After relocating their celebration to the bedroom, they turned it into a Festival of the Fittest. And they both won. Completely exhausted, still panting, all desire gratified and utterly satisfied, they clasped each other tightly. Refusing to let it end, Luke found his way to Reid’s lips again. It was another first. Their kiss was lazy and didn’t deepen. This kiss was not a forerunner, there was no hunger to alleviate, it was not the start of something else. There was no point to make, no message to give, no statement to underline. It was all about enjoying the kiss. And they did. Luke didn’t pull back until his lips started to hurt. With a deeply content sigh he snuggled up to Reid.
“Talking about a win-win situation,” Reid whispered in Luke’s locks and they both chuckled.
“Yeah, we’ve got this part of our merger covered.”
Reid smiled, planting a kiss on the blond hair that was still a little damp. Thinking about their shower together, that had devoured the little energy they had left, his smile broadened. This was an afternoon well spent.
After a period of silent afterglow, still interwoven with each other, Luke was ready for their first board meeting.
“I’d like to convene a meeting,” he ignored Reid’s soft “You what?” and continued: “and my first item on the agenda is Setting Priorities.”
“Luke,” Reid groaned as miserable as he could, “My brain is still processing our afternoon. Can’t we…”
“No…” Luke used Reid’s breast as a conference table and knocked softly on it. “Order in the room, please. Let me finish.”
Half amused, half puzzled, Reid decided to hear this nutcase, that called himself his boyfriend, out.
“As you know I have looooooots of money and you’re not doing bad either. So why not quit our jobs and stay in this bed for the rest of our lives.”
Reid laughed out loud.
“That’s a very good point,” he had to admit.
“It is,” Luke nodded, without the slightest sign of his usual insecurity or reticence, “I actually think it’s brilliant.”
“I adore your modesty,” Reid chortled.
“As you should. You’re my role model,” Luke replied and they both laughed.
Luke rolled on his back, with Reid’s arm still around him.
“Wouldn’t it be something…”
“It would,” Reid smiled, thinking about it.
“I know society wants us to be productive and all of that, but who cares?” Luke tilted his head, so he could watch Reid. “Not my responsibility, right?”
“True. On the other hand… that’s not why I became a doctor and worked very hard to become the best doctor I could possibly be. Not because I feel responsible. Not because I owe anybody anything. I became a brain surgeon, because the brain is my passion. Before you dragged me to Oakhell and found your way under my skin, it was my only passion.”
Luke smiled and turned on his side again, his hand softly caressing Reid’s chest.
“It would not be fair to take that away from you, then.”
“You changed your tune,” Reid’s voice was teasing, “I do remember a young, hot, blond in front of me, yelling at me for not choosing him over my job.”
Luke grinned. “Not the same thing. You were forced to make a choice and I was under the impression it wasn’t a difficult one for you to make.”
“I didn’t understand why I had to make that choice in the first place. I was still looking for ways to by-pass the whole dilemma. Because I really thought, and still think, I can handle both.”
“I think so too,” Luke took a deep breath, deciding to be completely honest, “But I do wonder if adding the Chief of Staff to the mix won’t force you into that choice after all. That it will cut into the time you want to spend with brains and with me.”
“Valid point,” Reid nodded, in thought. “I will have to find a balance that works for me.” He paused when he felt Luke tense up a little. “Works for us.”
Luke wanted to reply, but closed this mouth when Reid continued: “And your brilliant remark at lunch about asking ourselves how we can make it work, really sticks with me. I’ll talk to Bob about it tomorrow. I really need to know the job description and then we can figure out what parts can be delegated, for instance.”
“We?”
“Duh! Are we running this company together or aren’t we?”
Reid’s hand slid to Luke’s backbone and he pushed the young man even closer.
“I do realize you have a couple of demanding jobs of your own, so we have to mix that in too.”
Luke nodded and when Reid felt his hesitation, he pushed at Luke’s spine again. “Come on, spit it out, already.”
“Well, hearing you talk about your passion for brains… It made me realize I don’t feel any passion for Grimaldi Shipping. It was thrown into my lap by Damian and guess what…I felt responsible. Man! Will I ever learn?”
“You just did,” Reid said softly and Luke kissed his chest.
“Thank you, you’re right. So tomorrow I’ll make arrangements to visit Damian in jail and throw the company back at him.”
“Need any support?”
“You want to come with me?”
“Want is not the correct verb. He might be bad dad, he is your father, so I feel I should come along. If it’s not a problem waiting one more day, because I do have some appointments tomorrow. I can take the day after tomorrow off.”
“Take a day off? Again?” Luke tilted his head so he could watch Reid’s eyes and smiled. “I would like that a lot.”
“Good. And could you please declare this meeting closed now? I’m hungry.”
With a slice of pizza in one hand, his laptop where – according to the name – it was supposed to be and his head against Reid’s chest, Luke was searching through his files. Where was it?
“Something wrong?” Reid asked between two bites, casting a glance at the TV.
“No, not really. But you talked about the job description and I remember having them somewhere. Bob had a stroke, a couple of years ago, and my grandmother, the business tycoon one, is on the board and when she talked about finding a replacement for Bob, I was interested in the procedures and she sent me all kinds of documents.”
Luke stopped looking when Reid put his hand on this arm and pointed at the TV screen.
“You’d better watch this. I think we don’t have to visit Damian in jail anytime soon…”
“What is…”
Reid put the sound on and they both listened to the breaking news. Damian’s picture was shown, along with a few others.
“…were part of a jail break. They are still on the loose. One eyewitness sent us this short video, shot on his mobile phone.”
Luke grabbed Reid’s wrist and his “Oh my God” sounded devastated.
“What, Luke?”
“There! You see the car Damian is getting into?”
Reid nodded, looking at the replay of the video even closer.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s my mom’s.”
