Page 17 of Freeze Frame

“Not sure I have a witty answer to that one.”

“Not sure you need one,” I countered. Keeping him pressed tight against me, I kissed him. I probably still tasted faintly of his cum, but David didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he let out a little growl, and I kissed him deeper, dragging a hand up his body to bury my fingers in his hair. To hold him close, to trap his mouth against mine.

David yanked his mouth away and he looked down at me, pupils so wide his eyes were black. “Stay the night.” It was a demand. A plea. A prayer.

“Try and stop me,” I answered.

NINE

DAVID

With the dogshappily settled inside, it wasn’t until we stepped into my bedroom and shut the door that I realized how woefully unprepared I was. Josh took one look at my bed, the rumpled covers, the stack of books on my side of the bed, the dirty laundry hanging over the edge of the hamper. Perhaps the most incriminating item was the tub of gummy candy on the un-slept-in side of the bed.

I dropped Josh’s hand and hurried over there, moving the candy to the empty nightstand instead.

“I’d say it’s not what it looks like, but we both know what it looks like.” It looked like a terminally single man with a sweet tooth lived in this room. I turned, not expecting Josh to be right there, not expecting the way he was gazing at me—like I was lunch—or the way his fingers fluttered at my throat. Undoing my shirt buttons, I realized after a second.

I watched Josh watch me as he undressed me. He couldn’t take his eyes off my chest, and it wasn’t until he shoved the shirt off my shoulders that he looked up at me. His eyes were pools ofraw want and vulnerability. Maybe I was seeing a bit of myself in them. I wasn’t a fit twenty-something anymore. I was soft in the middle and had an ass that jiggled. No buns of steel here.

Next to Josh, I had to look old. Silver in my hair. Wrinkles and fine lines giving away my age. A middle made soft by a slow, sedentary life. Which suited me just fine. But standing in front of Josh, who was all fresh faced and beautiful, well—I didn’t feel old, but it made me more aware of my age in a way that I wasn’t used to. Most of my partners and hookups had been a similar age to me.

Josh’s fingers danced down the line of my jaw. The gentle touch made my eyes shut, and I leaned into him as he tugged the shirt the rest of the way off my arms. Warm lips danced across my shoulder. Hands smoothed up my bare back. I was already so fucking hard I couldn’t think or breathe, and then Josh nuzzled into my neck. Peppered me with kisses as he drew closer to his target.

The moment his mouth was on mine, I moaned. I let him lead the kiss. It started off slow at first. A gentle get-to-know-you glide of lips on lips. Then his tongue teased its way into my mouth. Josh’s hands slid down my back, then he gripped my ass and pulled me closer. My cock pressed against him and I gave into the primal urge to thrust, to rut, to grind my dick against him.

“Get on the bed.” Josh tore his mouth away from mine.

Not one to argue, I flicked the button of my pants open, then quickly stepped out of them, leaving my briefs on for now. I’d let Josh set the pace and it didn’t look as presumptuous as it would have if I stripped down to nothing.

Josh watched with obvious interest as I stretched out on the bed. I lay on my back, then propped myself up on my elbows so I could watch him. He stripped out of his shirt first and his gazemet mine. There was a defiance in it, like he was waiting for me to have a problem with his body.

“You’re gorgeous,” I told him, meaning every word. His arms were muscular, not overly, but they were plainly something he’d worked on a lot in the gym. His shoulders looked like they could hold up the world, like Atlas. My gaze roamed over his chest. Twin scars, not recent, but not really old, stretched across his chest.

He had a smattering of chest hair and a thin trail of hair traveled down his belly. Fuck, I wanted to kiss that little treasure trail. Run my mouth down his body and feel it against my skin.

My cock twitched in my briefs, clearly agreeing with the sight before me. Then he stripped out of his pants all at once, like he was ripping off a Band-Aid.

“I believe you mentioned riding my face,” I rasped, my voice thick with want. My mouth fucking watered at the thought of having those strong, furry thighs wrapped around my head.

The longer he was naked, the more comfortable he got. It felt like this wasn’t so much of a test as it was an adjustment period for him. And then suddenly it was like he’d decided that it was safe, and he smiled at me as he dragged a hand down his body. I followed it as it slid over his nipple, then lower to caress his stomach. It dipped lower, between his legs.

“Do you like what you see?” Josh asked, a little cocky to hide the vulnerability of the moment.

“I do, but I’d like a better look.” I moved my arms and lay flat on my back. Splaying my arms out to the sides, I lifted my head and met his gaze.

He gave me a look that was half smirk, half grimace. “That was really lame, for the record.”

He didn’t let my lameness deter him from crawling up onto the bed and straddling me, though. His ass pressed down againstmy cock, and I was suddenly questioning the reasoning behind leaving my briefs on.

“For the record, I am lame. I’m a dad, the bad jokes are part of my DNA now.” I moved my arms closer, bringing my hands up to let them rest on the curve of his ass. “I do know one sure-fire method of shutting me up, though.”

I let my gaze flick down, then back up to his face. “It is, after all, rude to talk with your mouth full.”

When Josh laughed then, it appeared the last bit of his shell cracked and fell off, leaving him room to enjoy himself more. To laugh. To smile down at me like maybe I wasn’t a bad decision or a future regret.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Josh shimmied up the bed, one hand reached past me, probably to grip the headboard, the other sank into my hair, and then my eyes closed as he brought himself to my face.

The first thing I did was lick his cock with my tongue, relishing in the fact that I could lick and suck the whole thing with ease. Above me, Josh moaned and the grip in my hair tightened. Using my hands to pull him closer, I sank my mouth onto him, into him. Using my tongue to lick and taste and tease. Every so often, I’d let my fingers dip in between his ass cheeks.