“Yo,” he called when she shut the door. He watched her jump and swing around to him, face pale, eyes huge.
“Oh my God, Hop. You scared me half to death.”
He didn’t reply.
When he didn’t, her face lost its pallor, her head tipped to the side, and her brows knitted as she asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Told you, I wasn’t done with you,” he answered and her head immediately righted with a snap.
“Hop—” she started.
“Told you that,” he cut her off, “still, you snuck outta my bed and slunk away.”
She took one step toward him, her body moving like she was going to take more, but she suddenly stopped.
“I said just one night,” she reminded him.
“And I said I wasn’t done with you,” he fired back.
“I—” she began, but he interrupted her again.
“You had dinner?”
Her head jerked in surprise then she answered, “Yes, a business dinner. New client.”
“Good,” he grunted. “Upstairs. Naked. Now.”
He felt it coming off her in waves.
She wanted that.
Bad.
Then her head moved again, it was jerky again but she was forcing herself to do it, shaking it side to side. “We agreed. One night.”
“I think we also agreed, though the words weren’t spoken, one night’s not enough.”
“This can’t get complicated,” she reminded him.
“You keep your mouth shut, I keep my mouth shut, we’re smart, we contain it, no one finds out, we understand what it is and stick to the boundaries, it won’t.”
“I don’t think—”
“Lanie. Upstairs. Naked. Now.”
He saw her breath come fast, her chest moving with it, and Jesus, fuck him, he could taste her excitement and he was five feet away.
“We shouldn’t—”
“Fucked you on your back. Like to look in your eyes when I’m inside you. Done that. Now I want you on your knees, gonna fuck your face and your cunt, and I can’t do that in the courtyard. It’d shock the shit outta me, class act like you gets into that, but if I got you naked, you’re all mine. I don’t share with the neighbors.”
She stood stock-still, her eyes riveted to him, the only thing moving on her body was her chest rising and falling with quick breaths.
“Lanie,” he leaned in, “upstairs. Naked. Right… fucking… now.”
She took off toward her sliding glass door.
Hop didn’t move but he did smile when she dropped her keys, cursed under her breath, and crouched in that tight skirt to get them.
Second go, she got in and left the door open as she hurried inside.
Hop stared at the door before taking a deep breath and walking to it.
He got inside and saw it was a big kitchen, living, dining area. He saw the clock on the microwave said it was ten forty-two.
He took no more in.
This wasn’t them. To make sure something that could get complicated didn’t, he understood that this wasn’t what he was going to take or what she could give. He didn’t get to look at her shit, check out pictures in frames, see if she was clean or messy, read what he could in how she decorated.
He didn’t get that.
He got what was upstairs, naked in her bed.
He turned slowly and slid the door closed. He locked it. Then he moved through the dark space.
He found the blazer on the carpet of the stairs. A camisole on the landing. Her skirt on the next flight. Panties, bra, and shoes leading him to a room from which dim light was coming.
He was hard by the time he made it to her room.
He didn’t look around there either. Not because it wasn’t what he got from her but because she was on her ass in her bed, knees to her chest, chin to her knees, arms wrapped around her calves, ankles crossed at her ass, hiding everything but still cute as all fuck.
His dick started throbbing.
“Fuck me, I’m gonna come just standing here looking at you,” he muttered and watched her eyes close slowly, something moving over her face making beauty so beautiful, it was almost impossible to take it in. Like staring at the sun, if he saw that look on her face for another second, he’d go blind.
She opened her eyes, pushed out of her pose and gracefully moved to the edge of the bed. Feet to the floor, naked, her eyes to his, his going everywhere that was her, she moved to him and stopped so close, he could smell her and feel her body brushing his.
Instantly, her hands went to his tee and she yanked up.
Hop lifted his arms, she pulled it away, and dropped it.
Then her mouth went to his chest, her hands with it, moving, licking, sucking, touching, then down.
On her knees, she unbuckled his belt, pulled it open, unbuttoned his jeans, and gave him nothing through this but the gleaming hair on top of her head.
He knew why when she reached right in, found him, pulled him free, and slid him deep inside her mouth.
She had something she wanted and she was concentrating on getting it.
Fuck.
Fuck.
His head dropped back, his fingers slid into her hair and his voice was hoarse when he ordered, “Baby, up. Woman like you does not get on her knees.”
She wrapped a fist around him, slid him out, and he looked down just in time to see her tip her head back, those eyes, those fucking eyes, hooded and turned on, looking up at him.
“I like it, honey.”
“Suck me off in bed. Not on your knees. Class doesn’t hit her knees.”
“Hop—”
“Up, Lanie. Get in bed.”
“But—”
He jerked his hips back, she lost purchase on his dick, and he planted his hands under her arms. He pulled her up and then swung her into his arms. He took four strides and tossed her on the bed.
He bent, yanked off his boots, his socks, his jeans and he joined her there.
He pulled her into his arms, rolled to his back, rolling her on top.
“Right, now you can suck me off,” he told her.
“I get to go back to what I was doing later,” she told him and he grinned at the look on her face. She still looked turned on. She also looked miffed.
Cute.
Adorable, actually.
Fuck. It was going to take a serious amount of work for this not to get complicated.
