Page 43 of Freeze Frame

Slowly, I pulled my fingers from his mouth. Then I gently eased my hand out of his hole before crawling up the bed and stretching out next to him. Josh rolled into my chest. He slid an arm around my waist and hid his face against me.

I let him hide for a few minutes and when his breathing was a little more stable, not shaking from exertion and emotion, I made him look at me.

“Are you okay?”

Josh stared up at me with glistening eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Sore?”

He made a pleased sound in the back of his throat. “Mmm, just the right amount actually. Not debilitatingly sore, but I’ll be able to tell that I was thoroughly fucked.”

He brought my mouth down to his, and we shared a gentle, sated kiss. “Maybe next time you can fist the other hole.”

“Liked that, did you?” I held back a laugh, but only barely. Josh looked drunk on lust, like the endorphins that flooded his brain had made him loopy.

“You have amazing hands.” He shimmied closer, pressing his body against mine.

I still wasn’t up for another round, but he didn’t seem to be pressing for that. He seemed to crave closeness now.

“You’re a post-orgasm snuggler, aren’t you?” I asked as I pulled him as close as I could. I tangled our legs together and tucked him in against me like I was sheltering him from something. Maybe from myself and the way I felt about him. We’d only just met, but I was already a goner for him. I cared about him, maybe even loved him. I thought about him almost constantly and I might have confessed all that to him, but it felt like it was too soon. Like if I said any of that, he’d think I was crazy.

Besides, Jax might have given us his blessing, but there were still other things I worried about. Like if Josh would try to give up his job for me. I didn’t want him to, but I was cognizant of the fact that I still didn’t know how I’d feel about him shooting a scene with someone. That was a bridge we had yet to cross. And then there was my age and the fact that I couldn’t go as long as he could. Once I came, that was it. There was seldom more left in the tank.

Josh might like the idea of an older lover, but would he really want to stick himself with someone my age on a more permanent basis?

“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked.

“I was thinking about how long it was going to take the feeling to come back to my hand. I think you ground my bones into dust.”

“No regrets.” Josh laughed softly and pressed a kiss to my bare chest.

“No,” I echoed. Closing my eyes, I breathed him in. “No regrets.”

TWENTY-TWO

JOSH

During the week,David worked at the local university as a custodian. My job had always been far more flexible than most people’s, but in an effort to maximize the amount of time I had available to spend with David, I’d started working during his working hours. Right now, that meant going to Lukas’s and editing footage for him.

I was eyeball deep in a scene between a newcomer and a favorite who hadn’t filmed in a couple of years. Jesse had dropped off the radar when he’d met someone, but it seemed like that relationship was no longer a factor in his life, so he’d returned to the scene.

After I’d been immersed in my job for a couple of hours, Lukas came into the office, Lara trailing behind him like the world’s furriest shadow. Nitro had been napping under the desk for the past couple of hours, but he perked up at the presence of Lara.

“Jesse’s fans are going to go wild for this,” I told Lukas, who’d set a coffee down on the desk for me.

“They were fire to film. I swear my camera almost melted.”

“They gave you a lot to work with, that’s for sure.”

Lukas eased himself down onto the couch, and I could feel his eyes on me. Without looking at him, I asked, “Is there something you need?”

I wasn’t trying to be rude, but the way he was looking at me was unnerving.

“Asher says you want a scene. It has been awhile. You’re basically semi-retired at this point.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I’ll have to talk to David. And I’ll have to get retested, of course.”

“You know it’s fine if you don’t want to be in front of the camera anymore.”