Poppy was a mass of sensation. Every inch of her skin tingled with the anticipation of his touch, greedily soaking up every finger stroke, every brush of his tongue. His hand gripped her ass, keeping her firmly pressed against him as he ground his hips into her, while his other hand roamed up her side, finding her breast and pinching her nipple through her gown. His aggressiveness should be upsetting, totally and completely abhorrent to her sensibilities, but Poppy couldn’t drum up the will to fight back; she wanted to experience this man too much to think beyond the next touch.
She gasped from the spark of pain that shot a surprising jolt of pleasure straight to her sex, making her quiver in his arms.
Chest heaving, Felix suddenly pulled back, and Poppy felt the loss bone deep. She stepped forward, her mind already mapping out all the parts of his body she was going to run her tongue over. She’d start with his neck and work her way down, tracing the ridges and deep valleys his muscles created, and then she’d take full advantage of the night’s surprises and rip away that towel and get down to business.
She was stopped cold when Felix palmed her shoulders, holding her away from him.
“If you don’t want this, say so now, because I don’t think I can stop myself once we get started.”
His voice was rough and deep and slipped across Poppy’s sensitized flesh like fine silk. Raw heat flooded her insides and she shivered, though she was far from being cold.
“Then don’t stop.” She pushed closer, but he only held her tighter.
“Be certain. You don’t seem like the kind of woman who would sleep with a man just after meeting him.”
And just like that, the haze that had been clouding her mind lifted. Poppy stared into those dark, intense eyes that promised untold pleasure, and cooled. “I’m not.” It was something she had already told herself earlier, but in the face of his raw, sexual prowess, she crumbled, and all the morals and principles she had always applied to herself simply vanished.
Oh yes, her instincts had been right. Felix was a dangerous man.
She watched as every muscle in his body stiffened. He didn’t like her answer, but it was clear in the set of his jaw and the grim look in his eyes, that he was prepared to back off. With a subtle nod, he dropped his hands and took a step back. She admired his strength, because, honestly, all he would have had to do was touch her, anywhere, and she would have fallen into his arms, his to do with as he pleased.
The knowledge was both terrifying and electrifying.
Poppy had never been one to do anything without extensive planning. Her life had always been like a puzzle, each piece fitting neatly together to create a beautiful landscape. But somewhere along the way, between the discovery that her husband was a cheating bastard and the divorce when she was forced to forge a new life for herself, something inside Poppy had changed.
For instance, she was harder, more resilient, and, apparently, hyper sexual. At least when it came to gorgeous men with carved muscles who looked at her like she was a piece of meat. She had never been a piece of meat before. And she wanted to be a piece of meat now, badly. Just once in her life, Poppy wanted to experience the other side of life. The exciting side that didn’t require rules or fit into a neat little package. She didn’t want to look at tomorrow or ten years down the line. She wanted to live in the moment.
She wanted to know what it was like to have mind-blowing sex with a complete stranger.
Closing the distance he had put between them, Poppy molded herself to Felix, feeling all that hard muscle flex beneath her, and placed a soft kiss to the center of his chest. When she looked up at him, she saw him watching her warily, like what she was silently offering was too much to hope for.
Wanting to ease his mind, Poppy rose boldly up onto her toes and dragged her tongue up the column of his neck, swirling small circles over the thick vein pulsing wildly just below his ear. He hissed air through his teeth and his hands found her hips once more, squeezing his encouragement for her to continue.
She placed a line of kisses along his jaw and when she reached his chin, she drew the tip of her tongue over the coarse hairs, feeling the dip of the subtle but sexy cleft there on her way to his lips. Without hesitation, she plunged her tongue inside and moaned as his tongue tangled with hers.
It was a flurry of excitement from there. Teeth clashing, fingers plunging into hair, hands gripping flesh almost painfully. Poppy felt her feet leave the floor as Felix palmed her ass and dragged her body up against his.
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he told her between breaths.
As she did, she put her core in direct contact with his rigid length. Unconsciously, Poppy rocked against him trying to find the release her body craved, but he was having none of that. With a few quick steps inside the room, Felix pushed her back against the wall, pressing all his hardened planes into her softer ones.
“You keep that up, kitten, and this will be over before it gets started.”
He claimed her mouth with a brutal kiss that knocked her head back and stole her breath. Poppy dug her nails into his shoulders and gripped her thighs tighter around his waist, drawing him as close as she could manage, but it wasn’t enough. She needed to feel him moving inside her, staking his claim to her, inside and out.
“Clothes,” she gasped out, clinging to him as his hands moved to her gown, shoving it over her thighs and up her waist. She hated to let him go, to sever contact of any kind, but when he got to her breasts and could go no higher, she let her feet drop to the floor and raised her arms over her head so he could lift it the rest of the way off.
