Page 48 of For You I'd Mend
I paced from one end of the house to the other and finally ended up in the studio. Aiden and I had spent the better part of the afternoon searching for a table to replace the one Poppy lost. I’d also bought a couple floor lights since the one overhead sucked. The studio was ready for her to move in. I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped a picture. I was just being a good friend, letting her know she had a place to work whenever she wanted. I typed a quick text, but my thumb hovered over the send button for one minute, five minutes, as I debated why I was sending it now. I finally broke and hit send.
I knew I was torturing myself. The longer the text went unanswered, the more I let my imagination wreck me. I’d just started picturing them kissing when someone knocked on the front door. I expected to find Rowan or Cal on the other side, but instead Poppy stood on my porch with a huge cardboard box. I’d never felt more relieved in my life.
“You sure you want all this in your house?” she asked, squeezing past me, her flowery scent jolting my cock to life.
“Of course,” I said. “Is there more in the hearse?”
“Yeah,” she shouted, still walking toward the studio.
I ran outside and sucked in a lungful of frigid air, forcing my body to calm down. I pulled two more boxes from the back and stacked them.
“I’ll get the rest,” she said as she held open the front door for me. I set everything down and returned to the living room as she came back with a large plastic bucket hooked to her arm. I shut the door behind her and followed her to the studio, admiring the curve of her shapely ass in the leggings she wore and the sliver of pale skin where her sweater rose up.
“I’ve always wanted one like this,” she said with a huge smile as she spun the sculpture modeling stand I’d bought for her. “But I never had the floor space. This is perfect.”
She was perfect, the best mixture of sass and sweet, strong, yet delicate. Not that I could ever tell her that. “You’re welcome anytime. Aiden ordered the door. It should go in next week.”
“Thanks, Theo,” she said, aiming that powerful smile at me like a cannon.
“So, um, how was your date?”
Damn it, I really was a masochist. That was the last thing I wanted to talk about with her.
“You knew about it?” she asked, something like hurt sneaking into her expression before she squashed it down.
“Aries wouldn’t shut up about it.”
“I like him. We’re—”
And that’s when I lost my damn mind. Before I registered what was happening, I’d taken her face in my hands and crashed my lips to hers. She tasted like lavender and sugar, impossibly sweet. Poppy let out a shocked yelp before she started kissing me back.
The thought of anyone else touching her made me crazy. Her lips were made for mine. And the rest of her body. Fuck. I lowered my hands to her ass, finally gripping it like I’ve wanted to for so long. She gasped into my mouth when I lifted her, but quickly wrapped her legs around my waist. I pressed her against the only real wall in the studio to free my hands, the need to touch her more desperate than taking my next breath.
When I broke the kiss, both of us were panting. “I want to make you feel good,” I said, my voice strained.
She nodded. I ran my hands down her body, gripping her breast with one and dipping past the waistband of her leggings with the other. My fingers slid across her soft, wet skin until I found the bundle of nerves that had her moaning my name.
She gripped my shoulders, arching against my touch, taking her pleasure. I kept my thumb on her clit and pushed two fingers inside her in time with her movements. She squeezed her eyes closed and her grip on my shoulders tightened just before she found her release. I’d never seen anything more beautiful than when she shattered in my arms.
Her green eyes locked with mine when they opened, and she said my name with such tenderness my heart clenched. I loved her. I had from the moment she walked into my class. I loved her, but I couldn’t let her look at me with affection I’d never deserve.
“I’m sorry,” I said, pulling away and lowering her gently to the ground. “I shouldn’t have done that. It won’t happen again.”
“Don’t you dare,” she said, smacking my chest. “You give me the best orgasm of my life and ruin it with an apology?”
“Because I am sorry,” I said. My chest grew heavy with an overwhelming sadness. “I can’t be with you. Not like this, no matter how much I want to.”
“That doesn’t make fucking sense. Why not?”
“Because I can’t be with anyone.” The ache in my chest deepened. What had I done? She should walk out of my life forever after what just happen. But being a selfish prick, I let the panic of never seeing her again take over my mouth. “Please, Poppy, I don’t want to lose you as a friend.”
She studied me a moment, the hurt and confusion raw on her face, then nodded. “On one condition. You have to kiss me again. Then I’ll leave, and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
“And you’ll still come to class and use this studio to work?”
“I promise. But you better make it good. No peck on the lips. Kiss me like it’s the last time.”
I stepped closer and gripped her waist. She placed her slender hands on my chest. I wasn’t sure if we were holding each other or keeping the distance between us, suspended in the moment before we crossed the line for the last time. Her eyes found mine and she nodded. I lowered my lips to taste her once more. The kiss was agonizingly gentle until she parted her soft lips for me. I dipped into her mouth, savoring every caress of her tongue. I released her hips and buried my hands in her hair, pulling her close until every inch of her body rested against mine, her hands twisting the fabric of my shirt. I kissed her until the second before my hunger for her took control, then I pulled away, rested my forehead on hers, and closed my eyes. “Go.”
