The Law of Attraction

Alec chanced a glance at Ed, who was sitting adjacent to him, his back to the window. Alec stiffened as he noticed a fading purple bruise on the skin of Ed’s neck. Alec’s heart rate soared as a vivid sense memory—the salt of Ed’s skin under his tongue, the scent of his sweat, and the heat of their bodies moving together—assaulted him. Alec’s cock tingled and thickened in his underwear, and he forced himself to look away. A quick glance around the table reassured him that everyone’s attention was on Maria and his personal crisis was going unnoticed.

Unable to help himself, Alec let his gaze slide back to Ed’s neck. The mark was barely noticeable, and if he hadn’t been the one responsible for it, he probably wouldn’t have even realised what it was. Only part of it showed above Ed’s collar, and Alec found himself longing to see it all, to see what other marks he’d left on that smooth skin.

Ed turned his head then, and his gaze locked on Alec’s for a couple of uncomfortable seconds before Alec looked away.

Sweat prickled on Alec’s back, and his heart pounded as though he’d been sprinting. He needed to get a fucking grip, and he needed to talk to Ed alone as soon as possible. Alec couldn’t deal with this kind of distraction at work; he had a job to do.

Unfortunately for Alec, open-plan offices didn’t provide much opportunity for private conversations, and he couldn’t whisk Ed off to one of the small breakout rooms they used for meetings without it looking suspicious.

Alec did his best to ignore Ed throughout the morning. He buried himself in his work and gave James the job of babysitting Ed and finding him some dogsbody jobs to do—hopefully ones that would keep him occupied and away from Alec as much as possible.

There were piles of paperwork Ed was required to sort and relevant sections that needed copying and distributing to the team. Ed settled down to the tasks without any fuss and seemed to be getting through them all efficiently. The desk Ed had been allocated had its back to Alec’s, and Alec did his best not to be distracted by the nape of Ed’s neck and the way his dark blond hair grew down into a point at the back.

The sound of a throat clearing drew Alec’s attention away from his laptop screen.

“Sorry to disturb you, Alec.” Ed’s voice was formal. “But can you remind me where the photocopier is, please? Jen showed me earlier, but my sense of direction is terrible.”

Alec cast his gaze around. James was at his desk across the way, talking on the phone, and Jon and Maria were nowhere to be seen. Alec wasn’t going to risk having the conversation he needed to have here, where they could potentially be overheard. “Yeah, sure,” he replied curtly. “It’s down the corridor, third door on the left.”

“Thanks.” Ed forced a little half smile. He hesitated for a moment before speaking in a quiet rush. “I’m not going to say anything, you know.” His gaze was open and honest, and Alec could see something there that looked infuriatingly like compassion.

“Not now,” Alec hissed. He knew his voice sounded like ice, but he needed Ed to shut the hell up. “We’ll talk later.”

Ed nodded, cheeks flushing bright pink, and he gave a tiny jerk of his head in assent. “Okay.”

Alec watched him as he walked away. Ed had taken off his suit jacket, and his arse looked just as delicious as Alec remembered.

He closed his eyes. He was so fucked.

At lunchtime, Jen phoned in a sandwich order to the deli that was popular with the people in their office. She went round the team, checking what they wanted. Alec ordered his usual chicken and avocado even though he wasn’t feeling particularly hungry. His nerves and preoccupation at the sudden and unexpected appearance of Ed in his workplace had killed his appetite.

“Do you want anything, Ed?” Jen asked when she got to his desk.

“No thanks. I brought my own lunch today. I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

“I usually bring mine too.” Alec glanced up to see Jen smiling reassuringly at Ed. “The deli’s lovely, but it’s not exactly cheap.”

“I can imagine,” Ed replied.

When Jen came back with their order, they ate at their desks as usual. Getting crumbs on laptops was an occupational hazard, but Alec never saw the point in taking a proper break at lunchtime. He worked long enough hours as it was without wasting half an hour in the middle of the day. The rest of the team seemed to feel the same, because nobody ever complained.

When he finished eating, Alec was hit by the urge for some post-lunch caffeine. Coffee and tea making and fetching was traditionally the job of the newest minion on the team. Normally Alec wouldn’t have thought twice about asking a temp to fetch him coffee but he felt oddly uncomfortable about bossing Ed around. He was going to need to get past that, and there was no time like the present.