Page 34 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 1

MIKEY

I had a massive crush on my boss. It was fine. Totally fine. This kind of shit happened all the time, right? Like… like when I had a crush on my last boss and jumped into bed with him like a dick slut.

Dick slut ? Was that even a thing?

“You’re frowning again. Need help?” Tiller was stretched out on the sofa by the fireplace in the kitchen watching a game on TV.

It had been four days since we’d hooked up the first time.

Since then we’d spent every spare minute touching each other and trying to make each other come with our hands, mouths, or dicks. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I blinked down at the little tomatoes I was chopping. “No. I pretty much know how to chop salad tomatoes,” I said with a little too much snark. I was all mixed up inside. Even though we were fucking like bunnies, we hadn’t talked about the elephant in the room.

Tiller’s eyes widened. “Okayyyy.”

“Sorry. It’s just…” I let the words trail off as I tried to gather my thoughts. I didn’t want to be that guy who made a big deal out of a hookup. But I also didn’t want him to think I was a… dick slut is not a thing … serial boss-fucker.

Also, hopefully, not a thing.

“Mikey,” he said with a concerned tone in his voice. He stood up and came over to me. I put the knife down and wiped my hands on a nearby kitchen towel.

I stood up straight and looked right at him. “I want you to know I don’t normally do this.”

The teasing glint in his eye made my heart rate tick up.

“That’s funny. I’ve seen you chop tomatoes quite a few times. When you say you don’t normally?—”

I smacked his chest, grateful he no longer had a sling there. “Shut up, you know what I mean.”

He grabbed my smacking hand and pulled it to his chest, pressing it over his heart and damned near making me light-headed.

“You don’t owe me any explanations. I want you.

Full stop. There are no conditions involved.

Whoever you are or were or will be… it’s all irrelevant to how attracted to you I am and how much I enjoy spending time with you.

I know we talked about how impossible it would be to pursue something long-term, but can we just enjoy our time together here in Aster Valley while we have it?

I want to be able to touch you and kiss you and stay up late talking to you the way we do at home, but this time I want to be able to hold you while we’re doing it. ”

His words made me feel special which was a rare treat. Tiller always made me feel valued and appreciated, but this was different. “Me too. That sounds really nice.”

“And I feel a little giddy getting you all to myself without Sam staying over or teammates dropping by for dinner.”

I stepped closer to him, moving one of my legs between his. We’d returned from a long walk in the woods and changed back into lounge pants, so I could feel the curve of his thigh muscle and the rough texture of his leg hair through the thin fabric.

I cupped the side of Tiller’s neck with one hand and kept the other on his chest. “One night, when the guys were over watching a replay of that week’s game, I got so turned on fantasizing about you, I almost came in my pants right there in the movie room.”

Tiller’s eyes dilated, and his breathing sped up. “Liar,” he breathed. “Tell me more.”

“You were so fucking sexy on the screen in your uniform. It was a game against Arizona or someplace hot, and you were pouring sweat. Your skin was tan and slick, and your eyes were fierce through your face mask.” I ran a thumb over his eyebrows.

“You were glaring at the cornerback covering you, and I kept noticing your eyebrows furrow in frustration.”

“Ty Kenner. Dirty fucker,” he muttered. “Hasn’t met a personal foul he didn’t like.”

“Anyway,” I said with a chuckle, “you were tackled after a good reception and run. When you stood back up, your uniform shirt was caught up under your pads, and I could see your abs. I’m surprised we didn’t hear a collective sigh from the stands. Surely it was caught on the Jumbotron.”

Tiller’s cocky grin was sexy as hell. He moved his hand down from his chest and pulled up his shirt. “These abs?”

I ignored him and his billion-dollar muscles as best I could. “And that’s when I remembered I was sitting right next to you on the sofa. I looked over at you in person and then at your image on the screen. I imagined those lickable abs only two feet away from me. And I started getting hard.”

His breathing shallowed. “Fuck.”

I shifted so my dick barely brushed his.

The sound of Tiller’s sucked-in breath was my reward.

“Then I started to fantasize about what it would be like to wait for you in the tunnel like a groupie. Have you come running off the field in your sweaty uniform and shove me against the cool tunnel wall.”

“Oh fuck. Keep going.” Tiller pressed our groins together again, making my head spin.

