Page 17 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 2

FINN

I lay in Declan’s arms and did my best to let every worry melt away. As long as this man was willing to hold on to me, how could I have a care in the world?

But apparently, I did anyway because I opened my mouth to thank him for giving a shit, and out poured a bunch of horrible crap.

“You were right. He’s going to do the explosion.

And I can’t even think about that right now because first, he wants to film me doing a twenty-foot fall down a rock face.

And my mom says it’s good for my career.

And my agent told me I’m contractually obligated regardless of how unprepared I feel.

Nolan threw me under the bus during that interview, so if I back out now, I look like a coward.

And everyone won’t stop asking me what happened the other night, and they all want a piece of me, and no one understands how dangerous it really was, and now…

” I thought I was going to choke on my own breath.

“And now I don’t know what to do, and I feel like I don’t have anyone to talk to about all of this. ”

I felt so stupid, so immature and young. Here was this older man who had years of tough life experience under his belt, and I was back to feeling like naive Chip Clover again.

I whispered an apology into his neck, but he shushed me. “You have every right to be upset,” he murmured. “It’s a lot, and you’re probably not used to having to navigate some of these decisions on your own.”

I shook my head. “That’s another thing. I’m tired of having everyone else think they know what’s best for me.”

“No one can possibly know what’s best for you,” he said swiftly. “Except you.”

“Says the man who told me to come down off the mountain,” I teased, not really feeling angry about it anymore.

“Mpfh.”

To be honest, I hadn’t been angry at Declan from the moment he’d run his hands over my cheeks and said he was scared for me. How long had it been since someone worried about me, Finnegan Heller, rather than Finn Heller the movie star, the investment, the cash cow?

I couldn’t even remember.

I pulled back and looked at Dec, really looked.

He was so damned sexy, with his scruffy beard and those tiny crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

His lips were dark red, like maybe I’d bruised them a little with my kisses, and it thrilled me to think I’d marked this man in some way, even temporarily.

“Thank you for caring,” I said softly. “Even if it was because of your job.”

His nostrils flared. “It wasn’t because of the job. You have to know that by now.” Declan’s words sounded gruff, as if he was forcing them out under duress.

“I thought you had a woman at home,” I said, knowing I couldn’t allow myself to kiss him again if that was the case. “A pregnant woman.”

The edge of his lip turned up. “I do. But it’s not what you think. She’s a friend. I told you in the car the other day, I’m gay. And single.”

I blew out a relieved breath and tucked my face back into the safe warmth of his neck. “Thank fuck.”

The vibrating rumble of his laughter made me smile against his skin. His arms felt secure around me before he began rubbing his hands up and down my back, eventually moving them under the hoodie until they were warm and strong on my bare skin.

A whimper escaped me, a desperate sound I couldn’t have held back even if I’d wanted to.

Declan’s body jerked as if the sound I’d made was directly tied to him.

Within seconds, we were kissing. Hands were everywhere, and I eventually had enough brainpower to focus my fingers on the buttons of his uniform shirt.

Thankfully, Declan had already removed his duty belt, but when I got his shirt open, I realized he still wore his Kevlar vest over a cotton undershirt.

I pulled at the wide Velcro straps and pulled the protective vest off him, saying a silent prayer of thanks that he wore it every day even in this small town.

When I finally got the last layer off and revealed his wide, muscular chest covered in dark hair, I leaned in and inhaled the masculine scent of him.

Damn.

Declan’s fingers sifted through my hair as he indulged my need to rub my face against the crisp hair on his chest.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” I said, moving up again to kiss him on the lips. “I want you so much. Take me to bed. Please.”

Declan stood, holding me still wrapped around his waist and chest. I let out a surprised whoop of laughter. It felt good. It was the lightest I’d felt in days. Dec’s smile was wide and easy. “Which way?”

My heart tripped over itself as I directed him to the chalet’s only bedroom. When he placed me on the bed, I shimmied out of the clothes I was wearing and reached out my arms to him. He took his time unbuttoning his uniform pants as his eyes roamed all over my bare body.

