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On Monday morning, Justin arrived at Kinnetik half an hour later than planned. He had stayed up until three in the morning, working on the new ad. He was quite proud of the sketches he had been able to make.

The meeting had already started.

Justin swallowed his pride and nerves, and opened the door, strolling inside as confidently as possible.

Brian was in the middle of showing everyone the history of Kinnetik. He didn’t stop his presentation to even spare Justin a look.

Justin swept the room, searching for an empty chair.

Evan waved him to the chair to Brian's left. On the table in front of that chair was a sample of a bottle from Dandy Lube.

Justin lost some of his confidence, remembering his innocent joke about his colleagues needing lube if they didn’t get some ideas ready for Monday. He sat down, studiously ignoring the lube as he pulled out of his bag the laptop.

Brian took a sip from his coffee, and when he placed the cup back on the table, his dark hazel eyes met Justin's. “I’d like to see your ideas now,” Brian declared, taking a seat.

Only a couple of the people from the Art Department talked about ways to create the new ad.

Justin could feel himself cringing with every word out of their mouths.

“If I may speak?” He cleared his throat, shifting into his chair.

“No, you may not,” Brian snapped, finally turning to face Justin.

“I stayed up until three in the goddamn morning to work on this! I’m sorry for being late, but I barely got four hours of sleep. And apparently, I’m the only one who took the time to work on something actually worthy to show you.”

“Let him show us what he’s got, then you can shout all you want for his tardiness,” Evan said calmly, placing a hand on Brian's.

It didn't escape Justin how Brian turned his hand, palm up, to hold Evan’s hand. That couldn’t be for show.

Justin wasn’t sure what Brian was doing, but he better choose fast, because Justin wasn’t ready to become the “run-to man” and Brian's escape from reality.

He snatched the video cable from Brian’s laptop, plugging it into his own to show his screen on the projector. He went over the sketches he had done and the rough ideas for the clip he had discussed with Brian that it would be a good idea to do.

“Email me these files,” Brian demanded. “You all get back to finishing the boards for Brown. Taylor, stay.”

Justin noticed how the others didn’t look pleased by Justin's presentation, but he had at least done what Brian had asked of them.

“You, as well, Evan,” Brian added, when Evan didn’t make a move to get up.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked, shocked.

Brian lifted a brow, pointing to the door. “Someone has to run this company while I take care of Taylor.”

“Just go easy on him. He was late because he barely got any sleep to do what you asked him to do on Friday.”

“Let me be the judge on how I handle my employees, Steele.”

Evan shrugged in Justin's direction, as if saying, “I tried.”

Brian walked Evan to the door, closing and locking it after him.

Justin was about to ask why Brian had to lock the door when he was lifted off his chair by the arm. Brian swept everything off the table before pushing Justin over it.

“Brian,” he gasped, not expecting that.

Brian pressed a finger to his lips, undoing Justin's jeans. He dropped to his knees, wrapping his lips around Justin's hardening dick.

Justin gripped the end of the table with one hand as the other flopped around over some files still left on the table. He was aware of his loud breathing, and hoped no one was around to eavesdrop on them.

Brian sucked and licked him until Justin was sure he was going to lose his mind. Brian brought him to the brink, before he stopped. Justin protested with a loud groan.

Brian chuckled, ripping a foil with his teeth, spitting it across the room. He pulled his erection out of his slacks, rolling the lubed condom onto it, then pulled Justin to the edge of the table. He pushed a finger into Justin, pleased to find him still ready after their weekend fuck-fest.

After they had left Jennifer’s house, they had returned to Britin where they stayed until around noon on Sunday. They had both missed family dinner at Debbie’s.

Brian pushed into Justin, grunting. His arms slapped down on the table on either side of Justin's head. Justin hooked his legs over Brian's shoulders, moaning in pleasure.

“Quiet,” Brian hissed, kissing him deeply.

The table rattled under them. Justin stroked his dick to the fast pace Brian used, and too soon, they both found completion.

“I’m gonna be late every day if I get fucked like this,” Justin said, jokingly.

“Oh, trust me, you’re gonna get admonished properly, but when you took over, telling everyone how the job’s done, you were so fucking hot.”

“Thanks?” Justin shimmered off the table, pulling his jeans up and buttoning them. “What’s with the Dandy Lube sample?”

“That was Kyle’s idea. The others told him about your memorable speech, and he figured you’d be the one needing it since you were late.”

“The joke’s on him. I like it rough.”

“Don’t I know?” Brian leaned into Justin, kissing him slowly.

“Are you gonna admonish me, or can I go and start working on my ideas properly?”

“First, send me what you’ve got. I like most of the ideas, but I want to make some changes.”

Justin nodded.

“As for admonishing you, wait till I get you alone. I’m gonna redden your ass.”

“Oui, Sir!”

Brian watched him amused. “We tried that route when you wanted to visit MeatHook.”

Justin shuddered at the memory. They had stuck out like a sore thumb in the club and ended up being hit on by a Master thinking they were both looking for someone to dominate them. Then they had tried it at home, and Justin hadn’t listened to any of Brian's orders.

They gathered their stuff, ready to go to their respective office. Brian stopped Justin in the doorway with a hand on his shoulder.

