Poppy followed my instructions, tentatively moving up and down as the snow continued to fall. Her breath caught. She moved her palm up my shirt as she pitched forward. Her moan was the best kind of agony. “Like that?” I breathed.
I gripped her hips tighter. “Just like that.”
Drawing her lip between her teeth, she rocked her hips, and with each torturous rise and fall, her movements grew more confident, and I became more enthralled.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she rode me. The pleasure on her face, in her parted lips and glazed-over eyes. The sway of her heavy breasts, the tips of them disappearing behind the shredded shirt, only to reappear as she found an angle that caused her to gasp. My gaze dropped to where our bodies were joined as she began moving faster, grinding down on me until she came. Watching her take control like this, finding her pleasure, was the hottest fucking thing I’d ever seen.
And it undid me.
I moved, rolling her beneath me again. Closing my mouth over hers, I thrust into her heat as she held on, her nails digging into my skin. Release barreled down my spine as I took her, slamming my hips into her as pleasure erupted. I stayed seated deep inside her, the intensity of the pleasure shocking.
Fucking gods, the release lasted a small eternity. I was still twitching deep inside her when I pressed my forehead to hers. We remained like that for some time, our bodies joined, my hand at her waist, my thumb moving idly as our hearts and breathing slowed. We stayed in the falling snow longer than we probably should have, but I was reluctant to leave her because she was…gods, she was mine.
The possessiveness was a little shocking. I’d never felt that way for anyone. My brow furrowed.
“I don’t…I don’t understand,” Poppy whispered.
“Don’t understand what?” I shifted slightly above her, lifting my head.
“Any of this. Like how did this even happen?”
I started to pull out, but I caught the sudden tightening of her features. I halted. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Yes.”
Poppy’s eyes were closed. I wasn’t sure I believed her. Worry grew. Had this been too rough? Had I been too rough?
“Are you sure?” I asked, rising onto an elbow.
She nodded.
“Look at me and tell me you’re not hurt.”
Thick lashes swept up. “I’m fine.”
“You winced. I saw you.”
Poppy slowly shook her head. “That’s what I don’t understand. Unless I completely imagined the last couple of days.”
“No, you didn’t imagine anything.” I scanned her face as she blinked the snow from her lashes. “Do you wish that this, right here, hadn’t happened?”
Her gaze darted away and then returned to mine. “No,” she whispered. “Do…do you?”
“No, Poppy. I hate that you even have to ask that.” I turned my head to the side, unsure what to say. To put to words anything I felt. “When we first met, it was like…I don’t know. I was drawn to you. I could’ve taken you then, Poppy…”
The truth of that was something I hadn’t allowed myself to see until that moment. I could’ve taken her the night at the Red Pearl. When she left there. Or when she snuck off to the library. I had so many chances. I would’ve found a way out of the city. She would’ve fought me, but she wouldn’t have been able to stop me.
I shuddered. “I could’ve prevented a lot of what has happened, but I…I lost sight of a lot of things. Each time I was near you, I couldn’t help but feel as if I knew you.” I thought of what I’d tasted in her blood. A part of me had recognized what was in her. “I think I know why it’s been like that.”
At least, I thought that explained the strange sensations I felt when around her. We didn’t always recognize half-Atlantians in such a manner, but there’d been stories of such—of the eather in our blood recognizing the eather in others.
I felt Poppy shiver, and it suddenly occurred to me that we were half-naked in the snow.
“You’re cold.” I rose above her, tugging my breeches up as I ignored the sharp pain when the tender skin on my chest pulled. I fastened what buttons remained, then extended a hand to her. “We need to get out of this weather.”
Poppy had sat up, holding the torn sides of her shirt. She hesitated and then placed her hand in mine. “I tried to kill you.”
She said it as if I’d forgotten, and I had to fight a grin as I pulled her up. “I know. I can’t really blame you.”
Her mouth dropped open as I knelt, grasping her pants and lifting them to her hips. “You don’t?” she asked.
“No,” I said. I had blamed her, but then again, I’d been angrier with her for running out here. “I lied to you. I betrayed you and played a role in the deaths of people you love. I’m surprised that was the first time you tried.”
Poppy stared in silence.
“And I doubt it will be the last time you try.” I lost the fight, and one side of my lips curled up as I tried to fasten her pants. Unfortunately, there were no buttons left. “Dammit.” I then tried to, well, do something with the shirt. That wasn’t working either. I cursed again. Reaching up, I pulled off my tunic. “Here.”
Poppy was still standing there, looking at me as if I were the most confounding individual she’d ever met.
I probably was.
“You’re…not mad?” she asked.
Our eyes locked. “Are you not still mad at me?”
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “I’m still angry.”
“And I’m still angry that you stabbed me in the chest.” And then ran from me, but whatever. “Lift your arms.”
Poppy did as I said.
“You didn’t miss my heart, by the way. You got it pretty good,” I admitted. It had definitely been more than a nick. I pulled my shirt down her arms. “That’s why it took a minute to catch up to you.”
“It took more than a minute.” Her voice was muffled for a moment, and then her cute, irritated expression appeared.
She didn’t need to know exactly what had delayed me. It hadn’t been the stab wound. It had been Kieran. “It took a couple of minutes,” I said, tugging down the sleeves.
Poppy looked down at the shirt she now wore and then at my chest. The wound was bright pink, the flesh a little jagged. “Will it heal?”
“It will be fine in a few hours. Probably sooner.”
“Atlantian blood,” she rasped.
“My body will immediately start to repair itself from any non-fatal wounds,” I explained. “And I fed. That helped.”
Her hand went to her throat before she quickly jerked it away. I raised a brow. “Will anything happen to me from…from you feeding?”
“No, Poppy. I didn’t take enough, and you didn’t take enough of mine earlier,” I assured her. “You’ll probably be a little tired later, but that’s all.”
Poppy was once more fixated on my chest. “Does it hurt?”
“Barely,” I told her.
She lifted a hand, placing it flat against my chest. I stilled. She wasn’t going to—
Warmth splashed my chest, rippling through my body in soft waves. It washed over me, taking with it the pain of the wound and the anguish that lived deeper.