Felix froze, his hot gaze searing a path down her body. He licked his lips and shot his hand out to cup one of her breasts. “God, you’re beautiful. Fucking perfect.”
She let her own gaze drop, a rush of crippling heat suffusing her core when she realized that, somewhere along the way he had lost his towel. His thick shaft jutted out proudly, and all Poppy could think about was finally getting him into her bed.
But if this was going to be her first and probably only time bedding a man she didn’t know, then she was determined to make it last. Every moment had to count, because she didn’t know when or if she would experience anything like it ever again.
Looking down, she took in the sight of him once again. His sex was thick and heavy, the crown round and glistening with his arousal. Poppy licked her lips as ideas of what she wanted to do with that arousal ran through her head. She had always hated the idea of performing oral sex on a man. Jimmy had always complained about her inexperience and refusal to try new things, but she just never saw the need for it. Now, though, she was feeling bold. The very sight of him made her mouth water for a taste, and she wondered if the lack of desire all those years had more to do with the man than the act itself.
Without hesitation, Poppy dropped to her knees and wrapped her fist around him. Felix gripped her by the hair and threw his head back with a loud moan as she drew him into her mouth. She ran her tongue from base to tip, tasting the salty flavor of his juices, and was surprised when everything south of her navel clenched with renewed arousal. Despite her lack of expertise, Felix seemed to be enjoying himself, letting small moans slip out each time she drew him in. She figured out pretty fast that the deeper she took him, the more he liked it. Encouraged by his throaty responses, she worked her hand up and down his length, mimicking the movements with her mouth, until he suddenly pulled his hips back and tugged her to her feet.
Confused by his reaction, Poppy went into a panic. “What’s the matter? Did I do something wrong?”
“Oh no, kitten, you did everything very right. But the night is young, and there are so many things I want to do to you. When I finish, it’s not going to be in your mouth, it’s going to be buried deep inside this sweet body.”
To emphasize his words, Felix pulled her against him, running one hand down her belly, forging a heated path to her core, then, at the same time he leaned down to crush his lips to hers, he pushed a finger inside her slick channel and Poppy saw stars explode behind her closed lids.
“Oh!”
Felix grinned against her mouth. “You like that, kitten? I wonder…Oh yes.” He slipped a second finger inside, stretching her, and Poppy shouted, grasping his shoulders as she swayed on her feet. “You are so tight,” Felix whispered in her ear as he worked his fingers in and out. “You’re going to make me come so hard, kitten. What do you say we take this to the bed?”
Poppy heard his words but was incapable of responding. When he curled his fingers inside her and thrust them deeper, however, she managed a loud squeak and a subtle nod, hoping that would be enough. It was. In seconds, Felix had her lying on the mattress beneath him. As he rocked against her, she could feel his length probing her entrance, and she lifted her hips, eager to take him in.
Felix laughed and pulled his hips back. Poppy groaned her displeasure. “So impatient.” He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair away from her face as he gazed down at her. “Not yet, kitten. First things first. Do you have any condoms in here?”
Startled, Poppy shook her head. She didn’t think she would ever find herself in this situation again, so she never thought to keep any on hand. Sex hadn’t been the farthest thing from her mind, exactly, but having it with a man certainly had been. She had even stopped taking her birth control. And here she was, preparing to let some guy she’d known for two minutes plunge himself into her, and she hadn’t even thought about protection of any kind. She wanted to slap herself for being so stupid.
“That’s okay,” Felix assured her. “I have a couple in my wallet. I just have to go and get them.” He pushed himself off her and Poppy squirmed from the loss. “I’ll be right back.”
She watched as he walked away, completely naked and not caring in the least. He looked almost as good walking away, she thought, smirking to herself. Lying in complete silence made the time stretch on forever. Bo shifted in the corner and huffed loudly, and Poppy’s head snapped up. He was staring at her in that way that animals sometimes do that makes you feel completely exposed and a little shameful.
“What?” Poppy asked, refusing to feel guilty. “I’m not doing anything wrong.” Bo tilted his big head and looked at her quizzically. “Don’t look at me like that. When you go without sex for as long as I have, then we can talk. Besides, he seems like a perfectly nice guy, and I don’t see you kicking up a fuss.”
Felix strode into the room then and looked at her strangely. “Who are you talking to?”
Propped on her forearms, Poppy smiled shyly. “Just Bo.”
“Ah.” He glanced back at Bo. “I don’t think he likes me.”
Poppy waved him off. “If he didn’t like you, I think you’d be missing a limb right now. Bo is very protective of me, and the fact that he hasn’t tried to kill you for touching me yet is pretty telling.”