“If they give you shit, I want to hear it from you. Don’t keep things from me, because I already know they’re not your biggest fans.”

“Sure, I’ll tell you. But you know I can handle it.”

“I know, but I’m the boss. You’re all my employees and it’s my rules they’re breaking.”

“Along with various laws on discriminating and harassing other employees.” Justin sighed. “I promise to tell you.”

Brian smiled, allowing Justin to go on his way.

In the Art Department, he found Kyle in his chair.

“So did Kinney fire your ass?”

Justin placed his bag and laptop on his desk. “Move it. I’ve got to send Mr. Kinney my ideas.”

Kyle frowned. “I don’t get it.”

Justin smiled widely, not giving a fuck about Kyle’s confusion. “Out of my chair.”

Kyle huffed, but did as told. He went to his desk, where he was surrounded by the rest of the team.

Justin gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to involve Brian in his problems, but the way he was treated got on his nerves. It was like in his school days when he would be picked on and his mom had to talk to his teacher and the principal. At eight, that had been mortifying. It wouldn’t be any less embarrassing to have Brian solve his problems with the art team. They woul’d hate him even more if the boss took his side.

Justin wrote Brian a lengthy email with what he had worked on Sunday, and at the end, he added a post script saying something vague about the way Kyle acted. If the email was seen by someone who didn’t agree with Justin, they wouldn’t understand.

He focused on the boards for the ad about saving Kinnetik.

“Do you plan on helping us finish the boards for Brown?” Garrett asked loudly.

Justin figured he was Team Kyle. “I’ve done my part, now we need to focus on the new ad. Brian likes the boards for Brown the way I changed them the other week.”

“Oh, so it was your idea to change the background to that baby vomit green?” Garrett asked, repulsed.

“Gary,” Susan gasped.

“What? I thought you were smart enough to be part of this team and take orders from Kyle, but no. You had to go over his head, directly to Brian with your stupid ideas!”

“Well, Brian liked them,” Justin snapped. “And about the current ad we should be working on, why am I the only one who bothered to do something? Brian understood why I was running late, because I stayed up half of the night to work on this.”

“You just want to kiss Brian's ass any way you can to get my job,” Kyle muttered.

“I don’t care about your stupid job,” Justin shouted, getting up from his chair. “I just want to do my damn job and make sure it’s done the best way possible.”

Alice snorted from beside Kyle. “Like we believe you!”

Justin stomped over to Kyle, glaring down at him. “Let’s do two mock-ups for the new ad. Let Brian decide who did it best. You have the whole team on your side; I’m doing it on my own.”

“I’ll help you, Justin,” Derek said from behind him.

“Me too,” Susan offered, ignoring the disbelieving look on her husband’s face. “I don’t see why you give this kid a hard time. He’s got the talent and he wants to get the job done, just like the rest of us!”

“He’s manipulating Kinney!”

“I think that’s enough, McGee,” Brian said in chilling voice from the doorway.

Justin went to his desk, slumping in his seat. He tried to tune out Brian ripping his art team a new one for the way they were treating Justin.

In that moment, Justin made a promise to himself that he would stay long enough to finish the ad to save Kinnetik, then he was going to quit and go back to painting. Having a steady job was too nerve-wrecking, especially with such assholes around him.

He was concentrated on the sketch he was working on, because he jumped, startled, when a warm hand touched the small of his back. There were tingles down his spine, and he didn't have to smell Brian's Armani cologne to know it was him.

“Check your phone,” he spoke softly. Then he left.

Justin extracted his phone from his pocket.

Lunch in Ted’s office.

I’ll let you know. Justin didn’t want to push his luck with meeting Brian in secret at Kinnetik.

It was a statement.

Justin refused to get into a silly argument with Brian about the rationality of his precaution.

He told Derek and Susan what he wanted to do, and they worked on the mock-ups. Justin barely realized he kept shaking his hand when it started cramping, because it had been ages since he had overexerted it.

“Taylor!” Justin jumped out of his skin, yet again surprised by Brian's presence. “Wrap that up and follow me.”

Justin saved his work, closed the laptop’s lid, and walked after Brian out of the office. They went into Ted’s office, as Brian had told him.

“It’s three-thirty. Did you plan on taking a lunch break?”

“I was busy with—” Justin waved a hand around.

Brian caught his hand, narrowing his eyes. “You need to take breaks. You hurt yourself.” He stroked the tensed tendons of Justin’s palm as Justin chewed on his lower lip.

“Look, I know you want to prove yourself in front of Kyle, but don’t kill yourself over it. Besides, I hope they’ll never give you shit again after our talk earlier.”

Justin pried his hand out of Brian's grasp. “I’m gonna tell you now so you know. I’m going to quit the second we finish this ad.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“I can’t work in this environment. I’m going back to painting.”

“Justin, don’t let Kyle kill your dream. I know that you love painting, but your dream has always been to become a graphic artist. I’ve given you that opportunity twice.”

“If their behavior doesn’t change, I’m out,” Justin mumbled.

Brian nodded. He guided Justin with a hand on his back to Ted’s desk. “Do you still like Thai?”

“I haven’t eaten good Thai in years.”

 

 

 

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