Chaos series by Kristen Ashley

When he lifted his head, he answered, “Wanted to see you, check you’re okay, and someone has to haul your suitcase down the stairs.”

That warmth hit my heart again.

He wanted to see me, check I was okay and, he didn’t live in Siberia and take a flight to do the deed, but he did go out of his way just to carry my suitcase down the stairs.

“I can carry a suitcase, Hop,” I told him.

“Babe, you were at Hotel Monaco for two nights and your bag weighed half a ton.”

I felt my lips quirk as I said, “It didn’t weigh half a ton.”

He grinned at me. “Close.”

I grinned back.

His hand at my neck gave me a squeeze as his eyes got serious. “You good?”

“God’s country,” I replied and his grin came back.

“Yeah,” he muttered, looked at the bed then at me. “This good?”

I nodded.

He pulled me slightly to him and then pushed me gently back, swaying me with his hand at my neck before he let me go and bent to the bed. Flipping the case closed, he zipped it and hauled it off the bed.

I took one last look around, checking for lights left on or anything that I might have forgotten, and followed him downstairs.

He dropped the bag by my front door and turned to me. “Half a ton.”

I smiled up at him. “Hardly.”

His hand snaked out, grabbed me around the neck and pulled me to him. My head tipped back. His came down. My arms wrapped around his shoulders. His free arm wrapped tight around my waist. His lips hit mine. Mine opened.

And we kissed, wet and deep, for a long time.

Hop broke it, moving away an inch. “Leavin’ now, gettin’ the kids, headin’ up. Text you in the morning where we’re gonna be for breakfast so you can get your folks there.”

I nodded. “Drive safe.”

“Got kids, always do.”

I smiled again and his eyes dropped to my mouth before coming back to mine.

“Still gettin’ to you?” His question was whisper soft.

No.

The honest answer to that was, he’d already gotten to me.

I dipped my chin and pressed my face to his throat.

His hand at the back of my neck slid up into my hair as I felt his lips against the top of my head.

“Like that answer, lady.”

My arms around his shoulders got tight.

“God’s country, Lanie,” he said against my hair.

I nodded against his throat. “God’s country.”

I felt his lips leave my hair as his hand at my head gave me a squeeze. I got the message, pulled back and looked up at him.

Hop touched his mouth to mine then lifted up and touched his lips to my forehead. He moved back, his eyes caught mine, he gave me a sexy smile that engaged the lines at the sides of his eyes then he let me go, turned to the door and disappeared behind it.

I went to the plantation shutters, slid them slightly open and looked out, watching him saunter to his bike, throw a leg over, and roar away.

He’d come all the way to my house to carry one suitcase down one flight of stairs.

And to check on me.

I slapped the shutters closed, leaned my forehead against them and smiled.

Chapter Seven

One Way or Another

My cell on the nightstand clattered, waking me.

Sleepily, I reached out, looked at the display, touched it with my thumb and put it to my ear, a smile curving my lips.

“Hey,” I greeted quietly.

“How’d it go last night?” Hop asked.

He’d been worried about me.

God, God… I liked that.

“It went,” I answered.

“My mouth is between your legs.”

I blinked at the pillows. “What?”

“Fuck, you taste like honey,” he growled.

My legs shifted under the sheets.

I knew what this was. It was an excellent way to take my mind off things and I wanted it.

“Hop—”

“Touch yourself, lady,” he whispered.

Without delay, I slid my hand in my panties.

I must have made some noise because Hop was growling again in my ear. “My tongue’s right there.”

Oh God, this was good.

“No,” he stated. “I’m sucking.”

Oh God, this was good.

“Baby,” I breathed.

“Quiet, lady, and listen to me.”

I did as he said and miraculously, because usually when I did this my fingers didn’t work, I needed a toy, Hop achieved spectacular results with taking my mind off things.

After I came down, I heard silence.

“Do you want me to keep going? Give the same to you?” I offered, my voice sated, husky.

“Don’t come on my gut, babe.”

He had noted this before but, in these circumstances, I found this was interesting and surprising.

“You don’t, uh…?” I trailed off.

“I do but not with a woman.”

“Um, just pointing out, honey, I’m not with you.”

“You on the phone?”

I smiled and answered, “Yeah.”

“Then you’re with me,” he stated.

Even on the phone, I was with him.

Nice.

“I gave you that, you make it up to me Monday night,” he finished.

“I can do that,” I replied.

“I know you can,” he told me. I could hear the grin in his voice as he went on to say where he’d be with the kids for breakfast and when. “You think you can get your folks there?”

We were going to “bump into each other”, friends coincidentally on the same mountain at the same time, all so Hop could have my back without my parents knowing he was.

“I’ll do my best.”

“Do that, babe. See you in a few.”

“Okay, and… Hop?”

“Right here.”

“Uh, thanks for the orgasm.”

He didn’t hide the laughter in his voice when he replied, “Anything you need, lady, I’m there for you one way or another.”

Yes, it seemed he was.

“Thanks, honey.”

“Later, babe.”

“Bye, Hop.”

We disconnected. I looked at my phone a moment before putting it back on the nightstand. I stared at it resting there while stretching a bit and smiling a whole lot more.

Then I curved my arms around a pillow, holding it close.

Anything you need, babe, I’m there for you one way or another.

Yes.

It seemed he was.

My smile got bigger.

* * *

“Miss Lanie!”

This was screeched the moment I walked into the restaurant behind my mother but ahead of my father, who was holding the door, and it was shrieked by Molly Kincaid.