Straight Roommate (5 page)

Mitchell nodded and followed Xavier to
one of the plush seats around the conference table. As he sat, he
saw a group of men shuffle in. God, he hadn’t seen this many
good-looking men inside one room since, well, since last night. But
where those men had been dressed for hook-ups, these were dressed
to kill. Crisp shirts, pressed slacks, palming iPhones and Droids,
these guys were attractive on a whole other level.

Mitchell wondered how he’d be able to
work in an industry that focused solely on the gay lifestyle when
he had to work with men who could double as models. If he worked
somewhere else, he could chastise himself for thinking sexual
thoughts while at work, but where did he draw the line when he was
supposed to think about sexual things?

“
Let’s get started,” a
voice boomed, startling Mitchell to look up at Beau Broussard as he
walked in. Behind him was Kayden Wright. Yep, just as sexy as
Mitchell had remembered. And he was carrying an iPad. Mystery
solved.

“
Logan’s not here yet,”
Xavier said.

Beau growled. Actually growled. Holy
hell in a handbasket, he looked mean.

Kayden quickly typed something on his
iPad as he took a seat without looking at the guys in the
room.

“
You can fill him in
later.” Beau cleared his throat and looked around the room. “First,
we have a new employee. Mitchell Hill will be working in product
development.” Beau indicated Mitchell with a wave of his hand and
Mitchell hoped his wince remained internal. “Swing by his desk and
introduce yourselves.”

Mitchell looked around the room since
all eyes were on him, all eyes except Kayden. Why wasn’t the sexy
assistant gawking like everybody else? Did he understand how
uncomfortable this undivided attention made Mitchell and he didn’t
want to add to it? Or was he just extremely focused on his work?
Maybe new employee intros bored him. Mitchell swallowed and looked
down after he’d realized he’d stared a little too long at the man
who’d piqued his interest.

“
Watch out for him,”
Xavier whispered to Mitchell. “Kayden looks innocent but he’s a
shark who can sniff out blood from miles away. I heard he caught
Van, one of our sales guys, blowing a regular last night. Beau got
pissed and threw him out.” Mitchell glanced at Xavier, who nodded
to stress his point.

Rather than comment, taking a sip of
coffee seemed like the better alternative.

“
I’m going to get right to
it,” Beau continued. “Third-quarter sales from all entities were
acceptable, but I want to make a push to sell our branded products
outside this local niche market. In order to do that, I—” The door
swung open.

“
Sorry I’m late. Traffic
was a bitch.” “That’s Logan,” Xavier whispered.

“
Sit down,” Beau barked
and glared at Logan, who quickly grabbed the first empty chair. “As
I was saying, I want to expand our products nationally. In order to
do that, I want us to develop something new to grab the attention
of gay men throughout the country and maybe globally. It needs to
be something fresh but practical, something men will salivate over
that’ll force specialty stores around the US to carry
it.”

“
Why not apply a marketing
plan to something we already develop?” a redheaded man asked from
the other side of the table.

“
I’d considered that,
Ryder. However, I don’t think anything we now carry will be strong
enough to make that kind of push. I fully stand behind our products
and feel each and every one of them deserves to be nationally
branded, but we need something strong to focus our attention on
initially to have the best chance at making the products we produce
known throughout the gay community.”

Beau turned his attention back to the
rest of the table. “I know this task would initially start with
product development to create something for sales and marketing to
determine product feasibility on, but we’re going to do it a little
different this time. I want everyone involved in coming up with
something that’ll blow the minds of gay men everywhere. So I’ve
decided to open this up to all employees across all of my
companies. If you have an idea, we want to hear about it. Whoever
comes up with the product we decide to launch will be awarded a ten
thousand dollar bonus.”

Mitchell gasped, and he wasn’t the
only one. That was a lot of money. It’d take a nice little chunk
off his student loan debt if he came up with a stellar
idea.

“
How long do we have to
come up with something viable?” Logan asked.

“
I want this decided as
soon as possible. My hope is that we have an idea solidified within
the month. Since this will be open to all employees at all of my
companies,

Kayden will be fielding the ideas and
noting the ones he believes have merit.” Xavier softly groaned.
“Figures,” he mumbled.

Mitchell glanced around. Some of men
in the room were glaring at Kayden while others were still watching
Beau, but with ticks in their jaws or backs ramrod stiff. What did
everybody have against Kayden? The man in question had his
attention on his iPad while he continued to type as he’d done
throughout the meeting. Mitchell had only seen him look up once and
that was to glance at Beau during the big announcement.

“
If Kayden believes
someone has a winning idea, he’ll notify me and I’ll go from there.
If there are several possibilities, then he’ll gather and present
those for me to make a decision. I’ll be notifying the employees at
my other companies today about this opportunity and then I’ll be
flying out to California for a couple of weeks. If you have
questions, you’ll need to ask Kayden. He’s your contact on anything
regarding this project.”

Beau stood and Kayden picked up his
iPad before rising beside him.

“
Good luck, everyone. I
believe we can push our brand to the next level, but I need your
help to see it through.” He turned to leave, Kayden fresh on his
heels.

“
This is bullshit!” Logan
hissed.

“
What pisses you off more,
dude? The fact that Beau is asking everyone at the company to do
your job for you or that you have to get Kayden’s approval?” Ryder
asked as he crossed his arms.

“
Screw
you, Ryder. Logan’s right. It’s our job to come up with products we
believe men will use. It’s
your
job to sell them,” Xavier
spat.

“
It doesn’t matter, boys.
The gauntlet’s been thrown. That money is mine.”

