were doing,” he said. “You were calling me on my bullshit and you were right. You’ve been nothing but honest. In your words and your actions.” If that was true, she might not have left his bedroom. “You even proved just how true and deep your feelings are by walking away… You put me before what you wanted.” He exhaled. “I couldn’t have done it.”
“You’ve walked away from me in bed before.”
“Not like that,” he said. “I couldn’t even breathe after you left, I was so wild for you… I want you, Poppy. I hate myself for letting you ever think otherwise.”
Relaxing her head against him, she liked the ease with which they moved together. Holding hands or touching each other was so natural, and it felt so good.
“If your sister moves in with me, it would be impossible for us to have secret sex.”
“More difficult,” he said. “Not impossible. Damn, I never thought I’d be the guy leasing a fuck pad.”
She laughed. “A what?”
“You know, an apartment just for sex, not to live in.”
“So the wife doesn’t find out,” she said, having known men like that in society circles, not that it was ever discussed openly. “I’m going to assume you have another fabulous, shiny rule about not getting mixed up with Charley’s friends.”
“There’s eleven years between us, babe. The cops have rules about that.”
“Eleven years isn’t a huge age difference.”
“As soon as Charley’s friends were old enough to notice me, I moved out.”
He made her laugh again. “She’s young, isn’t she?”
“Charley? She’s… wait…” The pause went on for a few seconds. “Twenty-two.”
The relief in his voice was comical, though she didn’t know if he’d really struggled or if that was just for effect. “Makes you thirty-three.”
“Yeah,” he said. Poppy could almost hear the cogs turning in his head. “I have no idea how old you are.”
“No, you don’t.” Poppy said, shifting to thread her arms into the sleeves of his jacket. “But you don’t know my real name either.”
“Poppy isn’t your real name?”
“Poppy is my real name. Jones isn’t my real last name.”
“Huh,” he said, rubbing his stubble in her hair. “I didn’t even know that was your fake last name. I should spend less time thinking about what’s in your bra and more listening when you talk.”
“Your last name is Maddox.”
Both impressed and incredulous, he asked, “How do you know that?”
“Our supervisor screeches it across our team’s workstations twenty times a shift when Charley’s chatting up a storm. She’s your sister and isn’t married.”
He laughed. “Okay, so you’ve known that for like the last three minutes.”
“Not a bad three minutes.”
“And all I learned was your fake last name…” Poppy let that linger, which forced him to ask. “So… what is your real last name?”
“Granger.”
“Wow, you didn’t even pause for breath.”
Tempering her brazen ways, she chose to slip her fingertips just into his jeans pocket. “You’re the only one who knows anything about the real me. If it gets out there, I’ll know who’s responsible.”
“Told you that you’d always be safe with me… Gonna share your age?”
“I’m legal.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, I fucking hope so. Number of times I’ve violated you in my head… and in the shower… They’d put me in jail just for that.”
“I’m twenty-six.”
“Twenty-six, I’ll take that.” He tugged her closer. “Your tubs arrived yesterday… Soon you’ll be able to have a shower in your own apartment any time… I started working in there while you were on shift. That okay?”
“Yes… I kept you out all day yesterday.”
“Don’t do the guilt thing again.”
He must have heard the sorrow in her voice. “I’m sorry. You knocked, right?”
“I sat in the hallway until I got a call about a neighbor dispute across town… But I wasn’t waiting to work. I was waiting for you. How come I don’t have your phone number? We talked about exchanging numbers, it never happened.”
“I thought it might be a bad idea,” she said. “Because I like to drink wine and then get frisky with you.”
“Hmmm,” he mumbled his approval. “Phone sex.”
“Or inappropriate picture messages,” she said and laughed loud. “I have never sent a picture of myself like that. Never in my life. Why did it only occur to me after meeting you?”
“Because God likes me.”
“If God liked you, he wouldn’t have switched on my conscience in your bed… I wanted you so bad… I knew how much I wanted it and I just… I thought about you walking away that first time I tried to kiss you… You tried to stop