Chaos series by Kristen Ashley

“Genius at getting in trouble,” I put in and Cody looked at me.

“Mister Tack doesn’t mind.”

“Miss Tyra does,” Hop stated and his son looked up to him.

“Girls do that, not likin’ the way boys act,” Cody retorted.

“They do that when boys act like idiots,” Hop returned.

Apparently Cody couldn’t argue with this because he shut up.

I started laughing.

Molly leaned into me and she laughed too.

I slid my arm around her and pulled her closer. Hop trained eyes to his daughter then to me and the warmth in them, the soft around his mouth, made the snug feeling around my heart gather closer.

“What are you doin’ today, Miss Lanie?” Molly asked and I looked down at her.

“Don’t know yet, honey. My parents are here from Connecticut so just visiting, I guess,” I answered.

“You can’t just visit in Vail!” she objected and looked from Dad to Mom. “You should hang with us. We got all sorts of fun things planned.”

I decided in that moment I loved Molly Kincaid.

“I don’t think—” Dad started but I was faster than him and jumped at Molly’s innocent offer.

“What a fantastic idea!” I cried and looked to Mom and Dad. “Isn’t that a fantastic idea?”

“Darling, we don’t even know their plans,” Mom noted logically but slightly desperately.

We didn’t but I knew whatever it was would be a lot more fun than visiting with Mom and Dad.

“Kids make everything fun,” I declared.

“Can’t argue with that,” Hop put in, then looked between the elder Herons. “You’d be welcome and my kids would love it. They think the world of your daughter.”

That was well played, an out and out invitation no one could politely refuse coupled with a compliment to their daughter that was clearly genuine, making it additionally impossible to refuse.

It was so well played, it took a mammoth amount of effort not to smile huge at Hop or, say, throw my arms around him and kiss him hard. Instead, I just caught his eyes and hoped he read what was in mine.

He did and I knew it when his eyes flashed and a wave of goodness surged from him and crashed into me.

Hop’s remark was met with silence. Through the wave of goodness I noted this and I looked to my mom and dad.

Mom rallied first, too Southern not to.

“We’d be delighted, of course. Any friends of Lanie’s and obviously, children do make everything fun.”

She apparently decided to ignore all the things she didn’t like about Hop and smiled with real warmth at his kids.

“Awesome!” Molly cried, jumping away from my arm but grabbing my hand again.

“Sucks there’s no snow,” Cody declared. “But there’s like, a gazillion candy shops in the village and Dad says we can hit them all.”

Molly let my hand go to lift both of hers in the air and yell, “Sugar high!”

“Right on,” Cody mumbled, grinning up at his sister.

I grinned at him then I turned to find Hop grinning at me.

All good. It was all good.

Because Hop made it that way.

And, well, Molly, but Molly was Hop’s so I decided to give him the credit.

“Kincaid? Party of six?” We all turned to the hostess and she smiled. “We had a table open up early.”

“Well, isn’t this an all-around lucky day?” I declared, curving an arm around Molly and turning us both to the hostess.

No one answered. I didn’t care.

It was a lucky day and I was hanging onto that.

The hostess took us to the table.

Hop smoothly engineered a seating situation where he sat by me, which meant he could press his thigh against mine and steal touches to my leg and, outwardly casually but anything but, hook his arm around the back of my chair when we were talking and not eating.

Dad didn’t miss it and wasn’t happy about it, casual or not.

Mom pretended to ignore it.

Molly and Cody didn’t catch any meaning to it.

I loved it.

* * *

“Will they be okay for fifteen minutes?”

I whispered this in Hop’s ear.

It was late August. There was no snow but the golden leaves of the aspens seemed to glitter in the sun, and the mountain air was a shade nippy. Waning summer was on the mountain, which meant daytrippers and weekenders were abundant, and someone had organized kids’ games on the base of a slope.

Therefore, Molly and Cody were currently engaged in a three-legged race with a gaggle of other kids. My guess was they’d win seeing as Hop had given them what he promised, and they were both currently burning through the sugar high to end all sugar highs.

Mom and Dad had murmured that they needed a sit-down with a cup of coffee so they were in a coffee shop down the main drag of Lionshead Village.

This meant Hop and I were alone.

He turned his head and looked at me with warm curiosity. “You good?”

“I will be,” I told him. His head cocked in question and I moved, walking away from the slope to the side of a building where there were public restrooms.

One of them was a single for handicapped people.

I had to admit, I felt some guilt about occupying a handicap bathroom as I walked to it, but when I looked back at Hop, I liked the curiosity I saw in his features.

But the need was on me.

I slid through, holding the door open for him.

He slid in behind me.

I let the door close and locked it.

“Lady, what the f**k?” he asked and I turned to him.

Then I walked right to him, pressing my chest against his and cupping his crotch in my hand.

His head instantly bent to mine, his hand driving into the back of my hair and fisting as he growled unintelligibly against my mouth.

Then he asked, his voice rough, “You seriously down with this?”

“Absolutely,” I whispered. “Hurry.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, slanted his head and kissed me, backing me up until I hit wall.

That was all I needed. Hop’s mouth. Hop’s body.

Hop.

I was ready.

Then again, I was ready before I walked in just knowing Hop was following me.

His hand in my hair, his other one tugged forcefully at my belt buckle, undoing it, then the button of my jeans, then the zip went down and his hand went in.

God, that felt good.

I moaned into his mouth.

“Get these off,” he ordered. “Now.”

Heretofore unknown illicit excitement bolting through me, I moved immediately to do what I was told. It wasn’t easy because Hop didn’t move, his chest pressing into mine, which pressed me into the wall. His hand went to the back of his jeans to get his wallet.