Paradise Hops by Liz Crowe Page A

neck. His voice tickled her ear. “I think you might be.”
    She stretched her arms out on the rough-hewn table, moved her legs apart, welcoming his touch even further as he cupped her sex, pressed against the warm moisture her body had created as a direct result of his touch.
     “Damn you are hot.” His voice poured like rich honey into her soul.
    She forced the voice in her brain to shut up, the one that reminded her how happy she was with Garrett, as the man she continuously fantasized about ran his rough palm down her thigh, nibbled her neck. A door slammed shut. She jumped and he stepped away.
    “Lori?” Garrett’s deep voice chilled her spine. Eli chuckled and moved between the fermenters like a ghost, or better still, a demon, determined to ruin her for his own selfish pleasure. She gritted her teeth.
    “Back here,” She stood, tossed the empty pizza box in the trash and started towards him, let him hold her close, taking deep breaths of his familiar combination of smells—wool, leather, starched shirts, the subtle hint of cologne. “Let’s go.” He grinned and kissed her as he ran his hands up and down her body.
    Aggravation rose in her chest. She had to get out of here, now. “Not here, Garrett. Okay?” He put an arm around her shoulders without a word and guided her out.

Chapter Six

     
    “What’s wrong?” Garrett kept his voice light, but she heard the genuine worry in it.
    “Nothing.” She stared out the window cursing herself to hell and back for being such an indecisive lame ass.
    He didn’t press the issue and by the time they pulled into his tidy garage, she’d let released of the stress. She began to ease back into that place she’d found, the place where Garrett took care of her, where she was happy. They put their stuff away in the alcove between garage and hall, Lori marveling yet again at the extreme neatness of Garrett’s life. She understood that he did it on purpose. To establish control over potential chaos. But sometimes she wondered how her own messy circumstances could ever fit with his apparent perfection. She watched him head upstairs to change, and realized she really could set a clock by the man, he was that predictable.
    When visions of Eli’s tattoo swirled in her brain and the very recent memory of his voice in her ear made her shiver, she stomped into the kitchen and poured herself a large glass of wine. Her phone buzzed with an incoming email but she ignored it in favor of trying to force her brewer’s thick blond hair and snapping blue eyes out of her head.
    “Hey, c’mere a second, would you?” She rose and stretched at the sound of Garrett’s voice, contemplating a shower as she made her way out into the great room. Garrett had bought the house from the builder, but had it modified to suit his needs including knocking out walls between formal and informal living room, creating a huge, beautiful space with a giant fireplace, a matching gargantuan flat screen television and…she put a hand to her throat. “What do you think?” He was standing by a gleaming, deep chestnut baby grand piano. Lori’s heart pounded so loud she could hardly hear him.
    “Uh, are you taking up lessons?” She slid into a nearby chair, no longer confident her knees would hold her up. The sight of a once beloved instrument—something that represented her “before” life that she’d banned forever in some kind of purge she still didn’t understand made her blink back tears. “Because otherwise that thing will just be furniture you have to dust.”
    “No. I’m not.” He walked to her, his firm, familiar body clad in soft jeans and un-tucked light blue dress shirt. She forced herself not to stand. “Don’t be obtuse. It’s unattractive.” She looked away, ugly words forming behind her lips. She bit them back.
    She kept her tone neutral. “Garrett, I appreciate what you’re doing, but you can’t, I mean, I’m not going to—” she stood and strode back into the