Chapter 6: The Edge of Want
It started with glances.
Then texts that came too often.
Then touches that lingered too long.
Now… it was everything.
Elliot had never let himself slip. Not in court, not in meetings, not with anyone. But Julian was inside his head like a fever. A constant hum beneath his skin. And lately, it was getting harder to pretend.
He knew Julian's schedule now—when he'd be in the break room, when he'd run his hand through his hair while reviewing a brief. He timed his walks down the hall just to pass him. Just to see him.
He told himself it was just lust. Addiction, maybe.
But then he saw Julian talking to someone else again—that paralegal from HR—and something in him snapped.
He waited until Julian was back at his desk alone.
Then:
Elliot (4:31 PM): "My office. Now."
Julian knocked, walked in. "What's—"
Elliot didn't let him finish. The blinds were half-open, but he didn't care. He shoved Julian against the bookshelf, kissed him like a man starving.
"You don't get to flirt with other people," Elliot growled into his neck.
Julian laughed breathlessly. "You think you own me now?"
"You let me think it," Elliot snapped, fingers gripping Julian's hips so hard it would leave marks.
"I didn't ask for this," Julian whispered, voice shaking—not from fear, but from the heat between them.
"You wanted it the second you kissed me."
Julian met his eyes—anger, need, something darker swimming there. "Then take it."
And Elliot did.
The office was quiet. Too quiet for what they did.
Papers crinkled under Julian's back as Elliot bent him over his desk, tie yanked loose, shirt halfway off. One of them hissed something filthy. The desk creaked with every movement. Elliot's mouth was on his throat, his shoulder, his chest—claiming, marking, taking. Obsession tasted like sweat and breathless moans.
Julian bit his lip to keep from crying out. "You want to be reckless?" he whispered. "Then be all in."
Elliot stilled.
Something shifted in the room—less lust, more gravity. A realization they were no longer pretending.
This wasn't just sex anymore.
Not when Elliot memorized how Julian's voice broke on his name.
Not when Julian stayed after, fixing his tie in the window reflection, watching Elliot silently.
Julian stepped close, rested his forehead against Elliot's.
"You can't lose yourself in me," Julian said softly. "Because I'm already lost in you."
Elliot didn't answer.
He just kissed him again—soft, ruined, like he didn't know how to stop