Millennium - 23. Chapter 23

December 1, 1999

 

“I didn’t know you were involved in venture capital financing!” I said, curious as to how he’d respond to that.

“I work for Omega Corporation, and we’re thinking of getting involved in funding new companies,” Dan said carefully.

“It’s an interesting time to get into the market,” I told him. “Things have gotten a lot more competitive, at least for the smaller deals.”

“I don’t think Omega envisions dabbling in the market just to snap up smaller deals,” he said.

“Why would Omega want to get into this anyway?” I asked. “I figured they’d be focused on their core business.” Omega was a big electronics company, one that specialized in defense systems. They worked on electronics systems for things like nuclear submarines.

“When defense spending gets slashed to a trickle, you think of new markets and new ways to generate more revenue,” he said. “We’re hoping to find companies that have great potential, but it would be even better if we found one that had a business model that complemented ours.”

“That makes sense.” I noticed that as we talked he’d turned around so he could talk to me without looking over his shoulder. That put his line of sight right at my crotch, and he couldn’t quit staring. I lifted my leg a little, giving him a view of my balls and part of my dick. It was funny to see him swallow hard. “What do you do for them anyway?”

“I’m the Chief Financial Officer,” he said.

“Congrats man,” I said enthusiastically. “You’ve done really well for yourself.” He grinned at my praise.

“Thanks. You’re doing pretty well too,” he said. Now that he was interacting with me, he was relaxing. I could feel the intensity of his attraction.

“You here alone, or with a group?” I asked.

“Why?”

“I’m kind of by myself until Stef and Luke get here for the kickoff this afternoon. I was wondering if you wanted to keep me company. Do something.”

“You want to do something with me?” he asked, although it was more of a statement. He acted as if I’d suggested he jump off Coit Tower.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s been forever since I’ve seen you, and even though we weren’t on great terms the last time we saw each other, that was a long time ago. When I see you now, and talk to you, I remember all of the fun times we had.”

“I think about how you dumped me for Robbie,” he said bitterly, and I could tell how much that burned in his psyche for a couple of reasons. First of all, he was still clearly devastated by it, even after all these years. And second, this guy was a smooth customer. If that’s what he let out through his shields, the pain behind it must be magnified multiple times.

“Look Dan, that was a long time ago, and I was a stupid kid. I made a bad decision. You’re not going to carry a grudge, are you? Come on man, it’s been almost 20 years.”

“I was really into you back then,” he said.

“But not into me enough to spend some time with me now?” I asked.

“I didn’t say that,” he said. I raised an eyebrow. “Let’s get rinsed off and get a cup of coffee.”

“Awesome,” I said, as if I’d just conquered the free world. I followed him out of the steam room and into the showers. I watched him watch me, and I put on a show for him. I kept my dick from getting hard, but I definitely wasn’t limp. He turned away from me and started washing his hair. It was getting pretty thin on top, thinner than Robbie’s, which almost made me laugh. But then I looked down and saw one part of him that hadn’t changed at all. He still had that same cute little ass I remembered, with its cute little dimples.

I realized that I only had my nasty sweaty clothes to put back on, while he’d been fully dressed. “I need to change. Want to come up to my room?” I asked.

“I could just meet you downstairs,” he said.

“You could. Choice is yours,” I said, as if I didn’t care. In the end he shrugged and followed me up to my room.

“Nice room,” he said, looking around. ‘If your team were more on top of things, you could have been staying here’, I thought cynically. I went into the bathroom to get ready, throwing on a fresh pair of boxers while I was in there. As I studied myself in the mirror, I could see out into the main area; I could see him staring at the Go Chang deal on the desk, and grinned. I gave him time to look, to read the glowing notes I’d put on there, notes I’d made so I remembered how to hype it, while I combed my hair and put on deodorant.

I made a noise in the bathroom as I was leaving to give him time to back away from the desk, then went strolling out there. It was pretty funny to see how his eyes feasted on my body. “So where do you want to go get coffee?” I asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. I got dressed, putting on some casual clothes, and we walked out of the hotel and down to Union Square. We found a coffee house and ducked in.

