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She knitted her brows together at the way Maggie said it, like there was a lot more to them than what met the eye. She stared at the woman, trying to gauge what really went on in her head. Blake was collecting samples, so Poppy knew she had a bit of privacy with her. No point in having Blake hear their conversation, especially with what Poppy planned on asking her.
“Maggie?” The woman cocked a dark eyebrow at her. She couldn’t help but feel like a child being reprimanded for something she didn’t do and looked away. Suddenly, she felt nervous broaching the question, but she knew she had to know where Maggie stood when it came to Blake. “Do you have feelings for Blake?” Poppy lifted her gaze and was surprised by the expression on her face: narrowed eyes, nostrils flaring, and face turning pink.
“How in the hell is that any of your business?”
Whoa.“I meant no harm. It’s just, well….” Words suddenly failed her.
“Listen, just stick to doing your job. I was with Blake well before you decided to come here, so let’s just keep the relationship between us purely business.” Maggie snatched the folder out of Poppy’s hands and continued to glare down at her.
The hostility was so thick that Poppy couldn’t breathe. “The fact that you showed up here, out of the blue, and act so disgustingly inappropriate with Blake leads me to believe you have no decency or self-respect.” She all but snarled the last part. “Blake is not up for discussion. Can you fix the mistake you made,please?” She said the last word a little too saccharine. Maggie turned and left Poppy feeling dumbstruck.
For several long moments, she didn’t do anything but stare at the open doorway.What in the hell just happened?The fact that Maggie’s reaction had been especially strong told Poppy all she needed to know. The woman was clearly hung up on Blake. She really didn’t know how to feel about that.
What she did know was she had no intentions of informing Blake of the conversation, or lack thereof, she had with Maggie. The woman already didn’t like her, most likely from the extreme PDA she witnessed, and having Blake know wouldn’t help anything. Maybe there had been more to their one night than Blake let on?
Clearly, after months, Maggie still pined over him. Pushing aside her embarrassment over her confrontation with Maggie, and her clear misunderstanding about classifications, Poppy turned back to her computer and fixed the mess she caused, but that was about all she could fix.
Chapter 17
Blake had left Poppy in bed, deliciously warm and snuggled against his pillow. Guilt and disgust over what he was doing were a constant whisper from over his shoulder. He told himself he wasn’t doing this to be sneaky or dishonest, but it didn’t matter how many times he repeated that in his head, because he knew it to be the truth.
He parked the Yukon in front of the small café right outside of town. The warm glow of the lights drowned out some of the darkness that settled around him.
The dashboard showed 10:00 p.m. It was late, but the little café was open all night. Not too unusual, since a lot of shipments came and went from Blithe at all hours of the night, and several businesses, especially ones on the outskirts of town, took advantage of the steady flow of dock workers.
He saw Maggie’s Blazer parked off to the side, but the vehicle was empty. After turning the SUV off, he sighed in defeat. These impromptu meetings were getting fucking ridiculous, and today he planned on setting things straight with Maggie. Even now, he could hear her voice in his head from two weeks ago, when she caught him with Poppy in his office.
Of course it had been his fault that she had seen him all but fucking Poppy in his office, but dammit he hadn’t been able to help himself. The way Poppy looked at him from across the room that day, all hot and needy and wanting him, had snapped what little restraint he had.
She had been so close, so fucking close to letting go right on top of him, but then Maggie had come in. Then when he tried to do damage control, Maggie had flipped the fucking switch. She was blackmailing him, and today he would put it to rest. Blake wasn’t about to be cornered by a woman who couldn’t let go of that one night they shared.
The fact that she threatened to report him, which would end up cutting off his funding, had him seeing red. She didn’t care that running her mouth would affect her too, not when her motives were to get him to be with her.
Blake rubbed his eyes and tried to calm himself as his anger built. When he dropped his hand and looked out the windshield, he wasn’t surprised to see Maggie standing in front of the Yukon. It wasn’t lost on him that something was definitely missing from her, something that would have made her see that all of this shit was wrong.
Tonight, he would put an end to it, even if that meant his funding got cut off and his research couldn’t continue. He was wrong for having anything sexual with Poppy at the office, and wrong for waiting so damn long to set Maggie straight, but things were going to change.
Poppy had told her mother about them, and here he was keeping this from her.
His sweet and innocent Poppy, who didn’t deserve to be kept in the dark and betrayed, was the only light in his life. She had already been through so much, and he was just adding to that. Guilt that he had been seeing Maggie behind her back was a constant companion to him.
It didn’t matter that he did nothing physical with Maggie, because staying at work late just so Maggie could talk with him, going to these ridiculous meetings at cafés and restaurants, was just as bad as touching his coworker. Maggie lifted her hand in a wave, and her smile grew slow and appeared satisfied. She thought she had him by the balls and would just string him along until she could get whatever it was she was aiming for in this sick and twisted situation.
Blake climbed out of the SUV and walked toward her. She immediately reached for him, like she always did, but he deftly moved out of her grasp. “Come on. Let’s just get this over with.” He pulled open the café’s door and stalked inside. The scents of coffee and pastries wafted around him as he searched for an empty table. He sat in the booth, and she slid into the seat in front of him. Already, he itched to leave.
“What’s the matter?” She always sounded so sweet and sincere, but he could see the plotting going on behind her dark eyes. She reached across the table and tried to touch his hands that were folded together. He moved them onto his lap.
“Maggie—” The waitress arrived and cut him off. After they ordered and she disappeared to get their drinks, he hurried forward. “Listen, these phone calls from you at all hours have to stop. These meetings have to stop.” Her face revealed no expression, and he breathed out. He would have rather she scream and yell at him instead of this apathetic personality she displayed. When she did tear her eyes away from him, it was to look at her lap.
“I’ve been enjoying your company, Blake. I thought you reciprocated those feelings as well.” She always sounded so clinical. “Is this because Poppy is making a big deal about us seeing each other?”
“We aren’t seeing each other, Maggie, and no, she isn’t making a big deal about anything, because I haven’t told her anything.”
The smile she gave him was downright blinding. “So you don’t want her to know about us?”
Blake exhaled and leaned back against the booth seat. “Maggie, I really don’t know how many times I’ve explained this to you. We are not seeing each other. I shouldn’t even be here right now talking about this, because there isn’t—” He gestured between them. “—anus.” He leaned forward and hoped the seriousness of what he was about to say really cemented how he felt. “It’s wrong that you are trying to corner me into something that isn’t going to happen, and it’s wrong that I’ve gone along with it for this long.”
Brow furrowed, Maggie asked, “So you haven’t been enjoying our visits? I thought you enjoyed them as much as I have.”
