All Chapters of Inappropriate Conduct : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Chapter Eleven — JamieThe morning after should never feel like this cold.Jamie woke up cold.Not because the room was freezing—though it was—but because the spot next to him on the floor was empty.The carpet under his back was rough, imprinted with the shape of what they'd done. His arms ached. His thighs throbbed with a dull kind of soreness that reminded him this hadn’t been a dream.Julian Black had kissed him last night.Touched him.Sucked him until he came with a whimper and a prayer. Then let Jamie jerk him off while he gasped into Jamie’s neck like something fragile and ruined.And now… he was gone.Jamie sat up fast, heart punching into his throat.His shirt was half on—twisted, inside out—and his pants were somewhere by the foot of the bed. He scrambled to pull himself together, every muscle protesting.Where was Julian?A quiet sound—click. Porcelain on laminate.He turned.Julian was at the little table by the window, sitting stiffly in a dining chair like he was waitin

Chapter 13: Cracks in the MaskJamieHe was unraveling.That was the only explanation.Because only someone unhinged would still ache for a man who looked through him like glass. A man who kissed him like a promise and then avoided him like a curse.Julian hadn’t so much as glanced at him since that meeting. Not at lunch. Not during briefing. Not even in passing.It made Jamie want to scream. Or cry. Or drag Julian into the nearest copy room and demand answers with his mouth.Instead, he sat at his desk, fingers twitching over his keyboard, trying to focus on ad copy for a luxury mattress campaign. The irony was not lost on him.Nothing about you feels like rest.He deleted the line.A ping lit up his screen: Team Off-Site Itinerary — Reminder: Mandatory attendance.Jamie opened it and groaned. A full-day strategy retreat at a rented country house outside the city. Hosted by Black + Lane’s creative leads.Which meant Julian.Which meant him.All day. One house. Nowhere to hide.And wo

Chapter 15 Julian Jamie was beneath him shirtless, flushed, wide-eyed with something that shimmered dangerously between terror and raw, unguarded desire. His chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow waves, ribs pressing against skin with every frantic breath. Lips parted, swollen from earlier kisses, hair damp and clinging to his forehead in dark, unruly curls. A fine tremor ran through his limbs, visible in the quiver of his thighs, the faint shake of his fingers where they gripped the sheets. But his gaze? His gaze never wavered. Dark eyes locked on Julian’s, steady even as the rest of him unraveled. Defiant. Pleading. Burning. Julian hovered above him, one forearm braced beside Jamie’s head, the other hand ghosting—barely touching—along the edge of his ribs. The heat radiating off Jamie’s skin was enough to make Julian’s pulse roar in his ears. He shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be doing this. Every rule he’d ever set for himself—every line he’d drawn in sand and then concrete—w

Chapter 17: Levi Finds Out POV: Julian Julian had always known it would end like this. A door slamming. Voices rising until they cracked. Guilt bleeding through the air like static on an old radio, loud enough to drown out reason. He had pictured the moment in a hundred different versions over the years—quiet disappointment, cold fury, maybe even a fist to the jaw—but he had never expected it to arrive this soon, or this loud, or in a hotel suite still heavy with the scent of sex and last night’s room-service champagne. He stood barefoot in yesterday’s dress pants, shirt hanging open and wrinkled, hair wrecked from Jamie’s fingers, skin still flushed in places no one else was supposed to see. The morning light sliced through half-drawn curtains and painted accusing stripes across the carpet. Levi burst through the door like he’d kicked it in. “You touched my brother?” The question cracked like a whip across the room, sharp enough to cut through the heavy silence that had settled

Chapter 19: The Offer POV: Jamie The subject line was surgical. > Request for Discreet Conversation – HR No context. No explanation. Just enough words to sound professional—and carry the unmistakable scent of corporate cleanup. Jamie stared at the email, his mouse hovering over the unopened message. His heart thudded. Not fast, but heavy. Like it had been dropped into a tank and left there to sink. He clicked They asked to meet at nine sharp. “To discuss department updates.” That was a lie. The moment Jamie stepped into the glass-walled HR conference room, he knew exactly what kind of “update” this was. He’d worked here long enough to know what these kinds of meetings really meant. A table too wide. A pitcher of lemon water too untouched. Smiles too crisp. “Jamie,” said Marlene, the Head of People Ops. She wore navy and pearls and a face like she practiced neutrality in the mirror. “Thank you for coming in.” “Of course.” He kept his tone flat. He wasn’t going