with no Magnus or ValCo or Iyashii to separate us.” He tightened his grip, squeezing and stroking until Gabe tilted his head back and moaned. Tetsu swooped down, taking his mouth, sucking and tasting the reddening lips.
Gabe rose up on his toes again. His body arched in the beginning of a swoon as Tetsu’s kisses became more passionate, the stroke of his hand over Gabe's cock more demanding.
“Soon,” Tetsu repeated and dropped Gabe onto the mattress before turning and walking out of the hotel room to the guards in the hallway.
* * *
“Take us around front,” Gabe ordered the driver as they neared ValCo headquarters.
The driver tilted his head toward the rear-view mirror, his gaze masked by dark sunglasses. “Our orders are to take you to the underground parking, sir.”
“Orders from whom?” Gabe’s tone was even and crisp. A few degrees colder and he would sound like Magnus, an effect that seemed to penetrate the guard's common sense. “Iyashii? You’re not setting me up to get shot, are you?”
The driver turned to look into the back seat, his face directed at Tetsu.
Tetsu nodded in the direction of ValCo’s main entrance. “There are a bunch of vid crews today, aren’t there?” He directed his question at the driver. “I don’t think we have to worry about any trouble from Iyashii out front.”
Turning his attention back to the road, the driver picked up his car radio’s microphone, relaying to ValCo security that they were going around front. Forty seconds later they pulled up alongside half a dozen vid casters with their camera crews. The driver got out and opened their door. Gabe slid out first, Tetsu using him as a shield as he leaned into the front seat and ripped the microphone from the radio.
Around them, Tetsu could hear the reporters whispering, asking one another if it was Dillon Valnyk who had just exited the car. Gabe handed his jacket to the security guard at the main entrance. The guard looked confused and Gabe gave his arm a friendly squeeze, his other hand closing around the guard’s wrist. It was a beautiful sleight of hand, Tetsu thought, standing in the center of the crowd and watching Gabe pocket the guard’s door controller before he turned to face the crowd. Tetsu hung back, still within the crowd.
“Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is me. In the flesh.” Gabe looked up, his expression one of exaggerated dismay. “But not in the boardroom despite being the second largest shareholder of ValCo stock.”
One of the younger vid reporters surged forward, shoving her microphone in front of Gabe’s face. “Mr. Valnyk, is it true you lost personal control of your stock after you were institutionalized?”
The whispers were at full force, reporters talking into their mobiles, asking their news desk for background information on Valnyk the Younger.
Gabe brought a shaking hand to his face, looked fleetingly at his wrist before nodding at the eager reporter. “Yes, after the death of my lover.”
“Mr. Valnyk, Dillon!” Another reporter, a drab suited male who looked like he’d spent over half his life covering such shareholder meetings, corrected Gabe. “I think Tamu-san means when you were still a teenager. Have you been institutionalized more than once?”
Gabe looked up, gaze wide with a child’s innocence. “No, why would I be? I haven’t had control of my shares since I was a teen -- since the death of Yasura Ujisato.”
There were gasps from the older reporters, confused silence from Tamu and the other young ones. Behind Gabe, the security guard tried to discreetly put a restraining hand on Gabe’s shoulder.
“You see how it is?” Gabe shrugged the guard away and extended his arms toward the crowd, palms out. “But it all changes today.” He pointed at one of the cameramen and smiled, his mood flipping in a heartbeat. “That on? Of course it is, why would it be off, right?”
Gabe pointed at the building top, shouting, “ValCo doesn’t want me
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