MY SECRETARY TOOK AWAY MY BREATH
The start
A man stands infront of a floor to ceiling windows of his office, back rigid, sharp gaze. The city pulses below like a dying heartbeat. He doesn't turn as the door opens.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
You are late Ryker. 5 years of punctuality ruined in one morning. Did you finally decide incompetence finally suits you?
Zephyr turns slightly, just enough for the cold light to catch the edge of his jaw and the flicker in his eyes that betrays everything he refuses to say aloud
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Or were you avoiding me again?
He says with his gaze all over Ryker
Ryker Valier
**Ryker, 30, slender and composed despite his tardiness, closes the door behind him with a faint click. His gaze lands on Zephyr, not flinching in the face of th man's chill. **
Ryker Valier
I had some trouble with traffic.
Ryker Valier
**Ryker steps closer, his footsteps silent as snowfall on carpet, and stands beside the CEO, shoulder brushing his. **
Ryker Valier
You seem on edge Mr. Zephyr
Zephyr De Rodriguez
**Zephyr doesn't flinch at the touch, can't , not after five years of craving it in silence but his jaw tightens like steel under silk. **
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Traffic. How mundane
**He finally turns, eyes sharp enough to cut glass, yet lingering just a second too long on Ryker's face. His voice drops low, clipped, betraying a tremor beneath the ice. **
Zephyr De Rodriguez
You have been saying that every morning this week. Funny how traffic only appears while you're avoiding my calls .....or me
Zephyr De Rodriguez
**He said silently.**
A beat. The city hums below. Then softer, almost imperceptible he adds
Zephyr De Rodriguez
I don't need excuses Ryder. I never have
Ryker meets his gaze head on, unflinching. His own eyes, always steady, soften with an unspoken understanding. it's a game they play well, this dance of words and silence
Ryker Valier
You are right. I haven't been answering your calls
He moves closer, so close Zephyr can almost feel the warmth of his skin, the faint saint of cologne, like rain and pine. it's a haedy distraction, one he's grown too comfortable with in these stolen moments
Ryker Valier
I have been busy, we both have been
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*A muscle in Zephyr's jaw twitches. He can feel Ryker's nearness like a gravitational pull, stirring emotions his iron wall was supposed to bury for a lifetime. And it's all he can do not to learn into the man standing so impossibly close, to drown in the warmth he's so hopelessly craving*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Busy.
*His voice sounds too rough, too raw.*
Tats the best you can do? We're all busy Ryker. I'm the one running a billion dollar empire. I know what busy is.
Ryker Valier
*Ryker holds a stance even, unmoving. except for his gaze, which flicker to Zephyr's jaw. He's become way too familiar with all the little ways the man's veneer of cold indifference cracks. it's a map only he has the pleasur, the pain, of charting*
Ryker Valier
I have just been occupied with something.
Ryker Valier
*His words are measured, carefull. He's walking a tightrope here, and they both know it. One wrong move, and they are both falling headfirst into something they can't come back from.*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*Zephyr exhales sharply through his nose, controlled, dangerous,. The air between them feels charged, like the calm before a storm that's been brewing for five years. He turns away again, walking to his desk with measured strides, picking up a pen as if he needs something to hold, something to ground him*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Occupied
*He doesn't look up as he taps the pen against polished wood, once twice, a sharp rhythm mirroring the pulse in his throat.*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Let me guess. Work? A new project? Or is it someone?
*his voice stays flat but there's an edge underneath. Not anger but fear*
Ryker Valier
* Ryker doesn't answer right away. Instead he watches Zephyr. The stiff set of shoulders, the way his fingers tighten around the pen like he is afraid it might vanish if he lets go.*
Ryker Valier
It's not someone
*he takes a slow step forward, voice dropping to something quieter*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*The answer feels like a punch in the gut, even if he had half expected it. But it's the gentleness in Ryker's tone that makes him freeze. His fingers clenching around the pen again, so hard that the plastic threatens to crack*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*His gaze snaps up, and for a moment, the cold stoicism he usually wears has fractured, revealing a raw , aching vulnerability. He tries to hide it under a bark of laugh, and bitter*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
You can't just say things like that Ryker
Ryker Valier
*Ryker doesn't back down. If anything the pain in Zephyr's voice makes him more resolute. He takes another step forward, closing the distance until they are standing directly across the desk from each other. The tension between them is do thick you could slice it with a knife. But he doesn't reach out. Not yet*
Ryker Valier
Why not?
*his voice soft*
it's the truth. it's always been the truth, Zephyr. Fro five years now.
And there it is the truth laid bare, a raw nerve exposed.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*Zephyr's eye's blaze with both anger and something almost like terror flashing through them he can't look away, not with Ryder standing so close. He grips the pen harder.*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
You think I don't know that? You think I don't feel the same way every damn day?
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*His voice breaks just slightly, just for a moment. He is on the edge of control, his emotions a tempest inside him.*
Say it again ~~
Zephyr's breath hitches. He turns away sharply. His knuckles white against the pen.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Five years... For five years you have watches me build an empire, sir through board meetings where men twice your age cowered at my silence. You saw me crush competitors, walk through fire without any scratch
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*He slams the pen on the desk*
And yet,... You make me weak Ryker.