“Where do you live?” I asked.

“In Hillsborough.”

“You live alone?”

“You trying to ask me if I’m with anyone?” he snapped.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m trying to ask you,” I said, blatantly flirting. I saw him let his shields down a bit.

“I’m not with anyone special,” he said. “I see a couple of guys, but none of them are serious.”

“I’m trying to figure out if you hate me or you want me,” I teased.

“Who says those are mutually exclusive,” he flirted back. “What about you? You and Robbie still together?”

“We split up last month,” I said. I’d planned this line, this strategy, over the past few days, so I knew exactly how I was going to play it. “It was pretty tough at first, but to be honest, I’ve gotten over him pretty quickly. I think it was a long time coming, so when he finally ended it, I was pissed, but then it made sense.”

“You must not have loved him anymore if it was that easy,” he said.

“I guess in my own way I’ll always love him. You don’t have a family with someone and just turn off the feelings. But our days as a couple are so over.”

He started to smile but caught himself. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“You are?”

“I never liked Robbie, so I’m not saying that for him, but for you to kill off your feelings for him, things must have been pretty tough for you.”

“That’s sweet of you to worry about me,” I told him, and took his hand and held it for emphasis. Yeah, you’re a sweet guy, you bastard, trying to ruin my life, I thought. “It was pretty strange, actually. We had a couple of monster fights, but then, like I said, it seemed so right to be separated. And I’ve been seeing some other guys, probably like you have.”

“None of them are good enough to catch your attention?” he teased.

“I think I’ve been in a relationship where it was all about sex for so long, that it’s kind of boring when I’m with other guys now. I need more, I crave more. Some guys are good at faking infatuation, and that makes for some good sex, but it doesn’t last.”

“Kind of like we had,” he said sadly.

“Dan, don’t say that. I can’t look at you without thinking about our time together and how special it was. You were so much more to me than just that,” I told him earnestly. Quite honestly, if he weren’t trying to single-handedly ruin all that I’d helped build, it really would seem that way.

“Didn’t seem that way when you dumped me like a rock,” he said, letting his bitterness out again.

“I tried to be honest with you. I really cared about you. Oh fuck that,” I said, as if I was having a breakthrough. “I loved you. But I thought I loved Robbie more. I couldn’t have both of you, so I chose him. It was the biggest fucking mistake of my life.”

“Really?”

“Have you forgotten how good we were together?” I asked. I moved closer and talked almost into his ear. “Have you been with someone who could come at the same time, almost always, like we did?”

He smiled and blushed. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“I think you have,” I said. “I think you’ve completely erased it from your mind.”

“Maybe I just need a reminder?” he said, flirting back now.

I stood up and started walking toward the door. He looked at me, wondering what the fuck I was up to, when I paused and looked at him, tilting my head, summoning him to follow me. He grinned and walked out with me. We almost sprinted back to the hotel and up to my room. I shut and locked the door, then moved on him aggressively.

“I want you,” I told him. “I want to feel that sweet ass of yours, to taste your lips, to feel your body throb with me when we cum.” He started tearing off his clothes, matching my moves, until we were naked. I pulled him into my arms and kissed him, felt him respond to me, felt him surrender to me.

“Need you now,” he almost whispered, reminding me of how sexy that had been when we fucked in high school. He wasn’t one of those guys who screamed things; he talked softly, almost in a whisper, only it was an urgent whisper.

“I need you too, baby, I need you too,” I cooed. “Feel my dick. Feel how hard you make me.” He stroked me while I let my hands slide down his back to his cute little ass. I grazed his crack with my fingers, and he came unglued. He grabbed the condom and put it on me, he lubed us up, and he rolled over onto his stomach, his cute ass in the air, begging me to enter him.

I slid my cock in slowly, feeling him absorb me inch by inch. “Yeah. So good. So good. I’ve missed this. So much.” He moaned this in small little sentences. I could feel the emotion in him, the way he let his hate go and enjoyed his victory, the victory of winning me back.

