02

Author's Note: Thought I'd try something a little different...a tale told from the perspective of each of the main characters. One chapter will be told from one character's perspective. Then, the next chapter will be a telling of the same events told from the other character's perspective. The early chapters told from one of the characters' perspective are based loosely on true events. Eventually, the series will cross over and become completely fictional. (I'll leave it up to your imagination as to where in the tale that happens.) I'm not exactly certain how many chapters there will be at this point. Also, fair warning... The way I have this series planned out in my head, there won't be any sex for several chapters. I'm opting for a slow burn on that front. I hope you enjoy this experiment.

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Part 1. Lust At First Sight?: Jason's perspective

It's funny how some guys seem to have a magnetic pull on you. No matter how hard you try to stay away. No matter how much you tell yourself he's off limits. No matter that he occasionally shows you that he's kind of an asshole and you shouldn't devote so much attention to him. You can't stay away. Just the sight of him gets you horny and your mind instantly goes back to the raw sexual feelings you've just tried to talk yourself out of having for the man. That about sums up my predicament with my boss, John Roberts.

I still remember that first moment I saw him. It was a late Winter/early Spring afternoon nearly seven years ago. I was in the car with a co-worker on our way to our standing Friday afternoon lunch. He was walking from my office building to his car, dressed impeccably in a suit and tie, looking handsome as fuck with what looked like a nice body under those clothes. The way he carried himself made me think he was older than me, but his face said he was my age, maybe younger. I had a feeling he had been in my office, interviewing for the vacant second-in-command position we'd been trying to fill for several weeks. I clearly remember thinking that I hoped he got the position...not because I knew anything about his capacity to do the job well. My hope was driven purely by lust and the desire to get to see him every day.

As with most men that I see fleetingly in passing, he had faded from my thoughts by the next day. About a week later, when the email came, announcing that the position had been filled and the name of the new hire was a man's name: John Roberts, thoughts of the sexy man from last week immediately came rushing back. But, I tried not to get my hopes up. I had no idea how many applicants had been interviewed for the position and I certainly didn't know the name of the guy I'd seen in the parking lot last week.

Two weeks later, Janine, the head of our organization, brought John around the office in the morning to introduce him to everyone. I was at my desk, focusing on the computer screen, doing whatever task I was trying to complete at the time, when I heard a knock on my door. When I turned to look, Janine was standing in my doorway next to a familiar face. Sure enough, John Roberts was the man I'd seen in the parking lot that day almost a month before and been struck with lust at first sight over. "Jason, I'd like for you to meet John Roberts, our new Deputy Director." I barely heard what Janine was saying. I was too focused on John. Up close, he looked even better than he had that first time I saw him. At the risk of sounding like a teenage girl from the 1950′s, he was a true dreamboat! He had the most piercing, beautiful, blue eyes I'd ever seen...a feature I hadn't been close enough to see nearly a month ago. As Janine babbled on to John about what a valued employee I was, I couldn't stop looking into those eyes of his. I was entranced. I wanted to reach across my desk, grab his collar, and yank him into a crushing kiss. It felt like I'd been hit by a thunderbolt. This may or may not be the man I'm supposed to be with for the rest of my life, but he was certainly the man I wanted to fuck...and as soon as possible.

As I shook his hand and smiled, I couldn't help but notice that there was no wedding ring on either of this hands...another point in my favor. I was trying hard not to leer at him and give away what I was feeling, I said something along the lines of, "If I can be of any help to you, please don't hesitate to ask." Did my eyes give away that help with getting settled-in in the office wasn't the only help I wanted to provide? As quickly as they'd shown up in my doorway, Janine and John were gone. She had more of my co-workers to introduce him to, after all. As excited I was that John had been hired, it was starting to dawn on me that this could actually be a bad thing. I was crushing hard on the man. He might be nothing but trouble for me and my career.

Part 2. A New Career For A New Chapter Of Life: John's perspective

I was as nervous as fuck during the interview. Sure, I'd worked for one of the nation's most prestigious newspapers in a finance position before. But working as a budget guy for The Times would be nothing compared to being Number Two for an arm of the HR Department of an organization like the Glenmont County school system. It was certainly a risk to jump careers at this stage of my life...approaching 40 and probably another thirty years away from being able to even THINK about retirement. But, growing up, my parents had always taught me to never be afraid of taking a risk.

Taking a risk at this point was something I had to do. I was one week removed from returning from a Caribbean honeymoon. Laura and I had married after a two-year engagement. And we'd dated for a couple years before I got up enough nerve to pop the question to her. Actually, it was Laura who told me I should propose. That was sort of our dynamic. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she wore the pants in our relationship. But she was definitely a force to be reckoned with. And, while I liked it that it was in my nature to be laid-back and easy-going, sometimes I wish she'd be a little less of a force of nature. No, really! I love her SO much. I promise!

Laura was ready for the two of us to start a family and my salary at The Times, plus what she was pulling down at her job, wouldn't be enough to support the two of us and the children we planned on having. I was thrilled that I got the job with Glenmont, especially because I was certain I'd made a few fatal mistakes during the interview.

The morning of my very first day on the job, I was a nervous wreck, as most tend to be when making such a big change in their life. But I'd pulled it together and gotten myself ready to go. I was in the kitchen of our new home, downing the last of a mug of coffee when Laura came in to see me off. "There's my guy! Off to work!" She leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips, which led to a brief makeout session right there in the kitchen. I was grateful for this. Laura knew just how to calm the butterflies churning in my stomach. And she knew how to give them to me too. As she backed away from our kiss, she glanced down at my outfit and her face immediately scrunched up. "That's what you're wearing on your first day?" It was a perfectly fine white button-up shirt and a yellow tie. "Yeah. What's wrong with it?"

She backed away from me and turned to walk out of the kitchen. "You have a light blue shirt and blue tie that would look so much better. And you're wearing your dark pants and dark sports coat instead of those khakis." I'd kind of gotten used to it over the years, but Laura was always cutting me off at the knees like this. As if I wasn't a bundle of nerves as it was...

That morning at work was a whirlwind. My head was definitely spinning. After a quick meeting with the head of the organization, Janine, to give me an overview of what my duties would be, she was dragging me off to meet face-to-face with each of the just barely less than thirty people who worked in the office. Everyone seemed nice enough, but after uttering "nice to meet you" a dozen and a half times and listening to Janine extol the virtues of each of them, it was all starting to become a blur. In that moment, I couldn't have told you the difference between Hannah in Finance, Tricia at the front desk, and Sharon who worked in the counseling department.

Nearly at the end of my trip through the gauntlet of employees that I had to meet, Janine brought me to the door of counseling assistant, Jason McKinley's office. He seemed like a nice enough guy, if not a little earnest. When he stood up to shake my hand, I DID notice that he held his grip a little longer than usual and he looked into my eyes with an intensity that I wasn't used to. I wasn't put off by it, but it did throw me for a little bit of a loop. And there was something about the expression on his face when he offered to be available to me if I needed help with anything.

Unsettled isn't quite the right word to describe how I felt as Janine moved us on to finish introducing me around. It might be better to say that somewhere inside me, a trigger was tripped. For the rest of the day, even through all the knowledge and information that I was being inundated with, I couldn't get Jason off my mind...and I had no idea why that was.