He wasn’t certain Key felt the same way. And that made Alec laugh out loud. No, he didn’t see Key appreciating his point of view at all.
Alec surprised himself with his easy acceptance. An outlaw biker fit nowhere into his life plan, but that didn’t seem to matter. It actually might be more of a bonus until he got things worked out. Key had as much of a vested interest in keeping this hidden as Alec did. Their backgrounds were as different as day and night, but they couldn’t be a better fit.
A notification at the side of his screen caught his attention, alerting him to an incoming email. Since he’d been monitoring email all day in hopes of receiving a message from Key, he opened the program. In his inbox, he saw a message from his assistant, one from his father, and one from his father’s campaign chair. In his personal email, he had one from Janice, so he clicked open that message first then read between the lines of her well-crafted sentences. She was truly his buddy, filling him in on the transition team DA Twiford had assembled to help acclimate him to his new role. Apparently, they were cursing his name, sitting in wait for him to return to work. At this rate, his sudden virus might just keep him away for several days before reporting back.
The cell phone on his desk rattled. The damn thing hadn’t been out of his reach all day. It was ridiculous how badly he wanted to hear from Key. Alec swiftly lifted it to look at the screen, staring at caller ID. His heart dropped, disappointed to see his father’s name.
Regretfully, he answered with a swipe. “Hello.”
“You’re not replying to your email.”
Alec nodded at the vacant room. Did his father really need an affirmation for that detail? He’d think the lack of reply would have stated that clearly enough.
“Did I lose you?”
“No, I’m here.”
“I don’t like when you don’t answer me. I think I’ve lost the damn call.”
“I don’t know what to say to the statements you’re making, Father,” Alec answered, matching his father’s irritated tone.
“Then answer my goddamn question.”
The eye roll he gave was involuntary, and he took a deep calming breath, willing himself to be patient. “And what was that question?”
“The change in your position.”
When had that become the question? More interestingly, how had his father even heard? Clearly, the man had ears everywhere. “News travels fast. It’s a reassignment. I became competition after the announcement last Saturday night.”