Page 41 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 2

FINN

I fell asleep resembling an empty husk, but somehow, I woke up feeling whole again. Energized and empowered. Letting go of my unhealthy relationship with Kix was more freeing than I expected. And waking up with a hard cock riding through the cleft of my ass wasn’t bad either.

“Fuck me,” I said excitedly. “Sorry I fell asleep on you last night.”

“Mpfh.”

He wasn’t awake yet, but his hands were all over me, I reached back and squeezed his ass. “Or I can fuck you. Either way. Someone needs to be fucked.”

“Ngh.”

The prickly scruff of his beard scraped against my shoulder as his lips nibbled a path up to my neck and behind my ear. Just his presence in the room made me hard, but this? The humping and growling? This made me short of breath and slutty.

“Okay, me. I’ll be the one fucked. You’ll be the one fucking. Where are the condoms?” I was talking to myself. Declan was way too busy getting handsy. His fingers were down the front of my underwear. I couldn’t think with his hand on my dick.

“Con… condoms,” I tried again. My brain very helpfully supplied the image of a clean sheet of white paper. “You’re not helping,” I told it, exasperated as hell.

“Stroking your dick isn’t helping?” he grumbled into the hot skin of my neck.

“Oh Jesus Christ,” I said on a gasp. My dick was leaking now. I needed him inside me before that voice brought me off prematurely. “You’re not helping either.”

I pressed back against his cock with my ass and tried reaching for the nightstand with my hand. The result was an unsuccessful Gumby maneuver. “Fuck.”

Declan’s rumble of laughter made me feel like I was flying. How was it possible to go from such a low yesterday to such a high this morning?

Declan. That was how.

“I can’t… you have to let me get… oh god, more. More of that. Squeeze… just like that. Fuck.” I’d forgotten all about the condom. His hand was magical.

“Nightstand. Go.”

What that bossy voice did to me. I lurched toward the drawer and yanked it out, grabbing for whatever I could get my hands on.

I came back with a handful of various items, including lube, cough drops, a phone charger, a small bottle of headache medicine, and—thank the blessed Virgin Mary—some condoms.

Declan suited up while I shimmied out of my boxer briefs. When I met his eyes, my heart did a little pirouette. “I want to ride you,” I admitted. “Please.”

His grin was sexy as fuck and all-knowing. Declan lay back on the bed and stretched that big, muscular body in invitation.

As if I needed an invitation to climb on that man.

I scrambled over him and straddled his hips, reaching for the lube bottle and pumping some into my hand. I reached back to make a quick pass at prep when all I really wanted to do was sit on his dick, prep be damned.

When I finally felt his thick cock head stretch me open, I groaned and threw my head back. Fuck, this felt good. I wanted it all the fucking time. Day, night, midday, morning, twilight, bedtime. Whatever. Whenever. There was no such thing as enough sex with Declan Stone.

I wanted all of it.

His hands spread out on my thighs, clasping firmly as I lifted myself up and down and felt the incredible slide of his body in mine. Our eyes met.

“Declan,” I breathed.

He reached up a hand to clasp my cheek and brought my face down for a kiss. It was sweet and gentle, tender. His hand moved around to hold the back of my head, and his other one came around my body to spread across my lower back in a possessive hold.

“You’re perfect,” Declan said. “Everything about you is… my favorite.”

It was awkward and sweet. I couldn’t believe we were here, clearly well past the hookup stage and obviously into each other for more than just sex. But god, the sex was amazing. I wanted all of it. The sex, the affection, the companionship. I wanted Declan Stone to be my person.

My heart thumped merrily in my chest with the eager, naive belief it would all work out. So what, we lived in different states? Pfft. Logistics. So we had wildly incompatible careers. Whatever. Details.

After giving Declan another long kiss, I sat back up and used his body to make myself feel good. I loved preening for him. His eyes went dark and drank in every inch of my body like it was some kind of life-saving elixir.

“Can’t get enough of you,” he said, spreading a hand along my abs and up to my chest before tweaking a nipple and making me clench around him in response. “Fuck, you’re killing me.”

He lurched up and grabbed me around the shoulders, twisting me until I was the one on my back and he was above me, pounding into me while my legs went every which way in the air.

It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the sensation of his thick cock nudging the spot that made me nearly swallow my tongue.

“That’s it,” he mumbled. “Feel good?”

