He forced himself to say civilly, ‘I’m sure you’ll be back, but can we go for now?’
‘OK.’
Caius took Poppy’s hand and told himself the sooner they got back to the apartment and focused on the job of helping this chemistry to burn out, the sooner he could get back to a world where revelations were few and far between and had nothing to do with this woman and her effect on him, and his life.
Back at the apartment, Caius helped Poppy take off the heavy necklace and then pressed a kiss to the back of her neck, feeling her delicate shiver. She said, ‘I had a really nice time this evening, Caius. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it so much.’
Caius stilled for a moment, because he could agree with her and say he’d enjoyed it too and that that had been unexpected for him, but Caius didn’t want to talk because talking would make him think of how it had felt to need to find her distinctive red hair if she wasn’t by his side, or how much he’d liked just observing her and her effect on people.
So he just said, ‘That’s good, I’m glad,’ and then he found her zip and pulled it down.
She turned around to face him but she held the dress up. She looked at him and said, ‘I think we were good together this evening.’
Caius tensed. ‘We were.’
‘Do you think you can see a future for us together…once this desire burns out? For the sake of our daughter primarily…but also because maybe we can build on something?’
Caius felt exposed. ‘Did I give you the impression that I wanted more?’ He’d always been so careful but with Poppy, since that first night, his usual levels of control had gone out of the window.
She bit her lip. ‘You know what? Forget I said anything.’
Before Caius could respond to that or really parse out what she was trying to say, she’d pulled down her dress, exposing her breasts, and said, ‘Make love to me, Caius, that’s all I want.’
Caius weakly pushed aside any misgivings because he wanted her too badly and his blood was on fire. The ripe curves of her breasts begged for his hands and mouth.
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her towards him. ‘Now this,’ he breathed, ‘is what I have wanted all evening.’
He cupped each heavy weight in turn and then lavished the taut peaks with his attention. His mouth, tongue, teeth.
‘Oh, God, Caius…my legs, I can’t stand…’
Caius pulled her dress down the rest of the way and stood up, letting her get onto the bed. He took off her shoes and pulled down her underwear. She was naked and for a moment he felt humbled by her beauty.
He stripped with indecent haste, making her laugh when he couldn’t undo a button and ripped the shirt. He felt feral with the need to join with her and block everything out. Maybe he was the one with the excess hormones?
He came onto the bed and said, ‘I need you to be on top, Poppy. I want to see you, riding me.’
He saw her cheeks flush at that suggestion and then she came up and, when he was lying down, straddled him, placing her hot core rightthere, against his erection. Caius groaned. ‘You’re going to kill me and I’m not even inside you.’
Poppy came up on her knees and reached behind her for him, and this made her back arch and her breasts thrust out. Caius put his hands on her hips and bit his lip when he felt her wrap his cock with her hand and guide him to her entrance.
And then she sank back down, taking him in, so deep he was seeing stars. She started to move, bending forward slightly, putting her hands on his chest, the movement squeezing her breasts together.
Caius was in the grip of a fever, the sight of Poppy riding him, from her breasts to the fertile swell of her belly, it was the most erotic experience of his life. He could barely keep it together but the second he felt her splinter around him, he let go with a cry of release and when she came forward onto his chest, face buried in his neck, breathing harshly, it was all he could do to rub her back and slide into a sea of blissful oblivion where there was no need to think about what Poppy had tried to say to him. Clearly it hadn’t been that important.
At some point he woke, and immediately knew something was wrong. Poppy wasn’t in the bed beside him. Had he heard a sound? And then he did hear a sound, like a low moaning.
Caius was up and out of the bed and at the door of the bathroom in a second. He opened the door to find Poppy sitting on the toilet, dressed in a robe. She looked at him and her face was white.
‘Caius, I’m bleeding.’
It was all a blur as soon as Caius appeared at the bathroom doorway and took in the situation. Poppy was bundled back onto the bed. Caius pulled on clothes while talking on the phone in curt sentences. Then he was lifting her into his arms and taking her out of the apartment down to the street and into the back of a car and then they were at an emergency room under bright fluorescent lights.
The doctor—who looked as if he’d been called from his bed—did a thorough exam, and a scan, and asked Poppy a million questions and then stood up and pulled his gloves off, saying, ‘We’ll keep you in overnight for observation but the baby seems well and, as far as I can make out, the bleeding is just some cervical irritation. Did you have sex recently?’
Poppy blushed, very aware of Caius in the room. ‘Um, yes, tonight.’
The doctor was totally unfazed. ‘OK, well, maybe refrain for a week or two and then keep it to the less energetic end of the scale. Any sign of more bleeding, come straight back in, but, really, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Baby is well.’
