All of this felt nice but his knee felt the nicest. It was forced between my legs so his thigh was resting, warm and hard, against the heat of me.
My first thought was to rub myself against his thigh.
My second thought was, I’d forgotten how fabulous it was to wake up next to a warm body cuddling me.
My third, far saner thought was how the hell I was going to get out of there.
This thought flew from my head when he shifted again, and I felt his lips at my shoulder where he kissed me then I felt his body slide gently away.
Gently and carefully, going slow, his hand copped a feel of the skin on my hip, exposed by his tee, which had ridden up. Other than that, it was clear he thought I was asleep and he was doing everything he could not to wake me.
This was, unfortunately, what I was coming to realize was Hop. He tucked me in bed. He kissed my hair, forehead, temple, or shoulder soft and sweet whenever he left me. And he moved carefully in order not to wake me.
Making matters worse, he obviously thought I was asleep.
Still, before he left me, he kissed me.
The gesture didn’t even count for brownie points since he thought I was asleep and he still did it.
I didn’t want more confirmation of knowledge I was trying not to process and I wished I didn’t have it.
So I shoved it into the back of my head.
Then, as I lay there alone in his bed feigning sleep, the events of the evening before crashed over me. This forced me to exert not a small amount of sleepy effort in order not to process the fact that the evening before, I found out a badass biker cared about me and thus kept an eye on me, saved me from being raped, gave me honesty I refused to acknowledge, and then gave me four orgasms before he let me fall asleep in his tee.
This took a lot of effort, which was near on impossible without coffee. Therefore I heard the toilet flush before I realized that I should have taken the opportunity while Hop was in the bathroom to get dressed and get the heck out of there.
This was a moot point because I felt his presence in the room right before I heard a knock on the door.
I tensed.
I didn’t want anyone to know I was there.
I loved Ty-Ty. She’d been my family for a long time—true family, real family, the kind you choose, not the kind fate chooses for you. Tack and the boys had all welcomed me when they welcomed Tyra. They’d gone all out to protect Elliott and me, Tack especially. When I returned to Denver, they folded me in Chaos arms. Growing up close to a country club with a banker father and a wealthy, Southern farmer princess mother, I would not have expected I would feel comfortable in the bosom of that particular family. But if Chaos adopted you, the way they did it, it was impossible not to feel comfortable.
So I didn’t want whatever might come of someone finding out Hop and I hooked up. Even if it was over (something I would share with him again when we talked), it was not anyone’s business. I had an agency to run. I had employees and clients who depended on me. I had something happening to me that I didn’t quite get and didn’t have the energy to find a way to understand. I didn’t need to deal with whatever reaction anyone would have, most especially Tyra and Tack, if they found out about me and Hop.
No, I couldn’t deal.
So I didn’t want to be in the position of having to.
“Brother,” I heard Hop greet whoever it was quietly. “Not a good time. We’ll talk later.”
A knowing smile in his voice, I heard the reply, “Got gash in there?”
This voice I knew. High, one of the brothers. I liked High even if he was less approachable and good-humored than some of the other guys. He’d always been nice to me.
But at his words, my body tensed. “Gash” was one of the not-so-nice words the guys used to refer to women, not so nice in a way that I hated it, as any woman would.
“You like your nose like it is?” Hop growled and my eyes opened so they could blink.
He had been talking quietly, thinking I was sleeping.
Now he was unmistakably ticked in a way it was clear he didn’t care if he woke me.
“Come again?” High asked. His tone no longer smiling. He sounded surprised.
No, shocked.
“You like your nose like it is, brother, you shut your f**kin’ mouth,” Hop warned.
This was met with silence.
Hop broke the silence. “You not leavin’ tells me you got somethin’ to say. Say it. Got shit to do.”
“Tug and Roscoe were on patrol last night,” High declared.
Patrol?
“And?” Hop prompted.
“Three of them on the corner of Broadway and Mississippi.”
I stared at the pillow uneasily and with some confusion, since I didn’t know what these words meant, but I could feel a hostile wave rolling through the room.
“Benito put three bitches on a four-lane road that leads into the heart of the city?” Hop asked, his voice dripping with disbelief that was less incredulity and more hope that High would tell him he was joking.
“Dick has balls,” High answered, which I took as affirmative.
“Christ,” Hop muttered.
“Tug says they ousted them but those bitches know we got no beef with them so they got no danger from us. This means they ain’t scared of us. They’re scared of Benito. And you know that means, Benito sends them to a corner on Chaos, they’ll go back,” High stated. “Tack’s up the mountain, comin’ down. Roscoe reported in to him, Tack called me. You and me are up for patrol tonight. We find gash, he needs us to make a stronger statement than Tug and Roscoe can make.”
Oh dear.
What did that mean?
“Talk to Dog or Brick. Got somethin’ on tonight,” Hop told him and I closed my eyes.
“Tack wants you. You got a way with gash,” High replied, and I didn’t like the sound of that at all so I closed my eyes tighter.
“Talk to Dog or Brick, High. I got somethin’ on tonight,” Hop repeated, his voice low and impatient.
This was met with another long silence. Then, “I’ll talk with Dog or Brick.”
“Obliged,” Hop muttered and I heard the door click.
Moments later, the bed moved as Hop got back in it.
His body shifted right to mine, curving in, his hand finding the bunched up end of his tee and moving in, up my skin, toward my breast.
My body tensed.
His fingers curved around my breast, warm, claiming.
Sweet.
I pressed my lips together.
I felt him shift again before I felt his ’tache at my ear.
“Babe, know you’re not sleeping,”