I did what Stefan must have done all those years ago in Paris and forgot I was with him, only instead of fantasizing about being with someone else; I just focused on how his body responded and moved accordingly, like I was fucking a robot. I felt the emotion he put into this, and felt his body literally shaking and throbbing as he thrust back into me. It was important that we came together. In high school, we’d had a natural link. Now, now that I hated him, I had to create one. I gauged his movements, his reactions, and managed to pull it off.

“Cumming,” he said so softly and so urgently.

“Me too,” I growled, and then I blew. He came like he did in the past, putting all of himself into it, or onto my sheets, as the case may be. For me, it was a short orgasm, but I played it out, faking it, making it seem longer.

He rolled over and looked at me wistfully, while I leaned in and kissed him gently. “I should go,” he said.

“You should stay,” I told him. “Unless it wasn’t good.”

“No, Brad, it was amazing, just like it was all those years ago. I just figured you’d have work to do.”

“Fuck work. I want to stay here, feel your body next to mine, and then in a few minutes I want to do that again.”

He grinned and giggled like a girl, then cuddled up to me. I had to force myself to pretend like I enjoyed it, then I had to force myself to fuck him again. It would have been a whole lot harder to do that if he didn’t have that adorable little ass.

“I have to go get ready for the kick off,” he said. He was positively giddy.

“I guess I do too,” I said. “So are you here with other people?”

“Not really,” he said mysteriously. “I know a bunch of the people here. I was going to say hi to Cary Chase. He’s running Amphion now.”

“You’re wasting your time with that loser,” I said. “Amphion’s so far out of their league at this meeting. There are two big deals here this time, and there’s no way they’ve got the resources to go after both of them, plus the small shit.”

“I didn’t say he wasn’t a loser, I said I was going to say hi to him.” I smiled at him, wondering how he’d relay that to Cary.

“So at the banquet tonight, who are you sitting with?” I asked pointedly.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Would you like to join us?” I asked.

“You want me to hang out with you and Stefan?” he asked, amazed.

“Yeah. You and Stef were buds in Paris, remember? He’ll be thrilled to see you.” I’d get to see how good Stef’s acting was. I was giving myself kudos for putting on an epic performance. I looked at him, acting all excited, and then I acted all nervous. “Look, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pressure you. You’ve got a job to do here, and I’m treating this like some big social event.”

“I’d love to join you for dinner,” he said, smiling. I grinned back at him, trying to look like a moonstruck idiot.

“What about afterward?” I asked. “What about tonight?”

“Tonight I want you to fuck me again,” he said.

“Good,” I said. He got up, tossed his clothes on, and left; while I went over to my desk and began creating notes and reports on Go Chang designed just for him. I was engrossed in my work that the doorbell surprised me. I calmly walked over and opened it to find Stef and Luke there.

“How are your naps?” Stef asked sarcastically.

“Well, if you’d have gotten here a little earlier, you’d have found Dan Church in my bed,” I said like a smart ass.

“Indeed?” They looked at me as if they were trying to figure out if I was into him for real, or if it was the act I’d described.

“Yeah. I ran into him in the steam room, told him how Robbie and I broke up and how we’d grown so far apart it was almost a relief when it happened. Reminded him about what a great time I had in high school and how letting him go was the dumbest fucking mistake of my life. Then we fucked.”

“You certainly have become the accomplished actor,” he said.

“It took everything I had not to just beat the shit out of him instead. But this will help our cause and hurt him much more in the long run.”

“I suspect you are right,” Stef said, looking at me dubiously.

“Don’t give me that look, and don’t give me that shit. This guy has plotted to systematically fuck up my life. He’s got this whole scheme to take Robbie and turn him into a failure, to throw his self-esteem into a free fall. Then he caused me all that pain with the break up. He wants to destroy all that we’ve built, plus who knows what else. He deserves to be broken on the wheel, like they used to do in the 1700s.”

“I am not judging you, and I am not saying that you should not do this, mess with him and then pull the rug out from under him. I am just surprised that you can do it. It seems like every minute I think I have all of your talents, all of your skills figured out, you dream up a new one to impress me.” I thought about that, and thought about how full of shit that would have sounded if it would have come from anyone but Stef.