That was a stupid question I didn’t bother to answer.

Presumably the sound of my breaths sawing in and out of my lungs was answer enough.

Declan reached down to run a fingertip around my rim, to feel the way his cock was stretching me.

The touch nearly shorted out my brain. I grappled for my dick and stroked it, crying out a warning that this was all coming to a crashing end whether he liked it or not.

“Fuck!” I shouted, forgetting all about the fact another person currently lived in this house. “Fuck, oh god. Fuck, fuck .”

Declan let out his own release in a muffled roar against my neck. His taller body bent over me, and my hips were lifted up on his thighs as he thrust deep inside and shuddered through his orgasm.

I clutched his head and pressed kisses into his hair, biting back more curses of disbelief at how incredible sex with him felt.

“Not a bad way to wake up,” he eventually said in a slow drawl that made me laugh. He grinned and kissed me again on the lips, lingering a few beats in a way that made me feel seen and appreciated. “Be right back. Don’t move.”

He wandered off to the bathroom, leaving me free to enjoy the view. His pale, muscular ass was topped by a tan line that made me curious what activity he did without a shirt on.

When he returned, Declan brought a hot wet cloth to clean me off, but I waved it away. “I need to take a shower and get going. I want to call my agent before I get to the set. There’s no way I’m doing the climbing scene in the dark. At least without my climbing supervisor onsite.”

He didn’t say anything as he reached for my hand and led me to the shower. It wasn’t until he was halfway through scrubbing me down that he finally spoke. But it wasn’t to give me his opinions like I’d expected.

“Who does Solo hang out with?”

I turned to face him. “I don’t really know. I can tell you the names of a few of the kids taking the summer school class with him. But I don’t really know if he hangs out with them outside of it.”

“I recognized Melanie Taggart and Joey Mixon. Who else was there?”

I tried to picture their faces. “Brandon Huber was the kid with the super-short blond hair. Marcus Bledsoe was the super-tall guy. Tay Hendrickson was the girl with the curly brown hair down her back, and let’s see…

the other girl’s name was…” It took me a second to remember.

“Kelsey, I think. But I don’t remember her last name. Her mom is a pediatrician.”

“Oh, Seibert, probably. Joann is her mom. Tessa and I met her last week when we were checking out the pediatrics office for the baby.”

The casual mention of Tessa’s baby brought up several questions, but I didn’t have time to get into them now.

I wanted to know what her plans were. Was she going to live here with Declan permanently?

Was she covered financially, or did she need help?

I wasn’t sure what kind of living the sheriff of a small county in Colorado made, but it seemed like Declan probably had her covered if need be.

But still. Was Declan going to help raise her baby? What was his role in all of this?

I kept reminding myself it wasn’t really any of my business, but then again… I was beginning to think it might be. Rather, I wanted it to be my business. I wanted him to be my business.

But first, I needed to get my head in the game and finish out this film commitment.

It was obvious Declan wasn’t very pleased with my rush to report to the set, but I was on a mission. My head was buzzing with plans. When Julian had pulled me aside in the interrogation room last night at the sheriff’s department, he’d asked me what I wanted.

“I want to not be arrested,” I’d said with a laugh.

“That’s a given,” he’d said, waving his elegant fingers through the air. “I can handle that. Your frenemy out there would be an idiot to press charges when you can pin him with motor vehicle theft and disorderly conduct.”

That’s when I’d mentioned the menacing. His eyes had danced. “Sounds like the sheriff likes you, Finn.”

I’d huffed. Not right now , I’d thought to myself.

But then he’d doubled down. Julian had repeated his original question. “What do you want? In life, I mean.”

I’d stared at him while my mind buzzed around with thoughts. “Why are you asking me this?”

He’d sighed and sat back. “My best friend just got engaged, and I just… I mean, what’s it all about, you know? What’s the fucking purpose of any of this?”

I’d blinked at him. “Con… grats?”

Then Julian had heaved an exhausted sigh.

Suddenly, he hadn’t looked like a put-together professional.

He’d looked like a man who needed a nap.

He’d looked like I’d felt. “Not really. I’ve been in love with him my whole life.

But he’s straight, so it’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine.

Obviously. Anyway, forget I asked. I’m just feeling…

melancholy. Ignore me. Let’s get you out of here. Hang tight.”

After he’d left, I’d thought about his question. What did I want in life?