Poppy was teetering on the brink of something she desperately needed. An orgasm. She’d tried to pleasure herself before now but had always been interrupted or too tense to fully let go, but now she was liquid heat and with one more flick of Caius’s tongue against her, she fell over the edge into an endless clasping wave of pleasure. Gasping for air, hands in Caius’s hair. Back arched.
When she floated back down to earth he was rolling a protective sheath onto his aroused body. She gave thanks that he had safety in mind because her mind was blank of everything. She’d taken the pill as an optimistic precaution in university but since her return to Valdere, she’d stopped, feeling a bit ridiculous because the likelihood of sleeping with anyone before a wedding was going to be even less.
She hadn’t counted on this moment.
He came over her, on his hands, protecting her from his weight, but she reached for him, wanting his weight on her. In her. They moved together as though they’d done this a million times before. Poppy was the most pragmatic person she knew but right now she almost believed in fate and things like eternal mates because this felt so…right.
Caius issued a little curse. ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I’m big and you’re tight.’
Poppy urged him on. ‘You won’t.’ She’d always been active. She knew what to expect losing her virginity but she really didn’t think—a long low moan escaped her lips as Caius gave into her entreaty and entered her, breaching her body with his thick girth, pushing deeper.
Poppy’s body adjusted quickly, and she lifted her hips a little, making him go even deeper. They both breathed out. Poppy noticed their skin was slick. Caius took one of her hands and interlaced their fingers, bringing it up above her head. He kissed her as he drove into her, before pulling back out, and then in again, sparking a million and one pleasure zones throughout her body.
She gripped his hip with her other hand, fingers digging into his skin, as their movements became faster, and more urgent.
‘Deus, I can’t…hold on much longer…’
Poppy’s sentiments exactly. Her body was primed and ready to explode into pieces all over again and with Caius’s next thrust into her body, Poppy splintered around him, her body milking his and sending him over his own edge as he tensed and his hips jerked against hers.
Their hands were clasped so tightly she knew he’d have the marks of her nails on his skin. The thought of that, marking him in some way, was deeply satisfying. She shuddered against him as aftershocks of pleasure made her muscles contract around him and he came down over her, breathing harshly.
They stayed like that for a long moment and then Caius extricated himself from her embrace and manoeuvred them so that he lay on his back and bore her weight.
She was limp with exhaustion but also a burgeoning sense of wonder and exhilaration.So that was sex.Good sex. Amazing sex. Feeling the way she did right now, floating on a cloud of sated bliss, Poppy could almost forgive Caius his lifestyle. If sex was this good…she could become addicted herself.
For a few seconds, she dozed off, cheek resting against Caius’s chest, arm across his torso. His arm around her. But then she jerked awake again when there was a sound from outside the room.
She looked at Caius. He was asleep. Lashes long and dark on his cheek. Ridiculously long lashes. They should have made him look pretty but they only made him look even more masculine. He also looked more serious in sleep. Less…frivolous.
Realising she was welded to him and staring at him like some kind of lovestruck groupie, Poppy started to extricate herself as slowly as she could so as not to disturb him. When she’d freed herself and stood up, she realised her legs were like jelly.
Caius made a sound and moved slightly but didn’t open his eyes. Poppy froze. She guiltily took a last look at his impressive body—even at rest—before she gathered up her things, and her freshly cleaned shirt, and got dressed.
She had to leave now. She’d danced with the devil and she didn’t want him waking and finding her still here. This had been a dangerously illicit moment. Indulgent. Crazy.
Poppy had pulled on her clothes haphazardly, her fresh shirt, slipped her feet back into her shoes, and had a hand on the door lock when she heard a rustling sound from behind her and froze.
‘Hey, where are you going?’
His voice was rough and it sent fresh sparks of awareness into Poppy’s blood. Reluctantly she turned around. Caius was up on one elbow on the couch, long powerful body on its side.
She swallowed. ‘I have to go.’
‘Do you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t even know your name.’
‘I’m no one special, really.’ An old wound reactivated. If she’d been a boy she’d have been deemed more special by her father.But Caius had just made her feel special.
He sat up now and Poppy moved back against the door. If he came close to her again there was no telling what she’d do. She’d just behaved more uncharacteristically than she’d ever done in her life.
But he stayed on the couch and said, ‘I want to see you again.’
Something inside her leapt at that but then deflated again when she realised that he thought he was saying this to a complete stranger. But she knew he was in talks withherto become her husband. And, if not her, then someone else very soon.
Poppy seized on this to make her move. Caius was showing her his true colours. And it was nothing she didn’t already know. He’d told her how he would envision a marriage—conducting separate lives except for coming together to have children, and continuing his liaisons outside that. That was not the father material she wanted for her children.
