a man who made her feel things she’d never felt before… It was stupid, there was no point in thinking about it anymore.
After buying a new dress… from a store her sisters and mother wouldn’t be seen dead in—at a price lower than Violet’s daily coffee budget—Poppy was feeling a little better.
At least, she was until she got to her floor and found Turner leaning against the wall next to the apartment door.
“Oh, God,” she groaned when she saw him. “I’m sorry. I should’ve left a note. Damnit, I’m an idiot. Have you been knocking all day? Did you think I was ignoring you?” Grabbing her key from her purse, she was quick to drive it into the lock. “I’m so sorry… God, how inconsiderate, I just—”
“Hey,” he said, putting a hand over hers to stall her frantic movements. The moment their gazes met though, he cleared his throat and backed off. “I came to apologize.”
“What do you have to apologize for?” she asked, struck by another memory from two nights ago. “Oh no, I said I’d move out and I did nothing… I’m sorry. You don’t have to apologize.” Turning the key, she opened the door to go straight into the bedroom. “If you can give me just ten minutes…”
In the closet, she pulled out her suitcase and let it fall to the floor before crouching to unzip it.
“You beat yourself up a lot, you know,” he said from the bedroom passage outside the closet. “You make a lot of assumptions too.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, throwing her purse and dress bag into the case then leaping to her feet. “I said it and then it fell out of my head.”
Because of what she’d done not long after giving him the assurance.
“Candy-Cane,” he said in a more solemn tone than he’d ever used with the nickname. Turning fast, Poppy held the clothes she’d taken from the portable clothes rack to her chest. “I came here to apologize because I wasn’t… clear.” He glanced at the material she was clutching. “Will you put that down and come talk to me?”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” she said. “I was out of line. I said I would move and I haven’t.”
“I don’t want you to move. That’s not what I… Shit, Popkat, come here.”
Reaching over the suitcase, he took the clothes from her and dumped them on the case before leading her out of the closet and master to the living room.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, righting the strap of her bra beneath her top as he let her go.
“I have rules,” he said.
Something he’d said the other night. “You don’t owe me any kind of explanation. I was out of line.”
“Were you?” he asked in an expression of offense. “You think I don’t feel that… whatever the fuck that is that happens when we’re near each other?”
Her whole body reacted to his admission. Her core clenched and a zip of pure anticipatory hope sparked between her thighs. Just the acknowledgement was enough to make her tingle all over.
“You do?”
“Damn right I do,” he said, still not appearing happy about it even though his single nod was adamant. “It’s been there since the minute you walked in here.”
“You didn’t want me to move in.”
“Because I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
“That’s your rule?”
He shrugged. “Not the only one, but yeah.”
“So because we’re business, we can’t be pleasure?” His next nod was slower, more contrite. “Okay… That’s a shame.”
“A shame? It’s fucking torture,” he said, driving a hand into his hair, backing up a few staggering steps. “It was supposed to get easier, not fucking harder…”
Though her attention dropped of its own volition, he turned his back before Poppy could realize her intention had been to look to his groin. Except because of his action, she got a view of the ass that she’d been admiring since day one.
“We can’t avoid each other completely,” she said. “Unless I move out… I wouldn’t be business then.”
“No,” he said, flipping around so fast that she recoiled. He was quick to march on over and get up close. “No, I don’t want you out there vulnerable to whatever it is that’s after you.” She blinked in surprise. “I don’t care what it is. I don’t care that you don’t want to tell me. The other night, I was… I was pissed off, but not at you. I don’t care about money. I don’t care about losing everything. People are what matters. People can’t be replaced.”
And if it was