her sisters. As soon as Charley got in the swing of the conversation, Poppy would sneak down the stairs. Sometimes she went down to his apartment in the middle of the night too, but it was a risky move. Charley had a habit of joining her in bed to talk about David. If she tried to do that one night and Poppy wasn’t there… Her friend would freak and run to her brother. Yeah, definitely risky.
Turned out Charley hadn’t given it up to David on the night she went missing. They’d talked and made out a little, which led Charley to believe they were starting to date. Except the pair hadn’t actually shared a meal alone or gone out for drinks in a date type way.
It seemed to Poppy that David wasn’t eager to tie himself to any one female. Worse than that, the time they did spend together only served to further mess with Charley’s head. David definitely knew Charley was into him, there was no way he didn’t. Anytime he needed an ego boost, he’d call Charley and she’d go running to him. Poppy tried to tell her friend that the way he treated her wasn’t right, but she just wouldn’t hear it.
Charley was out with David that day, at a cooking class he wanted to go to. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for Poppy and not just because she needed to get laid.
In fact, at that moment, she was lying in Turner’s bed, waiting for her breathing to even out. In bed. It almost felt weird to be just lounging around after two weeks of quickies that left no time for procrastinating after.
“You’re quiet, Candy,” Turner said, rolling onto his side to look down at her. “What’s on your mind?”
“I think maybe I’ve forgotten how to talk to you when we’re naked,” she said, flashing him a smile.
“We haven’t been horizontal for a while,” he said, bowing lower to kiss her. “Not for this long anyway.” Meeting his eye was difficult. If he didn’t notice that, he’d notice her silence. “Come here.”
Squeezing an arm under her, he pulled her to him and lay back down, draping her across his chest. His fingers found her hair and began to comb through it.
“You haven’t played with my hair for what feels like an age.”
“I’ve missed it,” he said, raising a section to his nose to breathe her in. “I’ve missed all of you.”
Closing her eyes, Poppy couldn’t work out which was worse: that being so close to him melted her heart or that she had to leave him alone in bed any second. The plans she’d arranged for that day were made before she knew Charley was going out. At the time, Poppy had panicked about how she might sneak away, given how many excuses she’d already used up to steal minutes with Turner.
When Charley declared she was going to the cooking thing with David, Poppy had been elated. Finding some time to be with Turner before going out was the cherry on top of her day.
Kissing his chest, Poppy wanted to linger. “Thank you.”
Forcing herself to sit up, she freed her body from his embrace, though not for long.
“Whoa, hey, wait a second…” Turner caught her shoulders to draw her back down. “Where are you going?”
“I have to go.”
“Charley’s thing with the creep’s all afternoon.”
“You have work to do,” she said, trying to wriggle free of his insistence. “And I have to go out.”
“Go where?” he asked. “You better not show up at their cooking thing too. I know he’s an asshole and we have to protect Charley, but he’s only going there to pick up chicks. Charley will see through him eventually.”
Yeah, it was the eventually part that worried her. Crashing the class hadn’t occurred to her, though it wouldn’t be a terrible idea. Shame she had other plans.
Wondering at what he’d said, Poppy relaxed for a second. “Do you mean pick up chicks at the class or that he wants to cook so he can get women back to his apartment?”
“Both,” he said, kissing her head. “That first day I asked if you liked to cook, you said maybe… Do you know how to cook?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I never tried.”
He laughed. “Sometimes I forget about your silver spoon.” Clutching her tighter, he crushed her body against his. “Like when we’re down in the dirt together.”
Flattening a hand on his torso, she pushed against him. “This isn’t dirty… is it?”