“Maybe,” he lied. “Now back to work.”
“Ty-Ty told me you guys take bossy to extremes and do whatever it takes to get your way. That was why I snuck out of your bed this morning. I told you we shouldn’t sleep together, it seemed you weren’t going to take no for an answer so I had to get creative,” she shared, and there it was.
Cherry blabbed, so Lanie was prepared.
He’d have to take that into account in the future.
“You’re telling me this instead of going down on me because…?” he prompted.
“Because I want your promise I can finish what I started later,” she explained.
“Lady, you can do it now. In fact, I’d be obliged if you would,” he told her.
She scrunched up her nose. “Like we were before.”
Hop shook his head. “I said, no. Not like that.”
Her hand came to his cheek and her face got close. “Hop, what you said was sweet and I liked that but I also liked what I was doing and—”
He rolled on top of her and he moved his hand to her cheek, thumb to her lips, pressing in and his face got close.
“I’m guessin’ you get what this is. We played with fire, we got burned, now we gotta contain the blaze, but sayin’ that, I got no intention of puttin’ it out and, babe, I’m gettin’, since you left me a trail of bread crumbs to this room, you don’t either. We get it, we don’t gotta talk about it. We know what we got revolves around bein’ naked in a bed so you shouldn’t get what I’m gonna give you right now. But I’m gonna give it to you. Never had class. Never
had beauty. I’ll repeat, never… had… class. I’m not gonna fuck over Cherry, who I care about, or Tack, who’s my brother, and I know you don’t wanna do that either, so this is what we got for as long as it’s good. But it’s a clean, pure beauty the like I’ve never had, I’m gonna respect it like I feel like I gotta and you’re gonna let me. So, no, Lanie, you are not gettin’ down on your knees like every biker skank or groupie or drunk, high piece of ass before you dropped to hers and sucked me off. You go down on me, you do it like who you are. Respect. You don’t want that, you’re looking to play with rough trade to get you off, find another guy to make you skank. That is not what you’re gonna get from me. Now, are you gonna finish givin’ me a blowjob or are you gonna fight me on this?”
She laid there and stared up at him, not saying a word, so Hop gave her an alternate option.
“Or are you gonna lie there and stare at me?”
“I think I need to lie here and stare at you for about thirty more seconds,” she whispered and Hop felt his lips twitch.
Then he offered quietly, “Have at it, baby.”
“Though, while lying here staring at you, I’m just going to say, I really like your mustache,” she told him.
“Good to know,” he muttered, his lips still twitching.
“It’s badass biker cool,” she went on.
“Right,” he kept muttering, now through a grin.
“And it feels good on my neck and, well… other places,” she continued and his grin turned to a smile.
“Also good to know.”
“I think I’m done staring at you,” she announced.
“So, you gonna get busy?”
She lied.
She wasn’t done staring at him. He knew this because she kept doing it for a beat before she lifted her head and touched her mouth to his.
“Yeah,” she whispered there.
He grinned against her mouth before he kissed her, doing it while rolling to his back.
When he broke the kiss, she got busy and sucked him off in bed.
Like class.
Like a lady.
* * *
Dressed and sitting on the side of her bed, Hop shifted the soft, heavy hair off Lanie’s neck, leaned in and put his lips there.
“Tickles,” she murmured. He lifted his head and caught her eyes that had slid to the side to catch his. “In a good way,” she finished.
“Good,” he murmured back, and dipped his already close face closer. “Sunup, honey.”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Later,” he said.
“Yeah.” She drew in a breath, then asked, “Tonight?”
“You want that?”
She nodded her head on the pillow.
Excellent. He did too.
He lifted his lips to her temple, kissed her there, moved them to her ear and said softly in it, “You got it.”
Then, without another look at her in her bed, sleepy, sexy, and sated, something he knew he couldn’t walk away from, he walked away from her, through her house, and out the sliding glass door, putting Lanie Heron out of his mind.
Until tonight.
Also by Kristen Ashley
The Colorado Mountain series
The Gamble
Sweet Dreams
Lady Luck
Breathe
The Dream Man series
Mystery Man
Wild Man
Law Man
Motorcycle Man
Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Prologue: You Don’t Know Me
Chapter One: “I Dreamed a Dream”
Chapter Two: Waking Up in His Arms
Chapter Three: It Was Family
Chapter Four: Let’s Ride
Chapter Five: Apocalyptic
Chapter Six: Tied to Your Strings
Chapter Seven: You Are Not Leaving
Chapter Eight: Gone for You
Chapter Nine: Family Reunion
Chapter Ten: Rebound
Chapter Eleven: Thick and Thin
Chapter Twelve: Goin’ Through the Motions
Chapter Thirteen: Home No Longer
Chapter Fourteen: Make Her Happy
Chapter Fifteen: Lucky
Chapter Sixteen: It’s Me
Chapter Seventeen: Blowback
Chapter Eighteen: Breaking the Circle
Chapter Nineteen: Tightrope
Chapter Twenty: Stuck with Me
Chapter Twenty-One: All In
Epilogue: Start Now
A Preview of Fire Inside
Also by Kristen Ashley
Newsletters
Copyright
Own the Wind Page 34