“Thanks Stef. I was in the bathroom and he was snooping on my desk, looking at the Go Chang deal. I was pretty fucking lucky; I wanted to make sure I sold it right, so I’d made some notes in the margins.”

Stef grinned. “How funny that his own lack of scruples and his own snooping personality will ultimately yield him false data.”

“I invited him to join us tonight at the banquet,” I told them.

“He’s joining us for dinner?” Luke asked, and then started laughing. “What are you going to do, propose that we do joint ventures with Amphion?”

I laughed. “He’s not admitting any ties to Amphion at all, other than that he knows Cary Chase from high school.”

“Then what’s he doing here?” Luke asked.

“He’s the CFO for Omega, and his story is they want to break into the business. The peace dividend has hit them hard, so he wants to branch out and explore ways to make the company more profitable.”

“I don’t know what their cost of capital is, but I have a hard time believing they’ll make any money at all on the Alphalogic deal if they pick it up,” Luke said. “We ran the numbers and it’s going to be a net zero return even if they do well.”

“If they do the Go Chang, they’ll probably lose it all,” Stef said.

“I recognized the players,” I told him.

“Normally I would not support organized crime,” Stef said, “but in this situation, I think they are the lesser of two evils. Plus it may give us a safeguard. We are to meet with Mr. Lu in half an hour to discuss his deal. You may watch and learn.”

“How is that different than the rest of my life?” I asked, and gave him an affectionate gaze.

“Sap,” Luke said, rolling his eyes. They left me alone to get ready, and then I went over to Stef’s suite to meet with Mr. Lu. If my suite was amazing, Stef’s was positively fabulous. I found him waiting for me, looking quite professional in his business suit. I had on a suit as well, a really dark blue one. I smiled when I looked at the cufflinks that Robbie had bought me to go with this one. These were very similar to the emerald links he’d gotten me, only these were supposed to remind me of him. They were tanzanite, a stone which was all the craze now. I’d kind of wondered why he didn’t just spring for sapphires, but when I did some research, I figured it out. They were a dark blue, and had a purplish tint to them, almost like his eyes. I found that dark, perfect tanzanite like this was worth almost as much as sapphire.

“Who would have thought you would make cufflinks your signature item?” Stef asked, as if the Ulysse Nardin watch I wore wasn’t a statement in and of itself.

“You are just jealous because JP is not as creative with his gifts,” I teased. If he were a dick, he would have told me that while that may be true, at least JP had a spine and was a loyal partner.

“No, but he is creative in other ways,” Stef said with a leer, making me blush. Right after Luke arrived, the doorbell rang and Stef answered it, ushering in Mr. Lu and a much younger Chinese guy. Mr. Lu must have been in his late 60s. The other guy was young, younger than me, and really handsome. He was about 5’7” tall, and his muscular build was obvious beneath his tailored suit.

“This is my grandson,” Mr. Lu said, introducing him.

“Nice to meet you,” Stefan said, flirting with his eyes. He shook Stef’s hand and smiled back, then greeted me in a friendly way. When I first saw him, I’d thought about trying to fuck him, but as we sat down and our meeting progressed, I realized that he really wasn’t interested in me at all. He spent most of his time looking at Stef.

“I am so glad we could meet with you and discuss our mutual interests,” Stef said, finally cutting past all the niceties.

“There is much we can accomplish if you fund Go Chang,” Mr. Lu said.

“There is much we can accomplish together, but we are not funding Go Chang.”

“That is most certainly your loss,” Mr. Lu replied gamely.

“It would be a loss for us if we did fund you,” Stef said coldly.

“Then I fail to see what we can accomplish together,” Mr. Lu said formally, and stood up to leave, acting offended.

“You insult me by taking me for a fool, Mr. Lu,” Stef said abruptly. That really got everyone’s attention. “If you ever treat me with such disrespect again, I will have Mr. Min explain things to you.”

It was fascinating to see the flash of horror on both of their faces, let through by their surprise. Mr. Lu swallowed. “I must apologize. I did not know you were a friend of Mr. Min’s.”

“We have a mutual friend, who does much the same thing as Mr. Min, only in Mexico. Would you like to hear how I can help you, and how you can help me?”

