Candy Hearts, Vol. 2

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

FINN

Another day, another morning where the blinding sun wakes me up.

It’s different this time, though. So fucking different.

Lou is in my arms, hiding his face against my chest and drooling on my bicep—it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

His brown hair is a mess and his soft cheeks—the ones I suspect never grow a beard—are calling my name.

But I resist.

I keep staring at him—a little creepy, I know—as my brain begins functioning properly.

I freaking loved making him come last night, and the way he just gave himself over to pleasure was so fucking satisfying.

Then he showed me the greatest display of trust by falling asleep right then and there. At least it is for me.

I’m a light sleeper, and falling asleep for me is always hard in new environments—unless I’m drunk—or with new people.

It was super easy falling asleep next to Lou after I wiped him down and brought him close so I could cuddle him. I had the best damn sleep of my life.

Eventually, he stirs and his eyes open right up. I can tell he’s a morning person by how alert he is right away. I don’t mind that, it makes me smile.

“Morning, Lou,” I murmur, and since I don’t know how he feels about morning breath, I resist leaning in for a kiss.

“Good morning,” he says with a content smile. “Oh, God,” he groans. “Sorry, I fell asleep, I?—”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I tell him. “I told you last night was all about you and I have zero issues with that.”

“Do you really?” he asks, dubiously and rises to lean on his elbow.

“I swear,” I tell him and cross my heart.

“How about shower hand jobs?” he asks after a moment, and the light of happiness is back in his eyes. I love seeing it.

I spring up and out of bed.

“Race you to the shower.” And I’m running, hearing his delighted laughter and then his hurried footsteps behind me.

He kisses me as soon as he catches me and yeah, I don’t have a problem with morning breath either.

I turn on the shower, and we don’t waste a single second getting in and covering each other with the shower gel that either Lou brought from back home or he bought here.

Once we’re covered in suds and away from the spray, Lou reaches down and grips my erection tightly, just how I like it, and starts stroking me slowly.

“I loved last night, don’t get me wrong. But boy am I going to enjoy it when you finally get inside me.”

“Ungh,” I groan, and drop my head to rest on top of his. “That’s so good,” I moan. Then I get my shit together and reach for his hard-as-a-rock cock and stroke him fast.

I know it’s a contrast, but the way he’s working me over, I’m gonna be spilling all over his hand in no time, so I have to get him there too.

I want to get him there too.

Only thing better than my own orgasm would be to share it with my cutie.

And it’s only about four minutes later that we both go over the edge and have to lean on each other to stay upright.

I shift us around so we’re under the spray, then quickly clean us both up again.

When we meet him in one of the Resort’s restaurants, Beau tells us he found something he wants to do today and asks me to trust him.

I do, with absolutely everything except his own well-being... actually, only with his emotional well-being. He’s a damn good fireman and knows what he’s doing when he’s out on jobs, so I trust him there too.

I pass over the keys to the G-Wagon without hesitation and laugh out loud when I realize where he brought us.

“What is this place?” Lou asks in wonder. I squeeze his hand, so fucking grateful that he doesn’t mind spending the day with Beau and that he actually seems excited for today’s activities.

“We’re gonna demolish parts of this house,” Beau says with a twisted smile. “I need to destroy some shit,” he says, then walks over to the man coming out of the building.

“Is he for real?” Lou asks, concern clear in his tone.

“Oh, yeah. You haven’t known true release until you throw a hammer at a wall. Come on, cutie, it’s gonna be fun.”

“And then I was like yah , and pa-chau .” Lou brings down an invisible hammer while we wait to be seated at a Mexican restaurant Charlie recommended.

Beau’s smiling, ear to ear, watching him recreate his favorite moments from the demo.

My guess is that Lou probably had a lot of buried shit he needed to get out too—a lot older shit than Beau’s—but we all had a damn good time at the demo site our uncle Enzo told Beau about.

We eat a late lunch quickly, and quietly after all that excitement, all of us starving.

Then we head up for a pre-game nap.

I’m thankful when Lou pulls me to his room. There’s not even a question of whether I’m going to nap next to him, but when we wake up two hours later, I do need to go back to my room to change into my fifty-seven Heart sweater—gotta represent.