I felt my face heat, thinking about where the fantasy had ultimately gone. “It got kind of dirty after that.”

“You’re not stopping. Tell me the rest.”

“You fucked me face-first into the cement bricks and then told me if I wasn’t completely silent you’d let your teammates take a turn with me, too.”

I felt his dick jerk against me as he moaned. Clearly, he thought it was as hot as I had. “I’d never fucking share you like that,” he growled.

“No,” I agreed, feeling breathless. “But god… I looked around the room at all these big strong football players watching the game with us. And I imagined you taking me in front of them and what they’d think. It just… it was a fantasy, you know? And I got so hard sitting there, it literally hurt.”

Now Tiller’s own face was flushed, and he’d moved a hand down between us to rub against my dick. “How did I not see you hard and aching right next to me? Hm?”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the feel of his hand taking control of my cock. “I grabbed your sweatshirt and held it on my lap,” I admitted. “And then I caught a whiff of your smell on it, and I fucking soaked my boxers with pre?—”

He crushed his mouth to mine and kissed me hard. His hand stroked up and down on my dick, and I lifted one leg up around his thigh to give him more room to stroke me.

Things between us were white-hot. I’d fantasized about him plenty, but I’d never in a million years guessed the reality would be even hotter.

“Bed,” he said against my lips. “Bed now.”

I pulled back from him and double-checked I didn’t have any stove or oven burners on yet. Then I grabbed his good hand and yanked him down the back hallway to my bedroom where I made excellent time yanking off my clothes and starting on his.

“Do—” Tiller began, licking his lips. “Do you want me to fuck you? We haven’t done that yet, so…”

I jerked to a stop, his shirt hanging from my hand and his pajama bottoms puddled on the floor at his feet. “Um… is that what you want?” I’d never done it before, but I wasn’t opposed to having Tiller Raine be my first. Still, the idea intimidated me a little. I wasn’t sure I was ready.

He swallowed. “I… I mean, yeah. Ultimately. I’d love to feel you like that. But I…”

We stared at each other for a beat before both speaking at once.

“I’ve never done it before.”

We stared at each other again while the words sank in. “What?” I asked in a supersonic octave known only to bats and very adept canines.

“But you lived with Nelson for two years,” Tiller argued. “You’re telling me he never?—”

“No! No, he never,” I said, flapping my hands around to emphasize… something. I was shocked by his admission. “Wait, wait. Wait. You, Tiller Raine, big beautiful NFL superstar, have never had penetrative sex?”

He set his jaw and folded his arms in front of his bare chest. “My dick penetrated your mouth as recently as this morning,” he said stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean, and stop acting like I’m making a judgment here. I live in a glass house, in case you didn’t notice.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? How is it possible you’ve never fucked someone before like that?”

“I told you, I’m not a big hookup person.

I want a relationship. And with Nelson, I just…

didn’t trust him enough. Part of me worried he’d go tell everyone that he ‘tapped that’ or something.

” I shrugged. “He was the kind of guy who bragged about everything. I didn’t want my ass to be one of the things he bragged about having. ”

Something dark passed through his expression, but I had no way of knowing what had sparked it.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I guess I wasn’t ready. What about you?”

He pulled me over to the bed and nudged me into it before climbing in beside me and pulling the thick duvet over us. I sighed and settled against his warm body, not realizing until then how chilly it had been in the room without my clothes on.

“I had a boyfriend in high school, but we were so hopped up all the time, just the idea of anal sex usually made us blow.” His chuckle was deep and relaxed.

“We lived for blow jobs, hand jobs, and frotting, to the point there wasn’t really ever a need for more.

Maybe we were too intimidated to try it, I don’t know.

But I didn’t miss it. Then in college, I got backroom blow jobs at parties and stuff all the time.

I even got them from some women when I was horny enough, which was usually after a game.

” Tiller stopped and tilted his head. “Wait. What about all those fucking guys who’re always getting all up in your business at Sidecars? I fucking hate that.”

It was true. For some reason, our favorite sports bar was like a magnet for weirdos.

I’d never understood how the place attracted so many gay and bi guys, but maybe it had something to do with it being Tiller Raine’s local hangout.

If they couldn’t have him, I was the next best thing.

“I’m your sloppy seconds,” I said without thinking.

His eyes turned stormy. “The hell you say.”