“Please go on,” he said, all ears now.

“There is a company that I would like to mortally wound. They like to bid on the same projects we bid on,” Stef told them.

“Amphion,” Mr. Lu said, to show he knew what was going on.

Stef nodded. “By bidding high, I think that I can force them to bid high as well,” Stef said. “Hopefully high enough to win.”

“But then they would end up working with us,” the grandson said. We all stared at him sympathetically, since he obviously was not privy to all the information.

Evidently Stef was attracted enough to him to enlighten him. “I do not want to win this time. The winner of the bid will probably funnel close to $250 million into Go Chang. Most of that money will be siphoned off to Mr. Min. Some small amount will be retained to fund Go Chang, but it will lose enormous amounts of money. When it gets bad enough, when Go Chang is almost bankrupt, Mr. Min and his group will intervene and buy Go Chang for pennies on the dollar. My guess is that within a year, the firm that puts up the $250 million will be lucky to recover ten percent of that in the melt down.”

“We will talk later,” Mr. Lu told his grandson, who was clearly upset by the whole thing.

“It might be dishonorable,” Stef said, raising their hackles, “if you did this to honorable people. I am presenting you with an unbelievable opportunity.”

“I don’t see how that is?” the grandson said. I’d watched Stef nail his concerns perfectly. The young man’s honor was very important to him.

“Because I can help you bid up your company, so when your grandfather goes back to meet with Mr. Min, the two of you can be seen as heroes.” That appealed to him. “You do not have to feel guilty, because you are simply defrauding evil people. That makes your actions noble.” They bought into that, but I wasn’t so sure. I kept my mouth shut since it wasn’t my conscience. “I would assume you were excited about Go Chang? You were going to be part of the management team?”

“I was,” the grandson said sadly.

“And you will be. But you will not be working for American venture capitalists.”

Mr. Lu jumped in. “It is clear that we all understand each other.”

“I am glad to hear that,” Stef said. “I am prepared to do my best to ensure you get the highest bid possible, but I want some reassurances.”

“Go on.”

“I want you to promise me that if we bid high enough to win, you will not accept our offer,” Stef said.

“You have my promise, and I can pledge the word of Mr. Min as well.”

“And when Mr. Min does go back in and he buys Go Chang up for a small amount, I would like him to remember this favor and perhaps include us in that venture. I think then it will be very profitable,” Stef said. He turned to Mr. Lu’s grandson. “It will also give us the chance to ultimately work together.”

“I am sure Mr. Min will remember your assistance,” Mr. Lu said.

“Then we have a deal,” Stef said. We all stood and shook hands and bowed, and then they left.

“That was masterful, Stef,” Luke said grinning. “Whenever you offer me the chance to start my own firm and I turn you down, you should know that it’s times like these that make that a very unattractive option.”

Stef beamed at him. “I am so glad to hear you say that. Besides, this would be much more boring if I only got to work with Bradley.” I gave him a dirty look.

“You going to fuck that young Chinese guy tonight, or wait until tomorrow?” I asked, cracking Luke up. The doorbell rang.

“I think perhaps right now, if you two are polite enough to leave,” Stef said. Of course he was right and it was Mr. Lu’s grandson.

“I am sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could ask you a question.”

“It is not a bother,” Stef said with a leer. “You are always welcome to come visit me.” The young guy blushed. “These men were just leaving anyway.”

“In a minute,” I said, irritating both of them. “What was your question?”

“My grandfather is an honorable man. His word is his bond. How can you be so sure about Mr. Min?”

Stef smiled at him, not quite patronizingly, but almost. “That is a good question. If we win and Mr. Min tries to force us to implement the contract, I will expose him in court, the US Courts, as a leader of an organized crime family. He does not want that, and I do not want that. He knows I am a reasonable man. He will not make an enemy of me for no good purpose.”

The young man thought about that and smiled. “You are the smartest man I have ever met.”

“Why thank you,” Stef said, flirting. “I hope you will stay and keep me company? As I said, these men are leaving.” Luke and I got up and went back to our own rooms, chuckling at Stef and his amazing mind, and his slutty ways.