Found (Lost & Found #2) - Scarlett Finn Page 0,105

part would be the most difficult, which was why she was so nervous.

Being in Turner’s bed helped. All week she’d fallen asleep wrapped in the scent of him as it mixed with hers. Still, something felt naughty about being there. Naughty in the most incredible way. Probably because he wasn’t in it. During their phone calls, he’d reiterated that his bed was her bed. Her mind was just taking its time catching up to that truth.

She didn’t even feel the bed move or hear him approach. Her first awareness was of his mouth in her hair, teasing her neck. Smiling, Poppy moaned and turned towards the delight.

“Candy-Cane,” he whispered, touching his mouth to hers.

Her smile grew wider, but she didn’t open her eyes. “My favorite kind of dream.”

A short, gruff laugh warmed her skin. “Mine too.”

When the weight of his mouth ebbed from hers, Poppy whimpered in disapproval. The disappointment flipped to excited anticipation when the heat of the bed covers was pulled away from her body. As his mouth found hers again, Poppy rolled onto her back, stretching her arms out to coil them around his neck.

Her love was home. With her. In their bed.

Turner didn’t know the plan, but it had been exactly this. Teasing, tasting, loving each other until the sun rose. Distracting him until daylight would be easy if he kept taking the lead.

His clothes were already gone. There was nothing keeping them from each other. Skin touched skin as their mouths deepened their greeting. Loving him was easy. Every second of every day for the rest of time, they’d be together. If not in body, then definitely in spirit.

Lying beneath him enjoying the indulgence of his dominant mouth, it hit her: they were home. So many times since they’d met it seemed that it would be impossible. Whether it was Turner following his rules or Poppy deciding their worlds were incompatible, they’d faced some daunting odds. But somehow, they’d found their way to each other. Their hearts, their love, wouldn’t be denied and they’d made it out the other side.

Loosening her embrace to cup his face, she broke their kiss to look into his eyes. Even through the darkness, Poppy felt his love. She basked in the passion burning in him. His passion was like no other man’s. Its certainty was forthright. No games. No equivocation. He loved her, just as she loved him.

“I love you,” she whispered, stroking his face.

“Told you I’d come home to you.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real,” she murmured, watching her fingertips trace his lips. “That I can be this happy. The last time we were together in this room…”

Being together hadn’t been on the table, in anything other than fantasy.

“I’ll never let you walk out like that again,” he said, kissing her touch. “We’re gonna make it, Popkat.”

“I know,” she said, more sure about that than anything else. “I know how much we both want this.”

“And that it was hard won. Either of us could’ve given up at any time, but we fought for this.”

At different times, which was maybe why getting there was all the sweeter. Both knew what it was like to lose the other. That was a pain Poppy never wanted to go through again.

“Sometimes I still can’t believe we ever found each other.”

Given their contrasting backgrounds and the distance between their homes, some might say it should never have happened. That Poppy happened to leave her family and by chance got a job with her love’s sister who needed the newspaper at the same moment Poppy needed an apartment… Serendipity was too mild a word.

“Everything in my life made sense until you came into it,” he said, as he had before. “When you walked out… I’d been lost a long time, I just hadn’t seen it. We need each other, Pop.”

“We’re family,” she said, combing her fingers through his hair.

Turner kissed her again. “We’re so much more than that.”

He was right. The words didn’t exist that could explain what was between them. When he kissed her again, she closed her eyes, begging to absorb him. But the new kiss didn’t linger. Like he needed a manifestation of their connection, he aligned their bodies to slide into her. They were more than just a part of each other. They made each other better. Lifted each other up. There wouldn’t be a tomorrow if they didn’t have each other. It felt like the world would just stop turning, like all life would cease to be if they were