“
Not surprised to hear you
say that, Micah,” Ryder said. “But I’ll enjoy the
competition.”

Mitchell had a hard time keeping up
with names as the guys kept hurling insults at each other. It was
apparent these men had worked together for a while, but had no
problem taking the divide-and-conquer approach when needed.
Mitchell didn’t have the history these men had. Working alone on
this sounded more agreeable than jumping in and trying to fit in
with a new team on another project.

And he already knew what he was going
to present to Kayden as his concept. The years he’d spent
perfecting his own special product were about to finally pay
off.

Now he just had to convince Kayden of
that.

* * * * *

Kayden Wright sat in his office,
staring at another proposal. Ridiculous. Why would any man want a
feather-tipped cock ring? Who in his right mind would want his dick
to look like a peacock?

The last three days had
been pure hell. He’d heard it all. And in this business, that was
saying at lot. From bubblegum-flavored dildos to chocolate-flavored
assholes— which went beyond the
eww
factor—the only thing he’d discovered was that he
worked with idiots. He sighed as he leaned back in his leather
chair. Beau would be pissed if Kayden didn’t pick something, and
his boss was an irritable hothead who he did his best to keep from
blowing up if at all possible. He wouldn’t be working at this job
if it didn’t pay so well and allow him to live in close proximity
to the hospital. Doctors and medication were expensive. He didn’t
need to add gas for commuting for treatments to those
bills.

That ten thousand dollar bonus would
go a long way if he were able to think of something himself. The
bills would still be there, but a chunk would be gone, allowing him
to breathe a little easier. Beau hadn’t said Kayden couldn’t
participate in coming up with an idea, but he hadn’t come out and
specifically said he could. Kayden took that as a solid maybe that
he would press if he could come up with a winning idea. Beau just
cared about the bottom line. But Kayden was so busy meeting with
employees and studying their moronic theories on what gay men would
buy that he hadn’t had time to think of an idea himself.

A knock sounded on his
door and Kayden closed the folder on his desk and sat up
straighter.
Here we go again.

“
Come in.”

The knob twisted and a wavy brown mess
of hair poked through just before the guy looked up and Kayden
stared into light-brown eyes.

“
Um, my name is
Mitch—”

“
I know
who you are
Mitch
. Mitchell Hill. Recent
graduate with a master’s degree in biochemical engineering from
Louisiana Tech.”
And insanely
attractive
, he added silently as he stood
and motioned to the chair across his desk. But Kayden was used to
working with hot men. Unfortunately, the hot ones were also the
dickheads. “Have a seat.”

Kayden eased down into his chair after
his new company was seated.

“
It’s not Mitch.” Mitchell
blushed and looked down at some papers in his lap. Kayden’s lip
quirked. This would be interesting.

“
What can I do for you,
Mitchell? Is everyone treating you nicely?” Not that he’d know how
that felt. He was treated as a leper around here. Being the boss’s
right-hand man had put him on some employees’ shit
lists.

Mitchell cleared his throat and looked
up. “Yeah, no problems there. Just about everyone has stopped by to
introduce themselves. I’m here to give you my idea for the bonus
project Beau announced in the meeting on Monday.”

Kayden stared before finding his
voice. “Um, it’s great that you want to jump right in, but you
should probably learn all the products we have available now to see
what we’re about before attempting to develop something
new.”

Mitchell’s chin lifted. “I’ve spent
the last couple of days researching exactly that. Besides, if you,
er, we had a product already in our stable to push nationally, Beau
wouldn’t be asking for new ideas.”

Kayden pursed his lips as he watched
Mitchell. The newbie had a good point. “All right, let’s hear it,
but I warn you, I’ve heard a lot of ideas, so you’ll have to blow
my socks off.” He wouldn’t mind Mitchell blowing something else
either. Kayden frowned at that errant thought and ignored the
sudden throb in his dick. It was easy to do because he always
ignored it. He didn’t have time for relationships and the only men
he was ever around were the guys he worked with. Beau had made his
views on that perfectly clear, even if the men around here hadn’t
already avoided him.

Mitchell dug into his pocket and
pulled out a little squirt bottle. From where Kayden sat it looked
like a bottle of eye drops.

“
I’ve always been
fascinated with lubrication.”

There went Kayden’s dick again.
Sometimes this job really sucked and not in a good way.
“Why?”

“
As a teen, I used lotion
to jack off with because it was convenient and my parents wouldn’t
suspect anything if they’d found it in my room. As I got older and
actually bought lube, I realized how expensive, and diverse, it can
be. I’ve always been interested in chemistry, so I started
researching everyday items I could use to make my own product. I’ve
perfected both water- and oil-based versions and believe it to be
better than any other lube on the market.”

“
Don’t you think lube is a
little too simple? Beau wants to wow our target consumers.” A
vision of feathers danced across his mind and he
shuddered.

“
But lube is something
every gay man uses in one form or another. Some aren’t into toys
for penetration or masturbation. The simplistic value makes it
appeal to everyone in our demographic. The fact that it’s better
than what’s already out there is what’ll draw them to
it.”

“
And why do you think
yours is better?”

“
Because I’ve formulated
it to be as close to seminal fluid as possible. Texture, smell,
even taste. But only as flavoring.” Mitchell chuckled. “Not to
drink.”

“
Hmmm.” Kayden looked up
as he pondered this. It really was the first idea that seemed
plausible, but it might be too generic to work, and that was if it
worked at all. It would have to do the job better than anything
else out there, not to mention it would need a hook to draw
consumers. But first things first… He would have to test the lube
to see if the product Mitchell presented was even
feasible.

“
Would you like to try
it?”