Fire Inside:A Chaos Novel(73)

After Hop came to my house to check on me and carry one suitcase down one flight of stairs (amongst other things), really, there was only one answer to that so I gave it to him.

“I walked out on my mom and dad because of you, honey.”

He held my eyes.

Then he muttered, “You’re ready to work at takin’ it there with me.”

“I think, after Dodge Ram Rescue and Bob Seger’s ‘You’ll Accomp’ny Me’, it’s been confirmed you’re real, so yes. I’m ready to work at taking it there with you.”

There. I said it.

God, I said it.

And I meant it.

His hand moved slightly so his thumb could drag along my lower lip as he growled, “Best decision you’ll make in your life, baby.”

“Well, at least that’s firm… if cocky,” I joked, but I did it breathlessly.

“No,” he said, then his hand moved so his face could disappear in my neck and he promised, his ’tache tickling my skin, “I’m about to get cocky. I’m already firm.”

My nipples tingled as he pressed the proof of his second statement against my thigh.

“Hop,” I breathed but said no more because his lips were moving down my chest.

I was wriggling under him, my hands moving on him, but I stilled when his lips bypassed my breasts, moving through the valley between them and gliding across the scar under them, then down to glide along the one on my belly.

I felt his lips move away and he called, “Lady.” I lifted my head to look down my body at him. He caught my eyes then he vowed quietly, “No regrets for you either. I’ll see to it. You got my word.”

My entire chest got warm and I pressed my lips together momentarily before I gave it back.

“I’ll do my best so you get the same from me, Hop.”

I watched his head drop and then I watched his lips and mustache again trail the scar at my belly and I shivered a shiver that was good for a lot of reasons.

He lifted his head and his eyes found mine.

“Already know I got it, Lanie. Now open your legs, baby. I want that pussy.”

I forgot to feel moved by the moment when a tremor rocked through me and all I could think about was opening my legs.

So I did.

Hop threw them over his shoulders, dipped his face to me and got what he wanted.

So did I.

And, if I wasn’t wrong, this happened for the both of us in a variety of ways.





Chapter Ten


That Works


Two weeks later…


“That shit has got to stop,” Hop announced in a growly voice, sounding pissed.

He and I were in my kitchen doing the dishes. I’d made him fried beef cutlets and Mamaw’s fluffy mashed potatoes that were helped along to decadent by nixing the milk and replacing it with a splash of heavy cream.

And I’d just told him about things that were happening at work.

It had been two good weeks with Hop. Our first week together as in together we spent every night in his bed or my bed, making love and talking after having dinner together.

I discovered his broiled pork cops were the bomb.

His saying, “That body of yours, baby, does not go with the way you cook and eat and pleased as fuck it doesn’t. Take you any way you come but if you came with me havin’ to eat a lot of salad, gotta admit, that would suck,” was even better.

Obviously, when he had his kids last week, I didn’t spend the night. Instead, we had late night conversations which included phone sex and, on top of that, either Hop or I would call sometime during the day just to connect.

That said, Hop had told me he’d decided to introduce his kids “slow-like” to the fact that I was going to be in their life.

“We gotta have our time and you need to feel this is solid. Solid is also what I want communicated to them so gonna ease my kids into this the same way I’m easin’ you,” he’d said.

They were his kids so it was his call. I didn’t debate the solidness of “us” mostly because, even though it felt good and was going great, we’d had a rocky start. I wasn’t fooling myself that I didn’t have issues to work through and we hadn’t been together for very long, so even though it was his call, I agreed with that call.

More, I liked how he was protecting his kids against getting too deep into something that might harm them if it went bad.

So easing into it would do, for all of us.

Still, Molly had a dance recital last week and clearly Hop was not going to waste time easing everyone into things because he asked me to show. I liked his kids, I wanted to see Molly dance, I was feeling things solidify with Hop and I was doing this on a daily basis, so I agreed.

We went separately, met there, and after it was over, I told Molly that Hop mentioned it to me, and since I wanted to see her dance, I came. She was tickled pink I did, which was gratifying. During the show, I sat by Hop with our knees brushing, which was more gratifying. And while Molly was dancing, I turned my head to see Hop’s smiling, proud profile, which was even more gratifying.