Now Poppy frowned, confused. “Laryngitis? Does laryngitis happen that quickly? You were just talking a minute ago.”
Rick’s eyes were confused, too, when he lifted his wide shoulders in an “I don’t know” way.
She flapped a hand at him. “It’s just as well. I only need you to listen anyway. Just know that you’re a good guy, and magic and your warlock legacy can be good things, too. If you let them, anyway. The nutbag warlock who killed your mother was an evil piece of shit and just one bad guy in a sea of a million good guys. Don’t give up the ship.”
He shook his head, his lips now clamped bizarrely shut. He pointed to them in a gesture she didn’t understand, using his eyes to attempt to communicate something.
So she cocked her head at him and patted his thickly muscled leg. “I get it. A sudden onslaught of laryngitis. Please just let me finish; I’m doing this for you. Because it’s the right thing to do. Because it’s unhealthy to stick around and play at advising you when I don’t want to advise you. I don’t know if I always won’t want to advise you, but for now, I don’t. I want to…uh, do things with you. I tried. I really tried. I ignored my attraction to you. I plodded forward, but I’d be a shitty person if I didn’t own my stuff. So just let me own my stuff.”
“Mmmm!” he managed, his eyes even wider when they caught hers.
Poppy nodded her head and swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “Yeah. Mmmm. Anyway, I hope your next familiar works out. I hope you really give whoever it is a genuine shot. Don’t be an asshole next time around. Not everyone’s as forgiving as me. Not everyone’s as desperate as me, either. All I heard was room and board. Your next familiar might own a palace and tell you to go shit yourself, buddy. Keep that in mind when he or she arrives—”
In a swift move, Rick stopped her ramble by gripping her shoulders and driving his lips against hers, effectively shutting her up.
And boy, did he know how to shut a girl up. As his lips touched hers for the first time, Poppy sighed, and when his tongue slipped between her lips, she saw stars and colors and vivid images of her beneath Rick, naked and needy.
Pulling away, he gazed at her, a question in his dark eyes. She knew what he was asking—if he had her permission to continue.
But there was no question about this for her. No matter the outcome, she wanted Rick to make love to her. Call it impulsive, because they’d only just met, call it crazy, but everything about his body so close to hers felt right. She’d deal with the repercussions later.
So in response, she kissed him again, melting into his hard frame, running her hands along his arms, relishing the muscle beneath her fingertips.
He groaned, reaching for the top of her shirt, popping the buttons until her bra was exposed. Rick brushed his fingers over the swell of flesh, making her nipples harden to tight peaks as he unhooked the front clasp of her bra.
As her breasts spilled out and his thumbs brushed against her skin, Poppy moaned, too, wrapping her arms around his neck until they were pressed together tight.
And then their hands were roaming, exploring, undressing until they were both naked. Poppy forced her eyes open so she wouldn’t miss seeing every inch of his rippling body.
His shoulders were broad, his olive skin stretched tight over sinew, dipping inward, then bulging out. Her fingers traced the ridge of each of his abs, luxuriating in his moan as he pushed her back to the couch and slid his hand between her thighs, running his tongue over her neck, nipping at her earlobe.
When he grazed her clit, Poppy’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, the pleasure so exquisite. Her hands reached for his cock, hard, thick, hot with desire, stroking him until he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and stilled her.
Sliding along her body, he wrapped his arms around her waist, slashing his hot tongue over her breast, bringing her nipples to hard nubs, making her cry out and drive her hands into his thick hair.
Heat pooled between her thighs, wet and slick, and she knew she had to have him inside her now. Forget the foreplay, forget the pretense, she just wanted him to bury himself in her depths.
Just as he was kissing his way down along her belly, she dragged him upward and looked him in the eye, lifting her hips and encouraging him to drive into her.
Rick lifted himself up onto his palms and stared down at her, poising at her entry, but she didn’t need to ask what he wanted to know. She simply knew.
Without a word, she wrapped her legs around his waist, hooking her ankles together and bracketing his face with her hands before pressing her lips to his once again.
Their gasps mingled, their hands entwined as Rick drove into her, stilling, settling, letting her adjust to him.