by her bedroom door, she was admiring the counters and cabinets that were lying around the living room just waiting to be installed. Everything was the same as the samples Turner had shown her. As he’d told her before, most tenants got what they were given because the apartments were complete before they moved in.
Poppy wondered about the décor in the other apartments and considered what concessions Turner had made for her. As though her thoughts conjured him, the front door opened and there he was. When he noticed her, he frowned, though he did come in.
She sighed upon noticing the tool belt slung around his hips. “He’s wearing the tool belt,” Poppy murmured.
“What?” he asked, closing the door. “Thought you’d be on your way to work.”
“Waiting for your sister,” she said, side nodding toward Charley’s bedroom at the opposite side of the apartment. Pushing off the wall, Poppy offered him a hand. “Come here.”
He gave her his hand and didn’t object when she dragged him into her bedroom and closed the door behind them.
“Charley’s in her room?” he asked when she pushed him up against the wall by the bathroom. “This is risky, babe.”
“Mm hmm,” she said, looping her arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss.
He did accept her kiss and even smoothed her hair away from her face. “I think we were fighting yesterday. You left my place in a snit.”
“And then you walked in wearing the tool belt.”
He snickered. “That what does it for you?”
“Everything about you does it for me,” she said, realizing that although the tool belt was hot, it was also in the way. Leaning back, Poppy examined it. “How does this thing work?”
Another breath of a laugh came from him and he slid a hand down the back of her head, pulling her close to kiss her hair. “It’s a belt, baby.”
His hips moved from the wall and he reached behind himself to deal with the buckle. As he lowered it to the floor, she grinned, exuberant to be getting such an unexpected treat before work.
Giving him little time to recover when he straightened up, Poppy grabbed his neck and pounced up into his arms. “You’re so hot.”
“Really does it for you, huh?” he asked, accepting her kiss.
Getting to grips with Turner was a surprise she should be taking advantage of in a different way. If Poppy was a nobler person, instead of prioritizing the physical, she should have the necessary conversation with him.
Deciding she could multitask, Poppy didn’t let the chance pass her by. “You know what we never talk about?” she said, coiling her arms around his head, pulling it to the side so she could sink down and kiss the thick muscle that ran up the side of his neck.
He clung to her ass, his fingers digging deep into her when he discovered she was wearing a thong under her skirt. “What?” he panted. “Shit, baby.”
“Politics.”
“Politics?” he said with obvious surprise as they dropped down onto her bed. “Sexual politics?”
Her lips curved as he took over their kissing, choosing to descend to her cleavage before working his way back up to her throat. “Those too… I just… wonder…” Poppy should’ve contained her urges because her mind was slowing down as her hormones crowded in. “If there’s anything… Oh, God, First…”
Arching off the bed, she gave her body to his mouth and really struggled not to let the whole world know it by squeezing her lips together.
Except he stopped kissing her and rose to meet her eye. “Anything what?” he asked. “What’s on your mind, Candy?”
Though she should be grateful he’d hit the brakes, her arousal wasn’t so understanding. “Nothing, I just…” Poppy stroked his shoulders and upper arms. “I was wondering if there was anything you were against… Anything you had like an objection to.”
“What like child abuse? Human trafficking? Animal cruelty?”
“Yeah, well…” Poppy was pretty sure most everyone who didn’t partake in those things was against them. “Those and other topics, you know, do you have an opinion on political issues? Social security, veteran services, if you have ideas about, I don’t know… the rights of same sex couples, if you’re pro-choice or—”
“Whoa,” he said, straightening his arms to boost his upper body away from hers. Despite the new distance, somehow his eyes probed her deeper. “That’s not something you just drop into conversation, baby.” Rolling over, he sat up on the edge of the bed. “Are you trying to ask me something?”
Poppy needed another