She shook her head and bit her bottom lip. With an agonizing slowness I didn’t know I was capable of, I pushed into her.
Her mouth fell open. My head dropped to her shoulder as the heat and tightness of her body closed around me, inch by inch, drawing a guttural, broken sound from my chest.
“Fuck—Poppy?—”
“More,” she whispered, voice trembling. “Ivan—more.”
I thrust forward, burying myself to the hilt.
Her soft cry punched the air out of my lungs, and for a moment, we stayed there—locked together, breathing each other in like oxygen.
I pulled back and drove into her. Her gasp became a moan. Her hands clawed for something to hold onto. Her body arched, offering itself, meeting every thrust with the same wild hunger.
“Look at me,” I growled.
She forced her eyes open—and when they met mine, something inside me snapped.
I fucked her like a man starved.
“Ivan—I—I’m going to?—”
“That’s it,” I groaned against her mouth. “Cum for me again.”
And when she did—when she broke apart a second time but this time around my cock—I followed, thrusting deep, spilling into the condom with a ragged, helpless sound against her throat.
Chapter Six
Ivan
I never stayed.Maybe that made me a bad person, but staying would have been worse. We’d fallen asleep tangled together, and when I woke, there was a peace buried in my chest that scared me more than it soothed. The kind of peace that made a man think he could be something he wasn’t.
I slipped free, careful not to wake her, and dressed in silence. Still, I couldn’t stop myself from turning in the doorway. She lay there with her hair spread like ink across the pillow, lips parted in sleep. For a second, I almost convinced myself to crawl back in beside her.
Almost.
By the time I reached the hall, her scent clung to my coat. Each step away felt heavier than the last, but I kept moving. Staying meant giving her the wrong idea, letting her believe there was more to me than a man made of blood and mistakes. And Poppy deserved better than that lie. Shedeserved love and happiness… Not whatever mess I’d created for myself.
But regardless, that was a mess I wanted. This mess of my life was exactly what I needed after I’d lived in a glass house my whole life. I wanted to forge a way for myself.
It wasn’t until I walked through my front door that I remembered the main reason I’d been itching to leave.
The grannieswere still here. I’d thought for sure that they would have left while I was gone. Wishful thinking on my part, I supposed.
This time, there wasn’t a full spread of breakfast waiting for me, but instead, a pot of coffee and a folded newspaper. Neither one of them bothered with pleasantries but merely watched me sit down across from them with no expression at all.
“Good morning,” Grandmother said. Her tone was all business. “Did you have a good night?”
I shrugged. There was an overwhelming desire to scrub Poppy’s scent from my skin, but also another completely unexpected feeling of wanting to keep her scent on my skin. It was confusing. As much as there was a need for normalcy in my life… I’d chosen the path of revenge. I’d chosen a path not meant fornormal.
Nana pressed her lips into a thin line. “All of the information about your target is in a folder on your bed. We know you are discreet, but we find this way easier as you can destroy the information faster. He has three daughters who are all vacationing at the moment with their mother, and two sons who work with him. He will be difficult toget alone… but we know how resourceful you can be. Both sons frequently engage in a long list of illicit behaviors. I’m sure you can find the right opportunity.”
I nodded once. I wasn’t usually one to be discreet. I didn’t typically care if others were around when the kill shot happened, but for whatever reason, the grannies wanted him alone when he died. That was fine by me.
“And the wedding?” It was the last place I wanted to be, but I knew I needed to be there.
“In the spring,” Nana supplied with a soft smile. “They’re getting married in a church, can you believe it?”
Grandmother rolled her eyes. “It was once a church, now it’s a wedding venue.”
