and he crouched to join their mouths. They were alone. For the first time in what felt like forever, they were by themselves, without anyone through the wall or listening from elsewhere in the structure.
Pulling away from his kiss before it drugged her out of her senses, Poppy wriggled free of him and dashed over to the deck to bring their drinks inside.
“What are you doing?” he asked, watching her struggle with the bottle of wine, six-pack of beer, and the glass. “You need help?”
“Nope,” she said, putting everything on the table by the shelves and rushing back to turn off the fairy lights and close the glass doors. “I always loved these drapes.” Pulling the heavy fabric from one side of the curved façade to the other, she loved how they blocked out the world. “Whenever I was arguing with my parents or upset about something, this is where I would come. The music room.”
“It’s beautiful,” he said, his head tipped back, suggesting he was admiring the night sky on show above them.
“It became my space. My sisters weren’t as passionate about their instruments. I could spend hours here, they cared more about the beach or gazebo. Anywhere they could hang around with their friends, on the estate, but further from the house.”
“You liked the music.”
“Mm hmm,” she said, going to the shelving to locate the right book. When she pushed it, the hidden bed descended from the center of the unit. “If you haven’t figured it out already, my grandmother indulges my flights of fancy.” Poppy flicked a switch under the shelf to turn on the internal fairy lights that ran around the perimeter of the floor. “There was a point in time I promised never to return to the house. She had all this put in for me, so it became my unofficial bedroom.”
Which was part of the reason her sisters were given the large suites on the third floor of the house. They had their own grand space, but hers was the most special. In her opinion anyway.
She’d already put a fresh sheet on the bed and the other bedding was in the closet by the door. But Poppy slipped off her shoes and wriggled out of her dress to crawl onto the middle of the bed on her knees wearing only her underwear.
“I thought I would romance you on the deck and then tempt you to bed,” she said, licking her eager lips. “But your kiss reminded me… I can’t play it cool with you, First.”
“I would never want you to,” he said, wasting no time in joining her.
He sat on the bed and pulled her to him, tucking her body beneath his, as eager in his need as her hormones needed him to be.
“First,” she complained when he twisted to bend off the edge of the bed.
He was fighting to unlace his boots, she heard him curse beneath his breath. Impatience moved her without thought. Contorting herself to climb over him and off the bed, Poppy was on her knees, unlacing his boots when his fingers dove into her hair to force her head back. Kissing him while loosening the knots of his laces, she welcomed him taking the lead. It wasn’t her natural state to put on a grand seduction, and he was the one she wanted in control.
Once his feet were bare, he cupped her jaw, drawing her up and back onto the bed, pausing only to take off his tee-shirt while she loosened his jeans.
It wasn’t romantic, but it was what they needed. “We have…” Poppy panted, her whole being in a frenzy. “We should talk.”
Rising from her cleavage, he kissed her lips. “About how bad I need to be inside you,” he growled, kissing her again. “How much I need you?”
Not what she meant, but it would do. “Mm hmm.”
Using her hands and feet, she fought with the denim on his legs, pushing and kicking at it to free him from the fabric.
“Baby, I’ve never needed anything more.”
His tongue plunged deep into her mouth, occupying her hormones while he rid her of the delicate underwear she’d taken so long to select. Poppy should’ve known her apparel wouldn’t matter. Turner didn’t care about what was on the outside. He wanted to be with the essence of her, the deepest, most intimate part of her that he’d captured before she’d known it existed.
Loving him was easy. Showing him just how intense and all-consuming that emotion ran was so much more difficult. The