I’m thankful for once, for all the gear Charlie gave us when he was traded to the Pirates, so we can not only support him when he plays against his old team, but so I can lend Lou a big sweatshirt too.

We did end up choosing the crowd seats, which happen to be the best seats in the house, right behind the Pirates’ bench. Nothing to sneeze at even compared to a decked-out suite with a rock star. The game is as fun as it always is for me, and thankfully, the Pirates win. It’s in no small part thanks to the fact that Charlie and Santa are doing their best to impersonate a wall, and of course Jules Dupont gets two goals and two assists.

We hold up our promise to Sterling and go say hi after the game is over. Lou’s clearly keeping himself in check while we chat about the game, but he lets his excitement show when we all go down to the family room to see Charlie, and Jules walks up to us.

He greets Sterling with a kiss and us with a heartfelt hug, then he shakes Lou’s hand with a genuine smile.

“Sterling told me how cool it was to see you guys enjoy his show so much last night.” He leans in a little toward Lou to whisper conspiratorially. “He actually said, their energy was badass .” He mimics Sterling’s deep voice.

“Oh my God,” Lou says. “I loved it so much!”

“Me too,” I pipe in. “It was the best first date ever.”

“Yeah,” Lou agrees with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ll be able to top it for our second date, but I’ll try.”

Jules stays quiet, though his face betrays how confused he is. I can’t bring myself to explain it to him, though, because I have to stare at Lou. He wants to plan our second date.

We’re leaving tomorrow so he has to mean in Chicago, right?

He can’t just be saying all of this to save face, right ?

“Do you like soup?” he asks, bringing me out of my head and looking up at me curiously.

“Uh, I love soup,” I emphasize.

“Here come the dorks,” Beau mutters from beside me and I jab an elbow in his ribs to shut him up.

“Great.” Lou jumps up with excitement. “I know a great restaurant where half the menu is full of soups.” His eyes dance with happiness. “Back in Chicago.”

“We’ll make it happen, cutie,” I murmur with a smile, and throw an arm over his shoulder to bring him close.

Damn, it’s too good.

We go back to the hotel after saying goodbye to Charlie, and for some reason I decide to make us wait to have sex until we’re back home.

I think it’s because I want it to be special, and what would make it more special than to be together that way for the first time in one of our homes? It’s going to feel real then, it’s going to feel like it’s solid, and when I explain this to Lou, he smiles tenderly at me.

“I think that’s the best thing anyone has ever said to me,” he whispers and cups my cheek.

We sixty-nine before falling into exhausted and sated sleep.

The next day, at the airport, once we pass security and are only waiting to board, I get an idea.

“Hey, can I see your ticket?” I ask Lou.

“Sure.” He hands me his phone with the ticket on the screen and I can’t help but smile back at him, delighted.

“What is it?”

“Our seats are next to each other.”

“They are?” he demands with wide eyes.

“Yes,” I say with a laugh. “I splurged and got us business tickets.”

“The company bought mine,” he says quietly, staring at his phone in wonder.

“We were always meant to meet each other,” I say with a smile when I realize it.

He looks up at me, his eyes shining with emotion.

“I feel so lucky,” he whispers. I take a tiny step closer to him, wanting to embrace him when he’s clearly feeling so many things. “I feel like the universe is finally smiling down on me.” He lets out a watery laugh and leans back just as one lonely tear falls. “God, it feels like my heart is about to fly out of my chest.”

“Fluttering heart condition,” Beau mutters from behind to us. “I’ve heard of that before.”

I ignore my brother and lean down to kiss Lou, my cutie.

“I’m pretty sure it’s me that the universe is smiling down on. You’re so fucking amazing,” I whisper right against his lips. “Please tell me we can go on our soup date tomorrow?” I practically beg.

“Only if you spend the night with me tonight.” I’m speechless for a moment. I was trying to figure out how to ask without seeming clingy. My cutie takes my silence the wrong way though. “I mean, I’d go with you to Crushville, believe me, I wanna see that town, but I always go to the office on Tuesdays and?—”

I shut him up with a hard kiss.

“Any second you allow me to spend next to you, I’ll be there, cutie.”

The Bonus Chapter for this one is set just one month after and we get yet another glimpse of Santa and Charlie and their very weird…everything.

You can check out their story in Brace And Chase .

Thank you for reading!