Who Moved My Holepunch? by Anne Brooke

Darren Fording works as Senior Timetabling Officer for his local college and has happily been arranging the schedules alongside his stalwart team for more than two years. When Max Sheldon arrives to take over as Acting Registrar, Darren finds himself consumed by lust for his new boss and making the kind of decisions he, as a stuck-in-his-ways administrator, has never made before.

At their first official meeting, Darren takes his courage in both hands and initiates a full-on kiss, which Max returns with enthusiasm. The encounter ends there, however, as Max is reluctant to pursue a relationship of any kind with a subordinate. Darren is equally determined not to take “no” for an answer.

When a visit by the educational inspection team goes terribly wrong, Darren must use all his wits to both save the reputation of the college he loves and to prove his worth to the man who’s beginning to mean so much to him. 

Genres: Gay/Contemporary/Romantic Comedy/BDSM (light)/Exhibitionism/Public Places

Heat Level: 3
Length: Novella (20k words)

Read a short excerpt...

...In the silence that followed, Darren looked across and his gaze caught Max’s. There was something in the man’s eyes that made it impossible to look away. Strange how everything stopped, maybe even time, and all Darren could do was gaze at Max.

He’s definitely gay, Darren thought. A straight man would have looked away at once or at the very least said something.

Max was saying nothing at all and didn’t seem to be that bothered about searching for any suitable words either. Anyway, Darren couldn’t even begin to think what the heck those words might be because already they’d stared at each other for way too long and he couldn’t think what to do to break the impasse.

Other than this.

He leant toward Max, heart pounding so hard he was sure it could be heard at least three rooms away, grabbed his face with both hands, even though he wasn’t moving away, and, casting at least thirty working guidelines to the four winds, kissed him.

For a few frantic heartbeats, nothing happened and the specter of being sacked for making sexual advances loomed over Darren with all the fury of an unhappy OFSTED inspector (a scenario he hoped he wouldn’t need to get used to). Then Max opened his lips, and Darren eased his tongue inside.

He tasted good. Darren kept on kissing him, feeling the moan in his own throat he couldn’t deny, and hardly believing he’d been bold enough to do this. It had to be the best meeting with the boss he’d ever had, bar none. Mind you, the old registrar had been at least one hundred and eighty years old and on his third wife, so Darren wouldn’t have had a chance.

Right now, as the kiss lengthened with no sign of stopping any time soon, he was glad retirement had claimed the registrar, if it meant Max had got the job. Then Max put his fingers at the back of Darren’s neck and any other considerations, apart from the matter at hand, vanished entirely from his head.

Eventually, the need to breathe became too demanding and the kiss eased. Not at once, but slowly so their lips drifted to smaller, lighter kisses for a while before ceasing. Darren removed his hands from Max’s face and sat back in his chair. Everything remained quiet.

“That was nice,” Max said at last. “Unexpected but nice. You’re a good kisser.”

“Thank you.”

His lips felt swollen and his cock was hard, but Darren didn’t know for sure what he should do next. Should he push for more or was that it? There was nothing he’d like better than removing Max’s tie, unbuttoning his shirt and seeing exactly what the man kept hidden under his suit. But, as far as he knew, nobody had written the etiquette manual on what to do after you’d snogged the boss, and the kiss itself had drained that initial surge of boldness. Darn it.

Max cleared his throat again, bringing Darren back from his musings. He had to make a decision. Now or never. Max had enjoyed the kiss so maybe more was in the offing. In which case…

Even as he made the choice to go for the tie and get a closer look at the acting registrar’s chest, Max folded his hands across his lap—bulge-free, Darren noted—and carried on speaking as if nothing had happened between them at all...