“Fuck, you’re perfect.” His low grumble made my dick even harder.

As soon as his pants were open and he began pushing them down, along with a pair of black boxer briefs, I found myself holding my breath.

His cock was fucking perfection, hanging heavy and full over balls I could almost feel on my tongue. “Let me suck you off,” I said without thinking.

Declan shook his head. “Lie there and be still.”

Oh god. Oh, what that commanding voice did to my insides. Fuck .

I did as he said. Once his clothes were gone, he crawled up my body, dropping small kisses along the inside of one of my legs until he nuzzled against my sac. My breath came fast and harsh in the quiet room.

Please , I thought. Please put your hot mouth on me.

As soon as his lips opened and his tongue came out to paint a stripe along the inside of my thigh, I almost fainted.

Slick drops of precum escaped my slit, and Declan spotted it immediately.

He leaned up to suck the head of my cock into his mouth and groaned after swiping over the slit with his tongue.

I bowed off the bed with a loud cry of relief and continued desperation. He’d barely taken me into his mouth, and I was ready to blow down his throat any minute.

God, I was going to humiliate myself, and I honestly didn’t care. At all.

“Suck it,” I begged. “More, please.”

He met my eyes and pinned me down with the intensity of his gaze. I couldn’t look away. I stared at him as he continued to take me apart with his lips and tongue. He wet his fingers at one point and began sliding them over my hole until my thighs trembled with need.

When he finally slid a thick finger inside me and bumped up against the right spot, it was all over. I screamed and arched up into his mouth, shoving myself deeper into his throat as the orgasm took the breath from my lungs and shot numb fire through my limbs.

The aftershocks kept coming as his mouth and finger seemed determined to short-circuit my brain. When I was finally completely spent, he moved up next to me and kissed me sweetly on the cheek. “Fuck, you’re stunning. I want to see you come again.”

I let out a breathy chuckle. “Fat chance. I might be young, but even I can’t rebound fast after something like that.”

He gazed at me with an unbelievably adoring expression on his face, something I’d never in a million years expected to see from a man, much less a man like Declan Stone.

It made me feel even more naked than I already was.

“Let me taste you,” I whispered.

His eyes darkened. “You sure?”

A laugh bubbled out of me. “You crazy?”

I scrambled up and pushed him onto his back before climbing on top of his larger body and kissing the fuck out of his face.

He laughed and ran his hands over me until I moved down and got to work.

There was already a sticky smear of precum in his happy trail, and it made me flush with a little pride that I’d turned him on enough to cause it.

I licked and sucked and explored, taking each of his fuzzy balls into my mouth and licking hard across his taint, until sucking his dick down my throat again.

While I didn’t have much experience giving men head in the real world, I’d spent an embarrassing amount of time watching porn and imagining myself giving award-winning blow jobs once I found a man who wouldn’t run and blab to the press about them.

Declan Stone would be the last person on earth to blab to the press about getting sucked off by an actor.

It didn’t take long before Declan’s fingers tightened in my hair and he warned me he was going to come.

I stayed locked on his cock while he came in a hot rush down my throat with a loud cry.

It had been so long since I’d done this, since I’d had a mouthful of dick and craved its release, that I wanted to stay down there like some kind of cockwarmer after he came down from his high.

I laid my head on his inner thigh and ran my fingers through the hairs there. His thigh muscles twitched under my touch.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, reaching for one of my hands and moving his lips along the back of it and up my forearm with reverent, open-mouth kisses. “Inside and out. I didn’t see it before.”

Hot tears threatened to fill my eyes, and I took a slow, steady breath to banish them before they appeared and ruined everything. He already thought of me as a child. There was no reason to prove him right with a crying jag. “Not surprised. I learned a long time ago to play the game.”

My admission surprised me—how did this man make me want to admit things I never admitted to anyone?—but it didn’t seem to surprise him at all.

“It makes sense. Not sure there are many people in your situation who had an easy time becoming their true selves. When you’re encouraged to be someone else from a very early age and rewarded for doing it well… it seems only natural you’d lose the ability to show your true self.”