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Ishrugged. “I’lltake whatever increases my chances.”
Poppyrolled her eyes but complied.
Ionly lifted off her slightly to stare at where we were joined.Thesight alone could make me come a second time. “Imissed this.”
“It’sbeen six hours,” she said incredulously.
Ilaughed, glancing off to the side.Thehandcuffs dangled off the coffee table.Iforgot about them.
Overthe last few days, there had been no more handcuffs unless an emergency requiring my attention pulled me away from our home.Poppywas still a flight risk, butIallowed her freedom around the apartment.
Poppywas softening toward me;Icould feel it.
Theother day,Iintentionally left out a butcher’s knife to assess where she was in this relationship.AlthoughPoppyswiped the knife when she thoughtIwasn’t looking, she didn’t attack me with it.
Eventually,IrealizedPoppydid it out of habit.Sheslept with a pocketknife inside her nightstand at her old apartment as well.Itwas for protection.Shedidn’t want to rely on me to rescue her if someone broke into our home.Littledid she knowI’dnever take such a risk when it came toPoppy.Imight be the one monitoring the cameras inside our home, but security guards were stationed outside and could reach her within seconds.
Nonetheless,Iremained on guard.Ikept waiting for her to stab me and was stumped when nothing happened.Therecould only be one rational conclusion.
Poppywas in love with me.
Ourlove index was madness,Iadmit.However,Poppynot killing me for her freedom was as bold a declaration as one could expect.
Sonow, she enjoys autonomy inside our home.Ididn’t restrict her access in between rooms or conceal sharp objects.Westill slept handcuffed together, but that was out of habit.
Ididn’t want to leave this bubble of ours.Inhere, our last names didn’t matter, our families didn’t exist, nor did their bickering.Theinvestigation against me inRayyanAmbani’smurder was officially dismissed earlier today, citing a lack of leads.TheAmbaniswouldn’t take kindly to this defeat.AtleastPoppyandIremained untouched by the drama.
Thingswere going relatively well between us, or as best as they could go between a captor and captive.Iknew it wouldn’t be the case once our family got involved again.
“What’sthat noise?”Poppywheezed against me.
Iglanced at my phone, buzzing relentlessly on the coffee table.
Igroaned. "Ineed to take this.”
Somuch for our little bubble.Myteam was instructed to screen and intercept my calls for the month, only patching through the most important ones.Whichmeant something terrible had happened, requiring my immediate attention.
Afew minutes later,Iwas proven right.
ChapterThirty-Six
POPPY
“Thisis ridiculous,”Igrumbled.
Damonhandcuffed me to one of the posts of the bed because his highness had been called away.
“Sorry, baby.”Thecrazy thing was that he genuinely sounded apologetic.
“Ifyou’re so sorry, don’t handcuff me to the bed.”
Hebrushed off my comment and pushed a remote toward me. “Feelfree to finish the movie without me.Iset it up to stream to the bedroomTV.Ishould be home in an hour.”Thenhe gestured at an electronic screen on my nightstand resembling a mini-Smarttelevision. “Ifyou get bored, you can play around with this.”
Ieyed it suspiciously. “Whatis it?”
“It’sa virtual assistant deviceI’vebeen working on.It’sstill in beta testing, but it’s good for organizing contacts, recipes, streaming movies, that kind of stuff.Andyou can call people from your directory.”
“Thatalready exists.It’scalled anAlexa.”