“Yet being the operative word,” Felix muttered as he climbed onto the bed and settled himself between her legs again. He held up a foil packet. “I wonder how old Bo is going to react when his master is screaming to the heavens.” He wagged his eyebrows at her and tore the foil open with his teeth.
“Screaming, huh?” Poppy’s belly clenched with anticipation. She watched as he rolled the condom down his erection.
“Oh yes,” he assured her with a wicked smile.
When he positioned himself at her opening, Poppy drew back slightly. “I thought you said we were taking things slow?”
Dropping down onto his forearm, Felix kissed her lips lightly and pushed the tip of his erection into her. Poppy sucked in a breath. “I did say that, but then I came back to find you all spread out, waiting for me, and I changed my mind. I won’t lie, this time will be fast. But after that, I’m going to take all the time in the world to get to know this body.”
“I—Ah!”
Felix shoved his way into her body and Poppy nearly came undone. He was bigger than she was used to and he stretched her, touching every inch of her and creating a delicious friction that threatened to push her over the edge. He was right. This would be fast.
Already Felix was panting as he strained to control himself. “God, Poppy, you feel so good. So tight. You’re going to make me come, kitten.”
She liked how he kept calling her that. Kitten. She never had a nickname before, and it was only made more special by the way that he said it so reverently, as if she was undoing him the same way he was undoing her.
She ran her hands down his back, and when he hooked his arm under her leg and brought her knee to her chest, she scored him with her nails. Sweat slicked their skin and the sound of their bodies slapping together with each powerful thrust filled the room.
“Come for me, kitten,” Felix commanded, and then tilted her hips back so he could plunge deeper inside.
Poppy had never climaxed with a man before, and she would have thought it impossible now, but Felix touched parts of her she didn’t even know she had, and before she knew it, her body coiled tighter and a pressure began building.
“Come on, kitten. Give it to me.”
His words acted like fuel and Poppy felt her inner muscles contract, and then she splintered apart, her whole world narrowing into a single moment of explosive sensation that washed through every cell like a tidal wave. Felix shouted and she felt him grow bigger still as he toppled over the edge with her. He was slamming his hips into her, rocking the bedframe so hard it knocked against the wall in time with his movements. Poppy held on tight, and when Felix arched back, she looked up and caught her breath.
Lost in the throes of his own climax, Felix was the most delectable man she had ever laid eyes on. The muscles in his arms and chest bulged, the veins in his neck stood in stark relief against his heated flesh, and he gritted his teeth as if in exquisite pain. Finally, he collapsed on top of her, tucking his face into her shoulder. His weight was considerable and Poppy was forced to take shallow breaths, but she enjoyed the feeling of cradling a man between her legs, missed it, really. Running her hands languidly up and down his back, she soaked in the moment of pure bliss, listening to Felix’s heavy breaths slow and eventually even out.
A while later, Felix pressed his lips against the side of her neck and lifted himself onto his forearms. His stony expression gave nothing away as he gazed down at her. His thumbs stroked her temples and he dipped his head to kiss her sweetly.
“You were amazing,” he said when he released her mouth.
Poppy couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her. “I should be saying that to you. You did all the work.”
Grinning, Felix sat up and Poppy felt his now flaccid sex slip free, leaving her feeling empty. Suddenly feeling exposed and a bit shy, she slipped under the blankets as he climbed out of bed and disposed of the used condom in the trash can she kept beside the bed.
What would he do now? she wondered as he left the room without a word. She had just had amazing sex with an incredibly hot guy. It had been fast and hard and everything she wished she had had during her marriage to Jimmy. Was this just Fate’s way of giving her a taste of something she would never have again? A wave of sadness washed over her like a shroud at the thought of Felix leaving soon. But of course he had his own life to get back to and she had…her books. They were strangers, after all, who happened to cross paths but weren’t destined for anything more than a quick romp in the sack.
She would just have to remind herself of that when he was gone, because she had a feeling the loss was going to hit her like a club over the head.
Felix appeared in the doorway holding a washcloth. Kneeling on the bed beside her, he tugged back the blankets and nudged her legs apart. Poppy immediately closed them again; confusion knitted her brows together, but Felix just pushed them apart again.
“Let me clean you, Poppy.”
She had no idea why he would want to do that and she felt incredibly uncomfortable with the offer, but when he turned his warm, hypnotic gaze on her and began walking his fingers up her calf to her inner thigh, she let her knees fall open. With a satisfied smirk, Felix placed the warm cloth against her and gently wiped away the evidence of their joining.
When he was finished, he hung the cloth on the bedpost and climbed under the blankets with her, pulling her into his side. Poppy curled into him and rested her head on his chest while Felix trailed his fingertips back and forth down her spine.
“So why does a woman like you live all alone in the middle of nowhere?” Felix asked, breaking the comfortable silence.