*His voice drops to a whisper*
Zephyr De Rodriguez
One look from you and I am unraveled. My whole system stops.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
So don't stand there and tell me it's always been the truth like it's simple. Like I haven't spent every night since you walked in here praying I could stop wanting you.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*He finally looks back at Ryker, eyes glistening not with tears but something fierce*
Now what do you want from me
Ryker Valier
*Ryker exhales- soft, slow, deliberate - as if steadying himself against the weight of Zephyr's confession. Then, without hesitation, he rounds the desk , closing the last inches between them. His fingers brush Zephyr's wrist, feather light, tracing the tension coiled there*
Ryker Valier
What do I want??
*Ryker said, solemnly as if convincing himself*
Ryker Valier
*He pressed him thumb gently over the pulse point- wild, frantic- betraying everything Zephyr's words tried so hard to conceal*
Ryker Valier
YOU
*He said. Simple. Devastating. His other hand lifts , hovering over near Zephyr's jaw. Not touching, not yet. Waiting for permission, for surrender.*
Ryker Valier
Not as your assistant. Not in the shadows. just... You
Unless you're still pretending you don't want that.
*he said as if challenging the sanity of both his and Zephyr's*
Zephyr's breath hitches again, sharper this time. The air feels charged, like small molecules are having a reaction to produce static electricity, just like before a lighting strike. Ryker's touch is a livewire on his skin, igniting the hunger he's tried to bury for so long. He could still say "NO". He could walk away. There an out, perhaps a window, somewhere here
Zephyr De Rodriguez
It's impossible. You know it is. I can't --
Zephyr De Rodriguez
*He swallows hard, his gaze dropping to Ryker's mouth for a brief moment before he catches himself and looks up at Ryker again.*
Ryker sees that look, knows what it means, the hunger, the need warring with reason. His thumb begins tracing small, gentle circles aginst Zephyr's wrist feeling the tension beneath his touch.
Ryker Valier
Impossible.
*he says the word, tasting it's weight on his tongue. he's heard it a thousand times from Zephyr. An excuse, a way to stay distant. But something in him, in the raw ache of the moment refuses to back down. He moves closer, until their bodies are almost but not quite touching.
Ryker Valier
Since when has that stopped you.
*He said to Zephyr, his voice is calm with a sharp edge of something unexplainable, maybe obsession, possessiveness or something deeper*
Zephyr's pulse jumps under Ryker's fingers, wild, untamed. His breath comes faster now, the carefully constructed walls around hom crumbling with each second of contact. He should pull away. He should end this before it destroys them both.
But he doesn't.
instead his free hand lifts, slow, hesitate, until his fingertips brush Ryker's jawline, tracing the sharp line of it like he's memorizing the shape. his voice is barely above a whisper, rough with surrender.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
Damn you...
*he closes the distance between them, crashing their mouths together in a kiss that feels like five years of longing finally set free *
Ryker's response is instantaneous, as of he's been waiting for this moment his whole life. His hands find Zephyr's waist and pull him closer, erasing the last bit of space between them their bodies press together, a tangle of arms and limbs, desperate and hungry.
Ryker Valier
*his teeth nip at Zephyr's bottom lip, seeking entrance and all Zephyr can do is gasp... A broken sound against Ryker's mouth. He yeilds, letting Ryker deepen the kiss, surrendering to the desire that's been building for so goddamn long.*
Te kiss is rough, almost brutal, born of years of pent up need Zephyr's fingers bite into Ryker's shoulder through his shirt, clinging on like his drowning and Ryker's his lifeline. He moves impossibly closer, crowing Ryker's back against the desk. Pressing his body on Ryker's, leaving not even a sub atomic gap between them. One of his hands snakes up, tangling in Ryker's hair, pulling his head back to get a better angle, kissing him harder, deeper.
And all the while, all he can hear is his own heartbeat , a relentless drumbeat of him chanting "MINE"
Ryker's grip tightens, finger digging into Zephyr's hip. He matches Zephyr's intensity, kiss for kiss, touch for touch. His other hand tugs at Zephyr's tie, loosening it with impatient, nimble fingers, before slipping under Zephyr's short to play across his bare skin.
A low possessive sound escapes his throat, a growl, almost as he pressed closer, putting one thigh between Zephyr's legs, pressing him flush against the desk's edge
The growl reverberated through Zephyr, a shot of heat straight to his groin. He grinds down against Ryker's thigh, craving the friction, the contact more intoxicating than any alcohol. His head falls back, exposing the column of his throat and his eyes flutter shut as a moan escapes him.
Zephyr can feel himself spiraling, the world outside of this moment falling away Ryker's touch ignites a fire in him that years of denial couldn't quench.
Zephyr De Rodriguez
And in a ragged voice, Zephyr whispers
"God, I need you."
Ryker's mouth trails lower, leaving a path of kisses down Zephyr's throat, stopping just above the collar of his shirt. He's marking him, claiming him, and he knows it. One hands slides lower down Zephyr's stomach, teasing the waistband of his pants, while the other tugs at the buttons of his shirt until it hangs open.
He looks up at Zephyr, his gaze dark and heated, as his hands dips beneath the fabric, touching Zephyr's abs possessively.
Ryker Valier
Say it again
*he murmurs against Zephyr's skin, voice rough from all the moaning and groaning*
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