Fire Inside (Page 53)

“Means a lot, baby.”

It did. Absolutely.

I was just glad he agreed.

I tightened my arms around him but said nothing.

Hop wasn’t done.

“Means a lot you’re finally in my bed, too.”

My hand slid up his back so my fingertips could play with his hair but I again said nothing.

“It’ll be good to wake up with you here.”

He was killing me.

It felt exquisite but it had to stop before I melted and became one with his waterbed.

“I have to share that I’m also a bit freaked about the fact you have a waterbed but, even through our various, sometimes vigorous activities, the waves didn’t toss us off.”

He again gave me the subject change. His eyes lit with amusement and his hand moved down to the side of my neck so his thumb could stroke my throat.

It felt really nice.

“It’s waveless, Lanie.”

“Bodies of water, even small ones, and waveless aren’t natural, Hop,” I noted.

“Bein’ on the moon isn’t natural either, but man managed to do that,” he returned.

“Being on the moon is about harnessing science and technology. Waveless waterbeds are about harnessing nature and that, by definition, is not natural,” I shot back.

“Babe, you’re not lyin’ on a miracle,” he said through a lip twitch.

“No, I’m lying under one.”

His lips stopped twitching, his body went completely still, except his chin jerked back and his eyes started burning again.

This all confirmed the fact that those five words actually did come out of my mouth.

Damn.

“Hop—”

He cut me off. “You said it. Don’t pollute it.”

I closed my mouth and his hand moved up, fingers driving into the hair at the side of my head, his thumb moving out to sweep my cheek, his face getting close, his body pressing into mine and his lips whispering, “You givin’ me this?”

I knew what he meant. I was becoming fluent in Hop Speak but had already become fluent in Chaos Speak so I didn’t miss his question.

I understood it completely.

“This” meant me.

“Hop—” I began.

“Easy question, Lanie.”

“No, it isn’t,” I argued because, well, it wasn’t!

“Right, I’ll amend. You givin’ me a shot at havin’ this?”

“Well…” I paused then thought, being na**d in his bed, sharing stories and laughter, that it was safe to say, “Yeah.”

“No, lady,” he shook his head. “You don’t understand me. Are you giving me a shot at havin’ this,” his thumb moved back over my cheek, “you. For real. Sharing. Building. Lookin’ at a future.”

Okay, maybe I wasn’t yet fluent in Hop Speak.

I squirmed again. “Hop—”

“I want that,” he declared.

It was my turn for my body to go still.

“I’m forty years old, babe, but I don’t mind lookin’, takin’ a test drive. I’m also old enough to know, with you, I like what I see. I like what I feel. I like what I know. I like everything I learn. So I know I’m ready to work at takin’ it there with you. Havin’ kids, what I gotta know is, if you’re ready to work at takin’ it there with me.”

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 ni**les 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 br**sts, 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 pu**y.”

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 f**k 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.