POPPY
I sagonto his bare chest and do everything I can to stay out of my head. As soon as I lean my chest against his, he slides his hands under my hair and just holds me.
I don’t know how long we stay like that, but once the fog lifts and I realize he’s still inside me and he’s still hard, I move my head so my chin is on his chest.
“I think it’s your turn,” I say.
His smile covers his whole face, and I see the hint dimples underneath his beard. I stroke his cheeks and sigh.
“Your turn,” I hum against his chest. “It’s your turn, Phantom. Are you going to…”
I can’t say anything more because, in one swift move, he flips me over onto my back. I’m laughing and not even the least bit shy, even though I’m completely naked and just literally ground myself into his body like he’s my personal plaything.
“You ready for my turn?” he asks. “Because I won’t be fast.”
I swallow and settle myself against the bed. “We have a babysitter,” I remind him.
He grins but curses under his breath, then checks to make sure the condom’s still in place. When he lifts my knees and hooks them over his elbows, then lines his erection up to my entrance, a spark of want blazes through me again.
“Phantom,” I sigh.
“Poppy,” he says. Then in an agonizingly slow thrust, he enters me inch by blessed inch.
I feel every perfect, amazing inch of his body as it enters mine. The way the head of his cock seems to nudge all the right spots. The way his shaft drags against my inner walls. I’m so lost to the sensations of his body inside mine, I don’t even notice when he picks up the pace until my breasts are bouncing back and forth with every thrust of his hips.
“Roll over,” he tells me, yanking himself from inside me.
I hate how cold and empty I feel the minute he’s gone, but I do as he says, rolling onto my stomach.
“Ass up,” he demands, holding on to my hips. I kneel on the bed and keep my face and arms on the mattress while lifting my rear end in the air. I feel a sudden smack of his palm against my bottom, and a rush of pleasure floods every cell of my being.
“Again,” I beg, wriggling my butt against him.
He brings his palm down against my ass again, a soft slap sound echoing in the room. I cannot believe heisn’t hurting me. Cannot believe the smack of his skin against mine sends a torrent of arousal from my bottom to my soul.
I rock back and forth slightly, my core so wet and needy, I feel like I could come again. It’s been so long since I’ve been touched by anyone, and this is one hell of a way to break that seal. Phantom is ruining me for anyone else. Anything else. My fingers in the shower are going to be quite the disappointment after this.
Instead of another spank, I feel him palm my hips and guide me backward, closer to him. He slides his length inside me, then bends forward and cups my breasts in his hands. Using some kind of true superhero strength, he rockets his erection inside me, back and forth, in and out, until I see stars behind my closed eyes. My legs are boneless. My breaths are wild. My hair is tangled, and even my feet are cramping because I have never, I repeat never, been moved this way.
By the time I finish, Phantom is thrusting wildly into me. I’m spent. Exhausted. And yet somehow, I want more. I want this. Again and again.
How could I have ever been afraid? How could I have stayed away from pleasure, from connection, from touch?
I know how.
As Phantom collapses against my back, he rolls us onto our sides so he can tuck behind me and spoon me close to him. I close my eyes, not caring about my tangled hair, my sweaty back. I remember why I can’t let anyone close to me.
Because when you find something this good, this powerful, losing it is like dying.
And I don’t know that I have the strength to lose any more of myself.
It’s not eventen o’clock when Phantom and I climb back into our clothes. We’re both tired, satisfied, and yet, something feels different between us. Maybe it’s me and my overthinking. I know that we’ve only known each other for a short time, but I know I could fall hard for this man.
What I feel for Phantom is unlike anything I’ve ever dreamed possible. More reason to protect myself. My heart won’t withstand losing what it wants. Not again. Not this time.
We walk hand in hand through the compound, an awkwardness making my palms sweat.
“Poppy!” Stella runs up to me, looking adorable in some frayed black jeans and a sheer black top with a red bra underneath. “Come have drinks with the girls.”
